Add new_inferior, inferior_deleted, and new_thread events
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 8.0
5
6 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
7 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
8 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
9
10 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
11 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
12 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
13
14 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
15 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
16 environment" command.
17
18 * Python Scripting
19
20 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
21 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
22 description of these.
23
24 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
25
26 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
27 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
28
29 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
30 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
31
32 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
33 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
34 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
35 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
36 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
37
38 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
39 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
40 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
41
42 * New remote packets
43
44 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
45 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
46 the inferior when starting it.
47
48 QEnvironmentUnset
49 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
50 before starting the remote inferior.
51
52 QEnvironmentReset
53 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
54 user-set environment variables should be unset).
55
56 QStartupWithShell
57 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
58
59 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
60 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
61
62 * New commands
63
64 set|show compile-gcc
65 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
66 with the 'compile' commands.
67
68 set debug separate-debug-file
69 show debug separate-debug-file
70 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
71
72 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
73 `o' for nexti.
74
75 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
76
77 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
78 'int'.
79
80 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
81 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
82 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
83 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
84
85 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
86 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
87 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
88 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
89 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
90 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
91
92 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
93 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
94 unless you tell it the variable's type:
95
96 (gdb) p var
97 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
98 (gdb) p (float) var
99 $3 = 3.14
100
101 * New native configurations
102
103 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
104
105 * New targets
106
107 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
108
109 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
110
111 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
112 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
113 available in future Intel CPUs.
114
115 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
116
117 * Python Scripting
118
119 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
120 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
121
122 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
123 instructions.
124
125 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
126
127 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
128
129 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
130 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
131 removed.
132
133 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
134
135 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
136 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
137
138 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
139
140 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
141 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
142 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
143 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
144 features.
145
146 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
147
148 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
149 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
150 debugger.
151
152 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
153
154 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
155 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
156
157 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
158
159 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
160
161 define mycommand
162 set $i = 0
163 while $i < $argc
164 eval "print $arg%d", $i
165 set $i = $i + 1
166 end
167 end
168
169 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
170
171 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
172 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
173
174 * New native configurations
175
176 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
177
178 * New targets
179
180 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
181 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
182
183 * Removed targets and native configurations
184
185 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
186 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
187
188 * New commands
189
190 flash-erase
191 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
192
193 maint print arc arc-instruction address
194 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
195
196 * New options
197
198 set disassembler-options
199 show disassembler-options
200 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
201 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
202 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
203 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
204 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
205
206 * New MI commands
207
208 -target-flash-erase
209 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
210 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
211
212 -file-list-shared-libraries
213 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
214 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
215
216 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
217
218 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
219
220 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
221 default. One must now explicitly configure with
222 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
223 option will be removed in a future release.
224
225 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
226 GDB connection.
227
228 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
229 memory backward from the given address. For example:
230
231 (gdb) bt
232 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
233 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
234 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
235 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
236 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
237 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
238 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
239 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
240 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
241
242 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
243 arrays of dynamic types.
244
245 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
246 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
247 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
248 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
249 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
250 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
251
252 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
253 descriptions.
254
255 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
256 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
257 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
258
259 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
260
261 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
262 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
263 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
264 signal received and code location.
265
266 For example:
267
268 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
269 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
270 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
271 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
272
273 * Rust language support.
274 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
275 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
276 Rust.
277
278 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
279
280 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
281 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
282 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
283 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
284 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
285 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
286 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
287 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
288 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
289 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
290 line.
291
292 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
293
294 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
295 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
296
297 * New commands
298
299 skip -file file
300 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
301 skip -function function
302 skip -rfunction regular-expression
303 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
304 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
305 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
306
307 maint info line-table REGEXP
308 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
309
310 maint selftest
311 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
312
313 new-ui INTERP TTY
314 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
315 using the TTY file for input/output.
316
317 * Python Scripting
318
319 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
320 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
321 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
322 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
323 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
324
325 signal-event EVENTID
326 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
327 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
328 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
329 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
330 signalling an event.
331
332 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
333 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
334 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
335
336 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
337 been removed:
338
339 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
340 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
341 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
342 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
343 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
344 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
345
346 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
347 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
348 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
349 bytecode into native code.
350
351 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
352 recording. For example:
353
354 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
355
356 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
357
358 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
359
360 * New targets
361
362 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
363
364 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
365
366 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
367
368 * Per-inferior thread numbers
369
370 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
371 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
372 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
373
374 (gdb) info threads
375 Id Target Id Frame
376 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
377 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
378 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
379 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
380
381 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
382 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
383 are no longer unique between inferiors.
384
385 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
386 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
387 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
388
389 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
390 IDs.
391
392 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
393 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
394
395 (gdb) thread 2.1
396 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
397 (gdb)
398
399 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
400 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
401 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
402 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
403 threads 2.*".
404
405 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
406 all threads.
407
408 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
409 the current thread.
410
411 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
412 current inferior.
413
414 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
415 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
416 example:
417
418 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
419 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
420
421 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
422
423 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
424
425 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
426 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
427
428 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
429 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
430 clients.
431
432 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
433 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
434 at the same time.
435
436 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
437 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
438 into native code.
439
440 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
441
442 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
443 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
444 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
445
446 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
447 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
448
449 * New commands
450
451 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
452 maint show target-non-stop
453 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
454 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
455 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
456
457 maint set bfd-sharing
458 maint show bfd-sharing
459 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
460
461 set debug bfd-cache
462 show debug bfd-cache
463 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
464
465 set debug fbsd-lwp
466 show debug fbsd-lwp
467 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
468
469 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
470 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
471 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
472
473 set remote thread-events
474 show remote thread-events
475 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
476
477 set ada print-signatures on|off
478 show ada print-signatures"
479 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
480 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
481
482 set max-value-size
483 show max-value-size
484 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
485 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
486 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
487
488 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
489 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
490 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
491 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
492 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
493 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
494
495 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
496 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
497
498 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
499 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
500
501 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
502
503 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
504 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
505 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
506 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
507 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
508 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
509
510 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
511 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
512
513 * New remote packets
514
515 exec stop reason
516 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
517
518 exec-events feature in qSupported
519 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
520 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
521 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
522 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
523
524 vCtrlC
525 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
526 non-stop mode.
527
528 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
529 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
530
531 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
532 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
533
534 QThreadEvents
535 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
536 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
537 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
538 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
539 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
540 stop for that same thread.
541
542 N stop reply
543 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
544 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
545 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
546
547 QCatchSyscalls
548 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
549 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
550
551 syscall_entry stop reason
552 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
553
554 syscall_return stop reason
555 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
556
557 * Extended-remote exec events
558
559 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
560 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
561 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
562
563 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
564 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
565 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
566
567 * Thread names in remote protocol
568
569 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
570 thread.
571
572 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
573
574 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
575 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
576 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
577 fork and exec catchpoints.
578
579 * Remote syscall events
580
581 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
582 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
583
584 set remote catch-syscall-packet
585 show remote catch-syscall-packet
586 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
587
588 * MI changes
589
590 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
591 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
592 left.
593
594 * Python Scripting
595
596 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
597 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
598 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
599 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
600 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
601 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
602
603 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
604
605 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
606 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
607 including advance SIMD instructions.
608
609 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
610
611 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
612 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
613 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
614 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
615 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
616 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
617 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
618
619 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
620 cpu information :
621 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
622
623 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
624 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
625 remote serial I/O.
626
627 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
628 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
629 and may include things like its command line arguments.
630
631 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
632 is now available on all platforms.
633
634 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
635 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
636 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
637 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
638 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
639 backward compatibility.
640
641 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
642 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
643 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
644 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
645
646 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
647 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
648 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
649 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
650 packets" below.
651
652 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
653
654 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
655
656 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
657 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
658 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
659 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
660 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
661 See "New remote packets" below.
662
663 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
664 available register groups, including target specific groups.
665
666 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
667 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
668 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
669 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
670 are ignored.
671
672 * Guile Scripting
673
674 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
675
676 * Python Scripting
677
678 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
679 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
680 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
681 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
682 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
683 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
684 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
685 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
686 "const" version of the value respectively.
687
688 * New commands
689
690 maint print symbol-cache
691 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
692
693 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
694 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
695
696 maint flush-symbol-cache
697 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
698
699 record btrace bts
700 record bts
701 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
702
703 compile print
704 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
705
706 tui enable
707 tui disable
708 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
709
710 show mpx bound
711 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
712 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
713
714 record btrace pt
715 record pt
716 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
717
718 maint info btrace
719 Print information about branch tracing internals.
720
721 maint btrace packet-history
722 Print the raw branch tracing data.
723
724 maint btrace clear-packet-history
725 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
726
727 maint btrace clear
728 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
729 anew by the next "record" command.
730
731 * New options
732
733 set debug dwarf-die
734 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
735 show debug dwarf-die
736 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
737
738 set debug dwarf-read
739 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
740 show debug dwarf-read
741 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
742
743 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
744 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
745 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
746 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
747
748 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
749 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
750 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
751 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
752
753 set debug dwarf-line
754 show debug dwarf-line
755 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
756
757 set max-completions
758 show max-completions
759 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
760 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
761 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
762 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
763
764 set history remove-duplicates
765 show history remove-duplicates
766 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
767
768 maint set symbol-cache-size
769 maint show symbol-cache-size
770 Control the size of the symbol cache.
771
772 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
773 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
774 BTS format.
775 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
776 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
777
778 set debug linux-namespaces
779 show debug linux-namespaces
780 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
781
782 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
783 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
784 Intel Processor Trace format.
785 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
786 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
787
788 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
789 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
790 packet history.
791
792 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
793 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
794
795 * Python/Guile scripting
796
797 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
798 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
799
800 * New remote packets
801
802 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
803 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
804
805 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
806 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
807
808 Qbtrace:pt
809 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
810 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
811 qSupported query.
812
813 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
814 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
815 Trace format.
816
817 swbreak stop reason
818 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
819 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
820 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
821 mode operation.
822
823 hwbreak stop reason
824 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
825 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
826
827 vFile:fstat:
828 Return information about files on the remote system.
829
830 qXfer:exec-file:read
831 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
832 create a process running on the remote system.
833
834 vFile:setfs:
835 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
836 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
837 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
838 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
839
840 fork stop reason
841 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
842
843 vfork stop reason
844 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
845
846 vforkdone stop reason
847 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
848 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
849
850 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
851 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
852 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
853 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
854 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
855 whether these features are enabled.
856
857 * Extended-remote fork events
858
859 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
860 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
861 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
862 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
863
864 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
865 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
866 the btrace record target.
867 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
868
869 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
870 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
871
872 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
873 targets.
874
875 * Removed command line options
876
877 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
878
879 * Removed targets and native configurations
880
881 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
882 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
883
884 * New configure options
885
886 --with-intel-pt
887 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
888 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
889
890 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
891 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
892 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
893 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
894
895 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
896
897 * Python Scripting
898
899 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
900
901 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
902
903 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
904
905 * Python Scripting
906
907 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
908 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
909 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
910 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
911 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
912 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
913 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
914 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
915 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
916 selecting a new file to debug.
917 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
918 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
919
920 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
921 inferior.
922
923 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
924 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
925 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
926 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
927
928 * New Python-based convenience functions:
929
930 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
931 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
932 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
933 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
934
935 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
936 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
937 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
938 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
939 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
940 interface with this new feature are:
941
942 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
943 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
944
945 * New commands
946
947 demangle [-l language] [--] name
948 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
949 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
950 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
951 as "maint demangler-warning".
952
953 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
954 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
955
956 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
957 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
958 scripts.
959
960 maint print user-registers
961 List all currently available "user" registers.
962
963 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
964 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
965 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
966
967 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
968 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
969 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
970 provided.
971
972 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
973 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
974 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
975 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
976 at resume time.
977
978 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
979 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
980 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
981 switched threads meanwhile.
982
983 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
984
985 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
986 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
987 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
988 is now the default mode.
989
990 * New options
991
992 set debug symbol-lookup
993 show debug symbol-lookup
994 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
995
996 * MI changes
997
998 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
999 inferiors that have exited.
1000
1001 * New targets
1002
1003 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
1004
1005 * Removed targets
1006
1007 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1008
1009 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
1010 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
1011 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
1012 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
1013 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
1014
1015 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1016 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1017 its alias "share", instead.
1018
1019 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
1020
1021 * New command line options
1022
1023 -D data-directory
1024 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
1025
1026 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
1027 as specified in ISO C99.
1028
1029 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
1030 with or without disassembly.
1031
1032 * Guile scripting
1033
1034 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
1035 available is determined at configure time.
1036 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
1037 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
1038
1039 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1040
1041 guile [code]
1042 gu [code]
1043 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
1044
1045 guile-repl
1046 gr
1047 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
1048
1049 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
1050 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
1051
1052 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
1053 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
1054
1055 * New options
1056
1057 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
1058 show print symbol-loading
1059 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
1060 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
1061 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
1062 becomes less useful.
1063
1064 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
1065 show guile print-stack
1066 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
1067
1068 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
1069 show auto-load guile-scripts
1070 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
1071
1072 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
1073 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
1074 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
1075 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
1076 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
1077 usage of this option.
1078
1079 set auto-connect-native-target
1080
1081 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
1082 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
1083 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
1084
1085 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
1086 show record btrace replay-memory-access
1087 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
1088
1089 maint set target-async (on|off)
1090 maint show target-async
1091 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
1092 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
1093 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
1094 occurring only in synchronous mode.
1095
1096 set mi-async (on|off)
1097 show mi-async
1098 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
1099 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
1100
1101 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
1102 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
1103
1104 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
1105 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
1106 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
1107 "set target-async on" command.
1108
1109 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1110
1111 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
1112 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
1113 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
1114 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
1115 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
1116
1117 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
1118 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
1119 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
1120
1121 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
1122 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
1123 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
1124 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
1125 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
1126 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
1127 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
1128
1129 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
1130 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
1131
1132 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
1133 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
1134 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
1135
1136 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
1137 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
1138 memory or registers.
1139
1140 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
1141
1142 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
1143 remote. It now works with all targets.
1144
1145 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
1146 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
1147 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
1148 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
1149 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
1150 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
1151 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
1152 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
1153 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
1154 target-stack".
1155
1156 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
1157 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
1158 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
1159
1160 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
1161
1162 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
1163 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
1164 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
1165
1166 * New remote packets
1167
1168 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
1169 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
1170 branch trace incrementally.
1171
1172 * Python Scripting
1173
1174 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
1175 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
1176 available.
1177 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
1178 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
1179 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
1180 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
1181 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
1182
1183 * New targets
1184 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
1185
1186 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1187 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1188 its alias "share", instead.
1189
1190 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
1191 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
1192 instead.
1193
1194 * MI changes
1195
1196 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
1197 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
1198 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
1199 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
1200 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
1201 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
1202 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
1203 commands and CLI execution commands.
1204
1205 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
1206
1207 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
1208 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
1209 recording has been added.
1210
1211 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1212
1213 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
1214 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
1215
1216 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
1217 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
1218 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
1219 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
1220 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
1221 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
1222 "void".
1223
1224 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
1225
1226 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
1227
1228 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
1229 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
1230 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
1231 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
1232
1233 (gdb) p $rax
1234 $1 = <not saved>
1235
1236 (gdb) info registers rax
1237 rax <not saved>
1238
1239 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
1240 "*value not available*".
1241
1242 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
1243 to binaries.
1244
1245 * Python scripting
1246
1247 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
1248 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
1249 ** Line tables representation has been added.
1250 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
1251 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
1252 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1253
1254 * New targets
1255
1256 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
1257 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
1258 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
1259
1260 * Removed native configurations
1261
1262 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
1263 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
1264
1265 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1266 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1267 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
1268 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
1269 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1270 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1271 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1272
1273 * New commands:
1274 catch rethrow
1275 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
1276 maint check-psymtabs
1277 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
1278 maint check-symtabs
1279 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
1280 maint expand-symtabs
1281 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
1282
1283 show configuration
1284 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1285
1286 maint set|show per-command
1287 maint set|show per-command space
1288 maint set|show per-command time
1289 maint set|show per-command symtab
1290 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
1291
1292 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
1293 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
1294 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
1295 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
1296 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
1297
1298 info exceptions
1299 info exceptions REGEXP
1300 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
1301 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
1302 are listed.
1303
1304 * New options
1305
1306 set debug symfile off|on
1307 show debug symfile
1308 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
1309 symbol tables within those files
1310
1311 set print raw frame-arguments
1312 show print raw frame-arguments
1313 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
1314 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
1315
1316 set remote trace-status-packet
1317 show remote trace-status-packet
1318 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
1319
1320 set debug nios2
1321 show debug nios2
1322 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
1323
1324 set range-stepping
1325 show range-stepping
1326 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
1327
1328 set startup-with-shell
1329 show startup-with-shell
1330 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
1331 directly.
1332
1333 set code-cache
1334 show code-cache
1335 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
1336 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
1337
1338 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
1339 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
1340 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
1341 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
1342 "set height 0".
1343
1344 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
1345 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
1346 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
1347
1348 * New command-line options
1349 --configuration
1350 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1351
1352 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
1353 buffer in Common Trace Format.
1354
1355 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
1356 GDB command gcore.
1357
1358 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
1359
1360 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
1361 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
1362
1363 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
1364 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
1365
1366 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
1367 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
1368 due to an uncaught signal.
1369
1370 * MI changes
1371
1372 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
1373 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
1374 command, which should contain "language-option".
1375
1376 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
1377 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
1378
1379 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
1380 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
1381 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
1382 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1383 "undefined-command-error-code".
1384
1385 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
1386 Trace Format now.
1387
1388 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
1389
1390 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
1391 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
1392 are displayed.
1393
1394 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
1395 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
1396
1397 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
1398 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
1399 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
1400
1401 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
1402 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
1403 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
1404 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
1405 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1406 "exec-run-start-option".
1407
1408 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
1409 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
1410
1411 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
1412 the new "info exceptions" command.
1413
1414 * New system-wide configuration scripts
1415 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
1416 configuration scripts for the following systems:
1417 ** ElinOS
1418 ** Wind River Linux
1419
1420 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
1421 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
1422 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
1423 below.
1424
1425 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
1426 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
1427
1428 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
1429 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
1430 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
1431
1432 * New remote packets
1433
1434 vCont;r
1435
1436 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
1437 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
1438 involvemement at each single-step.
1439
1440 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
1441 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
1442 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
1443 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
1444 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
1445 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
1446 speedup.
1447
1448 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1449
1450 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
1451 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
1452
1453 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
1454 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
1455 trace state variables.
1456
1457 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
1458 target.
1459
1460 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
1461 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
1462
1463 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
1464
1465 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
1466 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
1467 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
1468 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1469
1470 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
1471
1472 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
1473 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
1474 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
1475 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
1476
1477 set|show record full insn-number-max
1478 set|show record full stop-at-limit
1479 set|show record full memory-query
1480
1481 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
1482 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
1483 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
1484 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
1485 This new recording method can be enabled using:
1486
1487 record btrace
1488
1489 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
1490 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
1491
1492 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
1493 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
1494 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
1495
1496 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
1497 instruction granularity
1498
1499 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
1500 function granularity
1501
1502 * New native configurations
1503
1504 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
1505 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
1506 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1507 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
1508
1509 * New targets
1510
1511 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
1512 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
1513 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
1514 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1515 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
1516
1517 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
1518 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
1519 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
1520 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
1521 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
1522 --data-directory command-line option.
1523
1524 * New command line options:
1525
1526 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1527 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1528
1529 * Removed command line options
1530
1531 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1532 Emacs.
1533
1534 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1535 type formatting.
1536
1537 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1538
1539 * Python scripting
1540
1541 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1542
1543 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1544
1545 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1546
1547 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1548
1549 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1550 of architecture in the Python API.
1551
1552 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1553 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1554
1555 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1556
1557 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1558 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1559 ** $_strlen(str)
1560 ** $_regex(str, regex)
1561
1562 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
1563 given an argument.
1564
1565 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
1566 default for GCC since November 2000.
1567
1568 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
1569
1570 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
1571 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
1572
1573 * New configure options
1574
1575 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
1576 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
1577 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
1578 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
1579 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
1580 options allow the user to override that default.
1581 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
1582 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
1583 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
1584
1585 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1586
1587 catch signal
1588 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
1589 conditions to be attached.
1590
1591 maint info bfds
1592 List the BFDs known to GDB.
1593
1594 python-interactive [command]
1595 pi [command]
1596 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
1597 and print the result of expressions.
1598
1599 py [command]
1600 "py" is a new alias for "python".
1601
1602 enable type-printer [name]...
1603 disable type-printer [name]...
1604 Enable or disable type printers.
1605
1606 * Removed commands
1607
1608 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
1609 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
1610 instead.
1611
1612 * New options
1613
1614 set print type methods (on|off)
1615 show print type methods
1616 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
1617 The default is to show them.
1618
1619 set print type typedefs (on|off)
1620 show print type typedefs
1621 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
1622 The default is to show them.
1623
1624 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
1625 show filename-display
1626 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
1627 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
1628
1629 set trace-buffer-size
1630 show trace-buffer-size
1631 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
1632
1633 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
1634 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
1635 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
1636
1637 set debug aarch64
1638 show debug aarch64
1639 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
1640 The default is off.
1641
1642 set debug coff-pe-read
1643 show debug coff-pe-read
1644 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
1645 exported symbols.
1646
1647 set debug mach-o
1648 show debug mach-o
1649 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
1650 processing.
1651
1652 set debug notification
1653 show debug notification
1654 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
1655
1656 * MI changes
1657
1658 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
1659 "=cmd-param-changed".
1660 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
1661 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
1662 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
1663 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
1664 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
1665 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
1666 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
1667 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
1668 "=memory-changed".
1669 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
1670 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
1671 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
1672 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
1673 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
1674 library load/unload events.
1675 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
1676 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
1677 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
1678 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
1679 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
1680 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
1681 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
1682 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
1683
1684 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
1685 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
1686 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
1687 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
1688
1689 * New remote packets
1690
1691 QTBuffer:size
1692 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
1693 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1694
1695 Qbtrace:bts
1696 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
1697 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
1698 qSupported query.
1699
1700 Qbtrace:off
1701 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
1702 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1703
1704 qXfer:btrace:read
1705 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
1706 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1707
1708 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
1709
1710 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
1711 for more x32 ABI info.
1712
1713 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
1714
1715 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
1716
1717 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1718 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
1719 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
1720 "info os files" lists file descriptors
1721 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
1722 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
1723 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
1724 "info os msg" lists message queues
1725 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
1726
1727 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
1728 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
1729 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
1730 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
1731 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
1732 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
1733
1734 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
1735 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
1736 record/replay support.
1737
1738 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
1739
1740 * Python scripting
1741
1742 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
1743 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
1744
1745 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
1746
1747 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
1748 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
1749
1750 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
1751
1752 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
1753 the source at which the symbol was defined.
1754
1755 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
1756 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
1757 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
1758 symbol's value.
1759
1760 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
1761 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
1762
1763 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
1764 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
1765 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
1766
1767 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
1768 object associated with a PC value.
1769
1770 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
1771 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
1772
1773 * Go language support.
1774 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
1775 language.
1776
1777 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
1778 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
1779
1780 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
1781 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
1782
1783 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
1784 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
1785 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
1786 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
1787 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
1788 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
1789
1790 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
1791 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
1792 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
1793 build/libcpp/expr.c.
1794
1795 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
1796 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
1797
1798 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
1799 since December 2007.
1800
1801 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
1802 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
1803 command does. For instance:
1804
1805 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
1806
1807 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
1808 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
1809 created, using the "condition" command.
1810
1811 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
1812 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
1813
1814 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
1815
1816 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
1817 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
1818 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
1819 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
1820 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
1821 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
1822 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
1823 files with older .gdb_index sections.
1824
1825 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
1826 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
1827 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
1828 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
1829 the .gdb_index section.
1830
1831 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
1832
1833 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
1834 target.
1835
1836 * MI changes
1837
1838 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
1839
1840 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
1841
1842 * New commands
1843
1844 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1845 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1846 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
1847
1848 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
1849 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
1850
1851 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
1852 several hits.
1853
1854 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
1855 C++ and Java objects.
1856
1857 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
1858 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
1859 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
1860 configured with '--with-python'.
1861
1862 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
1863 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
1864 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
1865 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
1866 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
1867 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
1868 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
1869
1870 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
1871 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
1872 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
1873 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
1874
1875 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
1876 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
1877 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
1878 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
1879
1880 ** "set print symbol"
1881 "show print symbol"
1882 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
1883 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
1884 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
1885
1886 * Deprecated commands
1887
1888 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
1889 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
1890
1891 * New targets
1892
1893 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1894 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
1895
1896 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
1897 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
1898 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
1899 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
1900 evaluates to true.
1901
1902 * New options
1903
1904 set mips compression
1905 show mips compression
1906 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
1907 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
1908 mips16
1909 micromips
1910 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
1911
1912 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
1913 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
1914 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
1915 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
1916 available mode.
1917 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
1918 target.
1919
1920 set auto-load off
1921 Disable auto-loading globally.
1922
1923 show auto-load
1924 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
1925
1926 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
1927 show auto-load gdb-scripts
1928 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
1929
1930 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
1931 show auto-load python-scripts
1932 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
1933
1934 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
1935 show auto-load local-gdbinit
1936 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
1937
1938 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
1939 show auto-load libthread-db
1940 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
1941
1942 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1943 show auto-load scripts-directory
1944 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
1945 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
1946 of the directories listed by this option.
1947 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1948
1949 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1950 show auto-load safe-path
1951 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
1952 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1953
1954 set debug auto-load on|off
1955 show debug auto-load
1956 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1957
1958 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
1959 show dprintf-style
1960 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1961 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1962 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1963 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
1964
1965 set dprintf-function <expr>
1966 show dprintf-function
1967 set dprintf-channel <expr>
1968 show dprintf-channel
1969 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1970 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1971
1972 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1973 show disconnected-dprintf
1974 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1975 after GDB disconnects.
1976
1977 * New configure options
1978
1979 --with-auto-load-dir
1980 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1981 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1982 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1983 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1984 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
1985
1986 --with-auto-load-safe-path
1987 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
1988 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
1989
1990 --without-auto-load-safe-path
1991 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1992 security feature.
1993
1994 * New remote packets
1995
1996 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1997
1998 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1999 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
2000 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
2001 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
2002
2003 QProgramSignals:
2004
2005 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
2006 program without GDB involvement.
2007
2008 * New command line options
2009
2010 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
2011 before loading inferior.
2012 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
2013 execute it before loading inferior.
2014
2015 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
2016
2017 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
2018 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
2019 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
2020 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
2021 inferior changes.
2022
2023 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
2024 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
2025
2026 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
2027 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
2028 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
2029 target hardware watchpoint.
2030
2031 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
2032 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
2033 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
2034 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
2035
2036 * Python scripting
2037
2038 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
2039 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
2040 existing one.
2041
2042 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
2043 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
2044 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
2045 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
2046 now "message", which just prints the error message without
2047 the stack trace.
2048
2049 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
2050 Python API.
2051
2052 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
2053 modules library. This module provides functionality for
2054 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
2055 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
2056 corresponding value.
2057
2058 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
2059 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
2060 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
2061 on GDB start-up.
