1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.5
6 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
7 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
8 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
10 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
11 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
16 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
18 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
19 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
21 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
26 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
27 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
28 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
29 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
33 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
34 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
36 * Removed remote packets
39 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
40 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
42 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
46 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
48 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
52 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
53 only if it doesn't already have a value.
55 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
57 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
59 restart <n> Return the program state to a
60 previously saved state.
62 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
64 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
66 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
67 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
69 info forks List forks of the user program that
70 are available to be debugged.
72 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
73 forks of the user program that are
74 available to be debugged.
76 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
77 that are available to be debugged (and
78 kill the forked process).
80 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
81 that are available to be debugged (and
82 allow the process to continue).
86 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
88 * Improved Windows host support
90 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
91 native console support, and remote communications using either
92 network sockets or serial ports.
94 * Improved Modula-2 language support
96 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
97 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
98 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
99 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
100 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
101 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
105 The ARM rdi-share module.
107 The Netware NLM debug server.
109 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
111 * New native configurations
113 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
114 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
118 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
120 * New command line options
122 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
123 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
124 the child (debugged) program exited with.
125 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
126 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
127 specified multiple times and in conjunction
128 with the --command (-x) option.
130 * Deprecated commands removed
132 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
136 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
137 othernames set arm disassembler
138 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
139 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
140 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
143 * New BSD user-level threads support
145 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
146 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
149 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
150 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
151 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
153 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
154 are not yet supported.
156 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
157 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
159 * REMOVED configurations and files
161 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
162 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
163 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
165 * New "set print array-indexes" command
167 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
168 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
171 * VAX floating point support
173 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
175 * User-defined command support
177 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
178 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
179 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
181 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
183 * New command line option
185 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
188 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
190 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
191 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
192 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
193 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
194 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
196 * Internationalization
198 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
199 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
200 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
204 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
205 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
206 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
208 * New native configurations
210 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
214 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
215 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
217 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
219 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
220 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
221 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
224 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
225 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
226 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
238 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
239 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
241 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
243 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
244 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
245 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
255 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
257 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
259 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
260 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
263 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
265 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
266 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
267 IRIX long double values).
271 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
272 command. This problem has been fixed.
274 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
276 * Fix for ``many threads''
278 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
279 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
282 ptrace: No such process.
283 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
285 This problem has been fixed.
287 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
289 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
292 * New ``start'' command.
294 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
296 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
298 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
299 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
300 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
302 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
303 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
304 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
305 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
306 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
307 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
308 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
309 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
310 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
312 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
314 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
315 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
316 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
317 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
318 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
320 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
321 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
322 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
324 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
326 * New native configurations
328 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
329 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
330 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
331 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
332 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
333 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
334 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
336 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
338 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
339 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
340 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
341 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
342 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
343 work, was also included.
345 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
346 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
356 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
357 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
359 * REMOVED configurations and files
361 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
362 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
363 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
364 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
365 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
366 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
367 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
368 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
369 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
371 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
373 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
375 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
377 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
378 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
379 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
380 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
383 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
385 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
386 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
387 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
388 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
389 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
390 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
393 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
395 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
397 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
398 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
399 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
401 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
403 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
404 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
406 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
408 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
409 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
410 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
412 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
414 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
415 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
417 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
419 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
420 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
421 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
423 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
425 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
426 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
427 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
429 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
431 * Removed --with-mmalloc
433 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
434 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
436 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
438 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
439 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
440 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
441 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
443 * Revised SPARC target
445 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
446 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
447 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
448 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
449 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
453 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
454 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
455 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
458 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
460 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
461 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
464 * C++ nested types and namespaces
466 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
467 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
468 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
469 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
470 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
471 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
472 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
473 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
474 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
476 * New native configurations
478 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
479 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
480 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
481 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
482 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
484 * New debugging protocols
486 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
488 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
490 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
491 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
492 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
494 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
496 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
497 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
498 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
501 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
502 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
503 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
504 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
505 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
506 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
507 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
508 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
509 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
511 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
513 * REMOVED configurations and files
515 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
516 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
517 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
518 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
519 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
520 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
521 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
522 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
523 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
524 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
525 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
526 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
527 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
528 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
529 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
530 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
531 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
533 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
537 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
540 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
542 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
543 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
544 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
547 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
548 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
553 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
554 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
555 remote protocol documentation for details.
557 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
559 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
560 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
561 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
564 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
566 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
567 per-thread variables.
569 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
571 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
572 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
574 * Separate debug info.
576 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
577 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
578 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
579 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
580 and optional debug files.
582 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
584 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
585 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
588 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
589 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
593 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
594 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
595 considered "useable".
597 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
599 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
600 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
603 * GDB supports logging output to a file
605 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
606 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
608 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
610 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
611 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
614 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
616 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
617 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
621 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
622 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
623 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
624 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
625 data, for more informative profiling results.
627 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
629 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
630 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
631 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
633 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
636 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
637 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
638 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
639 in a subsequent -var-update.
641 * New native configurations.
643 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
645 * Multi-arched targets.
647 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
648 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
650 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
652 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
653 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
654 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
657 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
658 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
659 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
660 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
661 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
662 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
663 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
664 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
665 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
666 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
667 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
668 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
670 * REMOVED configurations and files
673 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
674 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
675 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
676 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
677 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
678 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
680 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
681 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
682 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
683 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
684 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
685 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
687 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
689 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
690 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
691 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
692 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
693 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
695 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
697 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
699 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
700 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
701 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
702 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
703 shared libs like mad''.
705 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
707 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
708 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
709 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
710 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
712 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
714 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
715 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
718 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
719 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
721 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
722 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
724 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
725 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
726 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
727 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
729 * Multi-arched targets.
731 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
732 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
734 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
735 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
736 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
740 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
743 * New native configurations
745 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
746 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
747 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
748 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
750 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
752 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
753 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
754 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
757 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
758 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
759 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
760 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
761 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
762 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
763 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
764 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
765 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
766 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
768 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
769 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
773 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
775 * REMOVED configurations and files
777 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
778 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
779 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
780 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
781 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
783 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
785 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
787 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
788 commands. The default is 1024.
790 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
792 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
794 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
796 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
797 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
798 from a file into memory (restore).
800 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
802 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
803 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
804 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
806 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
814 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
815 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
816 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
818 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
819 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
820 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
822 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
823 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
824 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
826 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
827 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
828 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
830 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
832 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
834 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
835 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
836 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
837 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
838 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
839 (notably embedded) targets.
841 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
843 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
844 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
845 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
846 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
848 * New command line option
850 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
852 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
854 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
855 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
856 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
857 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
858 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
859 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
860 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
861 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
862 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
863 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
865 * Changes in ARM configurations.
867 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
868 configuration is fully multi-arch.
870 * New native configurations
872 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
873 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
874 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
875 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
879 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
881 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
883 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
884 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
885 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
888 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
889 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
890 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
891 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
892 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
894 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
896 * REMOVED configurations and files
898 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
900 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
901 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
902 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
903 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
904 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
905 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
906 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
907 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
908 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
909 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
910 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
912 * Changes to command line processing
914 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
915 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
917 * Changes to key bindings
919 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
921 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
923 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
925 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
928 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
930 Numerous documentation fixes.
932 Numerous testsuite fixes.
934 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
936 * New native configurations
938 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
939 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
940 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
941 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
943 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
947 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
949 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
951 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
953 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
954 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
955 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
956 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
957 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
959 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
960 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
961 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
962 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
963 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
964 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
965 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
966 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
968 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
969 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
971 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
972 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
973 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
976 * REMOVED configurations and files
978 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
979 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
981 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
985 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
987 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
988 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
993 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
995 * The MI enabled by default.
997 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
998 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
999 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1000 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1001 which is now deprecated.
1003 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1005 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1006 main features are supported:
1008 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1010 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1013 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1015 - a Pascal expression parser.
1017 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1019 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1021 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1023 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1024 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1026 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1028 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1030 * Changes in completion.
1032 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1033 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1034 users expect at the shell prompt.
1036 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1037 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1038 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1039 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1040 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1041 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1042 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1044 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1046 * New platform-independent commands:
1048 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1049 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1050 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1052 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1054 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1055 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1056 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1058 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1060 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1061 multi-threaded programs though.
1063 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1065 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1067 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1068 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1071 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1073 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1074 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1075 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1076 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1077 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1080 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1081 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1082 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1084 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1086 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1087 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1089 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1090 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1093 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1094 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1095 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1096 a given linear address.
1098 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1099 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1100 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1102 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1104 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1106 * Changes in documentation.
1108 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1109 Documentation License.
1111 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1114 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1116 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1119 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1120 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1121 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1123 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1125 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1126 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1127 contents of this file.
1131 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1133 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1135 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1137 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1138 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1139 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1140 greater level of detail.
1142 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1144 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1145 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1146 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1149 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1151 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1152 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1153 machines ``out of the box''.
1155 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1156 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1157 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1158 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1159 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1161 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1162 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1163 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1164 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1165 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1167 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1168 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1171 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1174 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1175 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1176 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1177 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1179 * New native configurations
1181 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1182 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1186 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1187 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1188 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1189 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1191 * OBSOLETE configurations
1193 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1194 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1196 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1199 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1200 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1201 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1202 be permanently REMOVED.
1204 * Gould support removed
1206 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1208 * New features for SVR4
1210 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1211 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1212 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1214 * Many C++ enhancements
1216 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1217 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1219 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1221 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1222 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1223 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1224 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1226 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1227 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1229 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1231 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1232 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1233 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1235 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1236 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1238 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1240 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1241 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1242 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1244 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1246 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1247 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1248 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1250 * ``apropos'' command added.
1252 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1253 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1254 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1258 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1259 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1260 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1261 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1262 enabled by configuring with:
1264 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1266 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1268 * New native configurations
1270 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1271 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1272 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1276 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1277 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1278 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1280 * OBSOLETE configurations
1282 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1284 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1285 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1286 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1287 be permanently REMOVED.
1291 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1292 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1293 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1294 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1295 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1296 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1297 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1302 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1304 * set extension-language
1306 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1307 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1308 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1309 set extension-language .c c++
1310 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1311 and their associated languages.
1313 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1315 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1316 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1317 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1321 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1322 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1324 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1325 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1327 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1328 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1329 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1330 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1331 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1332 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1333 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1334 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1336 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1337 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1338 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1339 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1343 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1344 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1345 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1346 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1347 for xdb and dbx commands.
1351 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1352 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1353 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1355 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1356 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1357 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1359 * Debugging across forks
1361 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1366 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1367 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1368 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1370 * GDB remote protocol additions
1372 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1373 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1374 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1375 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1377 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1378 full 64-bit address. The command
1380 set remoteaddresssize 32
1382 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1383 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1386 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1387 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1389 maint packet heythere
1391 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1392 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1395 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1396 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1397 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1399 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1401 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1402 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1403 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1405 * mask-address variable for Mips
1407 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1408 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1409 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1411 * Higher serial baud rates
1413 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1414 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1415 to achieve all of these rates.)
1419 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1420 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1423 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1425 * New native configurations
1427 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1428 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1429 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1430 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1431 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1432 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1433 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1437 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1438 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1439 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1440 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1441 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1442 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1443 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1444 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1445 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1446 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1447 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1449 * New debugging protocols
1451 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1452 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1453 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1454 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1455 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1456 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1460 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1461 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1466 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1467 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1469 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1471 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1472 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1473 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1475 * Live range splitting
1477 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1478 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1479 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1483 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1484 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1488 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1489 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1490 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1495 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1500 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1501 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1502 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1503 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1504 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1505 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1509 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1510 the symbol at the specified address.
1514 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1515 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1516 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1517 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1518 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1522 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1523 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1524 of most MIPS variants.
1528 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1529 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1530 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1534 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1535 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1536 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1537 the possible architectures.
1539 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1541 * New native configurations
1543 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1544 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1545 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1546 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1547 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1548 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1552 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1553 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1554 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1555 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1556 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1558 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1562 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1563 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1564 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1565 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1566 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1570 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1572 * Windows 95/NT native
1574 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1575 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1576 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1577 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1578 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1580 * dont-repeat command
1582 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1583 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1584 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1585 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1587 * Send break instead of ^C
1589 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1590 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1591 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1593 * Remote protocol timeout
1595 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1596 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1597 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1599 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1601 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1602 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1603 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1604 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1605 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1607 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1608 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1609 automatically on hpux10.
1611 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1613 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1615 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1617 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1618 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1619 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1620 every character. The default value is 1050.
1622 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1624 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1625 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1626 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1627 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1628 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1629 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1631 * Speedups for remote debugging
1633 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1634 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1635 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1637 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1639 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1640 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1642 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1644 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1646 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1647 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1649 * Remote targets use caching
1651 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1652 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1653 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1654 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1655 off' turns the the data cache off.
1657 * Remote targets may have threads
1659 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1660 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1661 gdb/remote.c for details.
1665 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1666 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1667 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1668 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1669 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1670 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1671 sequence is something like
1673 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1675 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1679 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1680 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1681 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1682 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1683 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1684 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1685 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1686 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1690 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1691 but does simplify configuration and building.
1695 GDB now supports hpux10.
1697 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1699 * New native configurations
1701 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1702 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1703 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1704 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1708 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1709 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1710 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1711 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1714 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1716 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1717 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1718 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1719 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1720 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1722 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1724 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1725 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1728 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1730 To execute the command use:
1733 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1734 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1735 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1737 * New `if' and `while' commands
1739 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1740 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1741 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1742 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1743 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1744 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1745 if the expression is zero.
1747 * Fortran source language mode
1749 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1750 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1751 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1752 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1755 * Better HPUX support
1757 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1758 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1759 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1760 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1761 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1767 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1768 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1774 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1775 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1778 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1779 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1781 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1783 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1784 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1785 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1786 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1787 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1788 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1790 * New DOS host serial code
1792 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1793 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1796 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1798 * New "complete" command
1800 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1801 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1803 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1805 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1806 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1808 * Breakpoint hit counts
1810 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1811 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1812 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1813 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1814 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1817 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1819 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1820 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1821 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1823 * Shared library breakpoints
1825 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1826 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1828 * Hardware watchpoints
1830 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1831 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1833 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1837 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1838 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1840 * Improved Irix 5 support
1842 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1844 * Improved HPPA support
1846 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1848 * New native configurations
1850 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1851 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1852 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1853 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1857 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1858 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1861 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1863 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1864 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1868 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1869 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1871 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1873 * Irix 5 is now supported
1877 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1878 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1879 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1880 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1881 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1884 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1886 * User visible changes:
1890 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1891 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1892 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1893 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1894 debugging info for the mips target).
1896 * DEC Alpha native support
1898 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1899 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1900 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1901 Alpha-specific notes.
1903 * Preliminary thread implementation
1905 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1907 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1909 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1910 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1913 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1915 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1916 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1917 call methods, ...etc.
1919 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1921 * User visible changes:
1923 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1924 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1925 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1926 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1928 Filename completion now works.
1930 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1931 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1932 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1934 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1935 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1936 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1937 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1938 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1942 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1943 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1946 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1950 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1951 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1952 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1956 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1957 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1958 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1959 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1960 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1964 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1965 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1966 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1968 * New targets supported
1970 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1971 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1972 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1973 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1974 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1976 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1977 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1978 GO32 memory extender.
1980 * New remote protocols
1982 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1984 * New source languages supported
1986 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1987 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1988 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1991 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1993 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1995 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1996 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1997 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1998 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1999 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2000 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2002 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2004 * Faster and better demangling
2006 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2007 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2008 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2009 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2010 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2011 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2014 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2015 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2016 compiler does not actually implement.
2018 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2020 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2021 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2022 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2023 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2024 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2025 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2028 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2029 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2031 * Improved configure script
2033 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2034 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2035 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2036 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2038 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2039 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2040 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2041 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2042 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2043 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2045 * Documentation improvements
2047 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2048 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2049 before submitting changes.
2051 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2052 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2053 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2054 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2055 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2057 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2058 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2059 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2060 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2061 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2062 around this problem.
2066 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2067 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2068 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2071 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2072 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2074 * New native hosts supported
2076 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2077 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2079 * New targets supported
2081 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2083 * New file formats supported
2085 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2086 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2090 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2092 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2093 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2095 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2096 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2097 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2099 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2100 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2102 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2103 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2104 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2107 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2108 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2109 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2110 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2111 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2113 * Internal improvements
2115 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2116 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2118 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2119 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2120 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2121 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2122 shared code that handles any of them.
2124 * New command line options
2126 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2130 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2131 General Public License.
2133 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2135 * Host/native/target split
2137 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2138 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2139 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2140 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2141 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2143 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2144 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2145 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2146 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2147 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2148 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2149 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2151 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2152 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2153 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2155 * New hosts supported
2157 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2158 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2159 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2161 * New targets supported
2163 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2164 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2166 * New native hosts supported
2168 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2169 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2170 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2172 * New file formats supported
2174 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2175 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2176 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2180 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2181 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2182 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2184 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2186 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2187 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2188 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2189 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2193 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2194 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2195 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2197 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2201 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2202 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2205 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2206 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2208 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2209 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2210 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2211 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2212 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2213 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2215 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2216 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2217 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2218 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2222 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2223 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2224 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2225 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2226 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2228 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2229 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2230 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2231 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2235 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2236 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2237 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2238 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2239 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2240 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2241 each instruction being stepped through.
2243 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2244 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2246 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2247 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2248 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2249 processor with a serial port.
2253 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2254 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2255 supported, and what files each one uses.
2259 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2260 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2261 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2262 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2264 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2265 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2266 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2267 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2271 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2272 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2273 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2274 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2275 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2276 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2278 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2281 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2283 * Better support for C++ function names
2285 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2286 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2287 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2288 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2289 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2291 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2292 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2293 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2294 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2295 for the list of formats.
2297 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2299 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2300 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2301 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2302 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2303 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2304 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2307 * New 'maintenance' command
2309 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2310 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2311 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2313 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2314 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2315 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2316 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2317 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2318 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2320 The following commands are new:
2322 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2323 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2324 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2326 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2328 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2329 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2330 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2331 read after argv processing.
2333 * New hosts supported
2335 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2337 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2339 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2340 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2341 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2342 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2343 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2346 * New targets supported
2348 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2350 * More smarts about finding #include files
2352 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2353 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2354 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2355 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2356 the one that contains your sources.
2358 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2359 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2360 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2362 * Interesting infernals change
2364 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2365 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2366 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2367 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2369 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2371 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2372 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2373 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2375 See the ChangeLog for details.
2377 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2379 * New machines supported (host and target)
2381 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2383 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2385 * New malloc package
2387 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2388 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2389 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2390 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2391 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2392 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2396 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2397 'help info proc' for details.
2399 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2401 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2402 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2405 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2407 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2408 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2409 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2410 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2411 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2412 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2414 * Cross byte order fixes
2416 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2417 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2419 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2421 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2422 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2423 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2424 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2425 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2426 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2427 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2428 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2429 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2430 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2432 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2433 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2434 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2435 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2437 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2438 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2439 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2442 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2444 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2445 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2446 shared across multiple host platforms.
2448 * longjmp() handling
2450 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2451 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2452 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2453 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2457 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2458 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2463 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2464 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2465 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2467 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2469 * New machines supported (host and target)
2471 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2473 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2474 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2476 * New machines supported (target)
2478 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2482 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2483 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2484 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2486 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2487 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2488 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2489 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2490 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2493 * New features for SVR4
2495 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2496 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2497 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2499 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2500 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2501 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2503 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2504 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2506 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2508 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2509 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2510 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2511 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2512 same code linked statically.
2516 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2517 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2518 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2519 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2520 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2521 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2525 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2526 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2527 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2530 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2532 * New machines supported (host and target)
2534 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2535 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2536 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2538 * Almost SCO Unix support
2540 We had hoped to support:
2541 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2542 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2543 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2544 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2546 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2548 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2549 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2550 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2551 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2556 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2557 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2558 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2562 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2563 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2564 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2566 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2568 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2569 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2570 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2572 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2573 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2574 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2575 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2578 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2579 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2580 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2581 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2584 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2585 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2588 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2589 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2590 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2593 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2595 * Improved configuration
2597 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2598 Porting BFD is simpler.
2602 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2603 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2604 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2605 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2609 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2611 * New host supported (not target)
2613 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2616 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2618 * Multiple source language support
2620 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2621 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2622 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2623 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2624 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2625 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2629 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2630 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2631 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2632 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2634 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2635 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2636 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2638 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2639 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2643 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2644 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2645 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2646 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2649 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2651 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2652 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2653 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2654 examining core files.
2658 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2661 * New machines supported (host and target)
2663 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2664 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2665 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2667 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2669 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2671 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2673 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2674 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2675 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2677 * New remote interfaces
2683 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2687 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2689 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2690 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2691 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2692 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2693 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2694 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2695 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2696 stub on the target system.
2698 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2700 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2701 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2702 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2704 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2705 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2708 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2710 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2711 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2713 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2714 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2715 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2717 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2718 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2719 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2720 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2722 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2723 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2724 it is already running. Default is ON.
2726 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2727 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2728 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2729 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2732 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2733 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2734 or the value of the environment variable
2737 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2738 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2741 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2742 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2743 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2745 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2746 history expansion will be performed on
2747 command line input. The default is OFF.
2749 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2750 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2751 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2753 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2754 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2755 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2758 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2759 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2760 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2763 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2764 ``set width'' instead.
2766 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2767 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2768 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2769 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2771 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2774 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2777 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2780 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2783 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2785 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2786 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2787 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2791 * Support for Shared Libraries
2793 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2794 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2795 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2796 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2797 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2798 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2799 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2800 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2802 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2803 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2804 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2806 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2811 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2812 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2813 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2814 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2815 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2816 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2818 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2820 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2822 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2823 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2824 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2827 * C++ multiple inheritance
2829 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2832 * C++ exception handling
2834 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2835 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2836 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2839 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2840 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2841 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2843 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2844 current stack frame.
2847 * Minor command changes
2849 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2850 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2851 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2853 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2854 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2855 frames without printing.
2857 * New directory command
2859 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2860 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2861 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2862 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2863 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2865 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2867 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2870 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2871 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2872 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2873 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob