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