1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
9 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
11 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
14 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
15 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
17 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
18 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
19 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
21 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
22 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
24 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
26 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
27 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
29 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
30 list of section offsets.
32 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
33 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
36 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
38 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
39 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
41 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
42 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
43 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
47 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
49 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
53 Display timestamps with GDB debugging output.
58 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
60 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
62 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
63 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
64 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
66 set breakpoint always-inserted
67 show breakpoint always-inserted
68 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
69 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
70 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
72 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
73 show arm fallback-mode
74 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
76 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
77 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
78 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
79 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
83 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
85 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
87 * New native configurations
89 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
90 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
94 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
95 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
97 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
99 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
100 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
101 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
102 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
104 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
105 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
107 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
110 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
111 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
112 and in inlined functions.
114 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
115 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
116 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
118 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
120 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
121 registers on PowerPC targets.
123 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
124 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
126 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
127 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
129 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
130 extended-remote mode.
132 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
133 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
134 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
135 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
137 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
138 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
139 target architectures.
141 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
142 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
143 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
144 stored in two consecutive float registers.
146 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
149 * Improved support for debugging Ada
150 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
152 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
153 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
154 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
155 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
157 - Improved command completion in Ada
162 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
163 show print frame-arguments
164 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
165 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
170 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
177 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
186 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
188 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
192 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
196 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
198 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
200 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
201 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
202 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
204 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
205 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
206 -Bsymbolic linker option.
208 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
209 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
212 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
213 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
215 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
216 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
218 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
220 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
221 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
222 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
224 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
225 automatically displayed as character or string data.
227 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
228 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
231 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
232 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
233 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
235 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
238 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
239 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
240 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
242 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
244 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
246 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
247 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
248 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
250 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
251 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
253 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
254 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
255 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
256 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
257 Windows and SymbianOS).
259 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
260 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
262 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
263 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
269 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
270 when debugging using remote targets.
272 set mem inaccessible-by-default
273 show mem inaccessible-by-default
274 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
275 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
276 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
277 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
278 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
280 set breakpoint auto-hw
281 show breakpoint auto-hw
282 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
283 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
284 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
285 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
286 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
287 including "next" and "finish".
290 catch exception unhandled
291 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
294 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
298 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
299 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
300 an alias to "set sysroot".
303 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
304 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
307 * New native configurations
309 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
314 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
315 not query the target for its built-in description.
319 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
320 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
321 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
326 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
327 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
330 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
335 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
336 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
338 qXfer:libraries:read:
339 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
340 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
341 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
342 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
346 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
355 i[34567]86-*-netware*
356 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
357 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
359 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
362 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
363 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
372 * Other removed features
379 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
386 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
391 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
392 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
397 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
398 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
400 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
402 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
403 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
404 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
405 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
409 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
410 in debugging information.
414 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
415 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
417 set mips stack-arg-size
418 set mips saved-gpreg-size
420 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
422 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
427 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
429 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
430 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
431 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
433 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
434 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
437 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
438 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
440 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
441 stub provides the required support.
443 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
444 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
449 unset substitute-path
451 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
452 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
453 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
454 between compilation and debugging.
458 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
459 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
460 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
464 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
466 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
467 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
469 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
474 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
475 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
476 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
477 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
481 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
482 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
484 qXfer:memory-map:read:
485 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
486 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
491 Erase and program a flash memory device.
493 * Removed remote packets
496 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
497 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
499 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
503 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
505 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
509 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
510 only if it doesn't already have a value.
512 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
514 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
516 restart <n> Return the program state to a
517 previously saved state.
519 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
521 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
523 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
524 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
526 info forks List forks of the user program that
527 are available to be debugged.
529 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
530 forks of the user program that are
531 available to be debugged.
533 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
534 that are available to be debugged (and
535 kill the forked process).
537 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
538 that are available to be debugged (and
539 allow the process to continue).
543 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
545 * Improved Windows host support
547 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
548 native console support, and remote communications using either
549 network sockets or serial ports.
551 * Improved Modula-2 language support
553 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
554 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
555 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
556 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
557 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
558 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
562 The ARM rdi-share module.
564 The Netware NLM debug server.
566 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
568 * New native configurations
570 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
571 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
575 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
577 * New command line options
579 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
580 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
581 the child (debugged) program exited with.
582 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
583 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
584 specified multiple times and in conjunction
585 with the --command (-x) option.
587 * Deprecated commands removed
589 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
593 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
594 othernames set arm disassembler
595 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
596 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
597 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
600 * New BSD user-level threads support
602 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
603 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
606 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
607 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
608 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
610 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
611 are not yet supported.
613 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
614 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
616 * REMOVED configurations and files
618 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
619 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
620 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
622 * New "set print array-indexes" command
624 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
625 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
628 * VAX floating point support
630 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
632 * User-defined command support
634 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
635 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
636 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
638 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
640 * New command line option
642 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
645 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
647 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
648 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
649 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
650 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
651 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
653 * Internationalization
655 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
656 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
657 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
661 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
662 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
663 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
665 * New native configurations
667 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
671 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
672 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
674 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
676 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
677 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
678 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
681 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
682 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
683 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
695 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
696 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
698 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
700 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
701 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
702 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
712 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
714 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
716 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
717 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
720 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
722 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
723 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
724 IRIX long double values).
728 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
729 command. This problem has been fixed.
731 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
733 * Fix for ``many threads''
735 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
736 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
739 ptrace: No such process.
740 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
742 This problem has been fixed.
744 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
746 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
749 * New ``start'' command.
751 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
753 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
755 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
756 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
757 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
759 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
760 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
761 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
762 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
763 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
764 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
765 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
766 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
767 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
769 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
771 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
772 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
773 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
774 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
775 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
777 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
778 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
779 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
781 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
783 * New native configurations
785 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
786 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
787 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
788 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
789 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
790 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
791 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
793 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
795 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
796 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
797 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
798 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
799 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
800 work, was also included.
802 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
803 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
813 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
814 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
816 * REMOVED configurations and files
818 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
819 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
820 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
821 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
822 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
823 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
824 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
825 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
826 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
828 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
830 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
832 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
834 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
835 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
836 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
837 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
840 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
842 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
843 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
844 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
845 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
846 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
847 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
850 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
852 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
854 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
855 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
856 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
858 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
860 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
861 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
863 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
865 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
866 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
867 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
869 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
871 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
872 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
874 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
876 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
877 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
878 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
880 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
882 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
883 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
884 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
886 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
888 * Removed --with-mmalloc
890 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
891 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
893 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
895 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
896 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
897 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
898 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
900 * Revised SPARC target
902 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
903 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
904 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
905 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
906 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
910 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
911 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
912 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
915 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
917 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
918 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
921 * C++ nested types and namespaces
923 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
924 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
925 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
926 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
927 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
928 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
929 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
930 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
931 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
933 * New native configurations
935 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
936 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
937 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
938 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
939 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
941 * New debugging protocols
943 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
945 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
947 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
948 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
949 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
951 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
953 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
954 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
955 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
958 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
959 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
960 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
961 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
962 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
963 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
964 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
965 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
966 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
968 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
970 * REMOVED configurations and files
972 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
973 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
974 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
975 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
976 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
977 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
978 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
979 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
980 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
981 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
982 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
983 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
984 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
985 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
986 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
987 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
988 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
990 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
994 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
997 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
999 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1000 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1001 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1004 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1005 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1006 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1010 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1011 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1012 remote protocol documentation for details.
1014 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1016 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1017 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1018 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1021 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1023 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1024 per-thread variables.
1026 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1028 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1029 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1031 * Separate debug info.
1033 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1034 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1035 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1036 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1037 and optional debug files.
1039 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1041 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1042 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1045 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1046 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1050 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1051 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1052 considered "useable".
1054 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1056 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1057 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1060 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1062 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1063 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1065 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1067 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1068 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1071 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1073 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1074 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1078 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1079 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1080 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1081 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1082 data, for more informative profiling results.
1084 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1086 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1087 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1088 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1090 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1093 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1094 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1095 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1096 in a subsequent -var-update.
1098 * New native configurations.
1100 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1102 * Multi-arched targets.
1104 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1105 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1107 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1109 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1110 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1111 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1112 permanently REMOVED.
1114 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1115 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1116 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1117 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1118 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1119 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1120 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1121 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1122 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1123 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1124 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1125 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1127 * REMOVED configurations and files
1130 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1131 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1132 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1133 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1134 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1135 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1137 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1138 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1139 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1140 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1141 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1142 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1144 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1146 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1147 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1148 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1149 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1150 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1152 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1154 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1156 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1157 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1158 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1159 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1160 shared libs like mad''.
1162 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1164 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1165 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1166 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1167 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1169 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1171 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1172 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1175 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1176 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1178 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1179 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1181 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1182 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1183 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1184 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1186 * Multi-arched targets.
1188 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1189 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1191 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1192 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1193 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1197 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1200 * New native configurations
1202 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1203 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1204 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1205 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1207 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1209 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1210 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1211 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1212 permanently REMOVED.
1214 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1215 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1216 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1217 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1218 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1219 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1220 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1221 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1222 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1223 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1225 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1226 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1228 * OBSOLETE languages
1230 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1232 * REMOVED configurations and files
1234 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1235 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1236 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1237 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1238 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1240 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1242 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1244 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1245 commands. The default is 1024.
1247 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1249 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1251 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1253 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1254 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1255 from a file into memory (restore).
1257 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1259 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1260 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1261 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1263 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1271 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1272 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1273 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1275 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1276 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1277 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1279 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1280 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1281 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1283 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1284 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1285 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1287 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1289 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1291 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1292 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1293 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1294 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1295 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1296 (notably embedded) targets.
1298 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1300 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1301 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1302 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1303 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1305 * New command line option
1307 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1309 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1311 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1312 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1313 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1314 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1315 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1316 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1317 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1318 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1319 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1320 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1322 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1324 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1325 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1327 * New native configurations
1329 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1330 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1331 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1332 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1336 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1338 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1340 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1341 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1342 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1343 permanently REMOVED.
1345 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1346 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1347 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1348 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1349 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1351 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1353 * REMOVED configurations and files
1355 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1357 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1358 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1359 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1360 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1361 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1362 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1363 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1364 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1365 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1366 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1367 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1369 * Changes to command line processing
1371 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1372 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1374 * Changes to key bindings
1376 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1378 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1380 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1382 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1385 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1387 Numerous documentation fixes.
1389 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1391 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1393 * New native configurations
1395 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1396 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1397 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1398 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1399 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1400 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1404 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1406 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1408 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1410 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1411 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1412 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1413 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1414 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1416 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1417 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1418 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1419 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1420 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1421 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1422 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1423 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1425 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1426 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1428 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1429 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1430 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1431 permanently REMOVED.
1433 * REMOVED configurations and files
1435 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1436 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1438 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1442 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1444 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1445 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1450 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1452 * The MI enabled by default.
1454 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1455 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1456 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1457 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1458 which is now deprecated.
1460 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1462 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1463 main features are supported:
1465 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1467 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1470 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1472 - a Pascal expression parser.
1474 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1476 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1478 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1480 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1481 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1483 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1485 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1487 * Changes in completion.
1489 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1490 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1491 users expect at the shell prompt.
1493 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1494 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1495 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1496 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1497 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1498 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1499 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1501 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1503 * New platform-independent commands:
1505 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1506 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1507 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1509 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1511 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1512 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1513 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1515 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1517 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1518 multi-threaded programs though.
1520 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1522 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1524 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1525 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1528 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1530 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1531 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1532 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1533 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1534 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1537 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1538 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1539 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1541 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1543 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1544 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1546 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1547 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1550 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1551 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1552 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1553 a given linear address.
1555 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1556 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1557 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1559 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1561 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1563 * Changes in documentation.
1565 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1566 Documentation License.
1568 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1571 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1573 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1576 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1577 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1578 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1580 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1582 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1583 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1584 contents of this file.
1588 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1590 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1592 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1594 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1595 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1596 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1597 greater level of detail.
1599 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1601 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1602 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1603 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1606 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1608 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1609 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1610 machines ``out of the box''.
1612 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1613 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1614 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1615 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1616 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1618 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1619 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1620 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1621 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1622 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1624 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1625 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1628 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1631 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1632 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1633 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1634 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1636 * New native configurations
1638 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1639 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1643 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1644 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1645 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1646 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1648 * OBSOLETE configurations
1650 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1651 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1653 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1656 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1657 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1658 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1659 be permanently REMOVED.
1661 * Gould support removed
1663 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1665 * New features for SVR4
1667 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1668 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1669 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1671 * Many C++ enhancements
1673 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1674 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1676 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1678 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1679 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1680 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1681 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1683 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1684 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1686 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1688 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1689 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1690 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1692 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1693 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1695 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1697 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1698 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1699 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1701 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1703 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1704 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1705 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1707 * ``apropos'' command added.
1709 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1710 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1711 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1715 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1716 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1717 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1718 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1719 enabled by configuring with:
1721 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1723 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1725 * New native configurations
1727 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1728 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1729 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1733 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1734 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1735 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1737 * OBSOLETE configurations
1739 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1741 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1742 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1743 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1744 be permanently REMOVED.
1748 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1749 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1750 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1751 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1752 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1753 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1754 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1759 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1761 * set extension-language
1763 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1764 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1765 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1766 set extension-language .c c++
1767 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1768 and their associated languages.
1770 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1772 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1773 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1774 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1778 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1779 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1781 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1782 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1784 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1785 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1786 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1787 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1788 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1789 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1790 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1791 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1793 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1794 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1795 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1796 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1800 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1801 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1802 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1803 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1804 for xdb and dbx commands.
1808 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1809 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1810 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1812 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1813 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1814 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1816 * Debugging across forks
1818 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1823 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1824 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1825 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1827 * GDB remote protocol additions
1829 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1830 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1831 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1832 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1834 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1835 full 64-bit address. The command
1837 set remoteaddresssize 32
1839 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1840 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1843 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1844 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1846 maint packet heythere
1848 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1849 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1852 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1853 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1854 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1856 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1858 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1859 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1860 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1862 * mask-address variable for Mips
1864 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1865 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1866 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1868 * Higher serial baud rates
1870 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1871 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1872 to achieve all of these rates.)
1876 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1877 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1880 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1882 * New native configurations
1884 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1885 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1886 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1887 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1888 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1889 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1890 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1894 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1895 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1896 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1897 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1898 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1899 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1900 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1901 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1902 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1903 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1904 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1906 * New debugging protocols
1908 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1909 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1910 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1911 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1912 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1913 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1917 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1918 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1923 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1924 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1926 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1928 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1929 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1930 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1932 * Live range splitting
1934 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1935 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1936 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1940 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1941 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1945 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1946 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1947 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1952 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1957 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1958 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1959 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1960 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1961 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1962 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1966 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1967 the symbol at the specified address.
1971 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1972 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1973 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1974 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1975 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1979 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1980 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1981 of most MIPS variants.
1985 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1986 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1987 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1991 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1992 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1993 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1994 the possible architectures.
1996 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1998 * New native configurations
2000 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2001 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2002 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2003 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2004 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2005 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2009 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2010 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2011 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2012 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2013 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2015 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2019 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2020 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2021 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2022 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2023 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2027 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2029 * Windows 95/NT native
2031 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2032 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2033 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2034 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2035 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2037 * dont-repeat command
2039 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2040 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2041 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2042 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2044 * Send break instead of ^C
2046 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2047 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2048 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2050 * Remote protocol timeout
2052 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2053 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2054 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2056 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2058 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2059 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2060 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2061 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2062 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2064 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2065 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2066 automatically on hpux10.
2068 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2070 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2072 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2074 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2075 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2076 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2077 every character. The default value is 1050.
2079 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2081 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2082 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2083 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2084 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2085 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2086 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2088 * Speedups for remote debugging
2090 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2091 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2092 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2094 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2096 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2097 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2099 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2101 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2103 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2104 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2106 * Remote targets use caching
2108 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2109 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2110 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2111 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2112 off' turns the the data cache off.
2114 * Remote targets may have threads
2116 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2117 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2118 gdb/remote.c for details.
2122 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2123 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2124 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2125 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2126 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2127 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2128 sequence is something like
2130 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2132 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2136 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2137 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2138 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2139 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2140 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2141 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2142 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2143 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2147 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2148 but does simplify configuration and building.
2152 GDB now supports hpux10.
2154 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2156 * New native configurations
2158 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2159 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2160 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2161 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2165 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2166 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2167 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2168 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2171 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2173 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2174 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2175 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2176 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2177 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2179 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2181 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2182 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2185 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2187 To execute the command use:
2190 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2191 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2192 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2194 * New `if' and `while' commands
2196 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2197 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2198 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2199 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2200 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2201 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2202 if the expression is zero.
2204 * Fortran source language mode
2206 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2207 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2208 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2209 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2212 * Better HPUX support
2214 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2215 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2216 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2217 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2218 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2224 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2225 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2231 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2232 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2235 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2236 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2238 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2240 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2241 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2242 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2243 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2244 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2245 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2247 * New DOS host serial code
2249 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2250 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2253 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2255 * New "complete" command
2257 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2258 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2260 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2262 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2263 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2265 * Breakpoint hit counts
2267 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2268 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2269 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2270 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2271 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2274 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2276 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2277 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2278 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2280 * Shared library breakpoints
2282 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2283 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2285 * Hardware watchpoints
2287 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2288 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2290 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2294 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2295 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2297 * Improved Irix 5 support
2299 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2301 * Improved HPPA support
2303 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2305 * New native configurations
2307 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2308 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2309 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2310 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2314 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2315 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2318 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2320 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2321 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2325 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2326 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2328 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2330 * Irix 5 is now supported
2334 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2335 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2336 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2337 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2338 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2341 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2343 * User visible changes:
2347 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2348 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2349 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2350 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2351 debugging info for the mips target).
2353 * DEC Alpha native support
2355 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2356 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2357 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2358 Alpha-specific notes.
2360 * Preliminary thread implementation
2362 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2364 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2366 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2367 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2370 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2372 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2373 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2374 call methods, ...etc.
2376 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2378 * User visible changes:
2380 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2381 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2382 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2383 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2385 Filename completion now works.
2387 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2388 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2389 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2391 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2392 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2393 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2394 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2395 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2399 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2400 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2403 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2407 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2408 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2409 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2413 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2414 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2415 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2416 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2417 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2421 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2422 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2423 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2425 * New targets supported
2427 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2428 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2429 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2430 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2431 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2433 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2434 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2435 GO32 memory extender.
2437 * New remote protocols
2439 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2441 * New source languages supported
2443 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2444 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2445 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2448 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2450 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2452 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2453 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2454 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2455 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2456 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2457 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2459 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2461 * Faster and better demangling
2463 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2464 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2465 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2466 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2467 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2468 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2471 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2472 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2473 compiler does not actually implement.
2475 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2477 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2478 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2479 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2480 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2481 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2482 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2485 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2486 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2488 * Improved configure script
2490 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2491 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2492 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2493 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2495 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2496 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2497 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2498 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2499 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2500 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2502 * Documentation improvements
2504 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2505 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2506 before submitting changes.
2508 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2509 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2510 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2511 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2512 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2514 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2515 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2516 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2517 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2518 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2519 around this problem.
2523 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2524 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2525 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2528 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2529 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2531 * New native hosts supported
2533 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2534 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2536 * New targets supported
2538 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2540 * New file formats supported
2542 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2543 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2547 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2549 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2550 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2552 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2553 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2554 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2556 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2557 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2559 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2560 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2561 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2564 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2565 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2566 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2567 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2568 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2570 * Internal improvements
2572 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2573 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2575 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2576 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2577 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2578 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2579 shared code that handles any of them.
2581 * New command line options
2583 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2587 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2588 General Public License.
2590 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2592 * Host/native/target split
2594 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2595 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2596 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2597 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2598 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2600 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2601 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2602 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2603 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2604 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2605 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2606 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2608 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2609 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2610 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2612 * New hosts supported
2614 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2615 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2616 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2618 * New targets supported
2620 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2621 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2623 * New native hosts supported
2625 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2626 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2627 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2629 * New file formats supported
2631 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2632 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2633 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2637 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2638 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2639 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2641 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2643 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2644 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2645 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2646 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2650 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2651 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2652 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2654 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2658 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2659 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2662 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2663 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2665 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2666 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2667 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2668 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2669 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2670 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2672 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2673 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2674 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2675 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2679 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2680 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2681 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2682 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2683 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2685 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2686 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2687 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2688 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2692 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2693 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2694 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2695 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2696 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2697 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2698 each instruction being stepped through.
2700 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2701 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2703 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2704 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2705 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2706 processor with a serial port.
2710 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2711 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2712 supported, and what files each one uses.
2716 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2717 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2718 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2719 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2721 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2722 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2723 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2724 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2728 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2729 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2730 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2731 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2732 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2733 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2735 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2738 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2740 * Better support for C++ function names
2742 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2743 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2744 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2745 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2746 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2748 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2749 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2750 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2751 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2752 for the list of formats.
2754 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2756 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2757 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2758 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2759 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2760 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2761 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2764 * New 'maintenance' command
2766 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2767 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2768 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2770 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2771 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2772 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2773 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2774 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2775 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2777 The following commands are new:
2779 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2780 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2781 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2783 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2785 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2786 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2787 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2788 read after argv processing.
2790 * New hosts supported
2792 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2794 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2796 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2797 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2798 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2799 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2800 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2803 * New targets supported
2805 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2807 * More smarts about finding #include files
2809 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2810 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2811 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2812 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2813 the one that contains your sources.
2815 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2816 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2817 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2819 * Interesting infernals change
2821 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2822 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2823 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2824 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2826 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2828 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2829 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2830 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2832 See the ChangeLog for details.
2834 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2836 * New machines supported (host and target)
2838 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2840 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2842 * New malloc package
2844 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2845 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2846 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2847 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2848 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2849 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2853 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2854 'help info proc' for details.
2856 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2858 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2859 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2862 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2864 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2865 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2866 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2867 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2868 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2869 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2871 * Cross byte order fixes
2873 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2874 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2876 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2878 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2879 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2880 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2881 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2882 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2883 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2884 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2885 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2886 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2887 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2889 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2890 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2891 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2892 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2894 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2895 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2896 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2899 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2901 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2902 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2903 shared across multiple host platforms.
2905 * longjmp() handling
2907 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2908 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2909 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2910 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2914 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2915 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2920 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2921 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2922 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2924 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2926 * New machines supported (host and target)
2928 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2930 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2931 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2933 * New machines supported (target)
2935 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2939 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2940 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2941 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2943 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2944 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2945 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2946 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2947 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2950 * New features for SVR4
2952 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2953 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2954 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2956 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2957 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2958 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2960 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2961 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2963 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2965 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2966 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2967 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2968 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2969 same code linked statically.
2973 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2974 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2975 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2976 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2977 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2978 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2982 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2983 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2984 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2987 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2989 * New machines supported (host and target)
2991 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2992 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2993 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2995 * Almost SCO Unix support
2997 We had hoped to support:
2998 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2999 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3000 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3001 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3003 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3005 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3006 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3007 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3008 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3013 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3014 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3015 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3019 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3020 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3021 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3023 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3025 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3026 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3027 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3029 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3030 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3031 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3032 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3035 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3036 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3037 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3038 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3041 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3042 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3045 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3046 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3047 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3050 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3052 * Improved configuration
3054 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3055 Porting BFD is simpler.
3059 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3060 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3061 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3062 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3066 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3068 * New host supported (not target)
3070 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3073 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3075 * Multiple source language support
3077 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3078 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3079 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3080 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3081 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3082 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3086 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3087 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3088 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3089 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3091 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3092 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3093 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3095 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3096 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3100 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3101 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3102 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3103 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3106 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3108 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3109 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3110 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3111 examining core files.
3115 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3118 * New machines supported (host and target)
3120 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3121 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3122 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3124 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3126 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3128 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3130 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3131 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3132 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3134 * New remote interfaces
3140 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3144 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3146 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3147 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3148 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3149 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3150 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3151 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3152 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3153 stub on the target system.
3155 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3157 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3158 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3159 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3161 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3162 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3165 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3167 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3168 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3170 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3171 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3172 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3174 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3175 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3176 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3177 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3179 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3180 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3181 it is already running. Default is ON.
3183 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3184 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3185 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3186 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3189 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3190 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3191 or the value of the environment variable
3194 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3195 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3198 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3199 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3200 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3202 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3203 history expansion will be performed on
3204 command line input. The default is OFF.
3206 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3207 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3208 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3210 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3211 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3212 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3215 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3216 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3217 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3220 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3221 ``set width'' instead.
3223 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3224 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3225 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3226 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3228 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3231 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3234 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3237 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3240 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3242 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3243 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3244 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3248 * Support for Shared Libraries
3250 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3251 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3252 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3253 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3254 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3255 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3256 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3257 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3259 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3260 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3261 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3263 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3268 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3269 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3270 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3271 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3272 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3273 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3275 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3277 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3279 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3280 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3281 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3284 * C++ multiple inheritance
3286 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3289 * C++ exception handling
3291 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3292 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3293 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3296 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3297 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3298 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3300 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3301 current stack frame.
3304 * Minor command changes
3306 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3307 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3308 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3310 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3311 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3312 frames without printing.
3314 * New directory command
3316 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3317 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3318 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3319 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3320 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3322 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3324 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3327 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3328 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3329 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3330 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob