1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.1:
6 * New ``start'' command.
8 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
10 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
12 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
13 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
14 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
15 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
16 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
18 These fixes were tested on i386 GNU/Linux systems that include a 2.4
21 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
23 * New native configurations
25 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
26 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
27 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
28 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
29 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
30 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
32 * REMOVED configurations and files
34 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
35 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
36 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
37 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
38 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
39 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
40 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
41 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
42 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
44 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
46 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
48 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
50 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
51 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
52 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
53 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
56 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
58 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
59 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
60 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
61 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
62 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
63 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
66 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
68 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
70 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
71 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
72 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
74 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
76 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
77 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
79 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
81 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
82 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
83 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
85 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
87 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
88 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
90 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
92 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
93 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
94 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
96 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
98 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
99 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
100 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
102 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
104 * Removed --with-mmalloc
106 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
107 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
109 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
111 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
112 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
113 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
114 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
116 * Revised SPARC target
118 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
119 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
120 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
121 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
122 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
126 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
127 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
128 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
131 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
133 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
134 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
137 * C++ nested types and namespaces
139 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
140 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
141 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
142 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
143 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
144 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
145 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
146 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
147 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
149 * New native configurations
151 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
152 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
153 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
154 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
155 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
157 * New debugging protocols
159 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
161 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
163 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
164 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
165 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
167 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
169 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
170 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
171 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
174 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
175 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
176 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
177 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
178 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
179 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
180 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
181 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
182 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
184 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
186 * REMOVED configurations and files
188 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
189 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
190 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
191 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
192 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
193 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
194 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
195 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
196 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
197 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
198 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
199 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
200 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
201 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
202 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
203 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
204 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
206 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
210 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
213 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
215 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
216 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
217 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
220 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
221 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
226 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
227 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
228 remote protocol documentation for details.
230 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
232 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
233 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
234 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
237 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
239 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
240 per-thread variables.
242 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
244 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
245 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
247 * Separate debug info.
249 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
250 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
251 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
252 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
253 and optional debug files.
255 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
257 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
258 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
261 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
262 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
266 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
267 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
268 considered "useable".
270 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
272 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
273 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
276 * GDB supports logging output to a file
278 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
279 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
281 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
283 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
284 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
287 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
289 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
290 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
294 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
295 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
296 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
297 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
298 data, for more informative profiling results.
300 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
302 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
303 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
304 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
306 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
309 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
310 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
311 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
312 in a subsequent -var-update.
314 * New native configurations.
316 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
318 * Multi-arched targets.
320 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
321 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
323 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
325 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
326 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
327 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
330 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
331 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
332 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
333 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
334 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
335 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
336 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
337 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
338 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
339 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
340 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
341 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
343 * REMOVED configurations and files
346 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
347 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
348 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
349 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
350 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
351 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
353 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
354 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
355 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
356 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
357 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
358 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
360 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
362 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
363 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
364 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
365 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
366 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
368 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
370 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
372 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
373 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
374 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
375 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
376 shared libs like mad''.
378 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
380 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
381 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
382 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
383 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
385 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
387 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
388 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
391 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
392 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
394 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
395 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
397 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
398 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
399 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
400 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
402 * Multi-arched targets.
404 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
405 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
407 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
408 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
409 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
413 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
416 * New native configurations
418 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
419 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
420 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
421 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
423 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
425 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
426 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
427 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
430 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
431 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
432 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
433 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
434 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
435 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
436 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
437 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
438 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
439 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
441 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
442 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
446 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
448 * REMOVED configurations and files
450 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
451 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
452 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
453 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
454 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
456 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
458 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
460 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
461 commands. The default is 1024.
463 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
465 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
467 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
469 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
470 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
471 from a file into memory (restore).
473 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
475 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
476 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
477 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
479 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
487 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
488 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
489 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
491 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
492 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
493 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
495 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
496 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
497 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
499 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
500 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
501 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
503 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
505 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
507 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
508 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
509 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
510 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
511 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
512 (notably embedded) targets.
514 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
516 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
517 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
518 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
519 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
521 * New command line option
523 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
525 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
527 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
528 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
529 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
530 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
531 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
532 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
533 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
534 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
535 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
536 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
538 * Changes in ARM configurations.
540 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
541 configuration is fully multi-arch.
543 * New native configurations
545 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
546 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
547 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
548 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
552 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
554 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
556 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
557 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
558 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
561 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
562 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
563 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
564 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
565 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
567 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
569 * REMOVED configurations and files
571 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
573 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
574 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
575 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
576 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
577 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
578 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
579 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
580 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
581 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
582 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
583 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
585 * Changes to command line processing
587 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
588 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
590 * Changes to key bindings
592 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
594 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
596 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
598 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
601 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
603 Numerous documentation fixes.
605 Numerous testsuite fixes.
607 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
609 * New native configurations
611 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
612 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
613 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
614 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
616 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
620 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
622 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
624 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
626 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
627 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
628 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
629 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
630 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
632 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
633 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
634 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
635 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
636 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
637 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
638 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
639 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
641 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
642 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
644 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
645 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
646 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
649 * REMOVED configurations and files
651 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
652 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
654 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
658 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
660 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
661 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
666 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
668 * The MI enabled by default.
670 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
671 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
672 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
673 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
674 which is now deprecated.
676 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
678 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
679 main features are supported:
681 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
683 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
686 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
688 - a Pascal expression parser.
690 However, some important features are not yet supported.
692 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
694 - there are some problems with boolean types;
696 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
697 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
699 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
701 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
703 * Changes in completion.
705 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
706 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
707 users expect at the shell prompt.
709 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
710 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
711 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
712 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
713 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
714 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
715 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
717 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
719 * New platform-independent commands:
721 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
722 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
723 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
725 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
727 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
728 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
729 many threads as your system allows you to have.
731 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
733 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
734 multi-threaded programs though.
736 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
738 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
740 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
741 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
744 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
746 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
747 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
748 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
749 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
750 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
753 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
754 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
755 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
757 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
759 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
760 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
762 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
763 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
766 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
767 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
768 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
769 a given linear address.
771 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
772 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
773 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
775 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
777 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
779 * Changes in documentation.
781 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
782 Documentation License.
784 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
787 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
789 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
792 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
793 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
794 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
796 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
798 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
799 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
800 contents of this file.
804 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
806 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
808 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
810 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
811 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
812 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
813 greater level of detail.
815 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
817 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
818 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
819 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
822 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
824 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
825 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
826 machines ``out of the box''.
828 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
829 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
830 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
831 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
832 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
834 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
835 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
836 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
837 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
838 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
840 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
841 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
844 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
847 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
848 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
849 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
850 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
852 * New native configurations
854 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
855 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
859 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
860 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
861 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
862 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
864 * OBSOLETE configurations
866 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
867 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
869 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
872 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
873 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
874 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
875 be permanently REMOVED.
877 * Gould support removed
879 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
881 * New features for SVR4
883 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
884 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
885 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
887 * Many C++ enhancements
889 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
890 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
892 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
894 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
895 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
896 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
897 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
899 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
900 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
902 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
904 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
905 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
906 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
908 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
909 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
911 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
913 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
914 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
915 include ``set remote P-packet''.
917 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
919 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
920 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
921 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
923 * ``apropos'' command added.
925 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
926 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
927 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
931 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
932 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
933 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
934 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
935 enabled by configuring with:
937 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
939 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
941 * New native configurations
943 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
944 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
945 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
949 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
950 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
951 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
953 * OBSOLETE configurations
955 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
957 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
958 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
959 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
960 be permanently REMOVED.
964 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
965 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
966 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
967 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
968 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
969 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
970 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
975 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
977 * set extension-language
979 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
980 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
981 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
982 set extension-language .c c++
983 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
984 and their associated languages.
986 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
988 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
989 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
990 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
994 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
995 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
997 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
998 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1000 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1001 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1002 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1003 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1004 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1005 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1006 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1007 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1009 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1010 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1011 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1012 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1016 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1017 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1018 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1019 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1020 for xdb and dbx commands.
1024 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1025 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1026 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1028 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1029 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1030 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1032 * Debugging across forks
1034 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1039 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1040 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1041 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1043 * GDB remote protocol additions
1045 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1046 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1047 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1048 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1050 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1051 full 64-bit address. The command
1053 set remoteaddresssize 32
1055 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1056 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1059 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1060 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1062 maint packet heythere
1064 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1065 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1068 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1069 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1070 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1072 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1074 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1075 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1076 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1078 * mask-address variable for Mips
1080 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1081 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1082 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1084 * Higher serial baud rates
1086 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1087 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1088 to achieve all of these rates.)
1092 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1093 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1096 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1098 * New native configurations
1100 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1101 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1102 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1103 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1104 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1105 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1106 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1110 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1111 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1112 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1113 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1114 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1115 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1116 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1117 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1118 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1119 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1120 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1122 * New debugging protocols
1124 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1125 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1126 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1127 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1128 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1129 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1133 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1134 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1139 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1140 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1142 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1144 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1145 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1146 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1148 * Live range splitting
1150 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1151 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1152 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1156 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1157 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1161 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1162 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1163 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1168 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1173 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1174 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1175 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1176 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1177 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1178 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1182 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1183 the symbol at the specified address.
1187 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1188 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1189 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1190 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1191 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1195 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1196 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1197 of most MIPS variants.
1201 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1202 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1203 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1207 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1208 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1209 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1210 the possible architectures.
1212 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1214 * New native configurations
1216 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1217 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1218 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1219 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1220 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1221 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1225 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1226 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1227 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1228 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1229 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1231 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1235 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1236 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1237 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1238 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1239 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1243 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1245 * Windows 95/NT native
1247 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1248 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1249 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1250 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1251 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1253 * dont-repeat command
1255 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1256 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1257 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1258 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1260 * Send break instead of ^C
1262 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1263 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1264 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1266 * Remote protocol timeout
1268 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1269 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1270 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1272 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1274 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1275 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1276 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1277 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1278 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1280 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1281 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1282 automatically on hpux10.
1284 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1286 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1288 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1290 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1291 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1292 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1293 every character. The default value is 1050.
1295 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1297 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1298 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1299 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1300 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1301 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1302 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1304 * Speedups for remote debugging
1306 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1307 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1308 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1310 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1312 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1313 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1315 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1317 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1319 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1320 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1322 * Remote targets use caching
1324 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1325 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1326 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1327 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1328 off' turns the the data cache off.
1330 * Remote targets may have threads
1332 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1333 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1334 gdb/remote.c for details.
1338 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1339 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1340 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1341 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1342 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1343 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1344 sequence is something like
1346 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1348 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1352 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1353 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1354 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1355 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1356 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1357 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1358 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1359 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1363 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1364 but does simplify configuration and building.
1368 GDB now supports hpux10.
1370 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1372 * New native configurations
1374 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1375 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1376 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1377 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1381 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1382 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1383 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1384 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1387 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1389 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1390 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1391 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1392 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1393 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1395 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1397 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1398 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1401 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1403 To execute the command use:
1406 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1407 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1408 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1410 * New `if' and `while' commands
1412 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1413 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1414 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1415 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1416 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1417 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1418 if the expression is zero.
1420 * Fortran source language mode
1422 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1423 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1424 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1425 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1428 * Better HPUX support
1430 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1431 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1432 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1433 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1434 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1440 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1441 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1447 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1448 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1451 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1452 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1454 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1456 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1457 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1458 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1459 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1460 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1461 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1463 * New DOS host serial code
1465 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1466 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1469 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1471 * New "complete" command
1473 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1474 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1476 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1478 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1479 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1481 * Breakpoint hit counts
1483 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1484 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1485 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1486 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1487 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1490 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1492 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1493 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1494 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1496 * Shared library breakpoints
1498 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1499 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1501 * Hardware watchpoints
1503 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1504 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1506 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1510 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1511 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1513 * Improved Irix 5 support
1515 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1517 * Improved HPPA support
1519 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1521 * New native configurations
1523 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1524 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1525 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1526 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1530 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1531 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1534 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1536 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1537 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1541 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1542 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1544 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1546 * Irix 5 is now supported
1550 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1551 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1552 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1553 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1554 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1557 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1559 * User visible changes:
1563 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1564 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1565 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1566 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1567 debugging info for the mips target).
1569 * DEC Alpha native support
1571 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1572 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1573 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1574 Alpha-specific notes.
1576 * Preliminary thread implementation
1578 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1580 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1582 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1583 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1586 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1588 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1589 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1590 call methods, ...etc.
1592 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1594 * User visible changes:
1596 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1597 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1598 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1599 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1601 Filename completion now works.
1603 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1604 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1605 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1607 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1608 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1609 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1610 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1611 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1615 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1616 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1619 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1623 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1624 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1625 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1629 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1630 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1631 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1632 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1633 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1637 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1638 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1639 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1641 * New targets supported
1643 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1644 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1645 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1646 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1647 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1649 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1650 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1651 GO32 memory extender.
1653 * New remote protocols
1655 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1657 * New source languages supported
1659 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1660 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1661 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1664 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1666 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1668 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1669 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1670 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1671 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1672 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1673 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1675 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1677 * Faster and better demangling
1679 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1680 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1681 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1682 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1683 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1684 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1687 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1688 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1689 compiler does not actually implement.
1691 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1693 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1694 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1695 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1696 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1697 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1698 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1701 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1702 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1704 * Improved configure script
1706 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1707 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1708 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1709 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1711 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1712 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1713 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1714 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1715 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1716 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1718 * Documentation improvements
1720 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1721 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1722 before submitting changes.
1724 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1725 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1726 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1727 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1728 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1730 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1731 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1732 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1733 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1734 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1735 around this problem.
1739 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1740 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1741 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1744 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1745 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1747 * New native hosts supported
1749 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1750 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1752 * New targets supported
1754 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1756 * New file formats supported
1758 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1759 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1763 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1765 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1766 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1768 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1769 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1770 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1772 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1773 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1775 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1776 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1777 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1780 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1781 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1782 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1783 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1784 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1786 * Internal improvements
1788 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1789 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1791 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1792 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1793 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1794 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1795 shared code that handles any of them.
1797 * New command line options
1799 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1803 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1804 General Public License.
1806 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1808 * Host/native/target split
1810 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1811 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1812 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1813 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1814 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1816 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1817 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1818 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1819 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1820 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1821 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1822 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1824 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1825 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1826 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1828 * New hosts supported
1830 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1831 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1832 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1834 * New targets supported
1836 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1837 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1839 * New native hosts supported
1841 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1842 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1843 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1845 * New file formats supported
1847 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1848 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1849 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1853 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1854 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1855 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1857 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1859 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1860 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1861 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1862 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1866 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1867 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1868 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1870 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1874 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1875 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1878 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1879 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1881 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1882 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1883 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1884 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1885 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1886 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1888 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1889 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1890 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1891 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1895 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1896 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1897 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1898 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1899 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1901 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1902 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1903 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1904 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1908 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1909 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1910 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1911 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1912 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1913 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1914 each instruction being stepped through.
1916 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1917 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1919 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1920 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1921 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1922 processor with a serial port.
1926 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1927 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1928 supported, and what files each one uses.
1932 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1933 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1934 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1935 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1937 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1938 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1939 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1940 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1944 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1945 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1946 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1947 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1948 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1949 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1951 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1954 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1956 * Better support for C++ function names
1958 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1959 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1960 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1961 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1962 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1964 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1965 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1966 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1967 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1968 for the list of formats.
1970 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1972 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1973 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1974 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1975 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1976 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1977 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1980 * New 'maintenance' command
1982 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1983 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1984 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1986 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1987 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1988 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1989 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1990 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1991 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1993 The following commands are new:
1995 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1996 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1997 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1999 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2001 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2002 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2003 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2004 read after argv processing.
2006 * New hosts supported
2008 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2010 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2012 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2013 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2014 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2015 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2016 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2019 * New targets supported
2021 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2023 * More smarts about finding #include files
2025 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2026 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2027 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2028 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2029 the one that contains your sources.
2031 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2032 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2033 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2035 * Interesting infernals change
2037 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2038 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2039 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2040 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2042 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2044 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2045 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2046 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2048 See the ChangeLog for details.
2050 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2052 * New machines supported (host and target)
2054 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2056 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2058 * New malloc package
2060 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2061 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2062 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2063 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2064 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2065 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2069 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2070 'help info proc' for details.
2072 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2074 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2075 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2078 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2080 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2081 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2082 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2083 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2084 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2085 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2087 * Cross byte order fixes
2089 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2090 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2092 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2094 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2095 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2096 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2097 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2098 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2099 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2100 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2101 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2102 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2103 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2105 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2106 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2107 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2108 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2110 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2111 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2112 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2115 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2117 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2118 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2119 shared across multiple host platforms.
2121 * longjmp() handling
2123 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2124 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2125 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2126 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2130 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2131 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2136 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2137 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2138 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2140 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2142 * New machines supported (host and target)
2144 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2146 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2147 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2149 * New machines supported (target)
2151 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2155 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2156 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2157 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2159 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2160 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2161 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2162 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2163 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2166 * New features for SVR4
2168 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2169 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2170 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2172 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2173 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2174 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2176 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2177 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2179 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2181 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2182 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2183 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2184 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2185 same code linked statically.
2189 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2190 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2191 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2192 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2193 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2194 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2198 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2199 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2200 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2203 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2205 * New machines supported (host and target)
2207 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2208 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2209 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2211 * Almost SCO Unix support
2213 We had hoped to support:
2214 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2215 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2216 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2217 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2219 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2221 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2222 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2223 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2224 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2229 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2230 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2231 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2235 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2236 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2237 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2239 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2241 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2242 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2243 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2245 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2246 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2247 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2248 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2251 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2252 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2253 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2254 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2257 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2258 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2261 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2262 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2263 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2266 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2268 * Improved configuration
2270 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2271 Porting BFD is simpler.
2275 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2276 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2277 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2278 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2282 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2284 * New host supported (not target)
2286 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2289 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2291 * Multiple source language support
2293 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2294 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2295 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2296 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2297 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2298 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2302 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2303 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2304 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2305 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2307 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2308 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2309 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2311 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2312 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2316 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2317 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2318 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2319 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2322 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2324 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2325 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2326 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2327 examining core files.
2331 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2334 * New machines supported (host and target)
2336 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2337 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2338 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2340 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2342 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2344 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2346 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2347 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2348 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2350 * New remote interfaces
2356 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2360 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2362 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2363 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2364 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2365 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2366 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2367 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2368 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2369 stub on the target system.
2371 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2373 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2374 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2375 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2377 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2378 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2381 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2383 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2384 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2386 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2387 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2388 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2390 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2391 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2392 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2393 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2395 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2396 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2397 it is already running. Default is ON.
2399 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2400 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2401 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2402 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2405 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2406 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2407 or the value of the environment variable
2410 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2411 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2414 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2415 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2416 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2418 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2419 history expansion will be performed on
2420 command line input. The default is OFF.
2422 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2423 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2424 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2426 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2427 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2428 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2431 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2432 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2433 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2436 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2437 ``set width'' instead.
2439 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2440 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2441 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2442 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2444 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2447 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2450 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2453 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2456 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2458 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2459 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2460 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2464 * Support for Shared Libraries
2466 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2467 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2468 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2469 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2470 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2471 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2472 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2473 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2475 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2476 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2477 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2479 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2484 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2485 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2486 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2487 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2488 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2489 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2491 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2493 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2495 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2496 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2497 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2500 * C++ multiple inheritance
2502 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2505 * C++ exception handling
2507 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2508 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2509 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2512 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2513 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2514 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2516 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2517 current stack frame.
2520 * Minor command changes
2522 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2523 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2524 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2526 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2527 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2528 frames without printing.
2530 * New directory command
2532 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2533 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2534 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2535 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2536 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2538 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2540 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2543 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2544 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2545 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2546 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob