This patch adds a new convenience variable called "$_exitsignal", which
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.6
5
6 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
7 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
8
9 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
10 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
11 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
12 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
13 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
14 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
15 "void".
16
17 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
18
19 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
20
21 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
22 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
23 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
24 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
25
26 (gdb) p $rax
27 $1 = <not saved>
28
29 (gdb) info registers rax
30 rax <not saved>
31
32 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
33 "*value not available*".
34
35 * Python scripting
36
37 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
38
39 * New targets
40
41 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
42 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
43 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
44
45 * Removed native configurations
46
47 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
48 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
49
50 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
51 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
52 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
53 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
54 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
55 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
56 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
57
58 * New commands:
59 catch rethrow
60 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
61 maint check-psymtabs
62 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
63 maint check-symtabs
64 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
65 maint expand-symtabs
66 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
67
68 show configuration
69 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
70
71 maint set|show per-command
72 maint set|show per-command space
73 maint set|show per-command time
74 maint set|show per-command symtab
75 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
76
77 * New options
78
79 set debug symfile off|on
80 show debug symfile
81 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
82 symbol tables within those files
83
84 set print raw frame-arguments
85 show print raw frame-arguments
86 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
87 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
88
89 set remote trace-status-packet
90 show remote trace-status-packet
91 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
92
93 set debug nios2
94 show debug nios2
95 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
96
97 set range-stepping
98 show range-stepping
99 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
100
101 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
102 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
103 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
104 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
105 "set height 0".
106
107 * New command-line options
108 --configuration
109 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
110
111 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
112 buffer in Common Trace Format.
113
114 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
115 GDB command gcore.
116
117 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
118
119 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
120 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
121
122 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
123 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
124
125 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
126 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
127 due to an uncaught signal.
128
129 * MI changes
130
131 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
132 Trace Format now.
133
134 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
135
136 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
137 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
138 are displayed.
139
140 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
141 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
142
143 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
144 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
145 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
146
147 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
148 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
149 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
150 main subprogram.
151
152 * New system-wide configuration scripts
153 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
154 configuration scripts for the following systems:
155 ** ElinOS
156 ** Wind River Linux
157
158 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
159 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
160 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
161 below.
162
163 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
164 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
165
166 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
167 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
168 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
169
170 * New remote packets
171
172 vCont;r
173
174 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
175 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
176 involvemement at each single-step.
177
178 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
179 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
180 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
181 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
182 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
183 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
184 speedup.
185
186 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
187
188 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
189 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
190
191 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
192 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
193 trace state variables.
194
195 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
196 target.
197
198 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
199 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
200
201 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
202
203 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
204
205 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
206 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
207 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
208 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
209
210 set|show record full insn-number-max
211 set|show record full stop-at-limit
212 set|show record full memory-query
213
214 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
215 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
216 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
217 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
218 This new recording method can be enabled using:
219
220 record btrace
221
222 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
223 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
224
225 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
226 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
227 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
228
229 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
230 instruction granularity
231
232 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
233 function granularity
234
235 * New native configurations
236
237 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
238 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
239 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
240 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
241
242 * New targets
243
244 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
245 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
246 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
247 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
248 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
249
250 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
251 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
252 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
253 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
254 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
255 --data-directory command-line option.
256
257 * New command line options:
258
259 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
260 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
261
262 * Removed command line options
263
264 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
265 Emacs.
266
267 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
268 type formatting.
269
270 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
271
272 * Python scripting
273
274 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
275
276 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
277
278 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
279
280 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
281
282 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
283 of architecture in the Python API.
284
285 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
286 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
287
288 * New Python-based convenience functions:
289
290 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
291 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
292 ** $_strlen(str)
293 ** $_regex(str, regex)
294
295 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
296 given an argument.
297
298 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
299 default for GCC since November 2000.
300
301 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
302
303 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
304 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
305
306 * New configure options
307
308 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
309 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
310 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
311 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
312 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
313 options allow the user to override that default.
314 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
315 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
316 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
317
318 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
319
320 catch signal
321 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
322 conditions to be attached.
323
324 maint info bfds
325 List the BFDs known to GDB.
326
327 python-interactive [command]
328 pi [command]
329 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
330 and print the result of expressions.
331
332 py [command]
333 "py" is a new alias for "python".
334
335 enable type-printer [name]...
336 disable type-printer [name]...
337 Enable or disable type printers.
338
339 * Removed commands
340
341 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
342 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
343 instead.
344
345 * New options
346
347 set print type methods (on|off)
348 show print type methods
349 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
350 The default is to show them.
351
352 set print type typedefs (on|off)
353 show print type typedefs
354 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
355 The default is to show them.
356
357 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
358 show filename-display
359 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
360 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
361
362 set trace-buffer-size
363 show trace-buffer-size
364 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
365
366 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
367 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
368 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
369
370 set debug aarch64
371 show debug aarch64
372 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
373 The default is off.
374
375 set debug coff-pe-read
376 show debug coff-pe-read
377 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
378 exported symbols.
379
380 set debug mach-o
381 show debug mach-o
382 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
383 processing.
384
385 set debug notification
386 show debug notification
387 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
388
389 * MI changes
390
391 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
392 "=cmd-param-changed".
393 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
394 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
395 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
396 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
397 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
398 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
399 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
400 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
401 "=memory-changed".
402 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
403 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
404 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
405 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
406 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
407 library load/unload events.
408 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
409 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
410 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
411 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
412 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
413 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
414 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
415 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
416
417 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
418 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
419 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
420 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
421
422 * New remote packets
423
424 QTBuffer:size
425 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
426 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
427
428 Qbtrace:bts
429 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
430 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
431 qSupported query.
432
433 Qbtrace:off
434 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
435 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
436
437 qXfer:btrace:read
438 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
439 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
440
441 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
442
443 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
444 for more x32 ABI info.
445
446 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
447
448 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
449
450 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
451 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
452 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
453 "info os files" lists file descriptors
454 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
455 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
456 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
457 "info os msg" lists message queues
458 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
459
460 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
461 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
462 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
463 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
464 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
465 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
466
467 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
468 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
469 record/replay support.
470
471 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
472
473 * Python scripting
474
475 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
476 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
477
478 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
479
480 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
481 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
482
483 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
484
485 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
486 the source at which the symbol was defined.
487
488 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
489 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
490 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
491 symbol's value.
492
493 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
494 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
495
496 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
497 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
498 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
499
500 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
501 object associated with a PC value.
502
503 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
504 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
505
506 * Go language support.
507 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
508 language.
509
510 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
511 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
512
513 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
514 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
515
516 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
517 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
518 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
519 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
520 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
521 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
522
523 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
524 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
525 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
526 build/libcpp/expr.c.
527
528 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
529 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
530
531 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
532 since December 2007.
533
534 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
535 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
536 command does. For instance:
537
538 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
539
540 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
541 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
542 created, using the "condition" command.
543
544 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
545 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
546
547 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
548
549 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
550 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
551 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
552 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
553 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
554 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
555 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
556 files with older .gdb_index sections.
557
558 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
559 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
560 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
561 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
562 the .gdb_index section.
563
564 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
565
566 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
567 target.
568
569 * MI changes
570
571 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
572
573 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
574
575 * New commands
576
577 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
578 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
579 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
580
581 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
582 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
583
584 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
585 several hits.
586
587 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
588 C++ and Java objects.
589
590 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
591 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
592 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
593 configured with '--with-python'.
594
595 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
596 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
597 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
598 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
599 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
600 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
601 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
602
603 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
604 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
605 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
606 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
607
608 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
609 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
610 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
611 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
612
613 ** "set print symbol"
614 "show print symbol"
615 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
616 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
617 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
618
619 * Deprecated commands
620
621 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
622 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
623
624 * New targets
625
626 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
627 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
628
629 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
630 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
631 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
632 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
633 evaluates to true.
634
635 * New options
636
637 set mips compression
638 show mips compression
639 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
640 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
641 mips16
642 micromips
643 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
644
645 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
646 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
647 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
648 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
649 available mode.
650 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
651 target.
652
653 set auto-load off
654 Disable auto-loading globally.
655
656 show auto-load
657 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
658
659 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
660 show auto-load gdb-scripts
661 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
662
663 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
664 show auto-load python-scripts
665 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
666
667 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
668 show auto-load local-gdbinit
669 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
670
671 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
672 show auto-load libthread-db
673 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
674
675 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
676 show auto-load scripts-directory
677 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
678 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
679 of the directories listed by this option.
680 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
681
682 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
683 show auto-load safe-path
684 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
685 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
686
687 set debug auto-load on|off
688 show debug auto-load
689 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
690
691 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
692 show dprintf-style
693 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
694 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
695 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
696 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
697
698 set dprintf-function <expr>
699 show dprintf-function
700 set dprintf-channel <expr>
701 show dprintf-channel
702 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
703 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
704
705 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
706 show disconnected-dprintf
707 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
708 after GDB disconnects.
709
710 * New configure options
711
712 --with-auto-load-dir
713 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
714 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
715 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
716 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
717 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
718
719 --with-auto-load-safe-path
720 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
721 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
722
723 --without-auto-load-safe-path
724 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
725 security feature.
726
727 * New remote packets
728
729 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
730
731 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
732 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
733 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
734 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
735
736 QProgramSignals:
737
738 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
739 program without GDB involvement.
740
741 * New command line options
742
743 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
744 before loading inferior.
745 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
746 execute it before loading inferior.
747
748 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
749
750 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
751 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
752 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
753 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
754 inferior changes.
755
756 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
757 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
758
759 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
760 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
761 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
762 target hardware watchpoint.
763
764 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
765 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
766 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
767 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
768
769 * Python scripting
770
771 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
772 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
773 existing one.
774
775 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
776 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
777 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
778 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
779 now "message", which just prints the error message without
780 the stack trace.
781
782 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
783 Python API.
784
785 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
786 modules library. This module provides functionality for
787 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
788 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
789 corresponding value.
790
791 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
792 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
793 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
794 on GDB start-up.
795
796 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
797 static_block will return the global and static blocks
798 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
799 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
800
801 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
802
803 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
804 "gdb.breakpoints".
805
806 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
807 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
808 available in the CLI.
809
810 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
811 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
812 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
813 "some_type.items()".
814
815 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
816 new object file.
817
818 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
819 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
820 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
821 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
822 any anonymous fields.
823
824 * MI changes
825
826 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
827 "solib-event".
828
829 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
830 "=breakpoint-modified".
831
832 ** New command -ada-task-info.
833
834 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
835 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
836 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
837 lives.
838
839 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
840 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
841 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
842 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
843 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
844
845 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
846 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
847
848 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
849 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
850 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
851 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
852 use this option to specify where to find it.
853
854 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
855 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
856 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
857 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
858 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
859 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
860 section in the user manual for more details.
861
862 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
863 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
864 become available after that.
865
866 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
867
868 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
869 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
870 gcc version 4.7.
871
872 * New commands
873
874 !SHELL COMMAND
875 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
876 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
877
878 * Changed commands
879
880 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
881 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
882 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
883
884 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
885 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
886 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
887
888 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
889 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
890 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
891 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
892 name starts with a hyphen.
893
894 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
895 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
896 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
897 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
898 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
899 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
900 number of bytes that will be collected.
901
902 tstart [NOTES]
903 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
904 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
905 setting the variable trace-notes.
906
907 tstop [NOTES]
908 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
909 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
910 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
911 trace-stop-notes.
912
913 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
914 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
915 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
916 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
917 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
918 is running.
919
920 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
921 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
922 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
923
924 * New options
925
926 set debug dwarf2-read
927 show debug dwarf2-read
928 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
929 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
930
931 set debug symtab-create
932 show debug symtab-create
933 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
934 creation. The default is off.
935
936 set extended-prompt
937 show extended-prompt
938 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
939 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
940 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
941 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
942 prompt is displayed.
943
944 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
945 show print entry-values
946 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
947 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
948 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
949
950 set debug entry-values
951 show debug entry-values
952 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
953 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
954
955 set basenames-may-differ
956 show basenames-may-differ
957 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
958 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
959 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
960 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
961 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
962 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
963 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
964 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
965
966 set trace-user
967 show trace-user
968 set trace-notes
969 show trace-notes
970 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
971 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
972 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
973 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
974
975 set trace-stop-notes
976 show trace-stop-notes
977 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
978 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
979 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
980 started by someone else.
981
982 * New remote packets
983
984 QTEnable
985
986 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
987
988 QTDisable
989
990 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
991
992 QTNotes
993
994 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
995
996 qTP
997
998 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
999
1000 qTMinFTPILen
1001
1002 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
1003 be placed.
1004
1005 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
1006 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
1007
1008 * New targets
1009
1010 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
1011
1012 * New Simulators
1013
1014 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1015
1016 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
1017
1018 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
1019
1020 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
1021
1022 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
1023 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
1024 matches the given regular expression.
1025
1026 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
1027
1028 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
1029 dumping the instruction opcodes.
1030
1031 * New command line options
1032
1033 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
1034 This is mostly for testing purposes.
1035
1036 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
1037 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
1038
1039 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
1040 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
1041 source path list instead of augmenting it.
1042
1043 * GDB now understands thread names.
1044
1045 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
1046 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
1047
1048 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
1049 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
1050
1051 * OpenCL C
1052 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
1053 has been integrated into GDB.
1054
1055 * Python scripting
1056
1057 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
1058 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
1059 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
1060
1061 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1062 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
1063 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
1064 and allows for more dynamic content.
1065
1066 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
1067 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
1068 have an is_valid method.
1069
1070 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1071 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
1072 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
1073
1074 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
1075
1076 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
1077 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
1078 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
1079 that function like so:
1080
1081 result = some_value (10,20)
1082
1083 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
1084 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
1085 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
1086
1087 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
1088 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
1089 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
1090 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
1091 New function: register_pretty_printer.
1092
1093 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
1094 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
1095
1096 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
1097
1098 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
1099 selected thread.
1100
1101 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
1102 holds the thread's name.
1103
1104 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
1105 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
1106 occurring in the process being debugged.
1107 The following events are currently supported:
1108 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
1109 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
1110 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
1111
1112 * C++ Improvements:
1113
1114 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
1115 instantiation. For example, if you have:
1116
1117 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
1118
1119 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
1120 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
1121 was added to GCC 4.5.
1122
1123 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
1124 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
1125 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
1126 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
1127 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
1128 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
1129
1130 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
1131 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
1132 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
1133 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
1134 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
1135
1136 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
1137 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
1138 execution to a label.
1139
1140 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
1141 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
1142 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
1143 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
1144
1145 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
1146 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
1147 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
1148 of scope.
1149
1150 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
1151
1152 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
1153 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
1154 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
1155 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
1156 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
1157 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
1158
1159 (gdb) info threads
1160 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1161
1162 While now you see this:
1163
1164 (gdb) info threads
1165 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1166
1167 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1168 dumps.
1169
1170 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1171 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1172 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1173 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1174
1175 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1176 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1177 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1178 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1179 section in the user manual for more details.
1180
1181 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1182
1183 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1184 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
1185
1186 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1187
1188 * New native configurations
1189
1190 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1191
1192 * New targets:
1193
1194 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1195
1196 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1197 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1198 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1199 in the GDB user manual.
1200
1201 * Guile support was removed.
1202
1203 * New features in the GNU simulator
1204
1205 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1206
1207 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1208
1209 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
1210
1211 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
1212
1213 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1214 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1215 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1216 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1217 was always disabled for such configurations.
1218
1219 * C++ Improvements:
1220
1221 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1222
1223 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1224 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1225 For example:
1226 namespace A
1227 {
1228 class B { };
1229 void foo (B) { }
1230 }
1231 ...
1232 A::B b
1233 foo(b)
1234 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1235 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1236 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1237
1238 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1239
1240 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1241 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1242 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1243 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1244 entry.
1245 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1246 mentioned flavors of operators.
1247
1248 ** static const class members
1249
1250 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1251 class definition has been fixed.
1252
1253 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
1254
1255 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1256 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
1257 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
1258 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
1259 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
1260 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
1261
1262 * Static tracepoints
1263
1264 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
1265 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
1266 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
1267 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
1268 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
1269 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
1270 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
1271 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
1272 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
1273 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
1274 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
1275 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
1276 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
1277 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1278 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1279 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1280 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1281 the "New remote packets" section below.
1282
1283 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1284
1285 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1286 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1287 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1288 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1289
1290 * Observer mode
1291
1292 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1293 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1294 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1295 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1296 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1297 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1298 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1299
1300 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1301 current thread.
1302
1303 * New remote packets
1304
1305 qGetTIBAddr
1306
1307 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1308
1309 qRelocInsn
1310
1311 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1312 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1313 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1314 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1315 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1316 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1317
1318 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
1319
1320 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1321
1322 qTSTMat
1323
1324 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1325 program.
1326
1327 qXfer:statictrace:read
1328
1329 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1330 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1331 to gdb's qSupported query.
1332
1333 QAllow
1334
1335 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1336
1337 QTDPsrc
1338
1339 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1340 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1341
1342 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1343 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1344 a directory.
1345
1346 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1347
1348 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1349 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1350 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1351 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1352
1353 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1354 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1355 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1356 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1357 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1358 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1359 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1360
1361 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1362 for static tracepoints support.
1363
1364 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1365
1366 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1367 it understands register description.
1368
1369 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1370
1371 * X86 general purpose registers
1372
1373 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1374 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1375 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1376 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1377 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1378
1379 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
1380 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1381 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1382 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1383 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1384 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
1385
1386 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1387 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1388 in the specified file.
1389
1390 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1391 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1392 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1393 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1394 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1395 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1396 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1397 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1398 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1399 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1400
1401 * New commands
1402
1403 eval template, expressions...
1404 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1405 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1406
1407 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1408 show target-file-system-kind
1409 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1410 names.
1411
1412 save breakpoints <filename>
1413 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1414 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1415 definitions, use the `source' command.
1416
1417 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1418 is now deprecated.
1419
1420 info static-tracepoint-markers
1421 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1422
1423 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1424 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1425 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1426
1427 set observer on|off
1428 show observer
1429 Enable and disable observer mode.
1430
1431 set may-write-registers on|off
1432 set may-write-memory on|off
1433 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1434 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1435 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1436 set may-interrupt on|off
1437 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1438 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1439 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1440 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1441 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1442 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1443 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1444
1445 set record memory-query on|off
1446 show record memory-query
1447 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1448 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1449
1450 * Changed commands
1451
1452 disassemble
1453 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1454
1455 * Python scripting
1456
1457 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1458 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1459 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1460 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1461 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1462
1463 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
1464 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1465 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1466 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
1467
1468 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
1469 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1470
1471 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
1472
1473 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
1474
1475 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1476
1477 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1478 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1479 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1480
1481 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1482 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1483 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1484 regular breakpoints.
1485
1486 * New targets
1487
1488 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1489
1490 * D language support.
1491 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1492 language.
1493
1494 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1495 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1496 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1497 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1498 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1499
1500 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1501 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1502 conditions of the form:
1503
1504 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1505
1506 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1507 interface mentioned above.
1508
1509 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
1510
1511 * C++ Improvements
1512
1513 ** Namespace Support
1514
1515 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1516 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1517 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1518 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1519 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1520
1521 ** Bug Fixes
1522
1523 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1524 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1525 qualified name.
1526
1527 ** Cast Operators
1528
1529 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1530 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1531
1532 * New targets
1533
1534 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
1535 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
1536
1537 * New Simulators
1538
1539 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
1540 Renesas RX rx
1541
1542 * Multi-program debugging.
1543
1544 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1545 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1546 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1547 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1548 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1549 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1550 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1551 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1552
1553 * New tracing features
1554
1555 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1556
1557 ** Trace state variables
1558
1559 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1560 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1561 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1562 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1563 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1564 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1565 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1566 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1567 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1568 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
1569
1570 ** Fast tracepoints
1571
1572 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1573 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1574 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1575 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1576 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1577 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1578 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1579 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1580 the regular trace command.
1581
1582 ** Disconnected tracing
1583
1584 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1585 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1586 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1587 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1588 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1589
1590 ** Trace files
1591
1592 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1593 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1594 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1595 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1596 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1597 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1598 <name>".
1599
1600 ** Circular trace buffer
1601
1602 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1603 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1604 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1605 not be available for all target agents.
1606
1607 * Changed commands
1608
1609 disassemble
1610 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1611 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1612
1613 info variables
1614 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1615 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1616
1617 source
1618 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1619 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1620 support.
1621
1622 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1623 "set script-extension" (see below).
1624
1625 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1626
1627 record save [<FILENAME>]
1628 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1629 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1630
1631 record restore <FILENAME>
1632 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1633 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1634
1635 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1636 Add a new inferior.
1637
1638 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1639 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1640 inferior has loaded.
1641
1642 remove-inferior ID
1643 Remove an inferior.
1644
1645 maint info program-spaces
1646 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1647
1648 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1649 show remote interrupt-sequence
1650 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1651 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1652 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1653 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1654 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1655
1656 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1657 show remote interrupt-on-connect
1658 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1659 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1660 Linux kernel.
1661
1662 set remotebreak [on | off]
1663 show remotebreak
1664 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1665
1666 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1667 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1668
1669 info tvariables
1670 List trace state variables and their values.
1671
1672 delete tvariable $NAME ...
1673 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1674
1675 teval EXPR, ...
1676 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1677 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1678
1679 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1680 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1681
1682 * New expression syntax
1683
1684 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1685 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1686
1687 * New options
1688
1689 set follow-exec-mode new|same
1690 show follow-exec-mode
1691 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1692 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1693 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1694
1695 set default-collect EXPR, ...
1696 show default-collect
1697 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1698 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1699 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1700
1701 set disconnected-tracing
1702 show disconnected-tracing
1703 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1704 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1705 upon disconnection.
1706
1707 set circular-trace-buffer
1708 show circular-trace-buffer
1709 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1710 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1711 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1712 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1713
1714 set script-extension off|soft|strict
1715 show script-extension
1716 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1717 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1718 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1719 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1720 evaluation failed.
1721 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1722
1723 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1724 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1725 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1726 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1727 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1728 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1729 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1730 is on.
1731
1732 * Python API Improvements
1733
1734 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1735 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1736 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1737
1738 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1739 `is_base_class' attribute.
1740
1741 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1742
1743 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1744 evaluate an expression.
1745
1746 * New remote packets
1747
1748 QTDV
1749 Define a trace state variable.
1750
1751 qTV
1752 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1753
1754 QTDisconnected
1755 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1756
1757 QTBuffer:circular
1758 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1759
1760 qTfP, qTsP
1761 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1762
1763 * Bug fixes
1764
1765 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1766
1767 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1768 much more reliable. In particular:
1769 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1770 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1771 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1772 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1773 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1774 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1775 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1776 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1777 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1778 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1779 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1780 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1781 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1782 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1783 non-threaded programs.
1784
1785 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1786 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1787 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1788 executable program.
1789
1790 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
1791
1792 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1793 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1794 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1795 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1796 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1797
1798 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1799 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1800 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1801 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1802 for tracepoint actions.
1803
1804 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1805 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1806 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
1807
1808 * Process record and replay
1809
1810 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1811 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1812 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1813 execute commands.
1814
1815 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1816 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1817 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1818 reverse execution.
1819
1820 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1821 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
1822 2.6.28 or later.
1823
1824 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1825 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1826 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1827 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1828 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1829 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1830 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1831 the installation instructions for more information.
1832
1833 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1834 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1835 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1836 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1837
1838 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1839 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1840
1841 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1842 now complete on file names.
1843
1844 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1845 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1846 For instance, consider:
1847
1848 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1849 # struct example variable;
1850 (gdb) p variable.
1851
1852 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1853 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1854
1855 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1856 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1857
1858 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1859 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1860 macros.
1861
1862 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
1863 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1864 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1865
1866 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1867 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1868 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1869 and simulator targets may also provide them.
1870
1871 * New remote packets
1872
1873 qSearch:memory:
1874 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1875
1876 QStartNoAckMode
1877 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1878 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1879 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1880
1881 vKill
1882 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1883 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1884
1885 qXfer:osdata:read
1886 Obtains additional operating system information
1887
1888 qXfer:siginfo:read
1889 qXfer:siginfo:write
1890 Read or write additional signal information.
1891
1892 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1893
1894 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1895 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1896 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1897
1898 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
1899 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
1900
1901 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
1902 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1903 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
1904
1905 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1906 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1907
1908 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1909
1910 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1911
1912 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1913 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1914
1915 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
1916 list of section offsets.
1917
1918 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1919 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1920 have also been fixed.
1921
1922 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
1923 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1924 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
1925
1926 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1927 example, given:
1928
1929 template<typename T> class C { };
1930 C<char const *> c;
1931
1932 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1933
1934 ptype C<char const *>
1935 ptype C<char const*>
1936 ptype C<const char *>
1937 ptype C<const char*>
1938
1939 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1940
1941 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1942 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1943
1944 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1945 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1946 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1947
1948 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1949 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1950
1951 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1952 gdbserver.
1953
1954 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1955 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1956
1957 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1958 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1959 as appropriate.
1960
1961 * Python scripting
1962
1963 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1964 available is determined at configure time.
1965
1966 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1967
1968 * Ada tasking support
1969
1970 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1971 been introduced:
1972
1973 info tasks
1974 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1975 info task N
1976 Print detailed information about task number N.
1977 task
1978 Print the task number of the current task.
1979 task N
1980 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1981
1982 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1983 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1984
1985 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1986
1987 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1988 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1989 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1990 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1991 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1992 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1993 below.
1994
1995 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1996 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1997 information.
1998
1999 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
2000 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
2001 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
2002 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
2003 more information.
2004
2005 * Multi-architecture debugging.
2006
2007 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
2008 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
2009 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
2010 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
2011 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
2012
2013 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
2014 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
2015 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
2016 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
2017 --enable-targets configure option.
2018
2019 * Non-stop mode debugging.
2020
2021 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
2022 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
2023 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
2024 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
2025 section in the user manual for more information.
2026
2027 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
2028 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
2029 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
2030 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
2031 extensions on linux targets.
2032
2033 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2034
2035 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
2036 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
2037 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
2038 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
2039 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
2040 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
2041 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
2042 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
2043 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
2044
2045 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
2046 val1 [, val2, ...]
2047 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2048
2049 maint set python print-stack
2050 maint show python print-stack
2051 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
2052
2053 python [CODE]
2054 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
2055
2056 macro define
2057 macro list
2058 macro undef
2059 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
2060 interactively.
2061
2062 info os processes
2063 Show operating system information about processes.
2064
2065 info inferiors
2066 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
2067
2068 inferior NUM
2069 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
2070
2071 detach inferior NUM
2072 Detach from inferior number NUM.
2073
2074 kill inferior NUM
2075 Kill inferior number NUM.
2076
2077 * New options
2078
2079 set spu stop-on-load
2080 show spu stop-on-load
2081 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2082
2083 set spu auto-flush-cache
2084 show spu auto-flush-cache
2085 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
2086 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2087
2088 set sh calling-convention
2089 show sh calling-convention
2090 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
2091
2092 set debug timestamp
2093 show debug timestamp
2094 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
2095
2096 set disassemble-next-line
2097 show disassemble-next-line
2098 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
2099 the debuggee stops.
2100
2101 set remote noack-packet
2102 show remote noack-packet
2103 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
2104 under "New remote packets."
2105
2106 set remote query-attached-packet
2107 show remote query-attached-packet
2108 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
2109
2110 set remote read-siginfo-object
2111 show remote read-siginfo-object
2112 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
2113 packet.
2114
2115 set remote write-siginfo-object
2116 show remote write-siginfo-object
2117 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
2118 packet.
2119
2120 set remote reverse-continue
2121 show remote reverse-continue
2122 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
2123
2124 set remote reverse-step
2125 show remote reverse-step
2126 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
2127
2128 set displaced-stepping
2129 show displaced-stepping
2130 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
2131 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
2132 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
2133
2134 set debug displaced
2135 show debug displaced
2136 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
2137
2138 maint set internal-error
2139 maint show internal-error
2140 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
2141
2142 maint set internal-warning
2143 maint show internal-warning
2144 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
2145
2146 set exec-wrapper
2147 show exec-wrapper
2148 unset exec-wrapper
2149 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2150
2151 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
2152 show multiple-symbols
2153 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
2154 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
2155 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
2156
2157 set breakpoint always-inserted
2158 show breakpoint always-inserted
2159 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
2160 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2161 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2162
2163 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2164 show arm fallback-mode
2165 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2166 show arm force-mode
2167 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2168 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2169 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2170 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2171
2172 set disable-randomization
2173 show disable-randomization
2174 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2175 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2176 multiple debugging sessions.
2177
2178 set non-stop
2179 show non-stop
2180 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2181 a breakpoint.
2182
2183 set target-async
2184 show target-async
2185 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2186 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2187 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2188 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2189
2190 set target-wide-charset
2191 show target-wide-charset
2192 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2193 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2194
2195 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2196 show tcp auto-retry
2197 set tcp connect-timeout
2198 show tcp connect-timeout
2199 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2200 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2201 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2202
2203 set libthread-db-search-path
2204 show libthread-db-search-path
2205 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2206 libthread_db.
2207
2208 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2209 show schedule-multiple
2210 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2211 the current process.
2212
2213 set stack-cache
2214 show stack-cache
2215 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2216 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2217 affecting correctness.
2218
2219 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2220 show interactive-mode
2221 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2222 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2223 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2224 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2225 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2226
2227 * Removed commands
2228
2229 info forks
2230 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2231 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2232 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2233 command.
2234
2235 fork NUM
2236 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2237 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2238 alias for the `fork' command.
2239
2240 process PID
2241 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2242 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2243 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2244
2245 delete fork NUM
2246 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2247 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2248 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2249 fork' command.
2250
2251 detach fork NUM
2252 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2253 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2254 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2255 fork' command.
2256
2257 * New native configurations
2258
2259 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
2260
2261 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
2262
2263 * New targets
2264
2265 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
2266 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
2267 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
2268 S+core 3 score-*-*
2269
2270 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
2271 (mingw32ce) debugging.
2272
2273 * Removed commands
2274
2275 catch load
2276 catch unload
2277 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2278
2279 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
2280
2281 * New native configurations
2282
2283 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
2284 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
2285
2286 * New targets
2287
2288 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
2289 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
2290
2291 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2292
2293 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2294 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2295 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2296 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2297
2298 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2299 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2300
2301 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
2302 is resolved.
2303
2304 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
2305 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2306 and in inlined functions.
2307
2308 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2309 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2310 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2311
2312 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2313
2314 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2315 registers on PowerPC targets.
2316
2317 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2318 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2319
2320 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2321 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2322
2323 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2324 extended-remote mode.
2325
2326 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
2327 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2328 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2329 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
2330
2331 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2332 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2333 target architectures.
2334
2335 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2336 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2337 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2338 stored in two consecutive float registers.
2339
2340 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2341 breakpoints now.
2342
2343 * Improved support for debugging Ada
2344 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2345 include:
2346 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2347 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2348 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2349 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2350 of an assignment
2351 - Improved command completion in Ada
2352 - Several bug fixes
2353
2354 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2355 process.
2356
2357 * New commands
2358
2359 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2360 show print frame-arguments
2361 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2362 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2363
2364 remote put
2365 remote get
2366 remote delete
2367 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2368
2369 * New MI commands
2370
2371 -target-file-put
2372 -target-file-get
2373 -target-file-delete
2374 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2375
2376 * New remote packets
2377
2378 vFile:open:
2379 vFile:close:
2380 vFile:pread:
2381 vFile:pwrite:
2382 vFile:unlink:
2383 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
2384
2385 vAttach
2386 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2387 mode.
2388
2389 vRun
2390 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2391
2392 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
2393
2394 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2395 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2396 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2397
2398 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2399 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2400 -Bsymbolic linker option.
2401
2402 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2403 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2404 is not supported.
2405
2406 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2407 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2408
2409 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
2410 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
2411
2412 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2413
2414 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2415 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2416 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2417
2418 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2419 automatically displayed as character or string data.
2420
2421 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2422 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2423 as strings.
2424
2425 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2426 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
2427 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
2428
2429 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2430 iWMMXt coprocessor.
2431
2432 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2433 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2434 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2435
2436 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2437
2438 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2439
2440 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2441 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2442 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2443
2444 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2445 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2446
2447 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2448 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2449 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2450 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2451 Windows and SymbianOS).
2452
2453 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2454 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
2455
2456 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2457 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
2458
2459 * New commands
2460
2461 set remoteflow
2462 show remoteflow
2463 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2464 when debugging using remote targets.
2465
2466 set mem inaccessible-by-default
2467 show mem inaccessible-by-default
2468 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2469 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2470 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2471 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2472 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2473
2474 set breakpoint auto-hw
2475 show breakpoint auto-hw
2476 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2477 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2478 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2479 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2480 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2481 including "next" and "finish".
2482
2483 catch exception
2484 catch exception unhandled
2485 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2486
2487 catch assert
2488 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2489
2490 set sysroot
2491 show sysroot
2492 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2493 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2494 an alias to "set sysroot".
2495
2496 info spu
2497 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2498 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2499 architecture.
2500
2501 * New native configurations
2502
2503 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2504
2505 set tdesc filename
2506 unset tdesc filename
2507 show tdesc filename
2508 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2509 not query the target for its built-in description.
2510
2511 * New targets
2512
2513 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
2514 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
2515 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
2516
2517 * New remote packets
2518
2519 QPassSignals:
2520 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2521 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2522
2523 qXfer:features:read:
2524 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2525 features.
2526
2527 qXfer:spu:read:
2528 qXfer:spu:write:
2529 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2530 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2531
2532 qXfer:libraries:read:
2533 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2534 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2535 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2536 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2537
2538 * Removed targets
2539
2540 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2541
2542 alpha*-*-osf1*
2543 alpha*-*-osf2*
2544 d10v-*-*
2545 hppa*-*-hiux*
2546 i[34567]86-ncr-*
2547 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
2548 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2549 i[34567]86-*-netware*
2550 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2551 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2552 i[34567]86-*-sco*
2553 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2554 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
2555 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
2556 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2557 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2558 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
2559 i[34567]86-*-isc*
2560 m68*-cisco*-*
2561 m68*-tandem-*
2562 mips*-*-pe
2563 rs6000-*-lynxos*
2564 sh*-*-pe
2565
2566 * Other removed features
2567
2568 target abug
2569 target cpu32bug
2570 target est
2571 target rom68k
2572
2573 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2574
2575 target hms
2576 target e7000
2577 target sh3
2578 target sh3e
2579
2580 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2581 H8/300.
2582
2583 target ocd
2584
2585 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2586 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2587 interfaces.
2588
2589 DWARF 1 support
2590
2591 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2592 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2593
2594 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2595
2596 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2597 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2598 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2599 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2600
2601 MIPS ".pdr" sections
2602
2603 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2604 in debugging information.
2605
2606 Scheme support
2607
2608 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2609 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2610
2611 set mips stack-arg-size
2612 set mips saved-gpreg-size
2613
2614 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2615
2616 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
2617
2618 * New targets
2619
2620 Xtensa xtensa-elf
2621 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
2622
2623 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2624 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2625 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2626
2627 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2628 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2629 supported.
2630
2631 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2632 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2633
2634 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2635 stub provides the required support.
2636
2637 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2638 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2639
2640 * New commands
2641
2642 set substitute-path
2643 unset substitute-path
2644 show substitute-path
2645 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2646 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2647 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2648 between compilation and debugging.
2649
2650 set trace-commands
2651 show trace-commands
2652 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2653 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2654 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2655
2656 * REMOVED features
2657
2658 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2659
2660 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2661 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2662
2663 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2664
2665 * New remote packets
2666
2667 qSupported:
2668 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2669 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2670 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2671 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2672 target.
2673
2674 qXfer:auxv:read:
2675 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2676 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2677
2678 qXfer:memory-map:read:
2679 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2680 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2681
2682 vFlashErase:
2683 vFlashWrite:
2684 vFlashDone:
2685 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2686
2687 * Removed remote packets
2688
2689 qPart:auxv:read:
2690 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2691 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2692
2693 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
2694
2695 * New targets
2696
2697 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2698
2699 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2700
2701 * New commands
2702
2703 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2704 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2705
2706 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2707
2708 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2709
2710 restart <n> Return the program state to a
2711 previously saved state.
2712
2713 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2714
2715 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2716
2717 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2718 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2719
2720 info forks List forks of the user program that
2721 are available to be debugged.
2722
2723 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2724 forks of the user program that are
2725 available to be debugged.
2726
2727 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2728 that are available to be debugged (and
2729 kill the forked process).
2730
2731 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2732 that are available to be debugged (and
2733 allow the process to continue).
2734
2735 * New architecture
2736
2737 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2738
2739 * Improved Windows host support
2740
2741 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2742 native console support, and remote communications using either
2743 network sockets or serial ports.
2744
2745 * Improved Modula-2 language support
2746
2747 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2748 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2749 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2750 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2751 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2752 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2753
2754 * REMOVED features
2755
2756 The ARM rdi-share module.
2757
2758 The Netware NLM debug server.
2759
2760 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
2761
2762 * New native configurations
2763
2764 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
2765 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2766
2767 * New targets
2768
2769 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2770
2771 * New command line options
2772
2773 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2774 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2775 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2776 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2777 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2778 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2779 with the --command (-x) option.
2780
2781 * Deprecated commands removed
2782
2783 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2784 removed:
2785
2786 Command Replacement
2787 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2788 othernames set arm disassembler
2789 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2790 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2791 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2792 regs info registers
2793
2794 * New BSD user-level threads support
2795
2796 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2797 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2798 configurations are:
2799
2800 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2801 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2802 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2803
2804 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2805 are not yet supported.
2806
2807 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2808 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2809
2810 * REMOVED configurations and files
2811
2812 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
2813 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2814 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
2815
2816 * New "set print array-indexes" command
2817
2818 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2819 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2820 behavior.
2821
2822 * VAX floating point support
2823
2824 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2825
2826 * User-defined command support
2827
2828 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2829 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2830 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2831
2832 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2833
2834 * New command line option
2835
2836 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2837 debugging.
2838
2839 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2840
2841 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2842 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2843 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2844 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2845 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
2846
2847 * Internationalization
2848
2849 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2850 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2851 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2852
2853 * Ada
2854
2855 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2856 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2857 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2858
2859 * New native configurations
2860
2861 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2862
2863 * Remote 'p' packet
2864
2865 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2866 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2867
2868 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2869
2870 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2871 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2872 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2873 i386 application).
2874
2875 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2876 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2877 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2878 configurations:
2879
2880 hppa-*-hpux
2881 ia64-*-aix
2882 mips-*-irix*
2883 *-*-lynx
2884 mips-*-linux-gnu
2885 sds protocol
2886 xdr protocol
2887 powerpc bdm protocol
2888
2889 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2890 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2891
2892 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2893
2894 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2895 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2896 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2897 permanently REMOVED.
2898
2899 h8300-*-*
2900 mcore-*-*
2901 mn10300-*-*
2902 ns32k-*-*
2903 sh64-*-*
2904 v850-*-*
2905
2906 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2907
2908 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2909
2910 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2911 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2912 been fixed.
2913
2914 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2915
2916 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2917 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2918 IRIX long double values).
2919
2920 * VAX and "next"
2921
2922 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2923 command. This problem has been fixed.
2924
2925 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
2926
2927 * Fix for ``many threads''
2928
2929 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2930 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2931 error message:
2932
2933 ptrace: No such process.
2934 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2935
2936 This problem has been fixed.
2937
2938 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2939
2940 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2941 GDB to dump core).
2942
2943 * New ``start'' command.
2944
2945 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2946
2947 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2948
2949 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2950 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2951 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2952
2953 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2954 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2955 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2956 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2957 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2958 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2959 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2960 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2961 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2962
2963 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
2964
2965 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2966 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2967 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2968 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2969 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2970
2971 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2972 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2973 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
2974
2975 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2976
2977 * New native configurations
2978
2979 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
2980 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
2981 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2982 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
2983 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
2984 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
2985 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
2986
2987 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2988
2989 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2990 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2991 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2992 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2993 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2994 work, was also included.
2995
2996 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2997 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2998
2999 h8300-*-*
3000 mcore-*-*
3001 mn10300-*-*
3002 ns32k-*-*
3003 sh64-*-*
3004 v850-*-*
3005 xstormy16-*-*
3006
3007 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3008 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
3009
3010 * REMOVED configurations and files
3011
3012 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3013 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3014 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3015 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3016 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3017 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3018 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3019 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3020 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3021 sonymips mips-sony-*
3022 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3023
3024 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
3025
3026 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
3027
3028 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
3029 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
3030 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
3031 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
3032 with GDB".
3033
3034 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
3035
3036 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
3037 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
3038 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
3039 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
3040 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
3041 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
3042 are created.
3043
3044 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
3045
3046 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
3047
3048 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
3049 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
3050 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
3051
3052 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
3053
3054 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
3055 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
3056
3057 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
3058
3059 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
3060 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
3061 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
3062
3063 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
3064
3065 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
3066 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
3067
3068 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
3069
3070 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
3071 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
3072 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
3073
3074 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
3075
3076 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
3077 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
3078 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
3079
3080 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
3081
3082 * Removed --with-mmalloc
3083
3084 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
3085 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
3086
3087 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
3088
3089 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
3090 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
3091 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
3092 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
3093
3094 * Revised SPARC target
3095
3096 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
3097 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
3098 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
3099 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
3100 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
3101
3102 * New C++ demangler
3103
3104 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
3105 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
3106 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
3107 programs.
3108
3109 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3110
3111 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
3112 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
3113 encountered these.
3114
3115 * C++ nested types and namespaces
3116
3117 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
3118 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
3119 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
3120 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
3121 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
3122 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
3123 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
3124 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
3125 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
3126
3127 * New native configurations
3128
3129 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
3130 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3131 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
3132 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3133 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
3134
3135 * New debugging protocols
3136
3137 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
3138
3139 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
3140
3141 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
3142 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
3143 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
3144
3145 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3146
3147 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3148 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3149 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3150 permanently REMOVED.
3151
3152 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3153 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3154 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3155 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3156 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3157 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3158 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3159 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3160 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3161 sonymips mips-sony-*
3162 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3163
3164 * REMOVED configurations and files
3165
3166 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3167 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3168 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3169 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3170 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3171 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3172 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3173 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3174 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3175 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
3176 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3177 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3178 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3179 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3180 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
3181 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3182 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3183
3184 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3185
3186 * Objective-C
3187
3188 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3189 integrated into GDB.
3190
3191 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3192
3193 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3194 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3195 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3196 backtraces.
3197
3198 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3199 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3200 DWARF 2 CFI support.
3201
3202 * Hosted file I/O.
3203
3204 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3205 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3206 remote protocol documentation for details.
3207
3208 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
3209
3210 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3211 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3212 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3213 ppc32 on ppc64).
3214
3215 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3216
3217 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3218 per-thread variables.
3219
3220 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3221
3222 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3223 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3224
3225 * Separate debug info.
3226
3227 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3228 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3229 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3230 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3231 and optional debug files.
3232
3233 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3234
3235 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3236 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3237 debugger.
3238
3239 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3240 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3241
3242 * Java
3243
3244 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3245 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3246 considered "useable".
3247
3248 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3249
3250 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3251 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3252 kernel.
3253
3254 * GDB supports logging output to a file
3255
3256 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
3257 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
3258
3259 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
3260
3261 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
3262 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
3263 command.
3264
3265 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
3266
3267 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
3268 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
3269
3270 * Profiling support
3271
3272 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
3273 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
3274 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
3275 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
3276 data, for more informative profiling results.
3277
3278 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3279
3280 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3281 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
3282 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
3283
3284 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3285 removed.
3286
3287 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3288 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3289 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3290 in a subsequent -var-update.
3291
3292 * New native configurations.
3293
3294 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3295
3296 * Multi-arched targets.
3297
3298 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
3299 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3300
3301 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3302
3303 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3304 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3305 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3306 permanently REMOVED.
3307
3308 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3309 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3310 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3311 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3312 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3313 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3314 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3315 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3316 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3317 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3318 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3319 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3320
3321 * REMOVED configurations and files
3322
3323 V850EA ISA
3324 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3325 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3326 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3327 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3328 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3329 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3330 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3331 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3332 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3333 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3334 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3335 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3336 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3337
3338 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
3339
3340 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3341 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3342 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3343 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3344 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3345
3346 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
3347
3348 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3349
3350 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3351 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3352 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3353 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3354 shared libs like mad''.
3355
3356 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
3357
3358 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3359 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3360 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3361 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
3362
3363 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3364
3365 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3366 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3367 they expand.
3368
3369 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3370 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3371
3372 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3373 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3374
3375 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3376 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3377 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3378 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3379
3380 * Multi-arched targets.
3381
3382 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3383 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
3384 NEC V850 v850-*-*
3385 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
3386 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3387 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3388
3389 * New targets.
3390
3391 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3392
3393
3394 * New native configurations
3395
3396 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
3397 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
3398 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
3399 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
3400
3401 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3402
3403 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3404 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3405 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3406 permanently REMOVED.
3407
3408 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3409 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3410 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3411 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3412 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3413 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3414 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3415 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3416 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3417 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3418 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3419 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3420 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3421
3422 * OBSOLETE languages
3423
3424 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3425
3426 * REMOVED configurations and files
3427
3428 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3429 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3430 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3431 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3432 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3433
3434 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3435
3436 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3437
3438 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3439 commands. The default is 1024.
3440
3441 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3442
3443 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3444
3445 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3446
3447 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3448 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3449 from a file into memory (restore).
3450
3451 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3452
3453 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3454 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3455 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3456
3457 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3458
3459 * New targets.
3460
3461 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
3462
3463 * Bug fixes
3464
3465 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3466 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3467 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3468
3469 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3470 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3471 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3472
3473 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3474 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3475 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3476
3477 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3478 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3479 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3480
3481 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
3482
3483 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3484
3485 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3486 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3487 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3488 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3489 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3490 (notably embedded) targets.
3491
3492 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3493
3494 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3495 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3496 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3497 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
3498
3499 * New command line option
3500
3501 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3502
3503 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3504
3505 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3506 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3507 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3508 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3509 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3510 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3511 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3512 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3513 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3514 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3515
3516 * Changes in ARM configurations.
3517
3518 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3519 configuration is fully multi-arch.
3520
3521 * New native configurations
3522
3523 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
3524 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
3525 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
3526 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
3527
3528 * New targets
3529
3530 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3531
3532 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3533
3534 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3535 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3536 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3537 permanently REMOVED.
3538
3539 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3540 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3541 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3542 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3543 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3544
3545 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3546
3547 * REMOVED configurations and files
3548
3549 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3550 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3551 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3552 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3553 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3554 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3555 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3556 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3557 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3558 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3559 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3560 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3561 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
3562
3563 * Changes to command line processing
3564
3565 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3566 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3567
3568 * Changes to key bindings
3569
3570 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3571
3572 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3573
3574 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3575
3576 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3577 corrupted.
3578
3579 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3580
3581 Numerous documentation fixes.
3582
3583 Numerous testsuite fixes.
3584
3585 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
3586
3587 * New native configurations
3588
3589 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3590 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
3591 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
3592 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3593 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
3594 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
3595
3596 * New targets
3597
3598 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
3599 CRIS cris-axis
3600 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
3601
3602 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3603
3604 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
3605 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3606 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3607 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3608 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3609 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3610 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3611 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3612 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3613 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3614 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3615 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3616 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3617 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
3618
3619 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3620 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3621
3622 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3623 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3624 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3625 permanently REMOVED.
3626
3627 * REMOVED configurations and files
3628
3629 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3630 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3631 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3632 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3633 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
3634 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
3635
3636 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
3637
3638 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
3639 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3640 present.
3641
3642 * Other news:
3643
3644 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3645
3646 * The MI enabled by default.
3647
3648 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3649 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3650 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3651 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3652 which is now deprecated.
3653
3654 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3655
3656 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3657 main features are supported:
3658
3659 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3660
3661 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3662 extension;
3663
3664 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3665
3666 - a Pascal expression parser.
3667
3668 However, some important features are not yet supported.
3669
3670 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3671
3672 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3673
3674 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3675 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3676
3677 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3678
3679 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3680
3681 * Changes in completion.
3682
3683 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3684 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3685 users expect at the shell prompt.
3686
3687 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3688 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3689 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3690 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3691 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3692 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3693 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3694
3695 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3696
3697 * New platform-independent commands:
3698
3699 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3700 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3701 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3702
3703 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3704
3705 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3706 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3707 many threads as your system allows you to have.
3708
3709 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3710
3711 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3712 multi-threaded programs though.
3713
3714 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
3715
3716 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3717
3718 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3719 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3720 supported.)
3721
3722 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3723
3724 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3725 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3726 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3727 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3728 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3729 registers.
3730
3731 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3732 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3733 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3734
3735 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3736
3737 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3738 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3739
3740 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3741 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3742 IDT.
3743
3744 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3745 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3746 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3747 a given linear address.
3748
3749 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3750 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3751 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3752
3753 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3754
3755 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3756
3757 * Changes in documentation.
3758
3759 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3760 Documentation License.
3761
3762 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3763 manual.
3764
3765 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3766
3767 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3768 manual.
3769
3770 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3771 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3772 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3773
3774 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3775
3776 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3777 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3778 contents of this file.
3779
3780 * gdba.el deleted
3781
3782 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
3783
3784 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
3785
3786 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3787
3788 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3789 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3790 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3791 greater level of detail.
3792
3793 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3794
3795 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3796 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3797 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3798 written.
3799
3800 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3801
3802 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3803 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3804 machines ``out of the box''.
3805
3806 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3807 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3808 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3809 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3810 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3811
3812 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3813 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3814 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3815 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3816 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3817
3818 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3819 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3820 also works.
3821
3822 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3823 GDB.
3824
3825 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3826 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3827 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3828 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3829
3830 * New native configurations
3831
3832 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
3833 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3834
3835 * New targets
3836
3837 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
3838 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3839 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
3840 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3841
3842 * OBSOLETE configurations
3843
3844 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3845 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3846 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3847 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3848 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
3849
3850 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3851 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3852 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3853 be permanently REMOVED.
3854
3855 * Gould support removed
3856
3857 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3858
3859 * New features for SVR4
3860
3861 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3862 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3863 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3864
3865 * Many C++ enhancements
3866
3867 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3868 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3869
3870 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3871
3872 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3873 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3874 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3875 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3876
3877 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3878 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3879
3880 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
3881
3882 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3883 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3884 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3885
3886 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3887 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3888
3889 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3890
3891 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3892 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3893 include ``set remote P-packet''.
3894
3895 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3896
3897 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3898 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3899 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3900
3901 * ``apropos'' command added.
3902
3903 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3904 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3905 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3906
3907 * New MI interface
3908
3909 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3910 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
3911 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3912 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3913 enabled by configuring with:
3914
3915 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3916
3917 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3918
3919 * New native configurations
3920
3921 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3922 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
3923 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
3924
3925 * New targets
3926
3927 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3928 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3929 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3930
3931 * OBSOLETE configurations
3932
3933 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3934
3935 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3936 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3937 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3938 be permanently REMOVED.
3939
3940 * ANSI/ISO C
3941
3942 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3943 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3944 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3945 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3946 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3947 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3948 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3949 already.
3950
3951 * Readline 2.2
3952
3953 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3954
3955 * set extension-language
3956
3957 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3958 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3959 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3960 set extension-language .c c++
3961 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3962 and their associated languages.
3963
3964 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3965
3966 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3967 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3968 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3969
3970 set processor NAME
3971
3972 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3973 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3974
3975 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3976 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3977 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3978 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3979 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3980 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3981 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3982 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3983 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3984 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3985 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3986
3987 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3988 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3989 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3990 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3991
3992 * HP-UX support
3993
3994 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3995 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3996 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3997 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3998 for xdb and dbx commands.
3999
4000 * Catchpoints
4001
4002 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
4003 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
4004 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
4005
4006 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
4007 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
4008 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
4009
4010 * Debugging across forks
4011
4012 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
4013 in the inferior.
4014
4015 * TUI
4016
4017 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
4018 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
4019 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
4020
4021 * GDB remote protocol additions
4022
4023 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
4024 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
4025 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
4026 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
4027
4028 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
4029 full 64-bit address. The command
4030
4031 set remoteaddresssize 32
4032
4033 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
4034 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
4035 will be discarded.
4036
4037 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
4038 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
4039
4040 maint packet heythere
4041
4042 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
4043 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
4044 time.
4045
4046 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
4047 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
4048 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
4049
4050 * Tracing can collect general expressions
4051
4052 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
4053 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
4054 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
4055
4056 * mask-address variable for Mips
4057
4058 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
4059 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
4060 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
4061
4062 * Higher serial baud rates
4063
4064 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
4065 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
4066 to achieve all of these rates.)
4067
4068 * i960 simulator
4069
4070 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
4071 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
4072
4073
4074 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
4075
4076 * New native configurations
4077
4078 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
4079 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
4080 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4081 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4082 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4083 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
4084 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
4085
4086 * New targets
4087
4088 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4089 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
4090 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4091 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
4092 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
4093 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
4094 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
4095 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
4096 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4097 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4098 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
4099
4100 * New debugging protocols
4101
4102 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4103 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
4104 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
4105 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4106 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4107 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4108
4109 * DWARF 2
4110
4111 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
4112 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
4113 information.
4114
4115 * Java frontend
4116
4117 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
4118 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
4119
4120 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
4121
4122 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
4123 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
4124 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
4125
4126 * Live range splitting
4127
4128 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
4129 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
4130 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
4131
4132 * Hurd support
4133
4134 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
4135 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
4136
4137 * ARM Thumb support
4138
4139 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
4140 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
4141 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
4142 accordingly.
4143
4144 * MIPS16 support
4145
4146 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
4147 instruction set.
4148
4149 * Overlay support
4150
4151 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
4152 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
4153 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
4154 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
4155 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
4156 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
4157
4158 * info symbol
4159
4160 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4161 the symbol at the specified address.
4162
4163 * Trace support
4164
4165 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4166 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4167 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4168 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4169 file tracepoint.c for more details.
4170
4171 * MIPS simulator
4172
4173 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4174 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4175 of most MIPS variants.
4176
4177 * Sparc simulator
4178
4179 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4180 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4181 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4182
4183 * set architecture
4184
4185 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4186 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4187 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4188 the possible architectures.
4189
4190 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4191
4192 * New native configurations
4193
4194 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4195 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4196 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4197 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4198 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4199 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4200
4201 * New targets
4202
4203 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4204 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4205 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4206 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4207 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4208 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
4209 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4210
4211 * PowerPC simulator
4212
4213 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4214 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4215 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4216 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4217 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4218
4219 * Solaris 2.5
4220
4221 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4222
4223 * Windows 95/NT native
4224
4225 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4226 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4227 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4228 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4229 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4230
4231 * dont-repeat command
4232
4233 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4234 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4235 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4236 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4237
4238 * Send break instead of ^C
4239
4240 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4241 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4242 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4243
4244 * Remote protocol timeout
4245
4246 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4247 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4248 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4249
4250 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4251
4252 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4253 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4254 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4255 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4256 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
4257
4258 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
4259 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
4260 automatically on hpux10.
4261
4262 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
4263
4264 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
4265
4266 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
4267
4268 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
4269 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
4270 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
4271 every character. The default value is 1050.
4272
4273 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
4274
4275 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
4276 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
4277 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4278 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4279 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4280 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4281
4282 * Speedups for remote debugging
4283
4284 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4285 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4286 and more efficient S-record downloading.
4287
4288 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4289
4290 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4291 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4292
4293 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4294
4295 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
4296
4297 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4298 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4299
4300 * Remote targets use caching
4301
4302 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4303 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4304 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4305 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4306 off' turns the the data cache off.
4307
4308 * Remote targets may have threads
4309
4310 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4311 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4312 gdb/remote.c for details.
4313
4314 * NetROM support
4315
4316 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4317 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4318 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4319 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4320 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4321 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4322 sequence is something like
4323
4324 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4325 load <prog>
4326 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4327
4328 * Macintosh host
4329
4330 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4331 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4332 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4333 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4334 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4335 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4336 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4337 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4338
4339 * Autoconf
4340
4341 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4342 but does simplify configuration and building.
4343
4344 * hpux10
4345
4346 GDB now supports hpux10.
4347
4348 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4349
4350 * New native configurations
4351
4352 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4353 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4354 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4355 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4356
4357 * New targets
4358
4359 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4360 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4361 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4362 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4363 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4364
4365 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4366
4367 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4368 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4369 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4370 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4371 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4372
4373 * Arguments to user-defined commands
4374
4375 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4376 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4377 trivial example:
4378 define adder
4379 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4380
4381 To execute the command use:
4382 adder 1 2 3
4383
4384 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4385 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4386 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4387
4388 * New `if' and `while' commands
4389
4390 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4391 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4392 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4393 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4394 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4395 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4396 if the expression is zero.
4397
4398 * Fortran source language mode
4399
4400 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4401 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4402 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4403 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4404 Fortran compilers.
4405
4406 * Better HPUX support
4407
4408 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4409 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4410 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4411 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4412 that behavior do the following before running the program:
4413
4414 adb -w a.out
4415 __dld_flags?W 0x5
4416 control-d
4417
4418 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4419 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4420
4421 adb -w a.out
4422 __dld_flags?W 0x4
4423 control-d
4424
4425 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4426 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4427 external linkage.
4428
4429 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4430 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4431
4432 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4433
4434 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4435 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4436 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4437 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4438 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4439 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4440
4441 * New DOS host serial code
4442
4443 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4444 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4445 a PC's serial port.
4446
4447 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4448
4449 * New "complete" command
4450
4451 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4452 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4453
4454 * Trailing space optional in prompt
4455
4456 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4457 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4458
4459 * Breakpoint hit counts
4460
4461 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4462 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4463 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4464 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4465 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4466 that breakpoint.
4467
4468 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4469
4470 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4471 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4472 arrays actually contain only short strings.
4473
4474 * Shared library breakpoints
4475
4476 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4477 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4478
4479 * Hardware watchpoints
4480
4481 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4482 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4483
4484 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
4485
4486 * Annotations
4487
4488 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4489 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4490
4491 * Improved Irix 5 support
4492
4493 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4494
4495 * Improved HPPA support
4496
4497 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4498
4499 * New native configurations
4500
4501 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4502 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4503 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4504 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4505
4506 * New targets
4507
4508 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4509 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4510 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
4511
4512 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4513
4514 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4515 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4516
4517 * Fixes
4518
4519 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4520 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4521
4522 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4523
4524 * Irix 5 is now supported
4525
4526 * HPPA support
4527
4528 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4529 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4530 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4531 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4532 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4533
4534
4535 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4536
4537 * User visible changes:
4538
4539 * Remote Debugging
4540
4541 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4542 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4543 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4544 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4545 debugging info for the mips target).
4546
4547 * DEC Alpha native support
4548
4549 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4550 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4551 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4552 Alpha-specific notes.
4553
4554 * Preliminary thread implementation
4555
4556 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4557
4558 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
4559
4560 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4561 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4562 for details).
4563
4564 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4565
4566 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4567 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4568 call methods, ...etc.
4569
4570 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4571
4572 * User visible changes:
4573
4574 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4575 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4576 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4577 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4578
4579 Filename completion now works.
4580
4581 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4582 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4583 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4584
4585 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4586 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4587 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4588 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4589 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4590
4591 * DEC alpha support
4592
4593 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4594 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4595
4596
4597 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4598
4599 * Testsuite
4600
4601 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4602 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4603 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4604
4605 * C++ demangling
4606
4607 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4608 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4609 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4610 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4611 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4612
4613 * Simulators
4614
4615 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4616 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4617 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4618
4619 * New targets supported
4620
4621 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4622 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4623 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4624 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4625 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4626
4627 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4628 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4629 GO32 memory extender.
4630
4631 * New remote protocols
4632
4633 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4634
4635 * New source languages supported
4636
4637 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4638 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4639 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4640
4641
4642 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4643
4644 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4645
4646 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4647 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4648 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4649 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4650 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4651 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4652
4653 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4654
4655 * Faster and better demangling
4656
4657 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4658 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4659 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4660 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4661 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4662 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4663 symbol lookups.
4664
4665 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4666 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4667 compiler does not actually implement.
4668
4669 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4670
4671 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4672 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4673 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4674 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4675 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4676 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4677 fix.
4678
4679 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4680 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4681
4682 * Improved configure script
4683
4684 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4685 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4686 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4687 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4688
4689 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4690 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4691 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4692 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4693 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4694 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4695
4696 * Documentation improvements
4697
4698 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4699 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4700 before submitting changes.
4701
4702 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4703 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4704 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4705 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4706 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4707
4708 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4709 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4710 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4711 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4712 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4713 around this problem.
4714
4715 * New features
4716
4717 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4718 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4719 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4720 the target program.
4721
4722 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4723 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4724
4725 * New native hosts supported
4726
4727 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4728 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4729
4730 * New targets supported
4731
4732 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4733
4734 * New file formats supported
4735
4736 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4737 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4738
4739 * Major bug fixes
4740
4741 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4742
4743 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4744 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4745
4746 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4747 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4748 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4749
4750 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4751 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4752
4753 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4754 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4755 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4756 libraries.
4757
4758 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4759 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4760 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4761 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4762 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4763
4764 * Internal improvements
4765
4766 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4767 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4768
4769 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4770 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4771 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4772 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4773 shared code that handles any of them.
4774
4775 * New command line options
4776
4777 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4778
4779 * Mmalloc licensing
4780
4781 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4782 General Public License.
4783
4784 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4785
4786 * Host/native/target split
4787
4788 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4789 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4790 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4791 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4792 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4793
4794 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4795 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4796 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4797 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4798 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4799 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4800 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4801
4802 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4803 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4804 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4805
4806 * New hosts supported
4807
4808 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4809 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4810 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4811
4812 * New targets supported
4813
4814 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4815 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4816
4817 * New native hosts supported
4818
4819 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4820 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4821 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4822
4823 * New file formats supported
4824
4825 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4826 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4827 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4828
4829 * New commands
4830
4831 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4832 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4833 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4834
4835 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4836
4837 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4838 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4839 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4840 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4841
4842 * C++ improvements
4843
4844 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4845 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4846 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4847
4848 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4849
4850 * Major bug fixes
4851
4852 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4853 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4854 by the compiler.
4855
4856 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4857 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4858
4859 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4860 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4861 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4862 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4863 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4864 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4865
4866 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4867 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4868 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4869 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4870
4871 * AMD 29k support
4872
4873 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4874 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4875 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4876 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4877 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4878
4879 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4880 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4881 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4882 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4883
4884 * Remote interfaces
4885
4886 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4887 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4888 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4889 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4890 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4891 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4892 each instruction being stepped through.
4893
4894 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4895 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4896
4897 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4898 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4899 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4900 processor with a serial port.
4901
4902 * Configuration
4903
4904 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4905 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4906 supported, and what files each one uses.
4907
4908 * Library changes
4909
4910 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4911 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4912 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4913 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4914
4915 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4916 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4917 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4918 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4919
4920 * Documentation
4921
4922 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4923 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4924 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4925 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4926 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4927 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4928
4929 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4930
4931
4932 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4933
4934 * Better support for C++ function names
4935
4936 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4937 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4938 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4939 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4940 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4941
4942 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4943 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4944 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4945 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4946 for the list of formats.
4947
4948 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4949
4950 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4951 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4952 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4953 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4954 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4955 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4956 this problem.)
4957
4958 * New 'maintenance' command
4959
4960 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4961 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4962 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4963
4964 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4965 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4966 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4967 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4968 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4969 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4970
4971 The following commands are new:
4972
4973 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4974 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4975 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4976
4977 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4978
4979 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4980 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4981 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4982 read after argv processing.
4983
4984 * New hosts supported
4985
4986 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4987
4988 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
4989
4990 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4991 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4992 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4993 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4994 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4995 It costs extra.
4996
4997 * New targets supported
4998
4999 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5000
5001 * More smarts about finding #include files
5002
5003 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
5004 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
5005 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
5006 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
5007 the one that contains your sources.
5008
5009 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
5010 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
5011 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
5012
5013 * Interesting infernals change
5014
5015 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
5016 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
5017 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
5018 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
5019
5020 * Bug fixes (of course!)
5021
5022 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
5023 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
5024 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
5025
5026 See the ChangeLog for details.
5027
5028 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
5029
5030 * New machines supported (host and target)
5031
5032 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
5033
5034 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5035
5036 * New malloc package
5037
5038 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
5039 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
5040 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
5041 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
5042 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
5043 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
5044
5045 * info proc
5046
5047 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
5048 'help info proc' for details.
5049
5050 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
5051
5052 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
5053 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
5054 possible.
5055
5056 * File name changes for MS-DOS
5057
5058 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
5059 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
5060 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
5061 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
5062 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
5063 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
5064
5065 * Cross byte order fixes
5066
5067 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
5068 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
5069
5070 * New -mapped and -readnow options
5071
5072 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
5073 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
5074 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
5075 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
5076 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
5077 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
5078 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
5079 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
5080 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
5081 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
5082
5083 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
5084 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
5085 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
5086 slower, but makes future operations faster.
5087
5088 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
5089 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
5090 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
5091 use is:
5092
5093 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
5094
5095 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
5096 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
5097 shared across multiple host platforms.
5098
5099 * longjmp() handling
5100
5101 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
5102 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
5103 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
5104 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
5105
5106 * Solaris 2.0
5107
5108 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
5109 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
5110 reading symbols.
5111
5112 * Bug fixes
5113
5114 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
5115 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
5116 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
5117
5118 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
5119
5120 * New machines supported (host and target)
5121
5122 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5123 (except core files)
5124 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
5125 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
5126
5127 * New machines supported (target)
5128
5129 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5130
5131 * C++ support
5132
5133 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
5134 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
5135 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
5136
5137 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
5138 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
5139 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
5140 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
5141 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
5142 released.
5143
5144 * New features for SVR4
5145
5146 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
5147 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
5148 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
5149
5150 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
5151 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
5152 it prints the address mappings of the process.
5153
5154 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
5155 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
5156
5157 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
5158
5159 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
5160 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5161 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5162 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5163 same code linked statically.
5164
5165 * New Getopt
5166
5167 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5168 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5169 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5170 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5171 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5172 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5173
5174 * Bugs fixed
5175
5176 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5177 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5178 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5179
5180
5181 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5182
5183 * New machines supported (host and target)
5184
5185 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5186 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5187 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5188
5189 * Almost SCO Unix support
5190
5191 We had hoped to support:
5192 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5193 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5194 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5195 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5196
5197 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5198
5199 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5200 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5201 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5202 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5203 reqired (if any).
5204
5205 * New Readline
5206
5207 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5208 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5209 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5210
5211 * Bugs fixed
5212
5213 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5214 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5215 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5216
5217 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5218
5219 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5220 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5221 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5222
5223 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5224 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5225 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5226 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5227 version 2.
5228
5229 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5230 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5231 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5232 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5233 situation somewhat.
5234
5235 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5236 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5237 methods.
5238
5239 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5240 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5241 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5242
5243
5244 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5245
5246 * Improved configuration
5247
5248 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5249 Porting BFD is simpler.
5250
5251 * Stepping improved
5252
5253 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5254 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5255 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5256 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
5257
5258 * Bug fixing
5259
5260 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
5261
5262 * New host supported (not target)
5263
5264 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
5265
5266
5267 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
5268
5269 * Multiple source language support
5270
5271 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
5272 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
5273 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
5274 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
5275 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
5276 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
5277
5278 * GDB and Modula-2
5279
5280 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5281 currently under development at the State University of New York at
5282 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5283 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5284
5285 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5286 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5287 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5288
5289 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5290 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5291
5292 * set write on/off
5293
5294 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5295 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5296 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5297 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5298 effect immediately.
5299
5300 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5301
5302 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5303 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5304 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5305 examining core files.
5306
5307 * set listsize
5308
5309 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5310 The default is 10.
5311
5312 * New machines supported (host and target)
5313
5314 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5315 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5316 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5317
5318 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5319
5320 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5321
5322 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5323
5324 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5325 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5326 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5327
5328 * New remote interfaces
5329
5330 AMD 29000 Adapt
5331 AMD 29000 Minimon
5332
5333
5334 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5335
5336 * New Facilities
5337
5338 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5339
5340 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5341 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5342 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5343 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5344 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5345 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5346 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5347 stub on the target system.
5348
5349 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5350
5351 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5352 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5353 object file types such as a.out and coff.
5354
5355 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5356 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5357
5358
5359 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5360
5361 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5362 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5363
5364 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5365 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5366 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5367
5368 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5369 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5370 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5371 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5372
5373 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5374 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5375 it is already running. Default is ON.
5376
5377 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5378 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5379 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5380 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5381 Default is ON.
5382
5383 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5384 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5385 or the value of the environment variable
5386 GDBHISTFILE.
5387
5388 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5389 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5390 HISTSIZE.
5391
5392 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5393 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5394 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5395
5396 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5397 history expansion will be performed on
5398 command line input. The default is OFF.
5399
5400 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5401 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5402 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5403
5404 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5405 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5406 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5407 variable TERM.
5408
5409 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5410 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5411 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5412 variable TERM.
5413
5414 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5415 ``set width'' instead.
5416
5417 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5418 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5419 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5420 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5421
5422 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5423 is OFF.
5424
5425 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5426 "raw" form if off.
5427
5428 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5429 like instructions.
5430
5431 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5432
5433
5434 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5435
5436 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5437 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5438 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5439 window.
5440
5441
5442 * Support for Shared Libraries
5443
5444 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5445 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5446 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5447 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5448 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5449 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5450 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5451 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5452
5453 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5454 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5455 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5456
5457 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5458
5459
5460 * Watchpoints
5461
5462 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5463 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5464 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5465 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5466 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5467 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5468
5469 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5470
5471 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5472
5473 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5474 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5475 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5476
5477
5478 * C++ multiple inheritance
5479
5480 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5481 for C++ programs.
5482
5483 * C++ exception handling
5484
5485 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5486 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5487 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5488 handler's context).
5489
5490 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5491 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5492 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5493
5494 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5495 current stack frame.
5496
5497
5498 * Minor command changes
5499
5500 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5501 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5502 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5503
5504 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5505 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5506 frames without printing.
5507
5508 * New directory command
5509
5510 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5511 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5512 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5513 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5514 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5515
5516 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5517
5518 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5519 for more details.
5520
5521 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5522 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5523 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5524 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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