1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.0
8 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
12 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
14 * Multi-program debugging.
16 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
17 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
18 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
19 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
20 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
21 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
22 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
23 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
25 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
27 record save [<FILENAME>]
28 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
29 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
31 record restore <FILENAME>
32 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
33 earlier time, for replay debugging.
35 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
38 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
39 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
45 maint info program-spaces
46 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
48 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
49 show remote interrupt-sequence
50 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
51 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
52 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
53 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
54 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
56 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
57 show remote interrupt-on-connect
58 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
59 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
62 set remotebreak [on | off]
64 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
68 set follow-exec-mode new|same
70 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
71 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
72 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
74 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
76 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
77 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
78 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
79 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
80 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
82 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
83 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
84 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
85 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
86 for tracepoint actions.
88 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
89 in hex as well as in symbolic form."
91 * Process record and replay
93 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
94 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
95 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
98 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
99 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
100 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
103 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
104 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
107 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
108 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
109 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
110 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
111 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
112 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
113 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
114 the installation instructions for more information.
116 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
117 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
118 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
119 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
121 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
122 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
124 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
125 now complete on file names.
127 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
128 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
129 For instance, consider:
131 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
132 # struct example variable;
135 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
136 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
138 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
139 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
141 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
142 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
145 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
146 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
147 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
149 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
150 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
151 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
152 and simulator targets may also provide them.
157 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
160 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
161 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
162 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
165 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
166 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
169 Obtains additional operating system information
173 Read or write additional signal information.
175 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
177 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
178 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
179 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
181 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
184 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
185 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
187 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
188 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
189 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
191 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
192 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
194 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
196 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
198 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
199 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
201 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
202 list of section offsets.
204 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
205 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
206 have also been fixed.
208 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
209 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
210 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
212 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
215 template<typename T> class C { };
218 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
220 ptype C<char const *>
222 ptype C<const char *>
225 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
227 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
228 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
230 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
231 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
232 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
234 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
235 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
237 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
240 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
241 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
243 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
244 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
249 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
250 available is determined at configure time.
252 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
254 * Ada tasking support
256 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
260 Print the list of Ada tasks.
262 Print detailed information about task number N.
264 Print the task number of the current task.
266 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
268 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
269 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
271 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
273 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
274 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
275 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
276 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
277 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
278 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
281 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
282 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
285 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
286 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
287 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
288 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
291 * Multi-architecture debugging.
293 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
294 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
295 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
296 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
297 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
299 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
300 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
301 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
302 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
303 --enable-targets configure option.
305 * Non-stop mode debugging.
307 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
308 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
309 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
310 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
311 section in the user manual for more information.
313 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
314 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
315 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
316 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
317 extensions on linux targets.
319 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
321 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
322 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
323 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
324 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
325 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
326 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
327 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
328 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
329 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
331 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
333 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
335 maint set python print-stack
336 maint show python print-stack
337 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
340 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
345 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
349 Show operating system information about processes.
352 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
355 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
358 Detach from inferior number NUM.
361 Kill inferior number NUM.
366 show spu stop-on-load
367 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
369 set spu auto-flush-cache
370 show spu auto-flush-cache
371 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
372 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
374 set sh calling-convention
375 show sh calling-convention
376 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
380 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
382 set disassemble-next-line
383 show disassemble-next-line
384 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
387 set remote noack-packet
388 show remote noack-packet
389 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
390 under "New remote packets."
392 set remote query-attached-packet
393 show remote query-attached-packet
394 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
396 set remote read-siginfo-object
397 show remote read-siginfo-object
398 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
401 set remote write-siginfo-object
402 show remote write-siginfo-object
403 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
406 set remote reverse-continue
407 show remote reverse-continue
408 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
410 set remote reverse-step
411 show remote reverse-step
412 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
414 set displaced-stepping
415 show displaced-stepping
416 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
417 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
418 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
422 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
424 maint set internal-error
425 maint show internal-error
426 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
428 maint set internal-warning
429 maint show internal-warning
430 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
435 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
437 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
438 show multiple-symbols
439 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
440 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
441 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
443 set breakpoint always-inserted
444 show breakpoint always-inserted
445 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
446 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
447 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
449 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
450 show arm fallback-mode
451 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
453 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
454 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
455 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
456 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
458 set disable-randomization
459 show disable-randomization
460 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
461 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
462 multiple debugging sessions.
466 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
471 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
472 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
473 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
474 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
476 set target-wide-charset
477 show target-wide-charset
478 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
479 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
481 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
483 set tcp connect-timeout
484 show tcp connect-timeout
485 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
486 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
487 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
489 set libthread-db-search-path
490 show libthread-db-search-path
491 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
494 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
495 show schedule-multiple
496 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
501 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
502 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
503 affecting correctness.
505 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
506 show interactive-mode
507 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
508 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
509 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
510 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
511 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
516 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
517 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
518 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
522 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
523 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
524 alias for the `fork' command.
527 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
528 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
529 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
532 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
533 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
534 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
538 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
539 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
540 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
543 * New native configurations
545 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
547 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
551 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
552 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
553 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
556 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
557 (mingw32ce) debugging.
563 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
565 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
567 * New native configurations
569 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
570 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
574 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
575 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
577 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
579 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
580 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
581 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
582 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
584 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
585 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
587 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
590 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
591 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
592 and in inlined functions.
594 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
595 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
596 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
598 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
600 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
601 registers on PowerPC targets.
603 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
604 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
606 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
607 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
609 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
610 extended-remote mode.
612 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
613 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
614 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
615 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
617 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
618 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
619 target architectures.
621 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
622 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
623 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
624 stored in two consecutive float registers.
626 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
629 * Improved support for debugging Ada
630 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
632 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
633 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
634 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
635 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
637 - Improved command completion in Ada
640 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
645 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
646 show print frame-arguments
647 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
648 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
653 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
660 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
669 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
672 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
676 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
678 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
680 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
681 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
682 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
684 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
685 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
686 -Bsymbolic linker option.
688 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
689 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
692 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
693 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
695 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
696 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
698 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
700 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
701 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
702 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
704 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
705 automatically displayed as character or string data.
707 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
708 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
711 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
712 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
713 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
715 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
718 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
719 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
720 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
722 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
724 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
726 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
727 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
728 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
730 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
731 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
733 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
734 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
735 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
736 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
737 Windows and SymbianOS).
739 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
740 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
742 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
743 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
749 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
750 when debugging using remote targets.
752 set mem inaccessible-by-default
753 show mem inaccessible-by-default
754 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
755 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
756 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
757 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
758 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
760 set breakpoint auto-hw
761 show breakpoint auto-hw
762 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
763 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
764 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
765 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
766 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
767 including "next" and "finish".
770 catch exception unhandled
771 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
774 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
778 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
779 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
780 an alias to "set sysroot".
783 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
784 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
787 * New native configurations
789 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
794 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
795 not query the target for its built-in description.
799 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
800 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
801 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
806 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
807 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
810 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
815 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
816 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
818 qXfer:libraries:read:
819 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
820 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
821 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
822 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
826 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
835 i[34567]86-*-netware*
836 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
837 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
839 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
842 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
843 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
852 * Other removed features
859 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
866 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
871 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
872 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
877 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
878 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
880 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
882 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
883 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
884 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
885 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
889 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
890 in debugging information.
894 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
895 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
897 set mips stack-arg-size
898 set mips saved-gpreg-size
900 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
902 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
907 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
909 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
910 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
911 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
913 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
914 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
917 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
918 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
920 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
921 stub provides the required support.
923 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
924 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
929 unset substitute-path
931 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
932 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
933 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
934 between compilation and debugging.
938 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
939 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
940 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
944 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
946 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
947 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
949 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
954 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
955 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
956 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
957 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
961 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
962 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
964 qXfer:memory-map:read:
965 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
966 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
971 Erase and program a flash memory device.
973 * Removed remote packets
976 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
977 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
979 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
983 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
985 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
989 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
990 only if it doesn't already have a value.
992 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
994 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
996 restart <n> Return the program state to a
997 previously saved state.
999 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1001 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1003 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1004 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1006 info forks List forks of the user program that
1007 are available to be debugged.
1009 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1010 forks of the user program that are
1011 available to be debugged.
1013 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1014 that are available to be debugged (and
1015 kill the forked process).
1017 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1018 that are available to be debugged (and
1019 allow the process to continue).
1023 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1025 * Improved Windows host support
1027 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1028 native console support, and remote communications using either
1029 network sockets or serial ports.
1031 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1033 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1034 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1035 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1036 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1037 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1038 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1042 The ARM rdi-share module.
1044 The Netware NLM debug server.
1046 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1048 * New native configurations
1050 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1051 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1055 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1057 * New command line options
1059 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1060 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1061 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1062 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1063 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1064 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1065 with the --command (-x) option.
1067 * Deprecated commands removed
1069 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1073 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1074 othernames set arm disassembler
1075 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1076 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1077 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1080 * New BSD user-level threads support
1082 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1083 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1086 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1087 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1088 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1090 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1091 are not yet supported.
1093 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1094 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1096 * REMOVED configurations and files
1098 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1099 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1100 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1102 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1104 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1105 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1108 * VAX floating point support
1110 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1112 * User-defined command support
1114 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1115 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1116 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1118 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1120 * New command line option
1122 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1125 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1127 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1128 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1129 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1130 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1131 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1133 * Internationalization
1135 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1136 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1137 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1141 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1142 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1143 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1145 * New native configurations
1147 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1151 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1152 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1154 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1156 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1157 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1158 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1161 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1162 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1163 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1173 powerpc bdm protocol
1175 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1176 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1178 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1180 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1181 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1182 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1183 permanently REMOVED.
1192 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1194 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1196 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1197 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1200 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1202 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1203 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1204 IRIX long double values).
1208 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1209 command. This problem has been fixed.
1211 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1213 * Fix for ``many threads''
1215 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1216 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1219 ptrace: No such process.
1220 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1222 This problem has been fixed.
1224 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1226 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1229 * New ``start'' command.
1231 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1233 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1235 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1236 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1237 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1239 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1240 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1241 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1242 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1243 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1244 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1245 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1246 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1247 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1249 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1251 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1252 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1253 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1254 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1255 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1257 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1258 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1259 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1261 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1263 * New native configurations
1265 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1266 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1267 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1268 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1269 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1270 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1271 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1273 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1275 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1276 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1277 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1278 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1279 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1280 work, was also included.
1282 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1283 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1293 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1294 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1296 * REMOVED configurations and files
1298 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1299 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1300 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1301 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1302 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1303 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1304 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1305 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1306 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1307 sonymips mips-sony-*
1308 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1310 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1312 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1314 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1315 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1316 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1317 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1320 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1322 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1323 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1324 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1325 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1326 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1327 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1330 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1332 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1334 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1335 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1336 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1338 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1340 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1341 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1343 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1345 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1346 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1347 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1349 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1351 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1352 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1354 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1356 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1357 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1358 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1360 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1362 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1363 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1364 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1366 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1368 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1370 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1371 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1373 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1375 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1376 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1377 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1378 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1380 * Revised SPARC target
1382 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1383 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1384 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1385 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1386 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1390 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1391 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1392 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1395 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1397 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1398 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1401 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1403 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1404 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1405 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1406 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1407 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1408 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1409 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1410 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1411 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1413 * New native configurations
1415 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1416 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1417 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1418 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1419 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1421 * New debugging protocols
1423 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1425 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1427 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1428 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1429 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1431 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1433 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1434 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1435 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1436 permanently REMOVED.
1438 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1439 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1440 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1441 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1442 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1443 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1444 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1445 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1446 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1447 sonymips mips-sony-*
1448 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1450 * REMOVED configurations and files
1452 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1453 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1454 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1455 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1456 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1457 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1458 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1459 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1460 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1461 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1462 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1463 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1464 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1465 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1466 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1467 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1468 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1470 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1474 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1475 integrated into GDB.
1477 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1479 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1480 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1481 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1484 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1485 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1486 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1490 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1491 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1492 remote protocol documentation for details.
1494 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1496 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1497 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1498 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1501 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1503 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1504 per-thread variables.
1506 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1508 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1509 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1511 * Separate debug info.
1513 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1514 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1515 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1516 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1517 and optional debug files.
1519 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1521 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1522 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1525 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1526 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1530 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1531 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1532 considered "useable".
1534 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1536 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1537 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1540 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1542 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1543 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1545 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1547 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1548 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1551 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1553 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1554 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1558 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1559 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1560 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1561 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1562 data, for more informative profiling results.
1564 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1566 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1567 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1568 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1570 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1573 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1574 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1575 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1576 in a subsequent -var-update.
1578 * New native configurations.
1580 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1582 * Multi-arched targets.
1584 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1585 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1587 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1589 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1590 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1591 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1592 permanently REMOVED.
1594 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1595 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1596 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1597 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1598 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1599 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1600 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1601 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1602 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1603 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1604 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1605 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1607 * REMOVED configurations and files
1610 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1611 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1612 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1613 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1614 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1615 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1617 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1618 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1619 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1620 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1621 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1622 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1624 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1626 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1627 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1628 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1629 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1630 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1632 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1634 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1636 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1637 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1638 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1639 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1640 shared libs like mad''.
1642 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1644 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1645 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1646 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1647 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1649 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1651 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1652 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1655 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1656 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1658 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1659 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1661 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1662 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1663 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1664 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1666 * Multi-arched targets.
1668 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1669 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1671 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1672 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1673 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1677 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1680 * New native configurations
1682 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1683 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1684 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1685 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1687 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1689 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1690 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1691 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1692 permanently REMOVED.
1694 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1695 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1696 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1697 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1698 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1699 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1700 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1701 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1702 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1703 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1705 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1706 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1708 * OBSOLETE languages
1710 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1712 * REMOVED configurations and files
1714 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1715 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1716 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1717 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1718 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1720 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1722 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1724 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1725 commands. The default is 1024.
1727 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1729 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1731 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1733 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1734 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1735 from a file into memory (restore).
1737 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1739 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1740 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1741 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1743 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1751 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1752 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1753 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1755 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1756 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1757 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1759 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1760 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1761 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1763 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1764 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1765 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1767 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1769 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1771 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1772 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1773 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1774 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1775 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1776 (notably embedded) targets.
1778 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1780 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1781 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1782 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1783 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1785 * New command line option
1787 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1789 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1791 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1792 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1793 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1794 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1795 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1796 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1797 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1798 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1799 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1800 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1802 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1804 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1805 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1807 * New native configurations
1809 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1810 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1811 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1812 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1816 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1818 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1820 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1821 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1822 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1823 permanently REMOVED.
1825 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1826 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1827 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1828 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1829 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1831 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1833 * REMOVED configurations and files
1835 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1837 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1838 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1839 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1840 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1841 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1842 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1843 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1844 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1845 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1846 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1847 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1849 * Changes to command line processing
1851 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1852 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1854 * Changes to key bindings
1856 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1858 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1860 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1862 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1865 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1867 Numerous documentation fixes.
1869 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1871 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1873 * New native configurations
1875 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1876 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1877 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1878 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1879 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1880 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1884 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1886 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1888 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1890 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1891 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1892 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1893 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1894 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1896 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1897 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1898 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1899 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1900 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1901 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1902 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1903 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1905 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1906 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1908 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1909 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1910 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1911 permanently REMOVED.
1913 * REMOVED configurations and files
1915 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1916 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1918 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1922 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1924 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1925 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1930 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1932 * The MI enabled by default.
1934 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1935 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1936 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1937 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1938 which is now deprecated.
1940 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1942 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1943 main features are supported:
1945 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1947 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1950 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1952 - a Pascal expression parser.
1954 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1956 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1958 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1960 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1961 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1963 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1965 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1967 * Changes in completion.
1969 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1970 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1971 users expect at the shell prompt.
1973 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1974 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1975 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1976 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1977 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1978 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1979 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1981 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1983 * New platform-independent commands:
1985 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1986 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1987 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1989 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1991 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1992 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1993 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1995 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1997 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1998 multi-threaded programs though.
2000 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2002 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2004 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2005 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2008 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2010 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2011 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2012 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2013 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2014 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2017 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2018 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2019 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2021 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2023 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2024 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2026 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2027 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2030 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2031 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2032 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2033 a given linear address.
2035 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2036 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2037 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2039 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2041 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2043 * Changes in documentation.
2045 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2046 Documentation License.
2048 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2051 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2053 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2056 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2057 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2058 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2060 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2062 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2063 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2064 contents of this file.
2068 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2070 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2072 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2074 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2075 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2076 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2077 greater level of detail.
2079 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2081 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2082 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2083 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2086 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2088 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2089 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2090 machines ``out of the box''.
2092 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2093 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2094 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2095 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2096 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2098 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2099 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2100 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2101 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2102 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2104 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2105 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2108 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2111 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2112 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2113 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2114 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2116 * New native configurations
2118 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2119 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2123 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2124 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2125 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2126 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2128 * OBSOLETE configurations
2130 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2131 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2133 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2136 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2137 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2138 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2139 be permanently REMOVED.
2141 * Gould support removed
2143 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2145 * New features for SVR4
2147 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2148 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2149 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2151 * Many C++ enhancements
2153 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2154 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2156 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2158 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2159 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2160 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2161 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2163 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2164 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2166 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2168 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2169 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2170 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2172 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2173 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2175 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2177 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2178 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2179 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2181 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2183 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2184 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2185 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2187 * ``apropos'' command added.
2189 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2190 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2191 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2195 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2196 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2197 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2198 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2199 enabled by configuring with:
2201 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2203 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2205 * New native configurations
2207 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2208 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2209 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2213 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2214 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2215 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2217 * OBSOLETE configurations
2219 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2221 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2222 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2223 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2224 be permanently REMOVED.
2228 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2229 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2230 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2231 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2232 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2233 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2234 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2239 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2241 * set extension-language
2243 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2244 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2245 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2246 set extension-language .c c++
2247 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2248 and their associated languages.
2250 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2252 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2253 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2254 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2258 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2259 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2261 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2262 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2264 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2265 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2266 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2267 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2268 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2269 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2270 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2271 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2273 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2274 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2275 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2276 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2280 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2281 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2282 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2283 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2284 for xdb and dbx commands.
2288 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2289 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2290 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2292 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2293 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2294 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2296 * Debugging across forks
2298 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2303 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2304 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2305 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2307 * GDB remote protocol additions
2309 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2310 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2311 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2312 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2314 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2315 full 64-bit address. The command
2317 set remoteaddresssize 32
2319 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2320 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2323 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2324 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2326 maint packet heythere
2328 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2329 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2332 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2333 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2334 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2336 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2338 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2339 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2340 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2342 * mask-address variable for Mips
2344 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2345 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2346 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2348 * Higher serial baud rates
2350 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2351 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2352 to achieve all of these rates.)
2356 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2357 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2360 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2362 * New native configurations
2364 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2365 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2366 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2367 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2368 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2369 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2370 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2374 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2375 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2376 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2377 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2378 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2379 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2380 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2381 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2382 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2383 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2384 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2386 * New debugging protocols
2388 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2389 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2390 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2391 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2392 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2393 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2397 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2398 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2403 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2404 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2406 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2408 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2409 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2410 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2412 * Live range splitting
2414 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2415 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2416 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2420 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2421 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2425 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2426 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2427 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2432 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2437 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2438 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2439 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2440 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2441 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2442 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2446 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2447 the symbol at the specified address.
2451 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2452 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2453 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2454 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2455 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2459 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2460 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2461 of most MIPS variants.
2465 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2466 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2467 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2471 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2472 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2473 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2474 the possible architectures.
2476 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2478 * New native configurations
2480 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2481 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2482 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2483 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2484 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2485 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2489 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2490 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2491 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2492 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2493 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2495 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2499 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2500 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2501 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2502 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2503 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2507 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2509 * Windows 95/NT native
2511 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2512 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2513 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2514 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2515 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2517 * dont-repeat command
2519 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2520 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2521 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2522 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2524 * Send break instead of ^C
2526 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2527 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2528 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2530 * Remote protocol timeout
2532 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2533 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2534 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2536 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2538 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2539 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2540 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2541 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2542 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2544 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2545 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2546 automatically on hpux10.
2548 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2550 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2552 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2554 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2555 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2556 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2557 every character. The default value is 1050.
2559 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2561 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2562 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2563 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2564 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2565 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2566 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2568 * Speedups for remote debugging
2570 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2571 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2572 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2574 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2576 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2577 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2579 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2581 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2583 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2584 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2586 * Remote targets use caching
2588 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2589 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2590 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2591 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2592 off' turns the the data cache off.
2594 * Remote targets may have threads
2596 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2597 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2598 gdb/remote.c for details.
2602 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2603 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2604 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2605 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2606 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2607 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2608 sequence is something like
2610 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2612 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2616 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2617 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2618 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2619 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2620 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2621 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2622 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2623 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2627 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2628 but does simplify configuration and building.
2632 GDB now supports hpux10.
2634 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2636 * New native configurations
2638 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2639 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2640 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2641 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2645 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2646 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2647 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2648 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2651 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2653 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2654 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2655 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2656 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2657 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2659 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2661 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2662 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2665 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2667 To execute the command use:
2670 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2671 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2672 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2674 * New `if' and `while' commands
2676 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2677 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2678 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2679 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2680 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2681 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2682 if the expression is zero.
2684 * Fortran source language mode
2686 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2687 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2688 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2689 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2692 * Better HPUX support
2694 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2695 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2696 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2697 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2698 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2704 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2705 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2711 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2712 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2715 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2716 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2718 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2720 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2721 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2722 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2723 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2724 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2725 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2727 * New DOS host serial code
2729 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2730 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2733 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2735 * New "complete" command
2737 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2738 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2740 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2742 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2743 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2745 * Breakpoint hit counts
2747 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2748 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2749 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2750 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2751 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2754 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2756 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2757 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2758 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2760 * Shared library breakpoints
2762 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2763 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2765 * Hardware watchpoints
2767 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2768 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2770 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2774 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2775 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2777 * Improved Irix 5 support
2779 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2781 * Improved HPPA support
2783 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2785 * New native configurations
2787 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2788 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2789 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2790 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2794 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2795 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2798 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2800 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2801 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2805 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2806 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2808 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2810 * Irix 5 is now supported
2814 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2815 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2816 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2817 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2818 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2821 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2823 * User visible changes:
2827 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2828 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2829 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2830 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2831 debugging info for the mips target).
2833 * DEC Alpha native support
2835 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2836 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2837 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2838 Alpha-specific notes.
2840 * Preliminary thread implementation
2842 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2844 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2846 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2847 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2850 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2852 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2853 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2854 call methods, ...etc.
2856 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2858 * User visible changes:
2860 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2861 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2862 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2863 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2865 Filename completion now works.
2867 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2868 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2869 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2871 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2872 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2873 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2874 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2875 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2879 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2880 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2883 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2887 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2888 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2889 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2893 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2894 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2895 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2896 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2897 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2901 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2902 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2903 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2905 * New targets supported
2907 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2908 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2909 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2910 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2911 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2913 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2914 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2915 GO32 memory extender.
2917 * New remote protocols
2919 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2921 * New source languages supported
2923 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2924 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2925 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2928 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2930 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2932 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2933 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2934 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2935 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2936 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2937 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2939 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2941 * Faster and better demangling
2943 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2944 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2945 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2946 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2947 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2948 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2951 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2952 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2953 compiler does not actually implement.
2955 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2957 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2958 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2959 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2960 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2961 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2962 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2965 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2966 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2968 * Improved configure script
2970 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2971 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2972 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2973 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2975 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2976 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2977 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2978 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2979 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2980 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2982 * Documentation improvements
2984 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2985 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2986 before submitting changes.
2988 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2989 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2990 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2991 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2992 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2994 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2995 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2996 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2997 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2998 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2999 around this problem.
3003 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3004 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3005 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3008 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3009 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3011 * New native hosts supported
3013 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3014 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3016 * New targets supported
3018 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3020 * New file formats supported
3022 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3023 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3027 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3029 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3030 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3032 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3033 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3034 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3036 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3037 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3039 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3040 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3041 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3044 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3045 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3046 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3047 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3048 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3050 * Internal improvements
3052 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3053 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3055 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3056 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3057 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3058 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3059 shared code that handles any of them.
3061 * New command line options
3063 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3067 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3068 General Public License.
3070 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3072 * Host/native/target split
3074 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3075 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3076 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3077 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3078 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3080 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3081 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3082 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3083 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3084 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3085 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3086 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3088 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3089 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3090 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3092 * New hosts supported
3094 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3095 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3096 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3098 * New targets supported
3100 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3101 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3103 * New native hosts supported
3105 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3106 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3107 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3109 * New file formats supported
3111 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3112 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3113 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3117 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3118 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3119 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3121 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3123 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3124 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3125 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3126 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3130 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3131 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3132 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3134 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3138 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3139 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3142 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3143 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3145 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3146 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3147 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3148 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3149 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3150 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3152 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3153 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3154 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3155 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3159 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3160 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3161 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3162 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3163 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3165 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3166 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3167 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3168 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3172 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3173 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3174 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3175 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3176 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3177 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3178 each instruction being stepped through.
3180 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3181 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3183 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3184 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3185 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3186 processor with a serial port.
3190 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3191 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3192 supported, and what files each one uses.
3196 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3197 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3198 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3199 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3201 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3202 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3203 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3204 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3208 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3209 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3210 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3211 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3212 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3213 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3215 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3218 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3220 * Better support for C++ function names
3222 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3223 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3224 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3225 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3226 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3228 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3229 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3230 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3231 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3232 for the list of formats.
3234 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3236 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3237 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3238 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3239 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3240 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3241 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3244 * New 'maintenance' command
3246 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3247 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3248 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3250 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3251 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3252 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3253 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3254 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3255 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3257 The following commands are new:
3259 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3260 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3261 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3263 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3265 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3266 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3267 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3268 read after argv processing.
3270 * New hosts supported
3272 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3274 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3276 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3277 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3278 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3279 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3280 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3283 * New targets supported
3285 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3287 * More smarts about finding #include files
3289 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3290 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3291 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3292 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3293 the one that contains your sources.
3295 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3296 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3297 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3299 * Interesting infernals change
3301 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3302 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3303 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3304 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3306 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3308 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3309 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3310 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3312 See the ChangeLog for details.
3314 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3316 * New machines supported (host and target)
3318 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3320 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3322 * New malloc package
3324 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3325 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3326 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3327 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3328 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3329 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3333 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3334 'help info proc' for details.
3336 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3338 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3339 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3342 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3344 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3345 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3346 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3347 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3348 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3349 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3351 * Cross byte order fixes
3353 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3354 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3356 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3358 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3359 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3360 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3361 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3362 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3363 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3364 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3365 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3366 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3367 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3369 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3370 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3371 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3372 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3374 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3375 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3376 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3379 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3381 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3382 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3383 shared across multiple host platforms.
3385 * longjmp() handling
3387 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3388 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3389 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3390 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3394 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3395 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3400 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3401 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3402 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3404 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3406 * New machines supported (host and target)
3408 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3410 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3411 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3413 * New machines supported (target)
3415 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3419 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3420 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3421 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3423 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3424 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3425 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3426 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3427 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3430 * New features for SVR4
3432 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3433 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3434 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3436 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3437 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3438 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3440 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3441 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3443 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3445 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3446 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3447 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3448 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3449 same code linked statically.
3453 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3454 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3455 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3456 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3457 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3458 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3462 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3463 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3464 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3467 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3469 * New machines supported (host and target)
3471 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3472 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3473 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3475 * Almost SCO Unix support
3477 We had hoped to support:
3478 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3479 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3480 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3481 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3483 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3485 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3486 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3487 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3488 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3493 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3494 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3495 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3499 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3500 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3501 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3503 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3505 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3506 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3507 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3509 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3510 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3511 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3512 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3515 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3516 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3517 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3518 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3521 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3522 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3525 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3526 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3527 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3530 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3532 * Improved configuration
3534 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3535 Porting BFD is simpler.
3539 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3540 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3541 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3542 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3546 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3548 * New host supported (not target)
3550 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3553 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3555 * Multiple source language support
3557 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3558 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3559 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3560 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3561 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3562 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3566 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3567 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3568 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3569 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3571 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3572 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3573 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3575 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3576 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3580 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3581 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3582 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3583 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3586 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3588 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3589 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3590 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3591 examining core files.
3595 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3598 * New machines supported (host and target)
3600 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3601 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3602 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3604 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3606 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3608 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3610 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3611 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3612 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3614 * New remote interfaces
3620 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3624 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3626 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3627 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3628 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3629 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3630 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3631 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3632 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3633 stub on the target system.
3635 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3637 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3638 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3639 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3641 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3642 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3645 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3647 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3648 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3650 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3651 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3652 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3654 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3655 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3656 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3657 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3659 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3660 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3661 it is already running. Default is ON.
3663 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3664 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3665 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3666 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3669 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3670 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3671 or the value of the environment variable
3674 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3675 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3678 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3679 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3680 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3682 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3683 history expansion will be performed on
3684 command line input. The default is OFF.
3686 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3687 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3688 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3690 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3691 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3692 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3695 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3696 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3697 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3700 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3701 ``set width'' instead.
3703 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3704 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3705 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3706 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3708 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3711 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3714 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3717 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3720 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3722 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3723 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3724 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3728 * Support for Shared Libraries
3730 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3731 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3732 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3733 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3734 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3735 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3736 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3737 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3739 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3740 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3741 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3743 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3748 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3749 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3750 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3751 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3752 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3753 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3755 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3757 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3759 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3760 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3761 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3764 * C++ multiple inheritance
3766 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3769 * C++ exception handling
3771 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3772 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3773 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3776 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3777 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3778 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3780 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3781 current stack frame.
3784 * Minor command changes
3786 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3787 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3788 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3790 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3791 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3792 frames without printing.
3794 * New directory command
3796 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3797 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3798 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3799 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3800 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3802 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3804 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3807 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3808 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3809 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3810 where the program that you are debugging will run.