Fix configure.srv error for Linux on PowerPC
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 9
5
6 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
7 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
8
9 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
10 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
11 performance for programs with many symbols.
12
13 * New commands
14
15 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
16 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
17 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to
18 a running process and can determine the name of the executable file
19 the process runs, this new option indicates whether to detect mismatch
20 between the name of the current executable file loaded by GDB
21 and the name of the executable file used to start the process.
22 If 'ask', the default, display a warning and ask the user
23 whether to load the process executable file; if 'warn', just display
24 a warning; if 'off', don't attempt to detect a mismatch.
25
26 *** Changes in GDB 9
27
28 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
29
30 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
31 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
32 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
33 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
34 such as in system-wide init files.
35
36 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
37 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
38 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
39 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
40 current GDB settings.
41
42 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
43 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
44 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
45 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
46
47 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
48 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
49 postfix [PAC].
50
51 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
52 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
53
54 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
55 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
56 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
57
58 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
59 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
60 commands.
61
62 * Command names can now use the . character.
63
64 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
65
66 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
67 messages.
68
69 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
70
71 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
72 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
73
74 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
75 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
76 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
77
78 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
79
80 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
81 not visible in the current scope.
82
83 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
84 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
85 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
86 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
87 compiled with support for that language.
88
89 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
90 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
91 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
92
93 * Multi-target debugging support
94
95 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
96 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
97 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
98 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
99 debugging a core dump, etc.
100
101 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
102 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
103 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
104 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
105 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
106 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
107
108 * Python API
109
110 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
111 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
112 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
113 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
114 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
115
116 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
117 type was defined in.
118
119 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
120 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
121 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
122 is given.
123
124 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
125 symbols with static linkage.
126
127 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
128 all static symbols with static linkage.
129
130 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
131 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
132
133 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
134 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
135
136 * New commands
137
138 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
139 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
140 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
141 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
142 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
143 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
144 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
145
146 define-prefix COMMAND
147 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
148
149 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
150 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
151 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
152 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
153 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
154 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
155 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
156 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
157 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
158 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
159 of array elements to print.
160
161 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
162 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
163
164 set may-call-functions [on|off]
165 show may-call-functions
166 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
167 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
168 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
169 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
170 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
171 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
172 in the program.
173
174 set print finish [on|off]
175 show print finish
176 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
177 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
178 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
179 default is `on'.
180
181 set print max-depth
182 show print max-depth
183 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
184 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
185 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
186 the old behavior back.
187
188 set print raw-values [on|off]
189 show print raw-values
190 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
191 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
192 of commands. The default is 'off'.
193
194 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
195 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
196 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
197
198 set style title foreground COLOR
199 set style title background COLOR
200 set style title intensity VALUE
201 Control the styling of titles.
202
203 set style highlight foreground COLOR
204 set style highlight background COLOR
205 set style highlight intensity VALUE
206 Control the styling of highlightings.
207
208 maint set worker-threads
209 maint show worker-threads
210 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
211 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
212 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
213 the names of linker symbols.
214
215 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
216 set style tui-border background COLOR
217 Control the styling of TUI borders.
218
219 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
220 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
221 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
222
223 maint set test-settings KIND
224 maint show test-settings KIND
225 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
226 infrastructure.
227
228 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
229 maint show tui-resize-message
230 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
231 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
232 TUI.
233
234 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
235 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
236 show print frame-info
237 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
238 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
239 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
240 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
241
242 set tui compact-source
243 show tui compact-source
244
245 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
246 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
247 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
248 line numbers from the source.
249
250 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
251 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
252 no REGEXP is given.
253
254 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
255 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
256 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
257 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
258 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
259 matches against the function name.
260
261 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
262 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
263 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
264 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
265 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
266 against the variable name.
267
268 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
269 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
270 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
271 "set debug remote".
272 The default is 512 bytes.
273
274 info connections
275 Lists the target connections currently in use.
276
277 * Changed commands
278
279 help
280 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
281 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
282 command names.
283
284 apropos [-v] REGEXP
285 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
286 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
287 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
288 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
289 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
290
291 printf
292 eval
293 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
294 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
295 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
296 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
297
298 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
299 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
300 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
301 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
302 parts of the files.
303
304 show style
305 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
306 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
307 the user visualize the different styles.
308
309 set print frame-arguments
310 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
311 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
312
313 set print raw-frame-arguments
314 show print raw-frame-arguments
315
316 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
317 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
318 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
319 release.
320
321 add-inferior [-no-connection]
322 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
323 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
324 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
325 current inferior. See also "info connections".
326
327 info inferior
328 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
329 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
330 "info connections" above.
331
332 maint test-options require-delimiter
333 maint test-options unknown-is-error
334 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
335 maint show test-options-completion-result
336 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
337 framework.
338
339 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
340 These commands are now case-sensitive.
341
342 * New command options, command completion
343
344 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
345 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
346 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
347 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
348 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
349 number of commands got support for new command options in this
350 release:
351
352 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
353 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
354 set by "set print" subcommands:
355
356 -address [on|off]
357 -array [on|off]
358 -array-indexes [on|off]
359 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
360 -null-stop [on|off]
361 -object [on|off]
362 -pretty [on|off]
363 -raw-values [on|off]
364 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
365 -static-members [on|off]
366 -symbol [on|off]
367 -union [on|off]
368 -vtbl [on|off]
369
370 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
371 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
372 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
373 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
374
375 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
376 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
377 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
378
379 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
380 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
381 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
382 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
383 |location-and-address|short-location
384 -past-main [on|off]
385 -past-entry [on|off]
386
387 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
388 exposed as command options too:
389
390 -full
391 -no-filters
392 -hide
393
394 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
395 support the following options:
396
397 -past-main [on|off]
398 -past-entry [on|off]
399
400 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
401 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
402
403 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
404 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
405 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
406 like for example:
407
408 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
409
410 The above is equivalent to:
411
412 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
413
414 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
415 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
416 variables" and "info functions".
417
418 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
419 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
420 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
421 from the results.
422
423 * Completion improvements
424
425 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
426 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
427 abbreviated.
428
429 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
430 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
431 commands.
432
433 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
434 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
435 completes on filenames.
436
437 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
438 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
439
440 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
441
442 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
443 elements unlimited".
444
445 * New MI commands
446
447 -complete
448 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
449 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
450 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
451
452 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
453 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
454 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
455
456 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
457 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
458 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
459
460 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
461 modules' command.
462
463 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
464 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
465 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
466
467 * Other MI changes
468
469 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
470
471 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
472 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
473 the following commands and events:
474
475 - -break-insert
476 - -break-info
477 - =breakpoint-created
478 - =breakpoint-modified
479
480 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
481 this behavior with previous MI versions.
482
483 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
484 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
485 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
486 present.
487
488 * Testsuite
489
490 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
491 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
492 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
493 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
494
495 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
496
497 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
498 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
499
500 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
501
502 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
503 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
504
505 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
506 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
507 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
508
509 * Removed targets and native configurations
510
511 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
512 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
513 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
514
515 * New Simulators
516
517 TI PRU pru-*-elf
518
519 * Removed targets and native configurations
520
521 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
522 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
523
524 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
525
526 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
527 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
528 HTM registers.
529
530 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
531 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
532 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
533 and operators.
534
535 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
536 (the C++ plug-in).
537
538 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
539 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
540 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
541
542 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
543 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
544
545 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
546 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
547 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
548 in the GDB user manual.
549
550 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
551 executed failed.
552
553 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
554
555 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
556 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
557 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
558 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
559 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
560 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
561 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
562 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
563 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
564 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
565 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
566 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
567
568 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
569 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
570 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
571 information.
572
573 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
574 lucid.
575
576 * New commands
577
578 set debug compile-cplus-types
579 show debug compile-cplus-types
580 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
581 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiliong
582 for other languages.
583
584 set debug skip
585 show debug skip
586 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
587 displayed.
588
589 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
590 Apply a command to some frames.
591 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
592 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
593
594 taas COMMAND
595 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
596 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
597
598 faas COMMAND
599 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
600 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
601
602 tfaas COMMAND
603 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
604 output).
605 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
606
607 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
608 maint show dwarf unwinders
609 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
610
611 info proc files
612 Display a list of open files for a process.
613
614 * Changed commands
615
616 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
617 These commands all now take a frame specification which
618 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
619 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
620 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
621 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
622 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
623
624 target remote FILENAME
625 target extended-remote FILENAME
626 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
627 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
628
629 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
630 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
631 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
632 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
633 These commands can now print only the searched entities
634 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
635 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
636 printing headers or informations messages.
637
638 info functions
639 info types
640 info variables
641 rbreak
642 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
643 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
644 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
645 the shown entities.
646
647 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
648 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
649 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
650 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
651
652 set tui tab-width NCHARS
653 show tui tab-width NCHARS
654 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
655
656 set style enabled [on|off]
657 show style enabled
658 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
659 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
660
661 set style sources [on|off]
662 show style sources
663 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
664 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
665 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
666
667 set style filename foreground COLOR
668 set style filename background COLOR
669 set style filename intensity VALUE
670 Control the styling of file names.
671
672 set style function foreground COLOR
673 set style function background COLOR
674 set style function intensity VALUE
675 Control the styling of function names.
676
677 set style variable foreground COLOR
678 set style variable background COLOR
679 set style variable intensity VALUE
680 Control the styling of variable names.
681
682 set style address foreground COLOR
683 set style address background COLOR
684 set style address intensity VALUE
685 Control the styling of addresses.
686
687 * MI changes
688
689 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
690 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
691 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
692 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
693 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
694
695 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
696 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
697
698 * New native configurations
699
700 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
701 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
702
703 * New targets
704
705 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
706 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
707 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
708 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
709 NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
710 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
711
712 * Removed targets
713
714 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
715 before Windows XP.
716
717 * Python API
718
719 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
720
721 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
722 space associated to that inferior.
723
724 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
725 of objfiles associated to that program space.
726
727 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
728 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
729 the gdb core.
730
731 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
732 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
733 correct and did not work properly.
734
735 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
736 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
737
738 * Configure changes
739
740 --enable-ubsan
741
742 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
743 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
744 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
745 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
746 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
747
748 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
749
750 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
751 for the MIPS target.
752
753 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
754 offset to all sections.
755
756 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
757 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
758 address of individual sections using '-s'.
759
760 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
761 (address of the text section).
762
763 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
764 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
765 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
766 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
767 default.
768
769 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
770 for the rest of the current command.
771
772 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
773 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
774
775 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
776 files created on FreeBSD systems.
777
778 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
779 alignof.
780
781 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
782 the vector length while the process is running.
783
784 * New commands
785
786 set debug fbsd-nat
787 show debug fbsd-nat
788 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
789
790 set|show varsize-limit
791 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
792 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
793 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
794
795 set|show record btrace cpu
796 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
797 branch trace decode.
798
799 maint check libthread-db
800 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
801 library
802
803 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
804 maint show check-libthread-db
805 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
806 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
807 perform such checks.
808
809 * Python API
810
811 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
812
813 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
814 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
815
816 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
817
818 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
819 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
820 of convenience variables.
821
822 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
823 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
824 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
825
826 * New targets
827
828 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
829
830 * Removed targets and native configurations
831
832 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
833 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
834 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
835 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
836
837 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
838
839 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
840 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
841 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
842 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
843 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
844 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
845 reported.
846
847 * Configure changes
848
849 --enable-codesign=CERT
850 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
851 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
852 gdb to work properly.
853
854 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
855 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
856
857 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
858
859 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
860 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
861 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
862
863 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
864 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
865
866 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
867 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
868 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
869 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
870 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
871
872 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
873 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
874 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
875 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
876
877 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
878 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
879
880 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
881 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
882 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
883
884 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
885 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
886 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
887
888 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
889 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
890 environment" command.
891
892 * Completion improvements
893
894 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
895 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
896 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
897 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
898 correctly:
899
900 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
901 (gdb) b function(int)
902
903 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
904 C++ anonymous namespaces:
905
906 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
907 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
908 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
909 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
910
911 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
912 completion support, that better understands what you're
913 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
914 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
915 setting a breakpoint.
916
917 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
918
919 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
920
921 * New command line options (gcore)
922
923 -a
924 Dump all memory mappings.
925
926 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
927
928 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
929 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
930 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
931
932 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
933
934 A::B::func()
935 B::func()
936
937 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
938 on both symbols.
939
940 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
941 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
942 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
943 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
944 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
945 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
946 a breakpoint from Python.
947
948 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
949
950 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
951 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
952 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
953
954 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
955
956 function[abi:cxx11](int)
957 ^^^^^^^^^^^
958
959 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
960 no tag, like:
961
962 (gdb) b function(int)
963
964 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
965
966 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
967
968 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
969
970 * Python Scripting
971
972 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
973 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
974 description of these.
975
976 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
977 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
978 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
979
980 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
981 manual for a further description of this feature.
982
983
984 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
985
986 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
987 specified initial working directory.
988
989 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
990 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
991
992 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
993 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
994
995 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
996 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
997
998 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
999 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
1000 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
1001 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
1002 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
1003
1004 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
1005 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
1006 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
1007
1008 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
1009 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
1010 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
1011 in the *stopped notification.
1012
1013 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
1014 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
1015
1016 * New remote packets
1017
1018 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
1019 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
1020 the inferior when starting it.
1021
1022 QEnvironmentUnset
1023 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
1024 before starting the remote inferior.
1025
1026 QEnvironmentReset
1027 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
1028 user-set environment variables should be unset).
1029
1030 QStartupWithShell
1031 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
1032
1033 QSetWorkingDir
1034 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
1035 working directory.
1036
1037 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
1038 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
1039
1040 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
1041 filter the tests to be run.
1042
1043 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
1044 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
1045
1046 * New commands
1047
1048 set|show cwd
1049 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
1050
1051 set|show compile-gcc
1052 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
1053 with the 'compile' commands.
1054
1055 set debug separate-debug-file
1056 show debug separate-debug-file
1057 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
1058
1059 set dump-excluded-mappings
1060 show dump-excluded-mappings
1061 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
1062 dumped when generating a core file.
1063
1064 maint info selftests
1065 List the registered selftests.
1066
1067 starti
1068 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
1069
1070 set|show debug or1k
1071 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
1072
1073 set|show print type nested-type-limit
1074 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
1075 type printer will show.
1076
1077 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
1078 `o' for nexti.
1079
1080 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
1081
1082 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
1083 'int'.
1084
1085 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
1086 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
1087 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
1088 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
1089
1090 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
1091 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
1092 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
1093 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1094 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
1095 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1096
1097 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
1098 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
1099 unless you tell it the variable's type:
1100
1101 (gdb) p var
1102 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
1103 (gdb) p (float) var
1104 $3 = 3.14
1105
1106 * New native configurations
1107
1108 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1109 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1110
1111 * New targets
1112
1113 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1114 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1115 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
1116
1117 * Removed targets and native configurations
1118
1119 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
1120
1121 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
1122
1123 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
1124 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
1125 available in future Intel CPUs.
1126
1127 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
1128
1129 * Python Scripting
1130
1131 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
1132 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
1133
1134 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
1135 instructions.
1136
1137 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
1138
1139 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
1140
1141 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
1142 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
1143 removed.
1144
1145 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
1146
1147 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
1148 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
1149
1150 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
1151
1152 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
1153 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
1154 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
1155 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
1156 features.
1157
1158 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
1159
1160 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
1161 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
1162 debugger.
1163
1164 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
1165
1166 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
1167 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
1168
1169 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
1170
1171 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
1172
1173 define mycommand
1174 set $i = 0
1175 while $i < $argc
1176 eval "print $arg%d", $i
1177 set $i = $i + 1
1178 end
1179 end
1180
1181 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
1182
1183 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
1184 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
1185
1186 * New native configurations
1187
1188 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1189
1190 * New targets
1191
1192 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1193 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1194
1195 * Removed targets and native configurations
1196
1197 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1198 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1199
1200 * New commands
1201
1202 flash-erase
1203 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1204
1205 maint print arc arc-instruction address
1206 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1207
1208 * New options
1209
1210 set disassembler-options
1211 show disassembler-options
1212 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1213 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1214 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1215 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1216 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
1217
1218 * New MI commands
1219
1220 -target-flash-erase
1221 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
1222 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1223
1224 -file-list-shared-libraries
1225 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
1226 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1227
1228 -catch-handlers
1229 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
1230 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
1231
1232 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
1233
1234 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
1235
1236 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
1237 default. One must now explicitly configure with
1238 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
1239 option will be removed in a future release.
1240
1241 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
1242 GDB connection.
1243
1244 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
1245 memory backward from the given address. For example:
1246
1247 (gdb) bt
1248 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
1249 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
1250 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
1251 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
1252 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
1253 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
1254 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
1255 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
1256 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
1257
1258 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
1259 arrays of dynamic types.
1260
1261 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
1262 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1263 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1264 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1265 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1266 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
1267
1268 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
1269 descriptions.
1270
1271 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
1272 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
1273 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
1274
1275 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
1276
1277 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
1278 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
1279 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
1280 signal received and code location.
1281
1282 For example:
1283
1284 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
1285 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
1286 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
1287 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
1288
1289 * Rust language support.
1290 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
1291 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
1292 Rust.
1293
1294 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
1295
1296 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
1297 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
1298 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
1299 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
1300 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
1301 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
1302 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
1303 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
1304 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
1305 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
1306 line.
1307
1308 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
1309
1310 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
1311 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
1312
1313 * New commands
1314
1315 skip -file file
1316 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
1317 skip -function function
1318 skip -rfunction regular-expression
1319 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
1320 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
1321 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
1322
1323 maint info line-table REGEXP
1324 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
1325
1326 maint selftest
1327 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
1328
1329 new-ui INTERP TTY
1330 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
1331 using the TTY file for input/output.
1332
1333 * Python Scripting
1334
1335 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
1336 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
1337 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
1338 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
1339 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
1340
1341 signal-event EVENTID
1342 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
1343 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
1344 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
1345 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
1346 signalling an event.
1347
1348 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
1349 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
1350 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
1351
1352 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
1353 been removed:
1354
1355 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
1356 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
1357 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
1358 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
1359 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
1360 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
1361
1362 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
1363 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
1364 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
1365 bytecode into native code.
1366
1367 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
1368 recording. For example:
1369
1370 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
1371
1372 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
1373
1374 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
1375
1376 * New targets
1377
1378 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
1379
1380 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
1381
1382 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
1383
1384 * Per-inferior thread numbers
1385
1386 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
1387 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
1388 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
1389
1390 (gdb) info threads
1391 Id Target Id Frame
1392 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
1393 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
1394 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
1395 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
1396
1397 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
1398 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
1399 are no longer unique between inferiors.
1400
1401 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
1402 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
1403 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
1404
1405 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
1406 IDs.
1407
1408 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
1409 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
1410
1411 (gdb) thread 2.1
1412 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
1413 (gdb)
1414
1415 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
1416 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
1417 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
1418 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
1419 threads 2.*".
1420
1421 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
1422 all threads.
1423
1424 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
1425 the current thread.
1426
1427 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
1428 current inferior.
1429
1430 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
1431 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
1432 example:
1433
1434 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
1435 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
1436
1437 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
1438
1439 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
1440
1441 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
1442 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
1443
1444 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
1445 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
1446 clients.
1447
1448 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1449 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
1450 at the same time.
1451
1452 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
1453 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
1454 into native code.
1455
1456 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1457
1458 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
1459 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
1460 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
1461
1462 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
1463 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
1464
1465 * New commands
1466
1467 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
1468 maint show target-non-stop
1469 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
1470 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
1471 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
1472
1473 maint set bfd-sharing
1474 maint show bfd-sharing
1475 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
1476
1477 set debug bfd-cache
1478 show debug bfd-cache
1479 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
1480
1481 set debug fbsd-lwp
1482 show debug fbsd-lwp
1483 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
1484
1485 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1486 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1487 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
1488
1489 set remote thread-events
1490 show remote thread-events
1491 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
1492
1493 set ada print-signatures on|off
1494 show ada print-signatures"
1495 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
1496 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
1497
1498 set max-value-size
1499 show max-value-size
1500 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
1501 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
1502 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
1503
1504 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1505 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
1506 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
1507 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
1508 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
1509 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
1510
1511 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1512 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
1513
1514 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
1515 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
1516
1517 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
1518
1519 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
1520 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
1521 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
1522 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
1523 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
1524 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
1525
1526 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
1527 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
1528
1529 catch handlers
1530 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
1531
1532 * New remote packets
1533
1534 exec stop reason
1535 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
1536
1537 exec-events feature in qSupported
1538 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
1539 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
1540 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
1541 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
1542
1543 vCtrlC
1544 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
1545 non-stop mode.
1546
1547 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
1548 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
1549
1550 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
1551 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
1552
1553 QThreadEvents
1554 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
1555 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
1556 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
1557 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
1558 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
1559 stop for that same thread.
1560
1561 N stop reply
1562 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
1563 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
1564 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
1565
1566 QCatchSyscalls
1567 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
1568 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
1569
1570 syscall_entry stop reason
1571 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
1572
1573 syscall_return stop reason
1574 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
1575
1576 * Extended-remote exec events
1577
1578 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
1579 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1580 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1581
1582 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1583 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1584 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1585
1586 * Thread names in remote protocol
1587
1588 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1589 thread.
1590
1591 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
1592
1593 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1594 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1595 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1596 fork and exec catchpoints.
1597
1598 * Remote syscall events
1599
1600 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1601 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1602
1603 set remote catch-syscall-packet
1604 show remote catch-syscall-packet
1605 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
1606
1607 * MI changes
1608
1609 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
1610 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
1611 left.
1612
1613 * Python Scripting
1614
1615 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
1616 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
1617 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
1618 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
1619 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
1620 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
1621
1622 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
1623
1624 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
1625 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
1626 including advance SIMD instructions.
1627
1628 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
1629
1630 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
1631 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
1632 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
1633 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
1634 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
1635 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
1636 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
1637
1638 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1639 cpu information :
1640 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
1641
1642 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
1643 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
1644 remote serial I/O.
1645
1646 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
1647 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
1648 and may include things like its command line arguments.
1649
1650 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
1651 is now available on all platforms.
1652
1653 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
1654 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
1655 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
1656 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
1657 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
1658 backward compatibility.
1659
1660 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
1661 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
1662 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
1663 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
1664
1665 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
1666 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
1667 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
1668 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
1669 packets" below.
1670
1671 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
1672
1673 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
1674
1675 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
1676 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
1677 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
1678 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
1679 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
1680 See "New remote packets" below.
1681
1682 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
1683 available register groups, including target specific groups.
1684
1685 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
1686 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
1687 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1688 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1689 are ignored.
1690
1691 * Guile Scripting
1692
1693 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1694
1695 * Python Scripting
1696
1697 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1698 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1699 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
1700 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
1701 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
1702 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
1703 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
1704 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
1705 "const" version of the value respectively.
1706
1707 * New commands
1708
1709 maint print symbol-cache
1710 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1711
1712 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1713 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1714
1715 maint flush-symbol-cache
1716 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1717
1718 record btrace bts
1719 record bts
1720 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1721
1722 compile print
1723 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1724
1725 tui enable
1726 tui disable
1727 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1728
1729 show mpx bound
1730 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
1731 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
1732
1733 record btrace pt
1734 record pt
1735 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
1736
1737 maint info btrace
1738 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1739
1740 maint btrace packet-history
1741 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1742
1743 maint btrace clear-packet-history
1744 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1745
1746 maint btrace clear
1747 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1748 anew by the next "record" command.
1749
1750 * New options
1751
1752 set debug dwarf-die
1753 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1754 show debug dwarf-die
1755 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1756
1757 set debug dwarf-read
1758 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1759 show debug dwarf-read
1760 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1761
1762 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1763 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1764 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1765 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1766
1767 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1768 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1769 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1770 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1771
1772 set debug dwarf-line
1773 show debug dwarf-line
1774 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1775
1776 set max-completions
1777 show max-completions
1778 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1779 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1780 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1781 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1782
1783 set history remove-duplicates
1784 show history remove-duplicates
1785 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1786
1787 maint set symbol-cache-size
1788 maint show symbol-cache-size
1789 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1790
1791 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1792 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1793 BTS format.
1794 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1795 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1796
1797 set debug linux-namespaces
1798 show debug linux-namespaces
1799 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1800
1801 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1802 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1803 Intel Processor Trace format.
1804 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1805 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1806
1807 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1808 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1809 packet history.
1810
1811 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1812 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1813
1814 * Python/Guile scripting
1815
1816 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1817 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1818
1819 * New remote packets
1820
1821 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1822 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1823
1824 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1825 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1826
1827 Qbtrace:pt
1828 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1829 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1830 qSupported query.
1831
1832 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1833 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1834 Trace format.
1835
1836 swbreak stop reason
1837 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1838 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1839 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1840 mode operation.
1841
1842 hwbreak stop reason
1843 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1844 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1845
1846 vFile:fstat:
1847 Return information about files on the remote system.
1848
1849 qXfer:exec-file:read
1850 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1851 create a process running on the remote system.
1852
1853 vFile:setfs:
1854 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1855 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1856 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1857 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1858
1859 fork stop reason
1860 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1861
1862 vfork stop reason
1863 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1864
1865 vforkdone stop reason
1866 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1867 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1868
1869 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1870 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1871 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1872 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1873 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1874 whether these features are enabled.
1875
1876 * Extended-remote fork events
1877
1878 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1879 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1880 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1881 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1882
1883 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1884 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1885 the btrace record target.
1886 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1887
1888 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1889 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1890
1891 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1892 targets.
1893
1894 * Removed command line options
1895
1896 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1897
1898 * Removed targets and native configurations
1899
1900 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1901 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1902
1903 * New configure options
1904
1905 --with-intel-pt
1906 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1907 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1908
1909 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1910 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1911 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1912 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1913
1914 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1915
1916 * Python Scripting
1917
1918 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1919
1920 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
1921
1922 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1923
1924 * Python Scripting
1925
1926 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1927 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1928 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1929 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1930 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1931 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1932 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1933 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1934 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1935 selecting a new file to debug.
1936 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1937 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1938
1939 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1940 inferior.
1941
1942 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1943 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1944 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1945 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1946
1947 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1948
1949 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1950 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1951 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1952 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1953
1954 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1955 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1956 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1957 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1958 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1959 interface with this new feature are:
1960
1961 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1962 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1963
1964 * New commands
1965
1966 demangle [-l language] [--] name
1967 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1968 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1969 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1970 as "maint demangler-warning".
1971
1972 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1973 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1974
1975 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1976 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1977 scripts.
1978
1979 maint print user-registers
1980 List all currently available "user" registers.
1981
1982 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1983 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1984 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1985
1986 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1987 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1988 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
1989 provided.
1990
1991 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
1992 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
1993 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
1994 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
1995 at resume time.
1996
1997 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
1998 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
1999 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
2000 switched threads meanwhile.
2001
2002 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
2003
2004 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
2005 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
2006 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
2007 is now the default mode.
2008
2009 * New options
2010
2011 set debug symbol-lookup
2012 show debug symbol-lookup
2013 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
2014
2015 * MI changes
2016
2017 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
2018 inferiors that have exited.
2019
2020 * New targets
2021
2022 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
2023
2024 * Removed targets
2025
2026 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2027
2028 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
2029 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
2030 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
2031 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
2032 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
2033
2034 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2035 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2036 its alias "share", instead.
2037
2038 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
2039
2040 * New command line options
2041
2042 -D data-directory
2043 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
2044
2045 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
2046 as specified in ISO C99.
2047
2048 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
2049 with or without disassembly.
2050
2051 * Guile scripting
2052
2053 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
2054 available is determined at configure time.
2055 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
2056 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
2057
2058 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2059
2060 guile [code]
2061 gu [code]
2062 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
2063
2064 guile-repl
2065 gr
2066 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
2067
2068 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
2069 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
2070
2071 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
2072 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
2073
2074 * New options
2075
2076 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
2077 show print symbol-loading
2078 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
2079 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
2080 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
2081 becomes less useful.
2082
2083 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
2084 show guile print-stack
2085 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
2086
2087 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
2088 show auto-load guile-scripts
2089 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
2090
2091 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
2092 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
2093 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
2094 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
2095 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
2096 usage of this option.
2097
2098 set auto-connect-native-target
2099
2100 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
2101 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
2102 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
2103
2104 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
2105 show record btrace replay-memory-access
2106 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
2107
2108 maint set target-async (on|off)
2109 maint show target-async
2110 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
2111 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
2112 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
2113 occurring only in synchronous mode.
2114
2115 set mi-async (on|off)
2116 show mi-async
2117 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
2118 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
2119
2120 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
2121 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
2122
2123 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
2124 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
2125 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
2126 "set target-async on" command.
2127
2128 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2129
2130 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
2131 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
2132 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
2133 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
2134 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
2135
2136 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
2137 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
2138 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
2139
2140 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
2141 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
2142 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
2143 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
2144 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
2145 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
2146 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
2147
2148 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
2149 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
2150
2151 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
2152 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
2153 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
2154
2155 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
2156 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
2157 memory or registers.
2158
2159 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
2160
2161 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
2162 remote. It now works with all targets.
2163
2164 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
2165 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
2166 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
2167 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
2168 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
2169 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
2170 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
2171 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
2172 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
2173 target-stack".
2174
2175 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
2176 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
2177 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
2178
2179 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
2180
2181 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
2182 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
2183 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
2184
2185 * New remote packets
2186
2187 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
2188 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2189 branch trace incrementally.
2190
2191 * Python Scripting
2192
2193 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2194 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2195 available.
2196 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2197 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2198 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2199 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2200 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2201
2202 * New targets
2203 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2204
2205 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2206 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2207 its alias "share", instead.
2208
2209 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2210 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2211 instead.
2212
2213 * MI changes
2214
2215 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2216 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2217 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2218 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2219 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2220 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
2221 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
2222 commands and CLI execution commands.
2223
2224 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
2225
2226 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
2227 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
2228 recording has been added.
2229
2230 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2231
2232 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
2233 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
2234
2235 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
2236 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
2237 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
2238 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
2239 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
2240 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
2241 "void".
2242
2243 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
2244
2245 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
2246
2247 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
2248 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
2249 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
2250 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
2251
2252 (gdb) p $rax
2253 $1 = <not saved>
2254
2255 (gdb) info registers rax
2256 rax <not saved>
2257
2258 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
2259 "*value not available*".
2260
2261 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
2262 to binaries.
2263
2264 * Python scripting
2265
2266 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
2267 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
2268 ** Line tables representation has been added.
2269 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
2270 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
2271 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
2272
2273 * New targets
2274
2275 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
2276 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
2277 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
2278
2279 * Removed native configurations
2280
2281 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
2282 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
2283
2284 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2285 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2286 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
2287 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
2288 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2289 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2290 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2291
2292 * New commands:
2293 catch rethrow
2294 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
2295 maint check-psymtabs
2296 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
2297 maint check-symtabs
2298 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
2299 maint expand-symtabs
2300 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
2301
2302 show configuration
2303 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2304
2305 maint set|show per-command
2306 maint set|show per-command space
2307 maint set|show per-command time
2308 maint set|show per-command symtab
2309 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
2310
2311 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
2312 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
2313 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
2314 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
2315 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
2316
2317 info exceptions
2318 info exceptions REGEXP
2319 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
2320 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
2321 are listed.
2322
2323 * New options
2324
2325 set debug symfile off|on
2326 show debug symfile
2327 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
2328 symbol tables within those files
2329
2330 set print raw frame-arguments
2331 show print raw frame-arguments
2332 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
2333 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
2334
2335 set remote trace-status-packet
2336 show remote trace-status-packet
2337 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
2338
2339 set debug nios2
2340 show debug nios2
2341 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
2342
2343 set range-stepping
2344 show range-stepping
2345 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
2346
2347 set startup-with-shell
2348 show startup-with-shell
2349 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
2350 directly.
2351
2352 set code-cache
2353 show code-cache
2354 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
2355 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
2356
2357 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
2358 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
2359 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
2360 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
2361 "set height 0".
2362
2363 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
2364 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
2365 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
2366
2367 * New command-line options
2368 --configuration
2369 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2370
2371 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
2372 buffer in Common Trace Format.
2373
2374 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
2375 GDB command gcore.
2376
2377 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
2378
2379 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
2380 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
2381
2382 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
2383 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
2384
2385 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
2386 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
2387 due to an uncaught signal.
2388
2389 * MI changes
2390
2391 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
2392 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
2393 command, which should contain "language-option".
2394
2395 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
2396 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
2397
2398 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
2399 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
2400 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
2401 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2402 "undefined-command-error-code".
2403
2404 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
2405 Trace Format now.
2406
2407 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
2408
2409 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
2410 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
2411 are displayed.
2412
2413 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
2414 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
2415
2416 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
2417 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
2418 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
2419
2420 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
2421 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
2422 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
2423 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
2424 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2425 "exec-run-start-option".
2426
2427 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
2428 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
2429
2430 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
2431 the new "info exceptions" command.
2432
2433 * New system-wide configuration scripts
2434 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
2435 configuration scripts for the following systems:
2436 ** ElinOS
2437 ** Wind River Linux
2438
2439 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
2440 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
2441 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
2442 below.
2443
2444 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
2445 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
2446
2447 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
2448 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
2449 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
2450
2451 * New remote packets
2452
2453 vCont;r
2454
2455 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
2456 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
2457 involvemement at each single-step.
2458
2459 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
2460 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
2461 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
2462 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
2463 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
2464 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
2465 speedup.
2466
2467 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2468
2469 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
2470 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
2471
2472 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
2473 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
2474 trace state variables.
2475
2476 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
2477 target.
2478
2479 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
2480 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
2481
2482 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
2483
2484 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
2485 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
2486 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
2487 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2488
2489 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
2490
2491 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
2492 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
2493 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
2494 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
2495
2496 set|show record full insn-number-max
2497 set|show record full stop-at-limit
2498 set|show record full memory-query
2499
2500 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
2501 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
2502 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
2503 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
2504 This new recording method can be enabled using:
2505
2506 record btrace
2507
2508 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
2509 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
2510
2511 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
2512 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
2513 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
2514
2515 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
2516 instruction granularity
2517
2518 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
2519 function granularity
2520
2521 * New native configurations
2522
2523 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
2524 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
2525 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2526 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
2527
2528 * New targets
2529
2530 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
2531 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
2532 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
2533 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2534 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
2535
2536 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
2537 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
2538 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
2539 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
2540 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
2541 --data-directory command-line option.
2542
2543 * New command line options:
2544
2545 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
2546 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
2547
2548 * Removed command line options
2549
2550 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
2551 Emacs.
2552
2553 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
2554 type formatting.
2555
2556 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
2557
2558 * Python scripting
2559
2560 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
2561
2562 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
2563
2564 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
2565
2566 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
2567
2568 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
2569 of architecture in the Python API.
2570
2571 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
2572 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
2573
2574 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2575
2576 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
2577 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
2578 ** $_strlen(str)
2579 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2580
2581 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2582 given an argument.
2583
2584 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2585 default for GCC since November 2000.
2586
2587 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2588
2589 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2590 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2591
2592 * New configure options
2593
2594 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2595 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2596 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2597 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2598 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2599 options allow the user to override that default.
2600 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2601 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2602 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2603
2604 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2605
2606 catch signal
2607 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
2608 conditions to be attached.
2609
2610 maint info bfds
2611 List the BFDs known to GDB.
2612
2613 python-interactive [command]
2614 pi [command]
2615 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
2616 and print the result of expressions.
2617
2618 py [command]
2619 "py" is a new alias for "python".
2620
2621 enable type-printer [name]...
2622 disable type-printer [name]...
2623 Enable or disable type printers.
2624
2625 * Removed commands
2626
2627 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
2628 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
2629 instead.
2630
2631 * New options
2632
2633 set print type methods (on|off)
2634 show print type methods
2635 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
2636 The default is to show them.
2637
2638 set print type typedefs (on|off)
2639 show print type typedefs
2640 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
2641 The default is to show them.
2642
2643 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
2644 show filename-display
2645 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
2646 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
2647
2648 set trace-buffer-size
2649 show trace-buffer-size
2650 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
2651
2652 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
2653 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
2654 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
2655
2656 set debug aarch64
2657 show debug aarch64
2658 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
2659 The default is off.
2660
2661 set debug coff-pe-read
2662 show debug coff-pe-read
2663 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
2664 exported symbols.
2665
2666 set debug mach-o
2667 show debug mach-o
2668 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
2669 processing.
2670
2671 set debug notification
2672 show debug notification
2673 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
2674
2675 * MI changes
2676
2677 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
2678 "=cmd-param-changed".
2679 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
2680 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
2681 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
2682 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
2683 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
2684 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
2685 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
2686 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
2687 "=memory-changed".
2688 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
2689 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
2690 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2691 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
2692 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2693 library load/unload events.
2694 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2695 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2696 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
2697 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2698 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2699 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
2700 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2701 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
2702
2703 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
2704 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
2705 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
2706 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
2707
2708 * New remote packets
2709
2710 QTBuffer:size
2711 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2712 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2713
2714 Qbtrace:bts
2715 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2716 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2717 qSupported query.
2718
2719 Qbtrace:off
2720 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2721 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2722
2723 qXfer:btrace:read
2724 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2725 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2726
2727 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
2728
2729 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2730 for more x32 ABI info.
2731
2732 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2733
2734 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2735
2736 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2737 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2738 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2739 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2740 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2741 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2742 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2743 "info os msg" lists message queues
2744 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2745
2746 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2747 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2748 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2749 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2750 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2751 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2752
2753 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2754 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2755 record/replay support.
2756
2757 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2758
2759 * Python scripting
2760
2761 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2762 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
2763
2764 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2765
2766 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2767 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2768
2769 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2770
2771 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2772 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2773
2774 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2775 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2776 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2777 symbol's value.
2778
2779 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2780 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2781
2782 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2783 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2784 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2785
2786 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2787 object associated with a PC value.
2788
2789 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2790 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2791
2792 * Go language support.
2793 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2794 language.
2795
2796 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2797 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2798
2799 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2800 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2801
2802 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2803 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2804 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2805 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2806 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2807 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
2808
2809 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2810 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2811 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2812 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2813
2814 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2815 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2816
2817 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2818 since December 2007.
2819
2820 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2821 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2822 command does. For instance:
2823
2824 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2825
2826 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2827 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2828 created, using the "condition" command.
2829
2830 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2831 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2832
2833 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2834
2835 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2836 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2837 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2838 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2839 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2840 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2841 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2842 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2843
2844 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2845 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2846 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2847 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2848 the .gdb_index section.
2849
2850 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2851
2852 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2853 target.
2854
2855 * MI changes
2856
2857 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2858
2859 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2860
2861 * New commands
2862
2863 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2864 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2865 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2866
2867 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2868 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2869
2870 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2871 several hits.
2872
2873 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2874 C++ and Java objects.
2875
2876 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2877 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2878 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2879 configured with '--with-python'.
2880
2881 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2882 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2883 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2884 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2885 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2886 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2887 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2888
2889 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2890 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2891 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2892 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2893
2894 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2895 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2896 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2897 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2898
2899 ** "set print symbol"
2900 "show print symbol"
2901 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2902 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2903 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2904
2905 * Deprecated commands
2906
2907 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2908 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2909
2910 * New targets
2911
2912 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2913 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2914
2915 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2916 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2917 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2918 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2919 evaluates to true.
2920
2921 * New options
2922
2923 set mips compression
2924 show mips compression
2925 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2926 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2927 mips16
2928 micromips
2929 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2930
2931 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2932 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2933 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2934 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2935 available mode.
2936 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2937 target.
2938
2939 set auto-load off
2940 Disable auto-loading globally.
2941
2942 show auto-load
2943 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2944
2945 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2946 show auto-load gdb-scripts
2947 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2948
2949 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2950 show auto-load python-scripts
2951 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2952
2953 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2954 show auto-load local-gdbinit
2955 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2956
2957 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2958 show auto-load libthread-db
2959 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2960
2961 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2962 show auto-load scripts-directory
2963 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2964 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2965 of the directories listed by this option.
2966 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2967
2968 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2969 show auto-load safe-path
2970 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2971 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2972
2973 set debug auto-load on|off
2974 show debug auto-load
2975 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2976
2977 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
2978 show dprintf-style
2979 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2980 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2981 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2982 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
2983
2984 set dprintf-function <expr>
2985 show dprintf-function
2986 set dprintf-channel <expr>
2987 show dprintf-channel
2988 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
2989 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
2990
2991 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
2992 show disconnected-dprintf
2993 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
2994 after GDB disconnects.
2995
2996 * New configure options
2997
2998 --with-auto-load-dir
2999 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
3000 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
3001 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
3002 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
3003 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
3004
3005 --with-auto-load-safe-path
3006 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
3007 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
3008
3009 --without-auto-load-safe-path
3010 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
3011 security feature.
3012
3013 * New remote packets
3014
3015 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
3016
3017 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
3018 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
3019 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
3020 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
3021
3022 QProgramSignals:
3023
3024 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
3025 program without GDB involvement.
3026
3027 * New command line options
3028
3029 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
3030 before loading inferior.
3031 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
3032 execute it before loading inferior.
3033
3034 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
3035
3036 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
3037 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
3038 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
3039 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
3040 inferior changes.
3041
3042 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
3043 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
3044
3045 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
3046 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
3047 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
3048 target hardware watchpoint.
3049
3050 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
3051 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
3052 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
3053 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
3054
3055 * Python scripting
3056
3057 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
3058 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
3059 existing one.
3060
3061 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
3062 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
3063 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
3064 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
3065 now "message", which just prints the error message without
3066 the stack trace.
3067
3068 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3069 Python API.
3070
3071 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
3072 modules library. This module provides functionality for
3073 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
3074 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
3075 corresponding value.
3076
3077 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
3078 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
3079 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
3080 on GDB start-up.
3081
3082 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
3083 static_block will return the global and static blocks
3084 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
3085 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
3086
3087 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
3088
3089 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
3090 "gdb.breakpoints".
3091
3092 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
3093 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
3094 available in the CLI.
3095
3096 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
3097 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
3098 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
3099 "some_type.items()".
3100
3101 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
3102 new object file.
3103
3104 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
3105 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
3106 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
3107 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
3108 any anonymous fields.
3109
3110 * MI changes
3111
3112 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
3113 "solib-event".
3114
3115 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
3116 "=breakpoint-modified".
3117
3118 ** New command -ada-task-info.
3119
3120 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
3121 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
3122 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
3123 lives.
3124
3125 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
3126 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
3127 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
3128 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
3129 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
3130
3131 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
3132 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
3133
3134 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
3135 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
3136 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
3137 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
3138 use this option to specify where to find it.
3139
3140 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3141 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
3142 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
3143 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
3144 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
3145 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3146 section in the user manual for more details.
3147
3148 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
3149 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
3150 become available after that.
3151
3152 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
3153
3154 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
3155 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
3156 gcc version 4.7.
3157
3158 * New commands
3159
3160 !SHELL COMMAND
3161 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
3162 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
3163
3164 * Changed commands
3165
3166 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
3167 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
3168 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
3169
3170 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
3171 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
3172 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
3173
3174 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
3175 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
3176 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
3177 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
3178 name starts with a hyphen.
3179
3180 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
3181 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
3182 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
3183 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
3184 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
3185 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
3186 number of bytes that will be collected.
3187
3188 tstart [NOTES]
3189 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3190 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3191 setting the variable trace-notes.
3192
3193 tstop [NOTES]
3194 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3195 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3196 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3197 trace-stop-notes.
3198
3199 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3200 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3201 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3202 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3203 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3204 is running.
3205
3206 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3207 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3208 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3209
3210 * New options
3211
3212 set debug dwarf2-read
3213 show debug dwarf2-read
3214 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3215 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3216
3217 set debug symtab-create
3218 show debug symtab-create
3219 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3220 creation. The default is off.
3221
3222 set extended-prompt
3223 show extended-prompt
3224 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
3225 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
3226 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
3227 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
3228 prompt is displayed.
3229
3230 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
3231 show print entry-values
3232 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
3233 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
3234 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
3235
3236 set debug entry-values
3237 show debug entry-values
3238 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
3239 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
3240
3241 set basenames-may-differ
3242 show basenames-may-differ
3243 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
3244 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
3245 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
3246 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
3247 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
3248 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
3249 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
3250 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
3251
3252 set trace-user
3253 show trace-user
3254 set trace-notes
3255 show trace-notes
3256 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
3257 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
3258 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
3259 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
3260
3261 set trace-stop-notes
3262 show trace-stop-notes
3263 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
3264 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
3265 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
3266 started by someone else.
3267
3268 * New remote packets
3269
3270 QTEnable
3271
3272 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3273
3274 QTDisable
3275
3276 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3277
3278 QTNotes
3279
3280 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
3281
3282 qTP
3283
3284 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
3285
3286 qTMinFTPILen
3287
3288 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
3289 be placed.
3290
3291 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
3292 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
3293
3294 * New targets
3295
3296 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
3297
3298 * New Simulators
3299
3300 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3301
3302 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
3303
3304 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
3305
3306 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
3307
3308 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
3309 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
3310 matches the given regular expression.
3311
3312 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
3313
3314 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
3315 dumping the instruction opcodes.
3316
3317 * New command line options
3318
3319 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
3320 This is mostly for testing purposes.
3321
3322 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
3323 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
3324
3325 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
3326 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
3327 source path list instead of augmenting it.
3328
3329 * GDB now understands thread names.
3330
3331 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
3332 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
3333
3334 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
3335 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
3336
3337 * OpenCL C
3338 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
3339 has been integrated into GDB.
3340
3341 * Python scripting
3342
3343 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
3344 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
3345 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
3346
3347 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3348 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
3349 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
3350 and allows for more dynamic content.
3351
3352 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
3353 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
3354 have an is_valid method.
3355
3356 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3357 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
3358 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
3359
3360 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
3361
3362 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
3363 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
3364 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
3365 that function like so:
3366
3367 result = some_value (10,20)
3368
3369 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
3370 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
3371 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
3372
3373 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
3374 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
3375 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
3376 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
3377 New function: register_pretty_printer.
3378
3379 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
3380 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
3381
3382 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
3383
3384 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
3385 selected thread.
3386
3387 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
3388 holds the thread's name.
3389
3390 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
3391 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
3392 occurring in the process being debugged.
3393 The following events are currently supported:
3394 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
3395 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
3396 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
3397
3398 * C++ Improvements:
3399
3400 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
3401 instantiation. For example, if you have:
3402
3403 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
3404
3405 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
3406 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
3407 was added to GCC 4.5.
3408
3409 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
3410 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
3411 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
3412 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
3413 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
3414 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
3415
3416 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
3417 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
3418 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
3419 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
3420 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
3421
3422 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
3423 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
3424 execution to a label.
3425
3426 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
3427 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
3428 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
3429 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
3430
3431 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
3432 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
3433 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
3434 of scope.
3435
3436 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
3437
3438 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
3439 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
3440 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
3441 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
3442 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
3443 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
3444
3445 (gdb) info threads
3446 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
3447
3448 While now you see this:
3449
3450 (gdb) info threads
3451 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
3452
3453 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
3454 dumps.
3455
3456 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
3457 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
3458 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
3459 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
3460
3461 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3462 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
3463 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
3464 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3465 section in the user manual for more details.
3466
3467 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3468
3469 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
3470 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
3471
3472 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
3473
3474 * New native configurations
3475
3476 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3477
3478 * New targets:
3479
3480 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
3481
3482 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
3483 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
3484 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
3485 in the GDB user manual.
3486
3487 * Guile support was removed.
3488
3489 * New features in the GNU simulator
3490
3491 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
3492
3493 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
3494
3495 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
3496
3497 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
3498
3499 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
3500 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
3501 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
3502 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
3503 was always disabled for such configurations.
3504
3505 * C++ Improvements:
3506
3507 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
3508
3509 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
3510 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
3511 For example:
3512 namespace A
3513 {
3514 class B { };
3515 void foo (B) { }
3516 }
3517 ...
3518 A::B b
3519 foo(b)
3520 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
3521 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
3522 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
3523
3524 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
3525
3526 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
3527 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
3528 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
3529 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
3530 entry.
3531 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
3532 mentioned flavors of operators.
3533
3534 ** static const class members
3535
3536 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
3537 class definition has been fixed.
3538
3539 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
3540
3541 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
3542 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
3543 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
3544 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
3545 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
3546 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
3547
3548 * Static tracepoints
3549
3550 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
3551 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
3552 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
3553 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
3554 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
3555 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
3556 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
3557 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
3558 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
3559 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
3560 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
3561 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
3562 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
3563 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
3564 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
3565 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
3566 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
3567 the "New remote packets" section below.
3568
3569 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
3570
3571 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
3572 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
3573 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
3574 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
3575
3576 * Observer mode
3577
3578 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
3579 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3580 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3581 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3582 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3583 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3584 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3585
3586 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3587 current thread.
3588
3589 * New remote packets
3590
3591 qGetTIBAddr
3592
3593 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3594
3595 qRelocInsn
3596
3597 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3598 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3599 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3600 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3601 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3602 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3603
3604 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
3605
3606 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
3607
3608 qTSTMat
3609
3610 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
3611 program.
3612
3613 qXfer:statictrace:read
3614
3615 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
3616 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
3617 to gdb's qSupported query.
3618
3619 QAllow
3620
3621 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
3622
3623 QTDPsrc
3624
3625 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
3626 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
3627
3628 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
3629 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
3630 a directory.
3631
3632 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3633
3634 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
3635 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
3636 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
3637 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
3638
3639 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
3640 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
3641 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
3642 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
3643 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
3644 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
3645 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
3646
3647 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
3648 for static tracepoints support.
3649
3650 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
3651
3652 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
3653 it understands register description.
3654
3655 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
3656
3657 * X86 general purpose registers
3658
3659 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
3660 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
3661 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
3662 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
3663 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
3664
3665 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
3666 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
3667 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
3668 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
3669 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
3670 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
3671
3672 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
3673 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
3674 in the specified file.
3675
3676 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
3677 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
3678 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
3679 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
3680 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
3681 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
3682 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
3683 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
3684 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
3685 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
3686
3687 * New commands
3688
3689 eval template, expressions...
3690 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3691 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3692
3693 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3694 show target-file-system-kind
3695 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3696 names.
3697
3698 save breakpoints <filename>
3699 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3700 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3701 definitions, use the `source' command.
3702
3703 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
3704 is now deprecated.
3705
3706 info static-tracepoint-markers
3707 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
3708
3709 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3710 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3711 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3712
3713 set observer on|off
3714 show observer
3715 Enable and disable observer mode.
3716
3717 set may-write-registers on|off
3718 set may-write-memory on|off
3719 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3720 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3721 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3722 set may-interrupt on|off
3723 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3724 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3725 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3726 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3727 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3728 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3729 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3730
3731 set record memory-query on|off
3732 show record memory-query
3733 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3734 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3735
3736 * Changed commands
3737
3738 disassemble
3739 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3740
3741 * Python scripting
3742
3743 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3744 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3745 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3746 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3747 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3748
3749 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3750 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3751 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3752 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3753
3754 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3755 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3756
3757 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3758
3759 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3760
3761 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3762
3763 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3764 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3765 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3766
3767 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3768 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3769 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3770 regular breakpoints.
3771
3772 * New targets
3773
3774 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3775
3776 * D language support.
3777 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3778 language.
3779
3780 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3781 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3782 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3783 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3784 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3785
3786 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3787 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3788 conditions of the form:
3789
3790 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3791
3792 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3793 interface mentioned above.
3794
3795 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
3796
3797 * C++ Improvements
3798
3799 ** Namespace Support
3800
3801 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3802 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3803 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3804 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3805 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3806
3807 ** Bug Fixes
3808
3809 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3810 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3811 qualified name.
3812
3813 ** Cast Operators
3814
3815 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3816 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3817
3818 * New targets
3819
3820 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3821 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
3822
3823 * New Simulators
3824
3825 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3826 Renesas RX rx
3827
3828 * Multi-program debugging.
3829
3830 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3831 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3832 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3833 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3834 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3835 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3836 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3837 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3838
3839 * New tracing features
3840
3841 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3842
3843 ** Trace state variables
3844
3845 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3846 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3847 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3848 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3849 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3850 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3851 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3852 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3853 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3854 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3855
3856 ** Fast tracepoints
3857
3858 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3859 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3860 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3861 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3862 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3863 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3864 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3865 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3866 the regular trace command.
3867
3868 ** Disconnected tracing
3869
3870 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3871 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3872 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3873 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3874 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3875
3876 ** Trace files
3877
3878 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3879 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3880 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3881 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3882 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3883 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3884 <name>".
3885
3886 ** Circular trace buffer
3887
3888 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3889 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3890 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3891 not be available for all target agents.
3892
3893 * Changed commands
3894
3895 disassemble
3896 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3897 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3898
3899 info variables
3900 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3901 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3902
3903 source
3904 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3905 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3906 support.
3907
3908 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3909 "set script-extension" (see below).
3910
3911 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3912
3913 record save [<FILENAME>]
3914 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3915 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3916
3917 record restore <FILENAME>
3918 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3919 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3920
3921 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3922 Add a new inferior.
3923
3924 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3925 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3926 inferior has loaded.
3927
3928 remove-inferior ID
3929 Remove an inferior.
3930
3931 maint info program-spaces
3932 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3933
3934 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3935 show remote interrupt-sequence
3936 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3937 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3938 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3939 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3940 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3941
3942 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3943 show remote interrupt-on-connect
3944 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3945 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3946 Linux kernel.
3947
3948 set remotebreak [on | off]
3949 show remotebreak
3950 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3951
3952 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3953 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3954
3955 info tvariables
3956 List trace state variables and their values.
3957
3958 delete tvariable $NAME ...
3959 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3960
3961 teval EXPR, ...
3962 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3963 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3964
3965 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3966 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3967
3968 * New expression syntax
3969
3970 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3971 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3972
3973 * New options
3974
3975 set follow-exec-mode new|same
3976 show follow-exec-mode
3977 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3978 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3979 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3980
3981 set default-collect EXPR, ...
3982 show default-collect
3983 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3984 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3985 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3986
3987 set disconnected-tracing
3988 show disconnected-tracing
3989 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
3990 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
3991 upon disconnection.
3992
3993 set circular-trace-buffer
3994 show circular-trace-buffer
3995 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
3996 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
3997 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
3998 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
3999
4000 set script-extension off|soft|strict
4001 show script-extension
4002 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
4003 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
4004 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
4005 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
4006 evaluation failed.
4007 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
4008
4009 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
4010 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
4011 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
4012 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
4013 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
4014 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
4015 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
4016 is on.
4017
4018 * Python API Improvements
4019
4020 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
4021 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
4022 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
4023
4024 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
4025 `is_base_class' attribute.
4026
4027 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
4028
4029 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
4030 evaluate an expression.
4031
4032 * New remote packets
4033
4034 QTDV
4035 Define a trace state variable.
4036
4037 qTV
4038 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
4039
4040 QTDisconnected
4041 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
4042
4043 QTBuffer:circular
4044 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
4045
4046 qTfP, qTsP
4047 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
4048
4049 * Bug fixes
4050
4051 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
4052
4053 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
4054 much more reliable. In particular:
4055 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
4056 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
4057 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
4058 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
4059 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
4060 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
4061 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
4062 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
4063 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
4064 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
4065 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
4066 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
4067 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
4068 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
4069 non-threaded programs.
4070
4071 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
4072 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
4073 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
4074 executable program.
4075
4076 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
4077
4078 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
4079 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
4080 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
4081 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
4082 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
4083
4084 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
4085 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
4086 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
4087 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
4088 for tracepoint actions.
4089
4090 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
4091 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
4092 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
4093
4094 * Process record and replay
4095
4096 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
4097 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
4098 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
4099 execute commands.
4100
4101 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
4102 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
4103 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
4104 reverse execution.
4105
4106 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
4107 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4108 2.6.28 or later.
4109
4110 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
4111 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
4112 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
4113 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
4114 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
4115 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
4116 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
4117 the installation instructions for more information.
4118
4119 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
4120 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
4121 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
4122 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
4123
4124 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
4125 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
4126
4127 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
4128 now complete on file names.
4129
4130 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
4131 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
4132 For instance, consider:
4133
4134 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
4135 # struct example variable;
4136 (gdb) p variable.
4137
4138 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
4139 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
4140
4141 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
4142 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
4143
4144 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
4145 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
4146 macros.
4147
4148 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
4149 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
4150 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
4151
4152 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
4153 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
4154 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
4155 and simulator targets may also provide them.
4156
4157 * New remote packets
4158
4159 qSearch:memory:
4160 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4161
4162 QStartNoAckMode
4163 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
4164 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
4165 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
4166
4167 vKill
4168 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
4169 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
4170
4171 qXfer:osdata:read
4172 Obtains additional operating system information
4173
4174 qXfer:siginfo:read
4175 qXfer:siginfo:write
4176 Read or write additional signal information.
4177
4178 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
4179
4180 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
4181 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
4182 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
4183
4184 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
4185 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
4186
4187 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
4188 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4189 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
4190
4191 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4192 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4193
4194 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4195
4196 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4197
4198 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4199 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4200
4201 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
4202 list of section offsets.
4203
4204 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4205 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4206 have also been fixed.
4207
4208 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4209 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4210 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4211
4212 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4213 example, given:
4214
4215 template<typename T> class C { };
4216 C<char const *> c;
4217
4218 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4219
4220 ptype C<char const *>
4221 ptype C<char const*>
4222 ptype C<const char *>
4223 ptype C<const char*>
4224
4225 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
4226
4227 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
4228 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4229
4230 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
4231 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4232 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
4233
4234 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
4235 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
4236
4237 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
4238 gdbserver.
4239
4240 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
4241 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4242
4243 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
4244 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
4245 as appropriate.
4246
4247 * Python scripting
4248
4249 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
4250 available is determined at configure time.
4251
4252 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
4253
4254 * Ada tasking support
4255
4256 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
4257 been introduced:
4258
4259 info tasks
4260 Print the list of Ada tasks.
4261 info task N
4262 Print detailed information about task number N.
4263 task
4264 Print the task number of the current task.
4265 task N
4266 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
4267
4268 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
4269 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
4270
4271 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
4272
4273 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
4274 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
4275 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
4276 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
4277 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
4278 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
4279 below.
4280
4281 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
4282 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
4283 information.
4284
4285 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
4286 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
4287 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
4288 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
4289 more information.
4290
4291 * Multi-architecture debugging.
4292
4293 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
4294 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
4295 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
4296 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
4297 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
4298
4299 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
4300 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
4301 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
4302 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
4303 --enable-targets configure option.
4304
4305 * Non-stop mode debugging.
4306
4307 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
4308 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
4309 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
4310 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
4311 section in the user manual for more information.
4312
4313 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
4314 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
4315 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
4316 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
4317 extensions on linux targets.
4318
4319 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4320
4321 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
4322 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
4323 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
4324 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
4325 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
4326 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
4327 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
4328 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
4329 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
4330
4331 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
4332 val1 [, val2, ...]
4333 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4334
4335 maint set python print-stack
4336 maint show python print-stack
4337 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
4338
4339 python [CODE]
4340 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
4341
4342 macro define
4343 macro list
4344 macro undef
4345 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
4346 interactively.
4347
4348 info os processes
4349 Show operating system information about processes.
4350
4351 info inferiors
4352 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
4353
4354 inferior NUM
4355 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
4356
4357 detach inferior NUM
4358 Detach from inferior number NUM.
4359
4360 kill inferior NUM
4361 Kill inferior number NUM.
4362
4363 * New options
4364
4365 set spu stop-on-load
4366 show spu stop-on-load
4367 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4368
4369 set spu auto-flush-cache
4370 show spu auto-flush-cache
4371 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
4372 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4373
4374 set sh calling-convention
4375 show sh calling-convention
4376 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
4377
4378 set debug timestamp
4379 show debug timestamp
4380 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
4381
4382 set disassemble-next-line
4383 show disassemble-next-line
4384 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
4385 the debuggee stops.
4386
4387 set remote noack-packet
4388 show remote noack-packet
4389 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
4390 under "New remote packets."
4391
4392 set remote query-attached-packet
4393 show remote query-attached-packet
4394 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
4395
4396 set remote read-siginfo-object
4397 show remote read-siginfo-object
4398 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
4399 packet.
4400
4401 set remote write-siginfo-object
4402 show remote write-siginfo-object
4403 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
4404 packet.
4405
4406 set remote reverse-continue
4407 show remote reverse-continue
4408 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
4409
4410 set remote reverse-step
4411 show remote reverse-step
4412 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
4413
4414 set displaced-stepping
4415 show displaced-stepping
4416 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
4417 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
4418 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
4419
4420 set debug displaced
4421 show debug displaced
4422 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
4423
4424 maint set internal-error
4425 maint show internal-error
4426 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
4427
4428 maint set internal-warning
4429 maint show internal-warning
4430 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
4431
4432 set exec-wrapper
4433 show exec-wrapper
4434 unset exec-wrapper
4435 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4436
4437 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
4438 show multiple-symbols
4439 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
4440 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
4441 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
4442
4443 set breakpoint always-inserted
4444 show breakpoint always-inserted
4445 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
4446 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
4447 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
4448
4449 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4450 show arm fallback-mode
4451 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4452 show arm force-mode
4453 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
4454 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
4455 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
4456 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
4457
4458 set disable-randomization
4459 show disable-randomization
4460 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
4461 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
4462 multiple debugging sessions.
4463
4464 set non-stop
4465 show non-stop
4466 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
4467 a breakpoint.
4468
4469 set target-async
4470 show target-async
4471 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
4472 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
4473 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
4474 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
4475
4476 set target-wide-charset
4477 show target-wide-charset
4478 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
4479 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
4480
4481 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
4482 show tcp auto-retry
4483 set tcp connect-timeout
4484 show tcp connect-timeout
4485 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
4486 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
4487 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
4488
4489 set libthread-db-search-path
4490 show libthread-db-search-path
4491 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
4492 libthread_db.
4493
4494 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
4495 show schedule-multiple
4496 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
4497 the current process.
4498
4499 set stack-cache
4500 show stack-cache
4501 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
4502 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
4503 affecting correctness.
4504
4505 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
4506 show interactive-mode
4507 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
4508 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
4509 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
4510 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
4511 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
4512
4513 * Removed commands
4514
4515 info forks
4516 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
4517 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
4518 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
4519 command.
4520
4521 fork NUM
4522 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
4523 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
4524 alias for the `fork' command.
4525
4526 process PID
4527 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
4528 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
4529 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
4530
4531 delete fork NUM
4532 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
4533 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
4534 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
4535 fork' command.
4536
4537 detach fork NUM
4538 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
4539 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
4540 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
4541 fork' command.
4542
4543 * New native configurations
4544
4545 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
4546
4547 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
4548
4549 * New targets
4550
4551 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
4552 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4553 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
4554 S+core 3 score-*-*
4555
4556 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
4557 (mingw32ce) debugging.
4558
4559 * Removed commands
4560
4561 catch load
4562 catch unload
4563 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
4564
4565 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
4566
4567 * New native configurations
4568
4569 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
4570 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4571
4572 * New targets
4573
4574 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
4575 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
4576
4577 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4578
4579 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4580 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4581 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4582 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4583
4584 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4585 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4586
4587 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4588 is resolved.
4589
4590 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4591 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4592 and in inlined functions.
4593
4594 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4595 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4596 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4597
4598 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4599
4600 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4601 registers on PowerPC targets.
4602
4603 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4604 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4605
4606 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
4607 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
4608
4609 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
4610 extended-remote mode.
4611
4612 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
4613 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
4614 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
4615 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
4616
4617 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
4618 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
4619 target architectures.
4620
4621 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
4622 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
4623 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
4624 stored in two consecutive float registers.
4625
4626 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
4627 breakpoints now.
4628
4629 * Improved support for debugging Ada
4630 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
4631 include:
4632 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
4633 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
4634 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
4635 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
4636 of an assignment
4637 - Improved command completion in Ada
4638 - Several bug fixes
4639
4640 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
4641 process.
4642
4643 * New commands
4644
4645 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
4646 show print frame-arguments
4647 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
4648 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
4649
4650 remote put
4651 remote get
4652 remote delete
4653 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4654
4655 * New MI commands
4656
4657 -target-file-put
4658 -target-file-get
4659 -target-file-delete
4660 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4661
4662 * New remote packets
4663
4664 vFile:open:
4665 vFile:close:
4666 vFile:pread:
4667 vFile:pwrite:
4668 vFile:unlink:
4669 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
4670
4671 vAttach
4672 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
4673 mode.
4674
4675 vRun
4676 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
4677
4678 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
4679
4680 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
4681 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
4682 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
4683
4684 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
4685 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
4686 -Bsymbolic linker option.
4687
4688 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4689 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4690 is not supported.
4691
4692 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4693 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4694
4695 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
4696 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
4697
4698 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4699
4700 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4701 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
4702 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
4703
4704 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
4705 automatically displayed as character or string data.
4706
4707 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
4708 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
4709 as strings.
4710
4711 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4712 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
4713 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
4714
4715 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4716 iWMMXt coprocessor.
4717
4718 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4719 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4720 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4721
4722 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4723
4724 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4725
4726 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4727 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4728 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4729
4730 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4731 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4732
4733 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4734 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4735 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4736 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4737 Windows and SymbianOS).
4738
4739 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4740 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
4741
4742 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4743 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
4744
4745 * New commands
4746
4747 set remoteflow
4748 show remoteflow
4749 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4750 when debugging using remote targets.
4751
4752 set mem inaccessible-by-default
4753 show mem inaccessible-by-default
4754 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4755 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4756 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4757 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4758 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4759
4760 set breakpoint auto-hw
4761 show breakpoint auto-hw
4762 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4763 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4764 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4765 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4766 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4767 including "next" and "finish".
4768
4769 catch exception
4770 catch exception unhandled
4771 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4772
4773 catch assert
4774 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4775
4776 set sysroot
4777 show sysroot
4778 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4779 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4780 an alias to "set sysroot".
4781
4782 info spu
4783 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4784 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4785 architecture.
4786
4787 * New native configurations
4788
4789 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4790
4791 set tdesc filename
4792 unset tdesc filename
4793 show tdesc filename
4794 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4795 not query the target for its built-in description.
4796
4797 * New targets
4798
4799 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4800 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4801 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4802
4803 * New remote packets
4804
4805 QPassSignals:
4806 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4807 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4808
4809 qXfer:features:read:
4810 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4811 features.
4812
4813 qXfer:spu:read:
4814 qXfer:spu:write:
4815 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4816 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4817
4818 qXfer:libraries:read:
4819 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4820 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4821 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4822 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4823
4824 * Removed targets
4825
4826 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4827
4828 alpha*-*-osf1*
4829 alpha*-*-osf2*
4830 d10v-*-*
4831 hppa*-*-hiux*
4832 i[34567]86-ncr-*
4833 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
4834 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4835 i[34567]86-*-netware*
4836 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4837 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4838 i[34567]86-*-sco*
4839 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4840 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
4841 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
4842 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4843 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4844 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
4845 i[34567]86-*-isc*
4846 m68*-cisco*-*
4847 m68*-tandem-*
4848 mips*-*-pe
4849 rs6000-*-lynxos*
4850 sh*-*-pe
4851
4852 * Other removed features
4853
4854 target abug
4855 target cpu32bug
4856 target est
4857 target rom68k
4858
4859 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4860
4861 target hms
4862 target e7000
4863 target sh3
4864 target sh3e
4865
4866 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4867 H8/300.
4868
4869 target ocd
4870
4871 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4872 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4873 interfaces.
4874
4875 DWARF 1 support
4876
4877 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4878 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4879
4880 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4881
4882 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4883 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4884 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4885 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4886
4887 MIPS ".pdr" sections
4888
4889 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4890 in debugging information.
4891
4892 Scheme support
4893
4894 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4895 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4896
4897 set mips stack-arg-size
4898 set mips saved-gpreg-size
4899
4900 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4901
4902 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
4903
4904 * New targets
4905
4906 Xtensa xtensa-elf
4907 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4908
4909 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4910 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4911 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4912
4913 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4914 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4915 supported.
4916
4917 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4918 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4919
4920 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4921 stub provides the required support.
4922
4923 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4924 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4925
4926 * New commands
4927
4928 set substitute-path
4929 unset substitute-path
4930 show substitute-path
4931 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4932 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4933 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4934 between compilation and debugging.
4935
4936 set trace-commands
4937 show trace-commands
4938 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4939 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4940 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4941
4942 * REMOVED features
4943
4944 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4945
4946 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4947 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4948
4949 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4950
4951 * New remote packets
4952
4953 qSupported:
4954 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4955 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4956 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4957 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4958 target.
4959
4960 qXfer:auxv:read:
4961 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4962 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4963
4964 qXfer:memory-map:read:
4965 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4966 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4967
4968 vFlashErase:
4969 vFlashWrite:
4970 vFlashDone:
4971 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4972
4973 * Removed remote packets
4974
4975 qPart:auxv:read:
4976 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4977 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4978
4979 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
4980
4981 * New targets
4982
4983 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4984
4985 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4986
4987 * New commands
4988
4989 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
4990 only if it doesn't already have a value.
4991
4992 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
4993
4994 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
4995
4996 restart <n> Return the program state to a
4997 previously saved state.
4998
4999 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
5000
5001 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
5002
5003 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
5004 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
5005
5006 info forks List forks of the user program that
5007 are available to be debugged.
5008
5009 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
5010 forks of the user program that are
5011 available to be debugged.
5012
5013 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5014 that are available to be debugged (and
5015 kill the forked process).
5016
5017 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5018 that are available to be debugged (and
5019 allow the process to continue).
5020
5021 * New architecture
5022
5023 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
5024
5025 * Improved Windows host support
5026
5027 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
5028 native console support, and remote communications using either
5029 network sockets or serial ports.
5030
5031 * Improved Modula-2 language support
5032
5033 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
5034 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
5035 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
5036 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
5037 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
5038 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
5039
5040 * REMOVED features
5041
5042 The ARM rdi-share module.
5043
5044 The Netware NLM debug server.
5045
5046 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
5047
5048 * New native configurations
5049
5050 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
5051 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
5052
5053 * New targets
5054
5055 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5056
5057 * New command line options
5058
5059 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
5060 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
5061 the child (debugged) program exited with.
5062 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
5063 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
5064 specified multiple times and in conjunction
5065 with the --command (-x) option.
5066
5067 * Deprecated commands removed
5068
5069 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
5070 removed:
5071
5072 Command Replacement
5073 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
5074 othernames set arm disassembler
5075 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
5076 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
5077 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
5078 regs info registers
5079
5080 * New BSD user-level threads support
5081
5082 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
5083 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
5084 configurations are:
5085
5086 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5087 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
5088 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
5089
5090 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
5091 are not yet supported.
5092
5093 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
5094 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
5095
5096 * REMOVED configurations and files
5097
5098 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
5099 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5100 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
5101
5102 * New "set print array-indexes" command
5103
5104 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
5105 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
5106 behavior.
5107
5108 * VAX floating point support
5109
5110 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
5111
5112 * User-defined command support
5113
5114 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
5115 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
5116 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
5117
5118 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
5119
5120 * New command line option
5121
5122 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
5123 debugging.
5124
5125 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
5126
5127 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
5128 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
5129 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
5130 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
5131 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
5132
5133 * Internationalization
5134
5135 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
5136 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
5137 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
5138
5139 * Ada
5140
5141 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
5142 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
5143 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
5144
5145 * New native configurations
5146
5147 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
5148
5149 * Remote 'p' packet
5150
5151 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
5152 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
5153
5154 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
5155
5156 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5157 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
5158 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
5159 i386 application).
5160
5161 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
5162 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
5163 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
5164 configurations:
5165
5166 hppa-*-hpux
5167 ia64-*-aix
5168 mips-*-irix*
5169 *-*-lynx
5170 mips-*-linux-gnu
5171 sds protocol
5172 xdr protocol
5173 powerpc bdm protocol
5174
5175 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5176 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
5177
5178 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5179
5180 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5181 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5182 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5183 permanently REMOVED.
5184
5185 h8300-*-*
5186 mcore-*-*
5187 mn10300-*-*
5188 ns32k-*-*
5189 sh64-*-*
5190 v850-*-*
5191
5192 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5193
5194 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5195
5196 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5197 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5198 been fixed.
5199
5200 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5201
5202 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5203 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5204 IRIX long double values).
5205
5206 * VAX and "next"
5207
5208 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5209 command. This problem has been fixed.
5210
5211 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5212
5213 * Fix for ``many threads''
5214
5215 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
5216 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
5217 error message:
5218
5219 ptrace: No such process.
5220 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
5221
5222 This problem has been fixed.
5223
5224 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
5225
5226 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
5227 GDB to dump core).
5228
5229 * New ``start'' command.
5230
5231 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
5232
5233 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
5234
5235 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
5236 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
5237 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
5238
5239 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5240 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
5241 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
5242 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
5243 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
5244 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5245 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
5246 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
5247 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5248
5249 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
5250
5251 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
5252 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
5253 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
5254 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
5255 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
5256
5257 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
5258 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
5259 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
5260
5261 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
5262
5263 * New native configurations
5264
5265 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
5266 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
5267 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
5268 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
5269 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
5270 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
5271 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
5272
5273 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
5274
5275 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5276 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
5277 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
5278 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
5279 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
5280 work, was also included.
5281
5282 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
5283 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
5284
5285 h8300-*-*
5286 mcore-*-*
5287 mn10300-*-*
5288 ns32k-*-*
5289 sh64-*-*
5290 v850-*-*
5291 xstormy16-*-*
5292
5293 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5294 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
5295
5296 * REMOVED configurations and files
5297
5298 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5299 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5300 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5301 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5302 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5303 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5304 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5305 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5306 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5307 sonymips mips-sony-*
5308 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5309
5310 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
5311
5312 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
5313
5314 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
5315 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
5316 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
5317 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
5318 with GDB".
5319
5320 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
5321
5322 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
5323 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
5324 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
5325 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
5326 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
5327 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
5328 are created.
5329
5330 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
5331
5332 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
5333
5334 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
5335 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
5336 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
5337
5338 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
5339
5340 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
5341 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
5342
5343 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
5344
5345 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
5346 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
5347 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
5348
5349 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
5350
5351 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
5352 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
5353
5354 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
5355
5356 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
5357 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
5358 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
5359
5360 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
5361
5362 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
5363 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
5364 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
5365
5366 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
5367
5368 * Removed --with-mmalloc
5369
5370 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
5371 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
5372
5373 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
5374
5375 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
5376 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
5377 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
5378 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
5379
5380 * Revised SPARC target
5381
5382 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
5383 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
5384 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
5385 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
5386 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
5387
5388 * New C++ demangler
5389
5390 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
5391 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
5392 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
5393 programs.
5394
5395 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5396
5397 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
5398 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
5399 encountered these.
5400
5401 * C++ nested types and namespaces
5402
5403 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
5404 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
5405 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
5406 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
5407 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
5408 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
5409 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
5410 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
5411 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
5412
5413 * New native configurations
5414
5415 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
5416 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5417 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
5418 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5419 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
5420
5421 * New debugging protocols
5422
5423 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
5424
5425 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
5426
5427 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
5428 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
5429 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
5430
5431 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5432
5433 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5434 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5435 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5436 permanently REMOVED.
5437
5438 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5439 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5440 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5441 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5442 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5443 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5444 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5445 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5446 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5447 sonymips mips-sony-*
5448 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5449
5450 * REMOVED configurations and files
5451
5452 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5453 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5454 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5455 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5456 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5457 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5458 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5459 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5460 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5461 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
5462 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5463 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5464 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5465 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
5466 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
5467 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5468 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5469
5470 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
5471
5472 * Objective-C
5473
5474 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
5475 integrated into GDB.
5476
5477 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
5478
5479 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
5480 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
5481 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
5482 backtraces.
5483
5484 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
5485 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
5486 DWARF 2 CFI support.
5487
5488 * Hosted file I/O.
5489
5490 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
5491 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
5492 remote protocol documentation for details.
5493
5494 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
5495
5496 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
5497 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
5498 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
5499 ppc32 on ppc64).
5500
5501 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
5502
5503 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
5504 per-thread variables.
5505
5506 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
5507
5508 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
5509 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
5510
5511 * Separate debug info.
5512
5513 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
5514 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
5515 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
5516 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
5517 and optional debug files.
5518
5519 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5520
5521 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
5522 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
5523 debugger.
5524
5525 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
5526 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
5527
5528 * Java
5529
5530 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
5531 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
5532 considered "useable".
5533
5534 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
5535
5536 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
5537 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
5538 kernel.
5539
5540 * GDB supports logging output to a file
5541
5542 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
5543 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
5544
5545 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
5546
5547 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
5548 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
5549 command.
5550
5551 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5552
5553 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
5554 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
5555
5556 * Profiling support
5557
5558 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
5559 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
5560 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
5561 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
5562 data, for more informative profiling results.
5563
5564 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
5565
5566 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
5567 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
5568 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
5569
5570 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
5571 removed.
5572
5573 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
5574 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
5575 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
5576 in a subsequent -var-update.
5577
5578 * New native configurations.
5579
5580 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5581
5582 * Multi-arched targets.
5583
5584 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5585 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5586
5587 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5588
5589 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5590 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5591 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5592 permanently REMOVED.
5593
5594 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5595 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5596 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5597 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5598 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5599 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5600 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5601 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5602 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5603 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5604 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5605 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5606
5607 * REMOVED configurations and files
5608
5609 V850EA ISA
5610 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5611 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5612 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5613 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5614 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5615 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5616 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5617 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5618 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5619 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5620 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5621 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5622 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5623
5624 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
5625
5626 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
5627 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
5628 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
5629 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
5630 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
5631
5632 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
5633
5634 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
5635
5636 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
5637 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
5638 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
5639 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
5640 shared libs like mad''.
5641
5642 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
5643
5644 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
5645 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
5646 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
5647 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
5648
5649 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
5650
5651 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
5652 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
5653 they expand.
5654
5655 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
5656 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
5657
5658 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
5659 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
5660
5661 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
5662 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
5663 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
5664 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
5665
5666 * Multi-arched targets.
5667
5668 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
5669 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
5670 NEC V850 v850-*-*
5671 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
5672 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
5673 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5674
5675 * New targets.
5676
5677 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
5678
5679
5680 * New native configurations
5681
5682 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
5683 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
5684 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
5685 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
5686
5687 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5688
5689 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5690 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5691 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5692 permanently REMOVED.
5693
5694 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5695 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5696 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5697 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5698 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5699 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5700 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5701 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5702 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5703 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5704 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5705 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5706 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5707
5708 * OBSOLETE languages
5709
5710 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5711
5712 * REMOVED configurations and files
5713
5714 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5715 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5716 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5717 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5718 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5719
5720 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5721
5722 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5723
5724 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5725 commands. The default is 1024.
5726
5727 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5728
5729 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5730
5731 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5732
5733 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5734 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5735 from a file into memory (restore).
5736
5737 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5738
5739 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5740 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5741 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5742
5743 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5744
5745 * New targets.
5746
5747 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
5748
5749 * Bug fixes
5750
5751 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5752 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5753 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5754
5755 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5756 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5757 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5758
5759 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5760 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5761 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5762
5763 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5764 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5765 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5766
5767 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5768
5769 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5770
5771 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5772 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5773 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5774 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5775 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5776 (notably embedded) targets.
5777
5778 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5779
5780 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5781 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5782 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5783 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5784
5785 * New command line option
5786
5787 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5788
5789 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5790
5791 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5792 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5793 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5794 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5795 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5796 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5797 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5798 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5799 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5800 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5801
5802 * Changes in ARM configurations.
5803
5804 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5805 configuration is fully multi-arch.
5806
5807 * New native configurations
5808
5809 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5810 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5811 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5812 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5813
5814 * New targets
5815
5816 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5817
5818 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5819
5820 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5821 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5822 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5823 permanently REMOVED.
5824
5825 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5826 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5827 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5828 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5829 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5830
5831 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5832
5833 * REMOVED configurations and files
5834
5835 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5836 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5837 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5838 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5839 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5840 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5841 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5842 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5843 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5844 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5845 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5846 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5847 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5848
5849 * Changes to command line processing
5850
5851 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5852 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5853
5854 * Changes to key bindings
5855
5856 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5857
5858 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5859
5860 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5861
5862 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5863 corrupted.
5864
5865 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5866
5867 Numerous documentation fixes.
5868
5869 Numerous testsuite fixes.
5870
5871 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5872
5873 * New native configurations
5874
5875 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5876 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5877 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5878 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5879 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5880 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5881
5882 * New targets
5883
5884 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5885 CRIS cris-axis
5886 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5887
5888 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5889
5890 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5891 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5892 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5893 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5894 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5895 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5896 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5897 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5898 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5899 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5900 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5901 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5902 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5903 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5904
5905 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5906 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5907
5908 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5909 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5910 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5911 permanently REMOVED.
5912
5913 * REMOVED configurations and files
5914
5915 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5916 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5917 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5918 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5919 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5920 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
5921
5922 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5923
5924 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5925 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5926 present.
5927
5928 * Other news:
5929
5930 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5931
5932 * The MI enabled by default.
5933
5934 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5935 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5936 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5937 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5938 which is now deprecated.
5939
5940 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5941
5942 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5943 main features are supported:
5944
5945 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5946
5947 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5948 extension;
5949
5950 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5951
5952 - a Pascal expression parser.
5953
5954 However, some important features are not yet supported.
5955
5956 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5957
5958 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5959
5960 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5961 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5962
5963 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5964
5965 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5966
5967 * Changes in completion.
5968
5969 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5970 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5971 users expect at the shell prompt.
5972
5973 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5974 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5975 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5976 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5977 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5978 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5979 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5980
5981 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5982
5983 * New platform-independent commands:
5984
5985 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5986 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5987 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5988
5989 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
5990
5991 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
5992 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
5993 many threads as your system allows you to have.
5994
5995 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
5996
5997 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
5998 multi-threaded programs though.
5999
6000 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
6001
6002 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
6003
6004 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
6005 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
6006 supported.)
6007
6008 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
6009
6010 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
6011 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
6012 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
6013 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
6014 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
6015 registers.
6016
6017 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
6018 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
6019 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
6020
6021 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
6022
6023 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
6024 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
6025
6026 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
6027 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
6028 IDT.
6029
6030 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
6031 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
6032 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
6033 a given linear address.
6034
6035 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
6036 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
6037 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
6038
6039 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
6040
6041 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
6042
6043 * Changes in documentation.
6044
6045 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
6046 Documentation License.
6047
6048 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6049 manual.
6050
6051 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
6052
6053 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6054 manual.
6055
6056 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
6057 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
6058 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
6059
6060 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
6061
6062 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
6063 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
6064 contents of this file.
6065
6066 * gdba.el deleted
6067
6068 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
6069
6070 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
6071
6072 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
6073
6074 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
6075 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
6076 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
6077 greater level of detail.
6078
6079 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
6080
6081 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
6082 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
6083 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
6084 written.
6085
6086 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
6087
6088 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
6089 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
6090 machines ``out of the box''.
6091
6092 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
6093 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
6094 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
6095 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
6096 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
6097
6098 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
6099 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
6100 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
6101 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
6102 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
6103
6104 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
6105 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
6106 also works.
6107
6108 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
6109 GDB.
6110
6111 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
6112 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
6113 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
6114 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
6115
6116 * New native configurations
6117
6118 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
6119 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6120
6121 * New targets
6122
6123 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
6124 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
6125 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
6126 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6127
6128 * OBSOLETE configurations
6129
6130 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6131 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6132 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6133 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6134 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6135
6136 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6137 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6138 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6139 be permanently REMOVED.
6140
6141 * Gould support removed
6142
6143 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
6144
6145 * New features for SVR4
6146
6147 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
6148 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
6149 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
6150
6151 * Many C++ enhancements
6152
6153 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
6154 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
6155
6156 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
6157
6158 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
6159 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
6160 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
6161 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
6162
6163 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
6164 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
6165
6166 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
6167
6168 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
6169 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
6170 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
6171
6172 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
6173 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
6174
6175 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
6176
6177 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
6178 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
6179 include ``set remote P-packet''.
6180
6181 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
6182
6183 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
6184 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
6185 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
6186
6187 * ``apropos'' command added.
6188
6189 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6190 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6191 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6192
6193 * New MI interface
6194
6195 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6196 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6197 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6198 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6199 enabled by configuring with:
6200
6201 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6202
6203 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6204
6205 * New native configurations
6206
6207 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6208 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6209 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6210
6211 * New targets
6212
6213 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6214 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6215 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6216
6217 * OBSOLETE configurations
6218
6219 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
6220
6221 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6222 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6223 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6224 be permanently REMOVED.
6225
6226 * ANSI/ISO C
6227
6228 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
6229 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
6230 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
6231 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
6232 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
6233 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
6234 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
6235 already.
6236
6237 * Readline 2.2
6238
6239 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
6240
6241 * set extension-language
6242
6243 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
6244 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
6245 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
6246 set extension-language .c c++
6247 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
6248 and their associated languages.
6249
6250 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
6251
6252 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
6253 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
6254 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
6255
6256 set processor NAME
6257
6258 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
6259 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
6260
6261 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
6262 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
6263 403 IBM PowerPC 403
6264 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
6265 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
6266 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
6267 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
6268 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
6269 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
6270 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
6271 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
6272
6273 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
6274 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
6275 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
6276 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
6277
6278 * HP-UX support
6279
6280 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
6281 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
6282 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
6283 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
6284 for xdb and dbx commands.
6285
6286 * Catchpoints
6287
6288 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
6289 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
6290 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
6291
6292 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
6293 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
6294 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
6295
6296 * Debugging across forks
6297
6298 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
6299 in the inferior.
6300
6301 * TUI
6302
6303 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
6304 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
6305 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
6306
6307 * GDB remote protocol additions
6308
6309 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
6310 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
6311 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
6312 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
6313
6314 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
6315 full 64-bit address. The command
6316
6317 set remoteaddresssize 32
6318
6319 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
6320 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
6321 will be discarded.
6322
6323 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
6324 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
6325
6326 maint packet heythere
6327
6328 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
6329 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
6330 time.
6331
6332 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
6333 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
6334 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
6335
6336 * Tracing can collect general expressions
6337
6338 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
6339 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
6340 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
6341
6342 * mask-address variable for Mips
6343
6344 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
6345 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
6346 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
6347
6348 * Higher serial baud rates
6349
6350 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
6351 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
6352 to achieve all of these rates.)
6353
6354 * i960 simulator
6355
6356 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
6357 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
6358
6359
6360 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
6361
6362 * New native configurations
6363
6364 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
6365 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
6366 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6367 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6368 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6369 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
6370 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
6371
6372 * New targets
6373
6374 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6375 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
6376 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6377 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
6378 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
6379 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
6380 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
6381 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
6382 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6383 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6384 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
6385
6386 * New debugging protocols
6387
6388 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
6389 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
6390 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
6391 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6392 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6393 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6394
6395 * DWARF 2
6396
6397 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
6398 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
6399 information.
6400
6401 * Java frontend
6402
6403 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
6404 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
6405
6406 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
6407
6408 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
6409 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
6410 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
6411
6412 * Live range splitting
6413
6414 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
6415 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
6416 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
6417
6418 * Hurd support
6419
6420 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
6421 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
6422
6423 * ARM Thumb support
6424
6425 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
6426 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
6427 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
6428 accordingly.
6429
6430 * MIPS16 support
6431
6432 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
6433 instruction set.
6434
6435 * Overlay support
6436
6437 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
6438 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
6439 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
6440 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
6441 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
6442 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
6443
6444 * info symbol
6445
6446 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
6447 the symbol at the specified address.
6448
6449 * Trace support
6450
6451 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
6452 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
6453 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
6454 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
6455 file tracepoint.c for more details.
6456
6457 * MIPS simulator
6458
6459 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
6460 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
6461 of most MIPS variants.
6462
6463 * Sparc simulator
6464
6465 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
6466 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
6467 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
6468
6469 * set architecture
6470
6471 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
6472 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
6473 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
6474 the possible architectures.
6475
6476 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
6477
6478 * New native configurations
6479
6480 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
6481 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
6482 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
6483 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
6484 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6485 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
6486
6487 * New targets
6488
6489 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
6490 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6491 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
6492 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
6493 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
6494 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
6495 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6496
6497 * PowerPC simulator
6498
6499 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
6500 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
6501 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
6502 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
6503 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
6504
6505 * Solaris 2.5
6506
6507 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
6508
6509 * Windows 95/NT native
6510
6511 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
6512 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
6513 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
6514 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
6515 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
6516
6517 * dont-repeat command
6518
6519 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
6520 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
6521 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
6522 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
6523
6524 * Send break instead of ^C
6525
6526 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
6527 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
6528 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
6529
6530 * Remote protocol timeout
6531
6532 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
6533 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
6534 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
6535
6536 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
6537
6538 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
6539 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
6540 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
6541 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
6542 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
6543
6544 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
6545 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
6546 automatically on hpux10.
6547
6548 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
6549
6550 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
6551
6552 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
6553
6554 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
6555 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
6556 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
6557 every character. The default value is 1050.
6558
6559 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
6560
6561 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
6562 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
6563 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
6564 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
6565 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
6566 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
6567
6568 * Speedups for remote debugging
6569
6570 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
6571 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
6572 and more efficient S-record downloading.
6573
6574 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
6575
6576 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
6577 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
6578
6579 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6580
6581 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
6582
6583 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6584 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6585
6586 * Remote targets use caching
6587
6588 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6589 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6590 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6591 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6592 off' turns the the data cache off.
6593
6594 * Remote targets may have threads
6595
6596 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6597 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6598 gdb/remote.c for details.
6599
6600 * NetROM support
6601
6602 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6603 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6604 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6605 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
6606 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
6607 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
6608 sequence is something like
6609
6610 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
6611 load <prog>
6612 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
6613
6614 * Macintosh host
6615
6616 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
6617 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
6618 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
6619 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
6620 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
6621 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
6622 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
6623 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
6624
6625 * Autoconf
6626
6627 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
6628 but does simplify configuration and building.
6629
6630 * hpux10
6631
6632 GDB now supports hpux10.
6633
6634 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
6635
6636 * New native configurations
6637
6638 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
6639 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
6640 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
6641 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
6642
6643 * New targets
6644
6645 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6646 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
6647 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
6648 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
6649 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6650
6651 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
6652
6653 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
6654 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
6655 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
6656 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
6657 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
6658
6659 * Arguments to user-defined commands
6660
6661 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
6662 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
6663 trivial example:
6664 define adder
6665 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
6666
6667 To execute the command use:
6668 adder 1 2 3
6669
6670 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
6671 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
6672 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
6673
6674 * New `if' and `while' commands
6675
6676 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
6677 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
6678 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
6679 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
6680 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
6681 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
6682 if the expression is zero.
6683
6684 * Fortran source language mode
6685
6686 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
6687 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6688 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6689 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6690 Fortran compilers.
6691
6692 * Better HPUX support
6693
6694 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6695 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6696 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6697 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6698 that behavior do the following before running the program:
6699
6700 adb -w a.out
6701 __dld_flags?W 0x5
6702 control-d
6703
6704 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
6705 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
6706
6707 adb -w a.out
6708 __dld_flags?W 0x4
6709 control-d
6710
6711 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6712 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6713 external linkage.
6714
6715 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6716 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6717
6718 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6719
6720 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6721 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6722 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6723 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6724 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6725 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6726
6727 * New DOS host serial code
6728
6729 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6730 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6731 a PC's serial port.
6732
6733 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6734
6735 * New "complete" command
6736
6737 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6738 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6739
6740 * Trailing space optional in prompt
6741
6742 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6743 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6744
6745 * Breakpoint hit counts
6746
6747 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6748 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6749 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6750 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6751 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6752 that breakpoint.
6753
6754 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6755
6756 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6757 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6758 arrays actually contain only short strings.
6759
6760 * Shared library breakpoints
6761
6762 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6763 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6764
6765 * Hardware watchpoints
6766
6767 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6768 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6769
6770 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6771
6772 * Annotations
6773
6774 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6775 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6776
6777 * Improved Irix 5 support
6778
6779 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6780
6781 * Improved HPPA support
6782
6783 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6784
6785 * New native configurations
6786
6787 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6788 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6789 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6790 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6791
6792 * New targets
6793
6794 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6795 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6796 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
6797
6798 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6799
6800 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6801 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6802
6803 * Fixes
6804
6805 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6806 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6807
6808 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6809
6810 * Irix 5 is now supported
6811
6812 * HPPA support
6813
6814 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6815 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6816 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6817 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6818 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6819
6820
6821 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6822
6823 * User visible changes:
6824
6825 * Remote Debugging
6826
6827 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6828 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6829 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6830 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6831 debugging info for the mips target).
6832
6833 * DEC Alpha native support
6834
6835 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6836 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6837 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6838 Alpha-specific notes.
6839
6840 * Preliminary thread implementation
6841
6842 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6843
6844 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
6845
6846 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6847 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6848 for details).
6849
6850 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6851
6852 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6853 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6854 call methods, ...etc.
6855
6856 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6857
6858 * User visible changes:
6859
6860 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6861 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6862 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6863 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6864
6865 Filename completion now works.
6866
6867 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6868 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6869 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6870
6871 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6872 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6873 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6874 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6875 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6876
6877 * DEC alpha support
6878
6879 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6880 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6881
6882
6883 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6884
6885 * Testsuite
6886
6887 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6888 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6889 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6890
6891 * C++ demangling
6892
6893 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6894 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6895 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6896 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6897 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6898
6899 * Simulators
6900
6901 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6902 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6903 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6904
6905 * New targets supported
6906
6907 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6908 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6909 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6910 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6911 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6912
6913 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6914 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6915 GO32 memory extender.
6916
6917 * New remote protocols
6918
6919 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6920
6921 * New source languages supported
6922
6923 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6924 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6925 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6926
6927
6928 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6929
6930 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6931
6932 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6933 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6934 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6935 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6936 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6937 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6938
6939 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6940
6941 * Faster and better demangling
6942
6943 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6944 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6945 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6946 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6947 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6948 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6949 symbol lookups.
6950
6951 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6952 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6953 compiler does not actually implement.
6954
6955 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6956
6957 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6958 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6959 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6960 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6961 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6962 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6963 fix.
6964
6965 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6966 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6967
6968 * Improved configure script
6969
6970 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6971 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6972 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6973 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6974
6975 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6976 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6977 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6978 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6979 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6980 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6981
6982 * Documentation improvements
6983
6984 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6985 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6986 before submitting changes.
6987
6988 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
6989 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
6990 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
6991 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
6992 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
6993
6994 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
6995 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
6996 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
6997 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
6998 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
6999 around this problem.
7000
7001 * New features
7002
7003 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
7004 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
7005 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
7006 the target program.
7007
7008 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
7009 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
7010
7011 * New native hosts supported
7012
7013 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
7014 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
7015
7016 * New targets supported
7017
7018 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
7019
7020 * New file formats supported
7021
7022 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
7023 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
7024
7025 * Major bug fixes
7026
7027 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
7028
7029 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
7030 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
7031
7032 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
7033 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
7034 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
7035
7036 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
7037 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
7038
7039 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
7040 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
7041 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
7042 libraries.
7043
7044 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
7045 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
7046 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
7047 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
7048 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
7049
7050 * Internal improvements
7051
7052 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
7053 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
7054
7055 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
7056 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
7057 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
7058 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
7059 shared code that handles any of them.
7060
7061 * New command line options
7062
7063 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
7064
7065 * Mmalloc licensing
7066
7067 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
7068 General Public License.
7069
7070 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
7071
7072 * Host/native/target split
7073
7074 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
7075 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
7076 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
7077 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
7078 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
7079
7080 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
7081 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
7082 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
7083 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
7084 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
7085 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
7086 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
7087
7088 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
7089 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
7090 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
7091
7092 * New hosts supported
7093
7094 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
7095 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7096 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
7097
7098 * New targets supported
7099
7100 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7101 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
7102
7103 * New native hosts supported
7104
7105 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7106 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
7107 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
7108
7109 * New file formats supported
7110
7111 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
7112 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
7113 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
7114
7115 * New commands
7116
7117 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
7118 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
7119 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
7120
7121 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
7122
7123 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
7124 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
7125 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
7126 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
7127
7128 * C++ improvements
7129
7130 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
7131 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
7132 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
7133
7134 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
7135
7136 * Major bug fixes
7137
7138 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
7139 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
7140 by the compiler.
7141
7142 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
7143 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
7144
7145 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
7146 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
7147 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
7148 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
7149 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
7150 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
7151
7152 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
7153 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
7154 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
7155 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
7156
7157 * AMD 29k support
7158
7159 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
7160 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
7161 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
7162 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
7163 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
7164
7165 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
7166 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
7167 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
7168 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
7169
7170 * Remote interfaces
7171
7172 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
7173 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
7174 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
7175 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
7176 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
7177 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
7178 each instruction being stepped through.
7179
7180 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
7181 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
7182
7183 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
7184 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
7185 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
7186 processor with a serial port.
7187
7188 * Configuration
7189
7190 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7191 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7192 supported, and what files each one uses.
7193
7194 * Library changes
7195
7196 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7197 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7198 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7199 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7200
7201 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7202 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7203 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7204 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7205
7206 * Documentation
7207
7208 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7209 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7210 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7211 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7212 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7213 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7214
7215 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
7216
7217
7218 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
7219
7220 * Better support for C++ function names
7221
7222 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
7223 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
7224 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
7225 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
7226 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
7227
7228 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
7229 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
7230 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
7231 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
7232 for the list of formats.
7233
7234 * G++ symbol mangling problem
7235
7236 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
7237 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
7238 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
7239 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
7240 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
7241 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
7242 this problem.)
7243
7244 * New 'maintenance' command
7245
7246 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
7247 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
7248 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
7249
7250 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
7251 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
7252 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
7253 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
7254 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
7255 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
7256
7257 The following commands are new:
7258
7259 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
7260 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
7261 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
7262
7263 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
7264
7265 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
7266 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
7267 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
7268 read after argv processing.
7269
7270 * New hosts supported
7271
7272 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
7273
7274 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
7275
7276 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
7277 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
7278 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
7279 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
7280 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
7281 It costs extra.
7282
7283 * New targets supported
7284
7285 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7286
7287 * More smarts about finding #include files
7288
7289 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
7290 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
7291 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
7292 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
7293 the one that contains your sources.
7294
7295 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
7296 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
7297 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
7298
7299 * Interesting infernals change
7300
7301 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
7302 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
7303 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
7304 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
7305
7306 * Bug fixes (of course!)
7307
7308 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
7309 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
7310 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
7311
7312 See the ChangeLog for details.
7313
7314 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
7315
7316 * New machines supported (host and target)
7317
7318 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
7319
7320 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7321
7322 * New malloc package
7323
7324 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
7325 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
7326 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
7327 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
7328 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
7329 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
7330
7331 * info proc
7332
7333 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
7334 'help info proc' for details.
7335
7336 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
7337
7338 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
7339 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
7340 possible.
7341
7342 * File name changes for MS-DOS
7343
7344 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
7345 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
7346 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
7347 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
7348 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
7349 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
7350
7351 * Cross byte order fixes
7352
7353 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
7354 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
7355
7356 * New -mapped and -readnow options
7357
7358 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
7359 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
7360 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
7361 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
7362 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
7363 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
7364 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
7365 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
7366 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
7367 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
7368
7369 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
7370 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
7371 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
7372 slower, but makes future operations faster.
7373
7374 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
7375 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
7376 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
7377 use is:
7378
7379 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
7380
7381 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
7382 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
7383 shared across multiple host platforms.
7384
7385 * longjmp() handling
7386
7387 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
7388 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
7389 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
7390 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
7391
7392 * Solaris 2.0
7393
7394 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
7395 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
7396 reading symbols.
7397
7398 * Bug fixes
7399
7400 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
7401 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
7402 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
7403
7404 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
7405
7406 * New machines supported (host and target)
7407
7408 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7409 (except core files)
7410 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
7411 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
7412
7413 * New machines supported (target)
7414
7415 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7416
7417 * C++ support
7418
7419 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
7420 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
7421 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
7422
7423 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
7424 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
7425 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
7426 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
7427 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
7428 released.
7429
7430 * New features for SVR4
7431
7432 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
7433 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
7434 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
7435
7436 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
7437 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
7438 it prints the address mappings of the process.
7439
7440 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
7441 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
7442
7443 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
7444
7445 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
7446 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
7447 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
7448 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
7449 same code linked statically.
7450
7451 * New Getopt
7452
7453 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
7454 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
7455 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
7456 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
7457 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
7458 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
7459
7460 * Bugs fixed
7461
7462 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7463 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7464 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7465
7466
7467 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
7468
7469 * New machines supported (host and target)
7470
7471 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
7472 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
7473 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7474
7475 * Almost SCO Unix support
7476
7477 We had hoped to support:
7478 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7479 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
7480 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
7481 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
7482
7483 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
7484
7485 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
7486 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
7487 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
7488 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
7489 reqired (if any).
7490
7491 * New Readline
7492
7493 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
7494 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
7495 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
7496
7497 * Bugs fixed
7498
7499 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7500 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7501 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7502
7503 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
7504
7505 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
7506 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
7507 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
7508
7509 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
7510 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
7511 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
7512 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
7513 version 2.
7514
7515 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
7516 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
7517 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
7518 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
7519 situation somewhat.
7520
7521 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
7522 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
7523 methods.
7524
7525 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
7526 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
7527 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
7528
7529
7530 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
7531
7532 * Improved configuration
7533
7534 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
7535 Porting BFD is simpler.
7536
7537 * Stepping improved
7538
7539 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
7540 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
7541 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
7542 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
7543
7544 * Bug fixing
7545
7546 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
7547
7548 * New host supported (not target)
7549
7550 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
7551
7552
7553 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
7554
7555 * Multiple source language support
7556
7557 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
7558 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
7559 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
7560 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
7561 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
7562 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
7563
7564 * GDB and Modula-2
7565
7566 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
7567 currently under development at the State University of New York at
7568 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
7569 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
7570
7571 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
7572 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
7573 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
7574
7575 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
7576 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7577
7578 * set write on/off
7579
7580 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7581 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7582 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7583 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7584 effect immediately.
7585
7586 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7587
7588 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7589 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7590 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7591 examining core files.
7592
7593 * set listsize
7594
7595 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7596 The default is 10.
7597
7598 * New machines supported (host and target)
7599
7600 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7601 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7602 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7603
7604 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7605
7606 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
7607
7608 * New targets supported (not hosts)
7609
7610 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7611 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7612 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
7613
7614 * New remote interfaces
7615
7616 AMD 29000 Adapt
7617 AMD 29000 Minimon
7618
7619
7620 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
7621
7622 * New Facilities
7623
7624 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
7625
7626 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
7627 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
7628 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
7629 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
7630 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
7631 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
7632 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
7633 stub on the target system.
7634
7635 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
7636
7637 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
7638 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
7639 object file types such as a.out and coff.
7640
7641 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
7642 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
7643
7644
7645 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
7646
7647 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
7648 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
7649
7650 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
7651 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
7652 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
7653
7654 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
7655 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
7656 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
7657 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
7658
7659 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
7660 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
7661 it is already running. Default is ON.
7662
7663 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
7664 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
7665 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
7666 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
7667 Default is ON.
7668
7669 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
7670 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
7671 or the value of the environment variable
7672 GDBHISTFILE.
7673
7674 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
7675 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
7676 HISTSIZE.
7677
7678 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
7679 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
7680 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
7681
7682 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
7683 history expansion will be performed on
7684 command line input. The default is OFF.
7685
7686 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
7687 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7688 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7689
7690 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7691 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7692 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7693 variable TERM.
7694
7695 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7696 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7697 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7698 variable TERM.
7699
7700 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7701 ``set width'' instead.
7702
7703 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
7704 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
7705 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
7706 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
7707
7708 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
7709 is OFF.
7710
7711 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7712 "raw" form if off.
7713
7714 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7715 like instructions.
7716
7717 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7718
7719
7720 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7721
7722 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7723 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7724 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7725 window.
7726
7727
7728 * Support for Shared Libraries
7729
7730 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7731 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7732 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7733 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7734 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7735 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7736 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7737 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7738
7739 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7740 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7741 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7742
7743 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7744
7745
7746 * Watchpoints
7747
7748 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7749 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7750 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7751 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7752 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7753 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7754
7755 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7756
7757 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7758
7759 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7760 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7761 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7762
7763
7764 * C++ multiple inheritance
7765
7766 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7767 for C++ programs.
7768
7769 * C++ exception handling
7770
7771 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7772 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7773 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7774 handler's context).
7775
7776 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7777 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7778 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7779
7780 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7781 current stack frame.
7782
7783
7784 * Minor command changes
7785
7786 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7787 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7788 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7789
7790 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7791 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7792 frames without printing.
7793
7794 * New directory command
7795
7796 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7797 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7798 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7799 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7800 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7801
7802 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7803
7804 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7805 for more details.
7806
7807 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7808 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7809 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7810 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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