ec7863a782566af78b90e07881107f7991fdf6c9
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.4
5
6 * Python scripting
7
8 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
9
10 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
11 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
12
13 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
14
15 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
16 the source at which the symbol was defined.
17
18 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
19 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
20 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
21 symbol's value.
22
23 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
24 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
25
26 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
27 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
28
29 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
30 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
31 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
32 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
33 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
34 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
35
36 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
37 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
38 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
39 build/libcpp/expr.c.
40
41 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
42 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
43
44 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
45 since December 2007.
46
47 * New commands
48
49 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
50 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
51
52 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
53 several hits.
54
55 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
56
57 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
58 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
59 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
60 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
61 inferior changes.
62
63 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
64 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
65
66 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
67 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
68 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
69 target hardware watchpoint.
70
71 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
72 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
73 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
74 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
75
76 * Python scripting
77
78 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
79 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
80 existing one.
81
82 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
83 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
84 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
85 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
86 now "message", which just prints the error message without
87 the stack trace.
88
89 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
90 Python API.
91
92 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
93 modules library. This module provides functionality for
94 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
95 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
96 corresponding value.
97
98 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
99 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
100 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
101 on GDB start-up.
102
103 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
104 static_block will return the global and static blocks
105 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
106 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
107
108 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
109
110 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
111 "gdb.breakpoints".
112
113 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
114 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
115 available in the CLI.
116
117 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
118 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
119 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
120 "some_type.items()".
121
122 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
123 new object file.
124
125 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
126 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
127 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
128 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
129 any anonymous fields.
130
131 * MI changes
132
133 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
134 "solib-event".
135
136 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
137 "=breakpoint-modified".
138
139 ** New command -ada-task-info.
140
141 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
142 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
143 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
144 lives.
145
146 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
147 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
148 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
149 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
150 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
151
152 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
153 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
154
155 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
156 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
157 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
158 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
159 use this option to specify where to find it.
160
161 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
162 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
163 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
164 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
165 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
166 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
167 section in the user manual for more details.
168
169 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
170 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
171 become available after that.
172
173 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
174
175 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
176 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
177 gcc version 4.7.
178
179 * New commands
180
181 !SHELL COMMAND
182 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
183 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
184
185 * Changed commands
186
187 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
188 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
189 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
190
191 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
192 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
193 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
194
195 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
196 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
197 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
198 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
199 name starts with a hyphen.
200
201 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
202 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
203 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
204 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
205 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
206 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
207 number of bytes that will be collected.
208
209 tstart [NOTES]
210 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
211 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
212 setting the variable trace-notes.
213
214 tstop [NOTES]
215 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
216 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
217 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
218 trace-stop-notes.
219
220 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
221 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
222 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
223 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
224 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
225 is running.
226
227 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
228 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
229 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
230
231 * New options
232
233 set extended-prompt
234 show extended-prompt
235 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
236 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
237 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
238 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
239 prompt is displayed.
240
241 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
242 show print entry-values
243 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
244 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
245 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
246
247 set debug entry-values
248 show debug entry-values
249 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
250 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
251
252 set basenames-may-differ
253 show basenames-may-differ
254 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
255 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
256 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
257 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
258 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
259 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
260 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
261 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
262
263 set trace-user
264 show trace-user
265 set trace-notes
266 show trace-notes
267 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
268 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
269 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
270 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
271
272 set trace-stop-notes
273 show trace-stop-notes
274 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
275 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
276 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
277 started by someone else.
278
279 * New remote packets
280
281 QTEnable
282
283 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
284
285 QTDisable
286
287 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
288
289 QTNotes
290
291 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
292
293 qTP
294
295 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
296
297 qTMinFTPILen
298
299 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
300 be placed.
301
302 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
303 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
304
305 * New targets
306
307 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
308
309 * New Simulators
310
311 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
312
313 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
314
315 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
316
317 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
318
319 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
320 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
321 matches the given regular expression.
322
323 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
324
325 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
326 dumping the instruction opcodes.
327
328 * New command line options
329
330 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
331 This is mostly for testing purposes.
332
333 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
334 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
335
336 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
337 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
338 source path list instead of augmenting it.
339
340 * GDB now understands thread names.
341
342 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
343 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
344
345 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
346 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
347
348 * OpenCL C
349 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
350 has been integrated into GDB.
351
352 * Python scripting
353
354 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
355 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
356 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
357
358 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
359 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
360 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
361 and allows for more dynamic content.
362
363 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
364 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
365 have an is_valid method.
366
367 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
368 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
369 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
370
371 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
372
373 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
374 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
375 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
376 that function like so:
377
378 result = some_value (10,20)
379
380 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
381 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
382 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
383
384 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
385 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
386 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
387 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
388 New function: register_pretty_printer.
389
390 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
391 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
392
393 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
394
395 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
396 selected thread.
397
398 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
399 holds the thread's name.
400
401 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
402 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
403 occurring in the process being debugged.
404 The following events are currently supported:
405 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
406 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
407 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
408
409 * C++ Improvements:
410
411 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
412 instantiation. For example, if you have:
413
414 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
415
416 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
417 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
418 was added to GCC 4.5.
419
420 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
421 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
422 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
423 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
424 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
425 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
426
427 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
428 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
429 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
430 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
431 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
432
433 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
434 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
435 execution to a label.
436
437 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
438 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
439 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
440 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
441
442 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
443 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
444 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
445 of scope.
446
447 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
448
449 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
450 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
451 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
452 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
453 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
454 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
455
456 (gdb) info threads
457 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
458
459 While now you see this:
460
461 (gdb) info threads
462 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
463
464 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
465 dumps.
466
467 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
468 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
469 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
470 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
471
472 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
473 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
474 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
475 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
476 section in the user manual for more details.
477
478 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
479
480 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
481 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
482
483 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
484
485 * New native configurations
486
487 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
488
489 * New targets:
490
491 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
492
493 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
494 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
495 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
496 in the GDB user manual.
497
498 * Guile support was removed.
499
500 * New features in the GNU simulator
501
502 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
503
504 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
505
506 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
507
508 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
509
510 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
511 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
512 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
513 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
514 was always disabled for such configurations.
515
516 * C++ Improvements:
517
518 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
519
520 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
521 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
522 For example:
523 namespace A
524 {
525 class B { };
526 void foo (B) { }
527 }
528 ...
529 A::B b
530 foo(b)
531 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
532 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
533 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
534
535 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
536
537 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
538 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
539 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
540 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
541 entry.
542 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
543 mentioned flavors of operators.
544
545 ** static const class members
546
547 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
548 class definition has been fixed.
549
550 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
551
552 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
553 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
554 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
555 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
556 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
557 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
558
559 * Static tracepoints
560
561 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
562 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
563 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
564 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
565 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
566 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
567 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
568 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
569 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
570 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
571 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
572 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
573 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
574 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
575 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
576 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
577 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
578 the "New remote packets" section below.
579
580 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
581
582 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
583 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
584 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
585 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
586
587 * Observer mode
588
589 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
590 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
591 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
592 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
593 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
594 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
595 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
596
597 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
598 current thread.
599
600 * New remote packets
601
602 qGetTIBAddr
603
604 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
605
606 qRelocInsn
607
608 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
609 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
610 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
611 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
612 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
613 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
614
615 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
616
617 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
618
619 qTSTMat
620
621 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
622 program.
623
624 qXfer:statictrace:read
625
626 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
627 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
628 to gdb's qSupported query.
629
630 QAllow
631
632 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
633
634 QTDPsrc
635
636 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
637 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
638
639 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
640 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
641 a directory.
642
643 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
644
645 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
646 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
647 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
648 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
649
650 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
651 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
652 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
653 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
654 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
655 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
656 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
657
658 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
659 for static tracepoints support.
660
661 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
662
663 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
664 it understands register description.
665
666 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
667
668 * X86 general purpose registers
669
670 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
671 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
672 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
673 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
674 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
675
676 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
677 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
678 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
679 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
680 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
681 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
682
683 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
684 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
685 in the specified file.
686
687 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
688 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
689 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
690 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
691 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
692 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
693 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
694 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
695 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
696 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
697
698 * New commands
699
700 eval template, expressions...
701 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
702 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
703
704 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
705 show target-file-system-kind
706 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
707 names.
708
709 save breakpoints <filename>
710 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
711 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
712 definitions, use the `source' command.
713
714 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
715 is now deprecated.
716
717 info static-tracepoint-markers
718 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
719
720 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
721 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
722 function, line, address, or marker ID.
723
724 set observer on|off
725 show observer
726 Enable and disable observer mode.
727
728 set may-write-registers on|off
729 set may-write-memory on|off
730 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
731 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
732 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
733 set may-interrupt on|off
734 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
735 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
736 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
737 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
738 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
739 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
740 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
741
742 set record memory-query on|off
743 show record memory-query
744 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
745 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
746
747 * Changed commands
748
749 disassemble
750 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
751
752 * Python scripting
753
754 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
755 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
756 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
757 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
758 GDB using Python' in the manual.
759
760 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
761 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
762 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
763 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
764
765 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
766 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
767
768 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
769
770 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
771
772 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
773
774 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
775 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
776 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
777
778 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
779 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
780 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
781 regular breakpoints.
782
783 * New targets
784
785 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
786
787 * D language support.
788 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
789 language.
790
791 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
792 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
793 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
794 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
795 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
796
797 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
798 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
799 conditions of the form:
800
801 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
802
803 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
804 interface mentioned above.
805
806 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
807
808 * C++ Improvements
809
810 ** Namespace Support
811
812 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
813 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
814 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
815 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
816 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
817
818 ** Bug Fixes
819
820 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
821 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
822 qualified name.
823
824 ** Cast Operators
825
826 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
827 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
828
829 * New targets
830
831 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
832 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
833
834 * New Simulators
835
836 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
837 Renesas RX rx
838
839 * Multi-program debugging.
840
841 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
842 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
843 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
844 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
845 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
846 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
847 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
848 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
849
850 * New tracing features
851
852 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
853
854 ** Trace state variables
855
856 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
857 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
858 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
859 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
860 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
861 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
862 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
863 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
864 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
865 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
866
867 ** Fast tracepoints
868
869 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
870 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
871 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
872 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
873 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
874 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
875 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
876 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
877 the regular trace command.
878
879 ** Disconnected tracing
880
881 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
882 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
883 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
884 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
885 connection is lost unexpectedly.
886
887 ** Trace files
888
889 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
890 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
891 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
892 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
893 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
894 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
895 <name>".
896
897 ** Circular trace buffer
898
899 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
900 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
901 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
902 not be available for all target agents.
903
904 * Changed commands
905
906 disassemble
907 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
908 the arguments to be comma-separated.
909
910 info variables
911 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
912 which only declare a variable are not shown.
913
914 source
915 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
916 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
917 support.
918
919 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
920 "set script-extension" (see below).
921
922 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
923
924 record save [<FILENAME>]
925 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
926 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
927
928 record restore <FILENAME>
929 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
930 earlier time, for replay debugging.
931
932 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
933 Add a new inferior.
934
935 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
936 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
937 inferior has loaded.
938
939 remove-inferior ID
940 Remove an inferior.
941
942 maint info program-spaces
943 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
944
945 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
946 show remote interrupt-sequence
947 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
948 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
949 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
950 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
951 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
952
953 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
954 show remote interrupt-on-connect
955 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
956 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
957 Linux kernel.
958
959 set remotebreak [on | off]
960 show remotebreak
961 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
962
963 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
964 Create or modify a trace state variable.
965
966 info tvariables
967 List trace state variables and their values.
968
969 delete tvariable $NAME ...
970 Delete one or more trace state variables.
971
972 teval EXPR, ...
973 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
974 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
975
976 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
977 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
978
979 * New expression syntax
980
981 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
982 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
983
984 * New options
985
986 set follow-exec-mode new|same
987 show follow-exec-mode
988 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
989 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
990 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
991
992 set default-collect EXPR, ...
993 show default-collect
994 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
995 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
996 such as registers or a critical global variable.
997
998 set disconnected-tracing
999 show disconnected-tracing
1000 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1001 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1002 upon disconnection.
1003
1004 set circular-trace-buffer
1005 show circular-trace-buffer
1006 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1007 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1008 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1009 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1010
1011 set script-extension off|soft|strict
1012 show script-extension
1013 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1014 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1015 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1016 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1017 evaluation failed.
1018 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1019
1020 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1021 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1022 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1023 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1024 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1025 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1026 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1027 is on.
1028
1029 * Python API Improvements
1030
1031 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1032 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1033 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1034
1035 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1036 `is_base_class' attribute.
1037
1038 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1039
1040 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1041 evaluate an expression.
1042
1043 * New remote packets
1044
1045 QTDV
1046 Define a trace state variable.
1047
1048 qTV
1049 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1050
1051 QTDisconnected
1052 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1053
1054 QTBuffer:circular
1055 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1056
1057 qTfP, qTsP
1058 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1059
1060 * Bug fixes
1061
1062 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1063
1064 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1065 much more reliable. In particular:
1066 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1067 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1068 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1069 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1070 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1071 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1072 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1073 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1074 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1075 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1076 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1077 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1078 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1079 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1080 non-threaded programs.
1081
1082 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1083 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1084 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1085 executable program.
1086
1087 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
1088
1089 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1090 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1091 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1092 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1093 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1094
1095 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1096 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1097 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1098 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1099 for tracepoint actions.
1100
1101 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1102 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1103 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
1104
1105 * Process record and replay
1106
1107 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1108 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1109 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1110 execute commands.
1111
1112 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1113 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1114 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1115 reverse execution.
1116
1117 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1118 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
1119 2.6.28 or later.
1120
1121 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1122 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1123 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1124 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1125 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1126 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1127 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1128 the installation instructions for more information.
1129
1130 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1131 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1132 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1133 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1134
1135 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1136 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1137
1138 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1139 now complete on file names.
1140
1141 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1142 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1143 For instance, consider:
1144
1145 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1146 # struct example variable;
1147 (gdb) p variable.
1148
1149 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1150 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1151
1152 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1153 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1154
1155 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1156 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1157 macros.
1158
1159 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
1160 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1161 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1162
1163 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1164 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1165 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1166 and simulator targets may also provide them.
1167
1168 * New remote packets
1169
1170 qSearch:memory:
1171 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1172
1173 QStartNoAckMode
1174 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1175 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1176 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1177
1178 vKill
1179 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1180 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1181
1182 qXfer:osdata:read
1183 Obtains additional operating system information
1184
1185 qXfer:siginfo:read
1186 qXfer:siginfo:write
1187 Read or write additional signal information.
1188
1189 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1190
1191 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1192 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1193 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1194
1195 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
1196 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
1197
1198 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
1199 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1200 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
1201
1202 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1203 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1204
1205 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1206
1207 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1208
1209 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1210 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1211
1212 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
1213 list of section offsets.
1214
1215 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1216 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1217 have also been fixed.
1218
1219 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
1220 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1221 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
1222
1223 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1224 example, given:
1225
1226 template<typename T> class C { };
1227 C<char const *> c;
1228
1229 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1230
1231 ptype C<char const *>
1232 ptype C<char const*>
1233 ptype C<const char *>
1234 ptype C<const char*>
1235
1236 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1237
1238 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1239 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1240
1241 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1242 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1243 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1244
1245 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1246 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1247
1248 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1249 gdbserver.
1250
1251 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1252 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1253
1254 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1255 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1256 as appropriate.
1257
1258 * Python scripting
1259
1260 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1261 available is determined at configure time.
1262
1263 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1264
1265 * Ada tasking support
1266
1267 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1268 been introduced:
1269
1270 info tasks
1271 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1272 info task N
1273 Print detailed information about task number N.
1274 task
1275 Print the task number of the current task.
1276 task N
1277 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1278
1279 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1280 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1281
1282 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1283
1284 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1285 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1286 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1287 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1288 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1289 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1290 below.
1291
1292 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1293 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1294 information.
1295
1296 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1297 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1298 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1299 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1300 more information.
1301
1302 * Multi-architecture debugging.
1303
1304 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1305 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1306 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1307 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1308 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1309
1310 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1311 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1312 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1313 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1314 --enable-targets configure option.
1315
1316 * Non-stop mode debugging.
1317
1318 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1319 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1320 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1321 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1322 section in the user manual for more information.
1323
1324 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1325 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1326 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1327 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1328 extensions on linux targets.
1329
1330 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1331
1332 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1333 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1334 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1335 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1336 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1337 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1338 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1339 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1340 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1341
1342 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1343 val1 [, val2, ...]
1344 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1345
1346 maint set python print-stack
1347 maint show python print-stack
1348 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1349
1350 python [CODE]
1351 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1352
1353 macro define
1354 macro list
1355 macro undef
1356 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1357 interactively.
1358
1359 info os processes
1360 Show operating system information about processes.
1361
1362 info inferiors
1363 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1364
1365 inferior NUM
1366 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1367
1368 detach inferior NUM
1369 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1370
1371 kill inferior NUM
1372 Kill inferior number NUM.
1373
1374 * New options
1375
1376 set spu stop-on-load
1377 show spu stop-on-load
1378 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1379
1380 set spu auto-flush-cache
1381 show spu auto-flush-cache
1382 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1383 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1384
1385 set sh calling-convention
1386 show sh calling-convention
1387 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1388
1389 set debug timestamp
1390 show debug timestamp
1391 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1392
1393 set disassemble-next-line
1394 show disassemble-next-line
1395 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1396 the debuggee stops.
1397
1398 set remote noack-packet
1399 show remote noack-packet
1400 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1401 under "New remote packets."
1402
1403 set remote query-attached-packet
1404 show remote query-attached-packet
1405 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1406
1407 set remote read-siginfo-object
1408 show remote read-siginfo-object
1409 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1410 packet.
1411
1412 set remote write-siginfo-object
1413 show remote write-siginfo-object
1414 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1415 packet.
1416
1417 set remote reverse-continue
1418 show remote reverse-continue
1419 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1420
1421 set remote reverse-step
1422 show remote reverse-step
1423 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1424
1425 set displaced-stepping
1426 show displaced-stepping
1427 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1428 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1429 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1430
1431 set debug displaced
1432 show debug displaced
1433 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1434
1435 maint set internal-error
1436 maint show internal-error
1437 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1438
1439 maint set internal-warning
1440 maint show internal-warning
1441 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
1442
1443 set exec-wrapper
1444 show exec-wrapper
1445 unset exec-wrapper
1446 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1447
1448 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1449 show multiple-symbols
1450 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1451 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1452 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1453
1454 set breakpoint always-inserted
1455 show breakpoint always-inserted
1456 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1457 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1458 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1459
1460 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1461 show arm fallback-mode
1462 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1463 show arm force-mode
1464 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1465 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1466 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1467 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1468
1469 set disable-randomization
1470 show disable-randomization
1471 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1472 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1473 multiple debugging sessions.
1474
1475 set non-stop
1476 show non-stop
1477 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1478 a breakpoint.
1479
1480 set target-async
1481 show target-async
1482 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1483 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1484 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1485 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1486
1487 set target-wide-charset
1488 show target-wide-charset
1489 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1490 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1491
1492 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1493 show tcp auto-retry
1494 set tcp connect-timeout
1495 show tcp connect-timeout
1496 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1497 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1498 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1499
1500 set libthread-db-search-path
1501 show libthread-db-search-path
1502 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1503 libthread_db.
1504
1505 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1506 show schedule-multiple
1507 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1508 the current process.
1509
1510 set stack-cache
1511 show stack-cache
1512 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1513 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1514 affecting correctness.
1515
1516 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1517 show interactive-mode
1518 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1519 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1520 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1521 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1522 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1523
1524 * Removed commands
1525
1526 info forks
1527 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1528 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1529 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1530 command.
1531
1532 fork NUM
1533 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1534 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1535 alias for the `fork' command.
1536
1537 process PID
1538 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1539 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1540 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1541
1542 delete fork NUM
1543 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1544 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1545 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1546 fork' command.
1547
1548 detach fork NUM
1549 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1550 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1551 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1552 fork' command.
1553
1554 * New native configurations
1555
1556 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1557
1558 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1559
1560 * New targets
1561
1562 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
1563 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
1564 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
1565 S+core 3 score-*-*
1566
1567 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1568 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1569
1570 * Removed commands
1571
1572 catch load
1573 catch unload
1574 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1575
1576 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
1577
1578 * New native configurations
1579
1580 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
1581 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
1582
1583 * New targets
1584
1585 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
1586 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
1587
1588 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1589
1590 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1591 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1592 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1593 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1594
1595 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1596 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1597
1598 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
1599 is resolved.
1600
1601 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
1602 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1603 and in inlined functions.
1604
1605 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1606 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1607 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1608
1609 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1610
1611 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1612 registers on PowerPC targets.
1613
1614 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1615 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1616
1617 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1618 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1619
1620 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1621 extended-remote mode.
1622
1623 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
1624 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1625 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1626 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
1627
1628 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1629 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1630 target architectures.
1631
1632 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1633 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1634 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1635 stored in two consecutive float registers.
1636
1637 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1638 breakpoints now.
1639
1640 * Improved support for debugging Ada
1641 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1642 include:
1643 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1644 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1645 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1646 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1647 of an assignment
1648 - Improved command completion in Ada
1649 - Several bug fixes
1650
1651 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1652 process.
1653
1654 * New commands
1655
1656 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1657 show print frame-arguments
1658 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1659 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1660
1661 remote put
1662 remote get
1663 remote delete
1664 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1665
1666 * New MI commands
1667
1668 -target-file-put
1669 -target-file-get
1670 -target-file-delete
1671 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1672
1673 * New remote packets
1674
1675 vFile:open:
1676 vFile:close:
1677 vFile:pread:
1678 vFile:pwrite:
1679 vFile:unlink:
1680 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
1681
1682 vAttach
1683 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1684 mode.
1685
1686 vRun
1687 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1688
1689 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
1690
1691 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1692 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1693 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1694
1695 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1696 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1697 -Bsymbolic linker option.
1698
1699 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1700 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1701 is not supported.
1702
1703 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1704 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1705
1706 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
1707 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
1708
1709 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1710
1711 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1712 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1713 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1714
1715 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1716 automatically displayed as character or string data.
1717
1718 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1719 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1720 as strings.
1721
1722 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1723 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
1724 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
1725
1726 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1727 iWMMXt coprocessor.
1728
1729 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1730 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1731 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1732
1733 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1734
1735 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1736
1737 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1738 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1739 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1740
1741 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1742 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1743
1744 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1745 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1746 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1747 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1748 Windows and SymbianOS).
1749
1750 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1751 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
1752
1753 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1754 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
1755
1756 * New commands
1757
1758 set remoteflow
1759 show remoteflow
1760 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1761 when debugging using remote targets.
1762
1763 set mem inaccessible-by-default
1764 show mem inaccessible-by-default
1765 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1766 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1767 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1768 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1769 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1770
1771 set breakpoint auto-hw
1772 show breakpoint auto-hw
1773 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1774 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1775 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1776 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1777 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1778 including "next" and "finish".
1779
1780 catch exception
1781 catch exception unhandled
1782 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1783
1784 catch assert
1785 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1786
1787 set sysroot
1788 show sysroot
1789 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1790 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1791 an alias to "set sysroot".
1792
1793 info spu
1794 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1795 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1796 architecture.
1797
1798 * New native configurations
1799
1800 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1801
1802 set tdesc filename
1803 unset tdesc filename
1804 show tdesc filename
1805 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1806 not query the target for its built-in description.
1807
1808 * New targets
1809
1810 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1811 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1812 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1813
1814 * New remote packets
1815
1816 QPassSignals:
1817 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1818 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1819
1820 qXfer:features:read:
1821 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1822 features.
1823
1824 qXfer:spu:read:
1825 qXfer:spu:write:
1826 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1827 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1828
1829 qXfer:libraries:read:
1830 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1831 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1832 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1833 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1834
1835 * Removed targets
1836
1837 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1838
1839 alpha*-*-osf1*
1840 alpha*-*-osf2*
1841 d10v-*-*
1842 hppa*-*-hiux*
1843 i[34567]86-ncr-*
1844 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1845 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1846 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1847 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1848 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1849 i[34567]86-*-sco*
1850 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1851 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1852 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1853 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1854 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1855 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1856 i[34567]86-*-isc*
1857 m68*-cisco*-*
1858 m68*-tandem-*
1859 mips*-*-pe
1860 rs6000-*-lynxos*
1861 sh*-*-pe
1862
1863 * Other removed features
1864
1865 target abug
1866 target cpu32bug
1867 target est
1868 target rom68k
1869
1870 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1871
1872 target hms
1873 target e7000
1874 target sh3
1875 target sh3e
1876
1877 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1878 H8/300.
1879
1880 target ocd
1881
1882 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1883 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1884 interfaces.
1885
1886 DWARF 1 support
1887
1888 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1889 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1890
1891 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1892
1893 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1894 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1895 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1896 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1897
1898 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1899
1900 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1901 in debugging information.
1902
1903 Scheme support
1904
1905 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1906 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1907
1908 set mips stack-arg-size
1909 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1910
1911 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1912
1913 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1914
1915 * New targets
1916
1917 Xtensa xtensa-elf
1918 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1919
1920 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1921 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1922 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1923
1924 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1925 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1926 supported.
1927
1928 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1929 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1930
1931 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1932 stub provides the required support.
1933
1934 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1935 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1936
1937 * New commands
1938
1939 set substitute-path
1940 unset substitute-path
1941 show substitute-path
1942 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1943 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1944 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1945 between compilation and debugging.
1946
1947 set trace-commands
1948 show trace-commands
1949 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1950 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1951 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1952
1953 * REMOVED features
1954
1955 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1956
1957 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1958 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1959
1960 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1961
1962 * New remote packets
1963
1964 qSupported:
1965 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1966 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1967 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1968 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1969 target.
1970
1971 qXfer:auxv:read:
1972 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1973 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1974
1975 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1976 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1977 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1978
1979 vFlashErase:
1980 vFlashWrite:
1981 vFlashDone:
1982 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1983
1984 * Removed remote packets
1985
1986 qPart:auxv:read:
1987 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1988 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1989
1990 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1991
1992 * New targets
1993
1994 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1995
1996 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1997
1998 * New commands
1999
2000 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2001 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2002
2003 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2004
2005 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2006
2007 restart <n> Return the program state to a
2008 previously saved state.
2009
2010 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2011
2012 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2013
2014 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2015 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2016
2017 info forks List forks of the user program that
2018 are available to be debugged.
2019
2020 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2021 forks of the user program that are
2022 available to be debugged.
2023
2024 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2025 that are available to be debugged (and
2026 kill the forked process).
2027
2028 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2029 that are available to be debugged (and
2030 allow the process to continue).
2031
2032 * New architecture
2033
2034 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2035
2036 * Improved Windows host support
2037
2038 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2039 native console support, and remote communications using either
2040 network sockets or serial ports.
2041
2042 * Improved Modula-2 language support
2043
2044 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2045 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2046 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2047 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2048 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2049 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2050
2051 * REMOVED features
2052
2053 The ARM rdi-share module.
2054
2055 The Netware NLM debug server.
2056
2057 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
2058
2059 * New native configurations
2060
2061 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
2062 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2063
2064 * New targets
2065
2066 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2067
2068 * New command line options
2069
2070 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2071 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2072 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2073 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2074 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2075 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2076 with the --command (-x) option.
2077
2078 * Deprecated commands removed
2079
2080 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2081 removed:
2082
2083 Command Replacement
2084 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2085 othernames set arm disassembler
2086 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2087 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2088 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2089 regs info registers
2090
2091 * New BSD user-level threads support
2092
2093 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2094 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2095 configurations are:
2096
2097 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2098 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2099 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2100
2101 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2102 are not yet supported.
2103
2104 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2105 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2106
2107 * REMOVED configurations and files
2108
2109 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
2110 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2111 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
2112
2113 * New "set print array-indexes" command
2114
2115 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2116 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2117 behavior.
2118
2119 * VAX floating point support
2120
2121 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2122
2123 * User-defined command support
2124
2125 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2126 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2127 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2128
2129 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2130
2131 * New command line option
2132
2133 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2134 debugging.
2135
2136 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2137
2138 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2139 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2140 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2141 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2142 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
2143
2144 * Internationalization
2145
2146 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2147 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2148 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2149
2150 * Ada
2151
2152 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2153 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2154 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2155
2156 * New native configurations
2157
2158 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2159
2160 * Remote 'p' packet
2161
2162 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2163 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2164
2165 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2166
2167 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2168 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2169 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2170 i386 application).
2171
2172 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2173 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2174 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2175 configurations:
2176
2177 hppa-*-hpux
2178 ia64-*-aix
2179 mips-*-irix*
2180 *-*-lynx
2181 mips-*-linux-gnu
2182 sds protocol
2183 xdr protocol
2184 powerpc bdm protocol
2185
2186 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2187 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2188
2189 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2190
2191 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2192 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2193 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2194 permanently REMOVED.
2195
2196 h8300-*-*
2197 mcore-*-*
2198 mn10300-*-*
2199 ns32k-*-*
2200 sh64-*-*
2201 v850-*-*
2202
2203 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2204
2205 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2206
2207 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2208 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2209 been fixed.
2210
2211 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2212
2213 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2214 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2215 IRIX long double values).
2216
2217 * VAX and "next"
2218
2219 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2220 command. This problem has been fixed.
2221
2222 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
2223
2224 * Fix for ``many threads''
2225
2226 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2227 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2228 error message:
2229
2230 ptrace: No such process.
2231 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2232
2233 This problem has been fixed.
2234
2235 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2236
2237 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2238 GDB to dump core).
2239
2240 * New ``start'' command.
2241
2242 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2243
2244 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2245
2246 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2247 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2248 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2249
2250 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2251 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2252 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2253 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2254 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2255 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2256 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2257 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2258 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2259
2260 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
2261
2262 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2263 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2264 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2265 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2266 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2267
2268 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2269 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2270 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
2271
2272 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2273
2274 * New native configurations
2275
2276 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
2277 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
2278 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2279 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
2280 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
2281 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
2282 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
2283
2284 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2285
2286 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2287 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2288 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2289 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2290 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2291 work, was also included.
2292
2293 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2294 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2295
2296 h8300-*-*
2297 mcore-*-*
2298 mn10300-*-*
2299 ns32k-*-*
2300 sh64-*-*
2301 v850-*-*
2302 xstormy16-*-*
2303
2304 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2305 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2306
2307 * REMOVED configurations and files
2308
2309 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2310 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2311 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2312 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2313 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2314 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2315 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2316 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2317 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2318 sonymips mips-sony-*
2319 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2320
2321 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2322
2323 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2324
2325 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2326 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2327 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2328 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2329 with GDB".
2330
2331 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2332
2333 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2334 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2335 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2336 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2337 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2338 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2339 are created.
2340
2341 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2342
2343 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
2344
2345 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2346 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2347 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2348
2349 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2350
2351 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2352 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2353
2354 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2355
2356 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2357 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2358 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2359
2360 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2361
2362 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2363 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2364
2365 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2366
2367 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2368 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2369 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2370
2371 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2372
2373 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2374 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2375 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2376
2377 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
2378
2379 * Removed --with-mmalloc
2380
2381 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2382 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2383
2384 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
2385
2386 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2387 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2388 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2389 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2390
2391 * Revised SPARC target
2392
2393 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2394 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
2395 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2396 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2397 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
2398
2399 * New C++ demangler
2400
2401 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2402 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2403 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2404 programs.
2405
2406 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2407
2408 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2409 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2410 encountered these.
2411
2412 * C++ nested types and namespaces
2413
2414 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2415 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2416 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2417 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2418 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2419 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2420 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2421 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2422 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2423
2424 * New native configurations
2425
2426 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
2427 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2428 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
2429 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2430 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
2431
2432 * New debugging protocols
2433
2434 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2435
2436 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2437
2438 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2439 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2440 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2441
2442 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2443
2444 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2445 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2446 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2447 permanently REMOVED.
2448
2449 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2450 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2451 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2452 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2453 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2454 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2455 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2456 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2457 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2458 sonymips mips-sony-*
2459 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2460
2461 * REMOVED configurations and files
2462
2463 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2464 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2465 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2466 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2467 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2468 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2469 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2470 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2471 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2472 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
2473 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2474 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2475 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2476 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2477 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
2478 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2479 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2480
2481 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2482
2483 * Objective-C
2484
2485 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2486 integrated into GDB.
2487
2488 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2489
2490 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2491 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2492 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2493 backtraces.
2494
2495 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2496 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2497 DWARF 2 CFI support.
2498
2499 * Hosted file I/O.
2500
2501 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2502 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2503 remote protocol documentation for details.
2504
2505 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
2506
2507 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2508 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2509 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2510 ppc32 on ppc64).
2511
2512 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2513
2514 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2515 per-thread variables.
2516
2517 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2518
2519 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2520 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2521
2522 * Separate debug info.
2523
2524 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2525 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2526 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2527 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2528 and optional debug files.
2529
2530 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2531
2532 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2533 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2534 debugger.
2535
2536 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2537 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2538
2539 * Java
2540
2541 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2542 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2543 considered "useable".
2544
2545 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2546
2547 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2548 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2549 kernel.
2550
2551 * GDB supports logging output to a file
2552
2553 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2554 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
2555
2556 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2557
2558 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2559 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2560 command.
2561
2562 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
2563
2564 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2565 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2566
2567 * Profiling support
2568
2569 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2570 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2571 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2572 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2573 data, for more informative profiling results.
2574
2575 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2576
2577 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2578 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
2579 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
2580
2581 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2582 removed.
2583
2584 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2585 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2586 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2587 in a subsequent -var-update.
2588
2589 * New native configurations.
2590
2591 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2592
2593 * Multi-arched targets.
2594
2595 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
2596 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2597
2598 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2599
2600 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2601 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2602 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2603 permanently REMOVED.
2604
2605 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2606 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2607 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2608 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2609 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2610 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2611 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2612 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2613 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2614 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2615 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2616 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2617
2618 * REMOVED configurations and files
2619
2620 V850EA ISA
2621 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2622 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2623 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2624 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2625 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2626 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2627 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2628 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2629 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2630 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2631 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2632 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2633 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2634
2635 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
2636
2637 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2638 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2639 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2640 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2641 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2642
2643 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
2644
2645 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2646
2647 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2648 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2649 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2650 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2651 shared libs like mad''.
2652
2653 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
2654
2655 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2656 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2657 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2658 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
2659
2660 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2661
2662 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2663 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2664 they expand.
2665
2666 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2667 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2668
2669 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2670 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2671
2672 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2673 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2674 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2675 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2676
2677 * Multi-arched targets.
2678
2679 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2680 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2681 NEC V850 v850-*-*
2682 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
2683 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2684 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2685
2686 * New targets.
2687
2688 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2689
2690
2691 * New native configurations
2692
2693 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
2694 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
2695 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
2696 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
2697
2698 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2699
2700 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2701 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2702 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2703 permanently REMOVED.
2704
2705 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2706 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2707 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2708 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2709 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2710 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2711 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2712 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2713 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2714 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2715 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2716 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2717 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2718
2719 * OBSOLETE languages
2720
2721 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2722
2723 * REMOVED configurations and files
2724
2725 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2726 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2727 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2728 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2729 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2730
2731 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2732
2733 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2734
2735 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2736 commands. The default is 1024.
2737
2738 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2739
2740 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2741
2742 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2743
2744 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2745 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2746 from a file into memory (restore).
2747
2748 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2749
2750 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2751 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2752 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2753
2754 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2755
2756 * New targets.
2757
2758 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2759
2760 * Bug fixes
2761
2762 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2763 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2764 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2765
2766 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2767 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2768 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2769
2770 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2771 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2772 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2773
2774 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2775 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2776 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2777
2778 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
2779
2780 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2781
2782 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2783 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2784 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2785 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2786 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2787 (notably embedded) targets.
2788
2789 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2790
2791 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2792 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2793 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2794 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2795
2796 * New command line option
2797
2798 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2799
2800 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2801
2802 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2803 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2804 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2805 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2806 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2807 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2808 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2809 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2810 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2811 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2812
2813 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2814
2815 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2816 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2817
2818 * New native configurations
2819
2820 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2821 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2822 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2823 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2824
2825 * New targets
2826
2827 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2828
2829 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2830
2831 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2832 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2833 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2834 permanently REMOVED.
2835
2836 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2837 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2838 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2839 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2840 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2841
2842 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2843
2844 * REMOVED configurations and files
2845
2846 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2847 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2848 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2849 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2850 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2851 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2852 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2853 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2854 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2855 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2856 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2857 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2858 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2859
2860 * Changes to command line processing
2861
2862 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2863 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2864
2865 * Changes to key bindings
2866
2867 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2868
2869 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2870
2871 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2872
2873 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2874 corrupted.
2875
2876 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2877
2878 Numerous documentation fixes.
2879
2880 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2881
2882 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2883
2884 * New native configurations
2885
2886 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2887 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2888 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2889 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2890 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2891 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2892
2893 * New targets
2894
2895 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2896 CRIS cris-axis
2897 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2898
2899 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2900
2901 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2902 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2903 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2904 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2905 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2906 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2907 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2908 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2909 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2910 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2911 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2912 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2913 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2914 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2915
2916 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2917 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2918
2919 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2920 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2921 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2922 permanently REMOVED.
2923
2924 * REMOVED configurations and files
2925
2926 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2927 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2928 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2929 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2930 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
2931 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
2932
2933 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2934
2935 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2936 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2937 present.
2938
2939 * Other news:
2940
2941 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2942
2943 * The MI enabled by default.
2944
2945 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2946 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2947 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2948 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2949 which is now deprecated.
2950
2951 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2952
2953 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2954 main features are supported:
2955
2956 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2957
2958 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2959 extension;
2960
2961 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2962
2963 - a Pascal expression parser.
2964
2965 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2966
2967 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2968
2969 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2970
2971 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2972 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2973
2974 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2975
2976 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2977
2978 * Changes in completion.
2979
2980 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2981 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2982 users expect at the shell prompt.
2983
2984 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2985 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2986 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2987 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2988 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2989 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2990 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2991
2992 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2993
2994 * New platform-independent commands:
2995
2996 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2997 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2998 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2999
3000 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3001
3002 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3003 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3004 many threads as your system allows you to have.
3005
3006 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3007
3008 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3009 multi-threaded programs though.
3010
3011 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
3012
3013 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3014
3015 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3016 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3017 supported.)
3018
3019 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3020
3021 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3022 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3023 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3024 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3025 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3026 registers.
3027
3028 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3029 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3030 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3031
3032 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3033
3034 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3035 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3036
3037 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3038 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3039 IDT.
3040
3041 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3042 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3043 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3044 a given linear address.
3045
3046 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3047 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3048 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3049
3050 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3051
3052 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3053
3054 * Changes in documentation.
3055
3056 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3057 Documentation License.
3058
3059 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3060 manual.
3061
3062 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3063
3064 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3065 manual.
3066
3067 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3068 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3069 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3070
3071 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3072
3073 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3074 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3075 contents of this file.
3076
3077 * gdba.el deleted
3078
3079 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
3080
3081 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
3082
3083 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3084
3085 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3086 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3087 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3088 greater level of detail.
3089
3090 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3091
3092 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3093 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3094 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3095 written.
3096
3097 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3098
3099 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3100 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3101 machines ``out of the box''.
3102
3103 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3104 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3105 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3106 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3107 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3108
3109 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3110 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3111 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3112 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3113 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3114
3115 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3116 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3117 also works.
3118
3119 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3120 GDB.
3121
3122 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3123 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3124 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3125 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3126
3127 * New native configurations
3128
3129 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
3130 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3131
3132 * New targets
3133
3134 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
3135 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3136 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
3137 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3138
3139 * OBSOLETE configurations
3140
3141 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3142 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3143 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3144 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3145 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
3146
3147 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3148 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3149 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3150 be permanently REMOVED.
3151
3152 * Gould support removed
3153
3154 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3155
3156 * New features for SVR4
3157
3158 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3159 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3160 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3161
3162 * Many C++ enhancements
3163
3164 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3165 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3166
3167 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3168
3169 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3170 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3171 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3172 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3173
3174 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3175 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3176
3177 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
3178
3179 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3180 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3181 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3182
3183 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3184 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3185
3186 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3187
3188 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3189 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3190 include ``set remote P-packet''.
3191
3192 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3193
3194 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3195 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3196 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3197
3198 * ``apropos'' command added.
3199
3200 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3201 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3202 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3203
3204 * New MI interface
3205
3206 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3207 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
3208 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3209 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3210 enabled by configuring with:
3211
3212 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3213
3214 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3215
3216 * New native configurations
3217
3218 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3219 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
3220 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
3221
3222 * New targets
3223
3224 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3225 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3226 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3227
3228 * OBSOLETE configurations
3229
3230 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3231
3232 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3233 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3234 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3235 be permanently REMOVED.
3236
3237 * ANSI/ISO C
3238
3239 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3240 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3241 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3242 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3243 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3244 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3245 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3246 already.
3247
3248 * Readline 2.2
3249
3250 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3251
3252 * set extension-language
3253
3254 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3255 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3256 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3257 set extension-language .c c++
3258 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3259 and their associated languages.
3260
3261 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3262
3263 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3264 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3265 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3266
3267 set processor NAME
3268
3269 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3270 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3271
3272 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3273 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3274 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3275 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3276 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3277 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3278 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3279 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3280 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3281 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3282 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3283
3284 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3285 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3286 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3287 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3288
3289 * HP-UX support
3290
3291 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3292 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3293 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3294 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3295 for xdb and dbx commands.
3296
3297 * Catchpoints
3298
3299 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3300 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3301 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3302
3303 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3304 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3305 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3306
3307 * Debugging across forks
3308
3309 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3310 in the inferior.
3311
3312 * TUI
3313
3314 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3315 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3316 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3317
3318 * GDB remote protocol additions
3319
3320 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3321 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3322 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3323 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3324
3325 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3326 full 64-bit address. The command
3327
3328 set remoteaddresssize 32
3329
3330 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3331 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3332 will be discarded.
3333
3334 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3335 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3336
3337 maint packet heythere
3338
3339 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3340 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3341 time.
3342
3343 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3344 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3345 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3346
3347 * Tracing can collect general expressions
3348
3349 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3350 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3351 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3352
3353 * mask-address variable for Mips
3354
3355 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3356 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3357 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3358
3359 * Higher serial baud rates
3360
3361 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3362 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3363 to achieve all of these rates.)
3364
3365 * i960 simulator
3366
3367 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3368 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3369
3370
3371 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3372
3373 * New native configurations
3374
3375 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3376 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3377 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3378 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3379 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3380 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3381 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3382
3383 * New targets
3384
3385 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3386 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3387 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3388 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3389 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3390 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3391 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3392 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3393 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3394 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3395 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3396
3397 * New debugging protocols
3398
3399 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3400 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3401 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3402 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3403 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3404 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3405
3406 * DWARF 2
3407
3408 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3409 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3410 information.
3411
3412 * Java frontend
3413
3414 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3415 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3416
3417 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3418
3419 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3420 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3421 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3422
3423 * Live range splitting
3424
3425 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3426 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3427 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3428
3429 * Hurd support
3430
3431 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3432 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3433
3434 * ARM Thumb support
3435
3436 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3437 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3438 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3439 accordingly.
3440
3441 * MIPS16 support
3442
3443 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3444 instruction set.
3445
3446 * Overlay support
3447
3448 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3449 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3450 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3451 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3452 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3453 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3454
3455 * info symbol
3456
3457 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3458 the symbol at the specified address.
3459
3460 * Trace support
3461
3462 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3463 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3464 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3465 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3466 file tracepoint.c for more details.
3467
3468 * MIPS simulator
3469
3470 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3471 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3472 of most MIPS variants.
3473
3474 * Sparc simulator
3475
3476 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3477 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3478 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3479
3480 * set architecture
3481
3482 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3483 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3484 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3485 the possible architectures.
3486
3487 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3488
3489 * New native configurations
3490
3491 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3492 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3493 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3494 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3495 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3496 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3497
3498 * New targets
3499
3500 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3501 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3502 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3503 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3504 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3505 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
3506 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3507
3508 * PowerPC simulator
3509
3510 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3511 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3512 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3513 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3514 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3515
3516 * Solaris 2.5
3517
3518 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3519
3520 * Windows 95/NT native
3521
3522 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3523 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3524 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3525 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3526 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3527
3528 * dont-repeat command
3529
3530 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3531 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3532 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3533 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3534
3535 * Send break instead of ^C
3536
3537 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3538 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3539 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3540
3541 * Remote protocol timeout
3542
3543 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3544 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3545 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3546
3547 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3548
3549 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3550 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3551 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3552 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3553 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3554
3555 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3556 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3557 automatically on hpux10.
3558
3559 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3560
3561 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3562
3563 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3564
3565 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3566 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3567 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3568 every character. The default value is 1050.
3569
3570 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3571
3572 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3573 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3574 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3575 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3576 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3577 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3578
3579 * Speedups for remote debugging
3580
3581 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3582 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3583 and more efficient S-record downloading.
3584
3585 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3586
3587 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3588 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3589
3590 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3591
3592 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
3593
3594 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3595 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3596
3597 * Remote targets use caching
3598
3599 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3600 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3601 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3602 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3603 off' turns the the data cache off.
3604
3605 * Remote targets may have threads
3606
3607 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3608 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3609 gdb/remote.c for details.
3610
3611 * NetROM support
3612
3613 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3614 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3615 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3616 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3617 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3618 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3619 sequence is something like
3620
3621 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3622 load <prog>
3623 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3624
3625 * Macintosh host
3626
3627 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3628 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3629 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3630 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3631 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3632 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3633 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3634 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3635
3636 * Autoconf
3637
3638 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3639 but does simplify configuration and building.
3640
3641 * hpux10
3642
3643 GDB now supports hpux10.
3644
3645 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3646
3647 * New native configurations
3648
3649 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3650 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3651 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3652 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3653
3654 * New targets
3655
3656 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3657 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3658 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3659 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3660 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3661
3662 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3663
3664 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3665 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3666 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3667 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3668 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3669
3670 * Arguments to user-defined commands
3671
3672 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3673 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3674 trivial example:
3675 define adder
3676 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3677
3678 To execute the command use:
3679 adder 1 2 3
3680
3681 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3682 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3683 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3684
3685 * New `if' and `while' commands
3686
3687 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3688 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3689 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3690 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3691 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3692 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3693 if the expression is zero.
3694
3695 * Fortran source language mode
3696
3697 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3698 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3699 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3700 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3701 Fortran compilers.
3702
3703 * Better HPUX support
3704
3705 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3706 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3707 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3708 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3709 that behavior do the following before running the program:
3710
3711 adb -w a.out
3712 __dld_flags?W 0x5
3713 control-d
3714
3715 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3716 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3717
3718 adb -w a.out
3719 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3720 control-d
3721
3722 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3723 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3724 external linkage.
3725
3726 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3727 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3728
3729 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3730
3731 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3732 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3733 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3734 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3735 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3736 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3737
3738 * New DOS host serial code
3739
3740 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3741 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3742 a PC's serial port.
3743
3744 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3745
3746 * New "complete" command
3747
3748 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3749 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3750
3751 * Trailing space optional in prompt
3752
3753 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3754 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3755
3756 * Breakpoint hit counts
3757
3758 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3759 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3760 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3761 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3762 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3763 that breakpoint.
3764
3765 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3766
3767 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3768 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3769 arrays actually contain only short strings.
3770
3771 * Shared library breakpoints
3772
3773 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3774 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3775
3776 * Hardware watchpoints
3777
3778 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3779 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3780
3781 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
3782
3783 * Annotations
3784
3785 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3786 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3787
3788 * Improved Irix 5 support
3789
3790 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3791
3792 * Improved HPPA support
3793
3794 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3795
3796 * New native configurations
3797
3798 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3799 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3800 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3801 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3802
3803 * New targets
3804
3805 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3806 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3807 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3808
3809 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3810
3811 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3812 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3813
3814 * Fixes
3815
3816 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3817 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3818
3819 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3820
3821 * Irix 5 is now supported
3822
3823 * HPPA support
3824
3825 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3826 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3827 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3828 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3829 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3830
3831
3832 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3833
3834 * User visible changes:
3835
3836 * Remote Debugging
3837
3838 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3839 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3840 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3841 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3842 debugging info for the mips target).
3843
3844 * DEC Alpha native support
3845
3846 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3847 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3848 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3849 Alpha-specific notes.
3850
3851 * Preliminary thread implementation
3852
3853 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3854
3855 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3856
3857 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3858 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3859 for details).
3860
3861 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3862
3863 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3864 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3865 call methods, ...etc.
3866
3867 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3868
3869 * User visible changes:
3870
3871 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3872 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3873 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3874 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3875
3876 Filename completion now works.
3877
3878 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3879 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3880 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3881
3882 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3883 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3884 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3885 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3886 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3887
3888 * DEC alpha support
3889
3890 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3891 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3892
3893
3894 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3895
3896 * Testsuite
3897
3898 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3899 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3900 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3901
3902 * C++ demangling
3903
3904 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3905 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3906 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3907 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3908 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3909
3910 * Simulators
3911
3912 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3913 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3914 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3915
3916 * New targets supported
3917
3918 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3919 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3920 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3921 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3922 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3923
3924 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3925 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3926 GO32 memory extender.
3927
3928 * New remote protocols
3929
3930 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3931
3932 * New source languages supported
3933
3934 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3935 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3936 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3937
3938
3939 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3940
3941 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3942
3943 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3944 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3945 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3946 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3947 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3948 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3949
3950 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3951
3952 * Faster and better demangling
3953
3954 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3955 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3956 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3957 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3958 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3959 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3960 symbol lookups.
3961
3962 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3963 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3964 compiler does not actually implement.
3965
3966 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3967
3968 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3969 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3970 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3971 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3972 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3973 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3974 fix.
3975
3976 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3977 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3978
3979 * Improved configure script
3980
3981 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3982 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3983 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3984 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3985
3986 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3987 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3988 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3989 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3990 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3991 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3992
3993 * Documentation improvements
3994
3995 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3996 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3997 before submitting changes.
3998
3999 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4000 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4001 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4002 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4003 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4004
4005 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4006 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4007 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4008 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4009 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4010 around this problem.
4011
4012 * New features
4013
4014 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4015 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4016 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4017 the target program.
4018
4019 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4020 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4021
4022 * New native hosts supported
4023
4024 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4025 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4026
4027 * New targets supported
4028
4029 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4030
4031 * New file formats supported
4032
4033 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4034 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4035
4036 * Major bug fixes
4037
4038 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4039
4040 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4041 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4042
4043 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4044 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4045 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4046
4047 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4048 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4049
4050 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4051 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4052 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4053 libraries.
4054
4055 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4056 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4057 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4058 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4059 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4060
4061 * Internal improvements
4062
4063 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4064 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4065
4066 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4067 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4068 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4069 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4070 shared code that handles any of them.
4071
4072 * New command line options
4073
4074 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4075
4076 * Mmalloc licensing
4077
4078 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4079 General Public License.
4080
4081 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4082
4083 * Host/native/target split
4084
4085 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4086 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4087 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4088 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4089 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4090
4091 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4092 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4093 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4094 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4095 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4096 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4097 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4098
4099 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4100 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4101 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4102
4103 * New hosts supported
4104
4105 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4106 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4107 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4108
4109 * New targets supported
4110
4111 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4112 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4113
4114 * New native hosts supported
4115
4116 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4117 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4118 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4119
4120 * New file formats supported
4121
4122 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4123 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4124 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4125
4126 * New commands
4127
4128 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4129 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4130 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4131
4132 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4133
4134 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4135 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4136 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4137 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4138
4139 * C++ improvements
4140
4141 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4142 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4143 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4144
4145 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4146
4147 * Major bug fixes
4148
4149 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4150 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4151 by the compiler.
4152
4153 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4154 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4155
4156 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4157 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4158 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4159 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4160 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4161 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4162
4163 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4164 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4165 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4166 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4167
4168 * AMD 29k support
4169
4170 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4171 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4172 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4173 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4174 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4175
4176 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4177 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4178 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4179 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4180
4181 * Remote interfaces
4182
4183 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4184 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4185 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4186 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4187 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4188 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4189 each instruction being stepped through.
4190
4191 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4192 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4193
4194 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4195 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4196 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4197 processor with a serial port.
4198
4199 * Configuration
4200
4201 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4202 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4203 supported, and what files each one uses.
4204
4205 * Library changes
4206
4207 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4208 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4209 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4210 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4211
4212 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4213 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4214 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4215 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4216
4217 * Documentation
4218
4219 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4220 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4221 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4222 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4223 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4224 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4225
4226 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4227
4228
4229 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4230
4231 * Better support for C++ function names
4232
4233 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4234 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4235 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4236 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4237 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4238
4239 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4240 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4241 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4242 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4243 for the list of formats.
4244
4245 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4246
4247 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4248 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4249 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4250 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4251 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4252 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4253 this problem.)
4254
4255 * New 'maintenance' command
4256
4257 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4258 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4259 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4260
4261 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4262 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4263 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4264 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4265 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4266 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4267
4268 The following commands are new:
4269
4270 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4271 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4272 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4273
4274 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4275
4276 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4277 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4278 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4279 read after argv processing.
4280
4281 * New hosts supported
4282
4283 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4284
4285 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
4286
4287 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4288 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4289 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4290 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4291 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4292 It costs extra.
4293
4294 * New targets supported
4295
4296 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4297
4298 * More smarts about finding #include files
4299
4300 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4301 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4302 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4303 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4304 the one that contains your sources.
4305
4306 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4307 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4308 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4309
4310 * Interesting infernals change
4311
4312 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4313 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4314 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4315 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4316
4317 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4318
4319 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4320 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4321 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4322
4323 See the ChangeLog for details.
4324
4325 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4326
4327 * New machines supported (host and target)
4328
4329 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4330
4331 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4332
4333 * New malloc package
4334
4335 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4336 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4337 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4338 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4339 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4340 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4341
4342 * info proc
4343
4344 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4345 'help info proc' for details.
4346
4347 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4348
4349 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4350 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4351 possible.
4352
4353 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4354
4355 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4356 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4357 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4358 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4359 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4360 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4361
4362 * Cross byte order fixes
4363
4364 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4365 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4366
4367 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4368
4369 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4370 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4371 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4372 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4373 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4374 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4375 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4376 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4377 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4378 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4379
4380 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4381 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4382 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4383 slower, but makes future operations faster.
4384
4385 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4386 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4387 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4388 use is:
4389
4390 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4391
4392 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4393 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4394 shared across multiple host platforms.
4395
4396 * longjmp() handling
4397
4398 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4399 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4400 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4401 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4402
4403 * Solaris 2.0
4404
4405 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4406 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4407 reading symbols.
4408
4409 * Bug fixes
4410
4411 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4412 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4413 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4414
4415 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4416
4417 * New machines supported (host and target)
4418
4419 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4420 (except core files)
4421 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4422 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4423
4424 * New machines supported (target)
4425
4426 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4427
4428 * C++ support
4429
4430 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4431 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4432 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4433
4434 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4435 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4436 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4437 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4438 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4439 released.
4440
4441 * New features for SVR4
4442
4443 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4444 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4445 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4446
4447 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4448 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4449 it prints the address mappings of the process.
4450
4451 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4452 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4453
4454 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4455
4456 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4457 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4458 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4459 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4460 same code linked statically.
4461
4462 * New Getopt
4463
4464 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4465 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4466 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4467 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4468 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4469 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4470
4471 * Bugs fixed
4472
4473 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4474 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4475 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4476
4477
4478 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4479
4480 * New machines supported (host and target)
4481
4482 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4483 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4484 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4485
4486 * Almost SCO Unix support
4487
4488 We had hoped to support:
4489 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4490 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4491 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4492 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4493
4494 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4495
4496 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4497 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4498 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4499 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4500 reqired (if any).
4501
4502 * New Readline
4503
4504 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4505 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4506 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4507
4508 * Bugs fixed
4509
4510 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4511 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4512 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4513
4514 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4515
4516 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4517 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4518 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4519
4520 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4521 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4522 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4523 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4524 version 2.
4525
4526 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4527 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4528 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4529 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4530 situation somewhat.
4531
4532 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4533 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4534 methods.
4535
4536 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4537 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4538 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4539
4540
4541 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4542
4543 * Improved configuration
4544
4545 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4546 Porting BFD is simpler.
4547
4548 * Stepping improved
4549
4550 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4551 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4552 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4553 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4554
4555 * Bug fixing
4556
4557 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4558
4559 * New host supported (not target)
4560
4561 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4562
4563
4564 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4565
4566 * Multiple source language support
4567
4568 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4569 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4570 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4571 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4572 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4573 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4574
4575 * GDB and Modula-2
4576
4577 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4578 currently under development at the State University of New York at
4579 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4580 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4581
4582 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4583 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4584 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4585
4586 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4587 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4588
4589 * set write on/off
4590
4591 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4592 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4593 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4594 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4595 effect immediately.
4596
4597 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4598
4599 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4600 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4601 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4602 examining core files.
4603
4604 * set listsize
4605
4606 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4607 The default is 10.
4608
4609 * New machines supported (host and target)
4610
4611 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4612 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4613 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4614
4615 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4616
4617 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4618
4619 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4620
4621 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4622 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4623 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4624
4625 * New remote interfaces
4626
4627 AMD 29000 Adapt
4628 AMD 29000 Minimon
4629
4630
4631 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4632
4633 * New Facilities
4634
4635 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4636
4637 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4638 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4639 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4640 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4641 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4642 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4643 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4644 stub on the target system.
4645
4646 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4647
4648 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4649 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4650 object file types such as a.out and coff.
4651
4652 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4653 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4654
4655
4656 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4657
4658 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4659 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4660
4661 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4662 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4663 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4664
4665 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4666 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4667 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4668 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4669
4670 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4671 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4672 it is already running. Default is ON.
4673
4674 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4675 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4676 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4677 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4678 Default is ON.
4679
4680 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4681 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4682 or the value of the environment variable
4683 GDBHISTFILE.
4684
4685 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4686 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4687 HISTSIZE.
4688
4689 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4690 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4691 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4692
4693 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4694 history expansion will be performed on
4695 command line input. The default is OFF.
4696
4697 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4698 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4699 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4700
4701 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4702 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4703 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4704 variable TERM.
4705
4706 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4707 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4708 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4709 variable TERM.
4710
4711 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4712 ``set width'' instead.
4713
4714 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4715 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4716 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4717 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4718
4719 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4720 is OFF.
4721
4722 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4723 "raw" form if off.
4724
4725 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4726 like instructions.
4727
4728 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4729
4730
4731 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4732
4733 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4734 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4735 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4736 window.
4737
4738
4739 * Support for Shared Libraries
4740
4741 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4742 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4743 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4744 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4745 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4746 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4747 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4748 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4749
4750 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4751 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4752 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4753
4754 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4755
4756
4757 * Watchpoints
4758
4759 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4760 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4761 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4762 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4763 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4764 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4765
4766 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4767
4768 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4769
4770 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4771 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4772 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4773
4774
4775 * C++ multiple inheritance
4776
4777 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4778 for C++ programs.
4779
4780 * C++ exception handling
4781
4782 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4783 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4784 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4785 handler's context).
4786
4787 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4788 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4789 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4790
4791 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4792 current stack frame.
4793
4794
4795 * Minor command changes
4796
4797 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4798 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4799 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4800
4801 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4802 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4803 frames without printing.
4804
4805 * New directory command
4806
4807 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4808 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4809 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4810 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4811 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4812
4813 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4814
4815 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4816 for more details.
4817
4818 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4819 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4820 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4821 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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