2062
2063 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
2064 static_block will return the global and static blocks
2065 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
2066 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
2067
2068 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
2069
2070 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
2071 "gdb.breakpoints".
2072
2073 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
2074 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
2075 available in the CLI.
2076
2077 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
2078 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
2079 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
2080 "some_type.items()".
2081
2082 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
2083 new object file.
2084
2085 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
2086 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
2087 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
2088 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
2089 any anonymous fields.
2090
2091 * MI changes
2092
2093 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
2094 "solib-event".
2095
2096 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
2097 "=breakpoint-modified".
2098
2099 ** New command -ada-task-info.
2100
2101 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
2102 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
2103 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
2104 lives.
2105
2106 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
2107 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
2108 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
2109 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
2110 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
2111
2112 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
2113 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
2114
2115 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
2116 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
2117 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
2118 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
2119 use this option to specify where to find it.
2120
2121 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2122 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
2123 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
2124 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
2125 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
2126 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2127 section in the user manual for more details.
2128
2129 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
2130 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
2131 become available after that.
2132
2133 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
2134
2135 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
2136 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
2137 gcc version 4.7.
2138
2139 * New commands
2140
2141 !SHELL COMMAND
2142 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
2143 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
2144
2145 * Changed commands
2146
2147 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
2148 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
2149 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
2150
2151 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
2152 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
2153 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
2154
2155 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
2156 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
2157 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
2158 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
2159 name starts with a hyphen.
2160
2161 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
2162 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
2163 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
2164 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
2165 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
2166 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
2167 number of bytes that will be collected.
2168
2169 tstart [NOTES]
2170 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
2171 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
2172 setting the variable trace-notes.
2173
2174 tstop [NOTES]
2175 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
2176 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
2177 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
2178 trace-stop-notes.
2179
2180 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
2181 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
2182 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
2183 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
2184 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
2185 is running.
2186
2187 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
2188 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
2189 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
2190
2191 * New options
2192
2193 set debug dwarf2-read
2194 show debug dwarf2-read
2195 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
2196 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
2197
2198 set debug symtab-create
2199 show debug symtab-create
2200 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
2201 creation. The default is off.
2202
2203 set extended-prompt
2204 show extended-prompt
2205 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
2206 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
2207 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
2208 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
2209 prompt is displayed.
2210
2211 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
2212 show print entry-values
2213 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
2214 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
2215 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
2216
2217 set debug entry-values
2218 show debug entry-values
2219 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
2220 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
2221
2222 set basenames-may-differ
2223 show basenames-may-differ
2224 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
2225 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
2226 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
2227 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
2228 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
2229 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
2230 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
2231 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
2232
2233 set trace-user
2234 show trace-user
2235 set trace-notes
2236 show trace-notes
2237 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
2238 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
2239 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
2240 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
2241
2242 set trace-stop-notes
2243 show trace-stop-notes
2244 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
2245 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
2246 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
2247 started by someone else.
2248
2249 * New remote packets
2250
2251 QTEnable
2252
2253 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2254
2255 QTDisable
2256
2257 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2258
2259 QTNotes
2260
2261 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
2262
2263 qTP
2264
2265 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
2266
2267 qTMinFTPILen
2268
2269 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
2270 be placed.
2271
2272 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
2273 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
2274
2275 * New targets
2276
2277 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
2278
2279 * New Simulators
2280
2281 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2282
2283 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
2284
2285 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
2286
2287 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
2288
2289 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
2290 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
2291 matches the given regular expression.
2292
2293 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
2294
2295 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
2296 dumping the instruction opcodes.
2297
2298 * New command line options
2299
2300 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
2301 This is mostly for testing purposes.
2302
2303 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
2304 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
2305
2306 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
2307 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
2308 source path list instead of augmenting it.
2309
2310 * GDB now understands thread names.
2311
2312 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
2313 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
2314
2315 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
2316 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
2317
2318 * OpenCL C
2319 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
2320 has been integrated into GDB.
2321
2322 * Python scripting
2323
2324 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
2325 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
2326 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
2327
2328 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2329 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
2330 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
2331 and allows for more dynamic content.
2332
2333 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
2334 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
2335 have an is_valid method.
2336
2337 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2338 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
2339 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
2340
2341 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
2342
2343 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
2344 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
2345 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
2346 that function like so:
2347
2348 result = some_value (10,20)
2349
2350 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
2351 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
2352 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
2353
2354 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
2355 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
2356 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
2357 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
2358 New function: register_pretty_printer.
2359
2360 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
2361 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
2362
2363 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
2364
2365 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
2366 selected thread.
2367
2368 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
2369 holds the thread's name.
2370
2371 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
2372 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
2373 occurring in the process being debugged.
2374 The following events are currently supported:
2375 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
2376 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
2377 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
2378
2379 * C++ Improvements:
2380
2381 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
2382 instantiation. For example, if you have:
2383
2384 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
2385
2386 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
2387 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
2388 was added to GCC 4.5.
2389
2390 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
2391 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
2392 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
2393 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
2394 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
2395 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
2396
2397 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
2398 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
2399 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
2400 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
2401 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
2402
2403 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
2404 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
2405 execution to a label.
2406
2407 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
2408 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
2409 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
2410 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
2411
2412 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
2413 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
2414 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
2415 of scope.
2416
2417 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
2418
2419 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
2420 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
2421 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
2422 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
2423 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
2424 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
2425
2426 (gdb) info threads
2427 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
2428
2429 While now you see this:
2430
2431 (gdb) info threads
2432 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
2433
2434 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
2435 dumps.
2436
2437 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
2438 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
2439 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
2440 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
2441
2442 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2443 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
2444 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
2445 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2446 section in the user manual for more details.
2447
2448 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2449
2450 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
2451 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
2452
2453 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
2454
2455 * New native configurations
2456
2457 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2458
2459 * New targets:
2460
2461 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
2462
2463 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
2464 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2465 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2466 in the GDB user manual.
2467
2468 * Guile support was removed.
2469
2470 * New features in the GNU simulator
2471
2472 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
2473
2474 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
2475
2476 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
2477
2478 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
2479
2480 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
2481 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
2482 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
2483 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
2484 was always disabled for such configurations.
2485
2486 * C++ Improvements:
2487
2488 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
2489
2490 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
2491 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
2492 For example:
2493 namespace A
2494 {
2495 class B { };
2496 void foo (B) { }
2497 }
2498 ...
2499 A::B b
2500 foo(b)
2501 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
2502 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
2503 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
2504
2505 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
2506
2507 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
2508 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
2509 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
2510 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
2511 entry.
2512 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
2513 mentioned flavors of operators.
2514
2515 ** static const class members
2516
2517 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
2518 class definition has been fixed.
2519
2520 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
2521
2522 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
2523 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2524 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2525 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2526 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2527 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2528
2529 * Static tracepoints
2530
2531 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2532 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2533 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2534 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2535 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2536 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2537 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2538 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2539 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2540 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2541 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2542 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2543 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2544 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2545 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2546 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2547 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2548 the "New remote packets" section below.
2549
2550 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2551
2552 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2553 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2554 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2555 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2556
2557 * Observer mode
2558
2559 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2560 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
2561 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
2562 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
2563 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
2564 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
2565 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
2566
2567 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
2568 current thread.
2569
2570 * New remote packets
2571
2572 qGetTIBAddr
2573
2574 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
2575
2576 qRelocInsn
2577
2578 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
2579 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
2580 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
2581 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
2582 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
2583 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
2584
2585 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
2586
2587 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
2588
2589 qTSTMat
2590
2591 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
2592 program.
2593
2594 qXfer:statictrace:read
2595
2596 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
2597 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
2598 to gdb's qSupported query.
2599
2600 QAllow
2601
2602 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
2603
2604 QTDPsrc
2605
2606 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
2607 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
2608
2609 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
2610 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
2611 a directory.
2612
2613 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2614
2615 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
2616 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
2617 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
2618 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
2619
2620 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
2621 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
2622 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
2623 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
2624 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
2625 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
2626 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
2627
2628 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
2629 for static tracepoints support.
2630
2631 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
2632
2633 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
2634 it understands register description.
2635
2636 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
2637
2638 * X86 general purpose registers
2639
2640 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
2641 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
2642 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
2643 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
2644 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
2645
2646 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
2647 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
2648 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
2649 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
2650 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
2651 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
2652
2653 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
2654 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
2655 in the specified file.
2656
2657 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
2658 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
2659 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
2660 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
2661 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
2662 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
2663 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
2664 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
2665 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
2666 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
2667
2668 * New commands
2669
2670 eval template, expressions...
2671 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
2672 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
2673
2674 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
2675 show target-file-system-kind
2676 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
2677 names.
2678
2679 save breakpoints <filename>
2680 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
2681 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
2682 definitions, use the `source' command.
2683
2684 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
2685 is now deprecated.
2686
2687 info static-tracepoint-markers
2688 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
2689
2690 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
2691 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
2692 function, line, address, or marker ID.
2693
2694 set observer on|off
2695 show observer
2696 Enable and disable observer mode.
2697
2698 set may-write-registers on|off
2699 set may-write-memory on|off
2700 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
2701 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
2702 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
2703 set may-interrupt on|off
2704 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
2705 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
2706 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
2707 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
2708 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
2709 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
2710 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
2711
2712 set record memory-query on|off
2713 show record memory-query
2714 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
2715 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
2716
2717 * Changed commands
2718
2719 disassemble
2720 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
2721
2722 * Python scripting
2723
2724 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
2725 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
2726 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
2727 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
2728 GDB using Python' in the manual.
2729
2730 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
2731 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
2732 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
2733 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
2734
2735 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
2736 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
2737
2738 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
2739
2740 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
2741
2742 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
2743
2744 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
2745 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
2746 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
2747
2748 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
2749 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
2750 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
2751 regular breakpoints.
2752
2753 * New targets
2754
2755 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
2756
2757 * D language support.
2758 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
2759 language.
2760
2761 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
2762 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
2763 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
2764 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
2765 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
2766
2767 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
2768 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
2769 conditions of the form:
2770
2771 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
2772
2773 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
2774 interface mentioned above.
2775
2776 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
2777
2778 * C++ Improvements
2779
2780 ** Namespace Support
2781
2782 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
2783 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
2784 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
2785 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
2786 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
2787
2788 ** Bug Fixes
2789
2790 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
2791 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
2792 qualified name.
2793
2794 ** Cast Operators
2795
2796 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
2797 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
2798
2799 * New targets
2800
2801 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
2802 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2803
2804 * New Simulators
2805
2806 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
2807 Renesas RX rx
2808
2809 * Multi-program debugging.
2810
2811 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
2812 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
2813 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
2814 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
2815 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
2816 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
2817 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
2818 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
2819
2820 * New tracing features
2821
2822 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
2823
2824 ** Trace state variables
2825
2826 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
2827 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
2828 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
2829 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
2830 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
2831 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
2832 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
2833 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
2834 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
2835 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
2836
2837 ** Fast tracepoints
2838
2839 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
2840 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
2841 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
2842 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
2843 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
2844 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
2845 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
2846 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
2847 the regular trace command.
2848
2849 ** Disconnected tracing
2850
2851 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
2852 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
2853 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
2854 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
2855 connection is lost unexpectedly.
2856
2857 ** Trace files
2858
2859 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
2860 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
2861 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
2862 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
2863 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
2864 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
2865 <name>".
2866
2867 ** Circular trace buffer
2868
2869 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
2870 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
2871 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
2872 not be available for all target agents.
2873
2874 * Changed commands
2875
2876 disassemble
2877 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
2878 the arguments to be comma-separated.
2879
2880 info variables
2881 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
2882 which only declare a variable are not shown.
2883
2884 source
2885 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
2886 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
2887 support.
2888
2889 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
2890 "set script-extension" (see below).
2891
2892 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2893
2894 record save [<FILENAME>]
2895 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
2896 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
2897
2898 record restore <FILENAME>
2899 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
2900 earlier time, for replay debugging.
2901
2902 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
2903 Add a new inferior.
2904
2905 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
2906 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
2907 inferior has loaded.
2908
2909 remove-inferior ID
2910 Remove an inferior.
2911
2912 maint info program-spaces
2913 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
2914
2915 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
2916 show remote interrupt-sequence
2917 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
2918 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
2919 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
2920 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
2921 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
2922
2923 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
2924 show remote interrupt-on-connect
2925 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
2926 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
2927 Linux kernel.
2928
2929 set remotebreak [on | off]
2930 show remotebreak
2931 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
2932
2933 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
2934 Create or modify a trace state variable.
2935
2936 info tvariables
2937 List trace state variables and their values.
2938
2939 delete tvariable $NAME ...
2940 Delete one or more trace state variables.
2941
2942 teval EXPR, ...
2943 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
2944 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
2945
2946 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
2947 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
2948
2949 * New expression syntax
2950
2951 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
2952 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
2953
2954 * New options
2955
2956 set follow-exec-mode new|same
2957 show follow-exec-mode
2958 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2959 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2960 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2961
2962 set default-collect EXPR, ...
2963 show default-collect
2964 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2965 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2966 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2967
2968 set disconnected-tracing
2969 show disconnected-tracing
2970 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2971 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2972 upon disconnection.
2973
2974 set circular-trace-buffer
2975 show circular-trace-buffer
2976 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2977 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2978 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2979 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2980
2981 set script-extension off|soft|strict
2982 show script-extension
2983 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2984 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2985 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2986 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2987 evaluation failed.
2988 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2989
2990 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2991 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2992 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2993 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2994 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2995 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2996 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2997 is on.
2998
2999 * Python API Improvements
3000
3001 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
3002 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
3003 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
3004
3005 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
3006 `is_base_class' attribute.
3007
3008 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
3009
3010 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
3011 evaluate an expression.
3012
3013 * New remote packets
3014
3015 QTDV
3016 Define a trace state variable.
3017
3018 qTV
3019 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
3020
3021 QTDisconnected
3022 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
3023
3024 QTBuffer:circular
3025 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
3026
3027 qTfP, qTsP
3028 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
3029
3030 * Bug fixes
3031
3032 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
3033
3034 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
3035 much more reliable. In particular:
3036 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
3037 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
3038 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
3039 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
3040 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
3041 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
3042 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
3043 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
3044 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
3045 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
3046 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
3047 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
3048 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
3049 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
3050 non-threaded programs.
3051
3052 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
3053 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
3054 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
3055 executable program.
3056
3057 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
3058
3059 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
3060 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
3061 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
3062 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
3063 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
3064
3065 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
3066 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
3067 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
3068 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
3069 for tracepoint actions.
3070
3071 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
3072 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
3073 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
3074
3075 * Process record and replay
3076
3077 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
3078 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
3079 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
3080 execute commands.
3081
3082 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
3083 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
3084 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
3085 reverse execution.
3086
3087 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
3088 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
3089 2.6.28 or later.
3090
3091 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
3092 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
3093 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
3094 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
3095 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
3096 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
3097 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
3098 the installation instructions for more information.
3099
3100 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
3101 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
3102 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
3103 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
3104
3105 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
3106 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
3107
3108 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
3109 now complete on file names.
3110
3111 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
3112 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
3113 For instance, consider:
3114
3115 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
3116 # struct example variable;
3117 (gdb) p variable.
3118
3119 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
3120 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
3121
3122 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
3123 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
3124
3125 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
3126 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
3127 macros.
3128
3129 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
3130 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
3131 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
3132
3133 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
3134 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
3135 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
3136 and simulator targets may also provide them.
3137
3138 * New remote packets
3139
3140 qSearch:memory:
3141 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3142
3143 QStartNoAckMode
3144 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
3145 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
3146 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
3147
3148 vKill
3149 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
3150 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
3151
3152 qXfer:osdata:read
3153 Obtains additional operating system information
3154
3155 qXfer:siginfo:read
3156 qXfer:siginfo:write
3157 Read or write additional signal information.
3158
3159 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
3160
3161 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
3162 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
3163 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
3164
3165 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
3166 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
3167
3168 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
3169 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
3170 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
3171
3172 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
3173 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
3174
3175 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
3176
3177 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
3178
3179 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
3180 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
3181
3182 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
3183 list of section offsets.
3184
3185 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
3186 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
3187 have also been fixed.
3188
3189 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
3190 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
3191 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
3192
3193 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
3194 example, given:
3195
3196 template<typename T> class C { };
3197 C<char const *> c;
3198
3199 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
3200
3201 ptype C<char const *>
3202 ptype C<char const*>
3203 ptype C<const char *>
3204 ptype C<const char*>
3205
3206 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
3207
3208 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
3209 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3210
3211 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
3212 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3213 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
3214
3215 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
3216 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
3217
3218 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
3219 gdbserver.
3220
3221 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
3222 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3223
3224 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
3225 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
3226 as appropriate.
3227
3228 * Python scripting
3229
3230 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
3231 available is determined at configure time.
3232
3233 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
3234
3235 * Ada tasking support
3236
3237 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
3238 been introduced:
3239
3240 info tasks
3241 Print the list of Ada tasks.
3242 info task N
3243 Print detailed information about task number N.
3244 task
3245 Print the task number of the current task.
3246 task N
3247 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
3248
3249 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
3250 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
3251
3252 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
3253
3254 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
3255 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
3256 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
3257 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
3258 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
3259 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
3260 below.
3261
3262 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
3263 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
3264 information.
3265
3266 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
3267 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
3268 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
3269 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
3270 more information.
3271
3272 * Multi-architecture debugging.
3273
3274 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
3275 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
3276 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
3277 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
3278 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
3279
3280 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
3281 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
3282 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
3283 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
3284 --enable-targets configure option.
3285
3286 * Non-stop mode debugging.
3287
3288 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
3289 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
3290 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
3291 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
3292 section in the user manual for more information.
3293
3294 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
3295 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
3296 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
3297 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
3298 extensions on linux targets.
3299
3300 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3301
3302 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
3303 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
3304 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
3305 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
3306 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
3307 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
3308 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
3309 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
3310 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
3311
3312 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
3313 val1 [, val2, ...]
3314 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3315
3316 maint set python print-stack
3317 maint show python print-stack
3318 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
3319
3320 python [CODE]
3321 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
3322
3323 macro define
3324 macro list
3325 macro undef
3326 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
3327 interactively.
3328
3329 info os processes
3330 Show operating system information about processes.
3331
3332 info inferiors
3333 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
3334
3335 inferior NUM
3336 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
3337
3338 detach inferior NUM
3339 Detach from inferior number NUM.
3340
3341 kill inferior NUM
3342 Kill inferior number NUM.
3343
3344 * New options
3345
3346 set spu stop-on-load
3347 show spu stop-on-load
3348 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3349
3350 set spu auto-flush-cache
3351 show spu auto-flush-cache
3352 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
3353 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3354
3355 set sh calling-convention
3356 show sh calling-convention
3357 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
3358
3359 set debug timestamp
3360 show debug timestamp
3361 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
3362
3363 set disassemble-next-line
3364 show disassemble-next-line
3365 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
3366 the debuggee stops.
3367
3368 set remote noack-packet
3369 show remote noack-packet
3370 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
3371 under "New remote packets."
3372
3373 set remote query-attached-packet
3374 show remote query-attached-packet
3375 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
3376
3377 set remote read-siginfo-object
3378 show remote read-siginfo-object
3379 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
3380 packet.
3381
3382 set remote write-siginfo-object
3383 show remote write-siginfo-object
3384 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
3385 packet.
3386
3387 set remote reverse-continue
3388 show remote reverse-continue
3389 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
3390
3391 set remote reverse-step
3392 show remote reverse-step
3393 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
3394
3395 set displaced-stepping
3396 show displaced-stepping
3397 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
3398 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
3399 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
3400
3401 set debug displaced
3402 show debug displaced
3403 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
3404
3405 maint set internal-error
3406 maint show internal-error
3407 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
3408
3409 maint set internal-warning
3410 maint show internal-warning
3411 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
3412
3413 set exec-wrapper
3414 show exec-wrapper
3415 unset exec-wrapper
3416 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3417
3418 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
3419 show multiple-symbols
3420 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
3421 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
3422 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
3423
3424 set breakpoint always-inserted
3425 show breakpoint always-inserted
3426 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
3427 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
3428 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
3429
3430 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3431 show arm fallback-mode
3432 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3433 show arm force-mode
3434 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
3435 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
3436 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
3437 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
3438
3439 set disable-randomization
3440 show disable-randomization
3441 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
3442 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
3443 multiple debugging sessions.
3444
3445 set non-stop
3446 show non-stop
3447 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
3448 a breakpoint.
3449
3450 set target-async
3451 show target-async
3452 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
3453 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
3454 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
3455 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
3456
3457 set target-wide-charset
3458 show target-wide-charset
3459 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
3460 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
3461
3462 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
3463 show tcp auto-retry
3464 set tcp connect-timeout
3465 show tcp connect-timeout
3466 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
3467 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
3468 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
3469
3470 set libthread-db-search-path
3471 show libthread-db-search-path
3472 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
3473 libthread_db.
3474
3475 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
3476 show schedule-multiple
3477 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
3478 the current process.
3479
3480 set stack-cache
3481 show stack-cache
3482 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
3483 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
3484 affecting correctness.
3485
3486 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
3487 show interactive-mode
3488 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
3489 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
3490 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
3491 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
3492 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
3493
3494 * Removed commands
3495
3496 info forks
3497 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
3498 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
3499 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
3500 command.
3501
3502 fork NUM
3503 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
3504 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
3505 alias for the `fork' command.
3506
3507 process PID
3508 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
3509 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
3510 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
3511
3512 delete fork NUM
3513 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
3514 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
3515 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
3516 fork' command.
3517
3518 detach fork NUM
3519 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
3520 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
3521 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
3522 fork' command.
3523
3524 * New native configurations
3525
3526 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3527
3528 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3529
3530 * New targets
3531
3532 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
3533 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
3534 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
3535 S+core 3 score-*-*
3536
3537 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3538 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3539
3540 * Removed commands
3541
3542 catch load
3543 catch unload
3544 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3545
3546 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
3547
3548 * New native configurations
3549
3550 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
3551 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
3552
3553 * New targets
3554
3555 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
3556 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
3557
3558 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3559
3560 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
3561 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
3562 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
3563 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
3564
3565 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
3566 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
3567
3568 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
3569 is resolved.
3570
3571 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
3572 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
3573 and in inlined functions.
3574
3575 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
3576 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
3577 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
3578
3579 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
3580
3581 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
3582 registers on PowerPC targets.
3583
3584 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
3585 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
3586
3587 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
3588 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
3589
3590 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
3591 extended-remote mode.
3592
3593 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
3594 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
3595 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
3596 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
3597
3598 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
3599 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
3600 target architectures.
3601
3602 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
3603 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
3604 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
3605 stored in two consecutive float registers.
3606
3607 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
3608 breakpoints now.
3609
3610 * Improved support for debugging Ada
3611 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
3612 include:
3613 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
3614 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
3615 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
3616 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
3617 of an assignment
3618 - Improved command completion in Ada
3619 - Several bug fixes
3620
3621 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
3622 process.
3623
3624 * New commands
3625
3626 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
3627 show print frame-arguments
3628 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
3629 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
3630
3631 remote put
3632 remote get
3633 remote delete
3634 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3635
3636 * New MI commands
3637
3638 -target-file-put
3639 -target-file-get
3640 -target-file-delete
3641 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3642
3643 * New remote packets
3644
3645 vFile:open:
3646 vFile:close:
3647 vFile:pread:
3648 vFile:pwrite:
3649 vFile:unlink:
3650 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
3651
3652 vAttach
3653 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
3654 mode.
3655
3656 vRun
3657 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
3658
3659 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
3660
3661 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
3662 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
3663 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
3664
3665 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
3666 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
3667 -Bsymbolic linker option.
3668
3669 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
3670 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
3671 is not supported.
3672
3673 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
3674 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
3675
3676 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
3677 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
3678
3679 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
3680
3681 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
3682 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
3683 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
3684
3685 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
3686 automatically displayed as character or string data.
3687
3688 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
3689 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
3690 as strings.
3691
3692 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
3693 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
3694 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
3695
3696 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
3697 iWMMXt coprocessor.
3698
3699 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
3700 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
3701 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
3702
3703 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
3704
3705 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
3706
3707 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
3708 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
3709 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
3710
3711 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
3712 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
3713
3714 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
3715 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
3716 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
3717 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
3718 Windows and SymbianOS).
3719
3720 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
3721 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
3722
3723 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
3724 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
3725
3726 * New commands
3727
3728 set remoteflow
3729 show remoteflow
3730 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
3731 when debugging using remote targets.
3732
3733 set mem inaccessible-by-default
3734 show mem inaccessible-by-default
3735 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3736 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3737 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
3738 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
3739 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
3740
3741 set breakpoint auto-hw
3742 show breakpoint auto-hw
3743 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3744 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3745 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
3746 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
3747 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
3748 including "next" and "finish".
3749
3750 catch exception
3751 catch exception unhandled
3752 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
3753
3754 catch assert
3755 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
3756
3757 set sysroot
3758 show sysroot
3759 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
3760 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
3761 an alias to "set sysroot".
3762
3763 info spu
3764 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
3765 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
3766 architecture.
3767
3768 * New native configurations
3769
3770 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
3771
3772 set tdesc filename
3773 unset tdesc filename
3774 show tdesc filename
3775 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
3776 not query the target for its built-in description.
3777
3778 * New targets
3779
3780 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
3781 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
3782 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
3783
3784 * New remote packets
3785
3786 QPassSignals:
3787 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
3788 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
3789
3790 qXfer:features:read:
3791 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
3792 features.
3793
3794 qXfer:spu:read:
3795 qXfer:spu:write:
3796 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
3797 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
3798
3799 qXfer:libraries:read:
3800 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
3801 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
3802 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
3803 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
3804
3805 * Removed targets
3806
3807 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
3808
3809 alpha*-*-osf1*
3810 alpha*-*-osf2*
3811 d10v-*-*
3812 hppa*-*-hiux*
3813 i[34567]86-ncr-*
3814 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
3815 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
3816 i[34567]86-*-netware*
3817 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
3818 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
3819 i[34567]86-*-sco*
3820 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
3821 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
3822 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
3823 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
3824 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
3825 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
3826 i[34567]86-*-isc*
3827 m68*-cisco*-*
3828 m68*-tandem-*
3829 mips*-*-pe
3830 rs6000-*-lynxos*
3831 sh*-*-pe
3832
3833 * Other removed features
3834
3835 target abug
3836 target cpu32bug
3837 target est
3838 target rom68k
3839
3840 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
3841
3842 target hms
3843 target e7000
3844 target sh3
3845 target sh3e
3846
3847 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
3848 H8/300.
3849
3850 target ocd
3851
3852 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
3853 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
3854 interfaces.
3855
3856 DWARF 1 support
3857
3858 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
3859 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
3860
3861 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
3862
3863 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
3864 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
3865 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
3866 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
3867
3868 MIPS ".pdr" sections
3869
3870 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
3871 in debugging information.
3872
3873 Scheme support
3874
3875 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
3876 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
3877
3878 set mips stack-arg-size
3879 set mips saved-gpreg-size
3880
3881 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
3882
3883 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
3884
3885 * New targets
3886
3887 Xtensa xtensa-elf
3888 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
3889
3890 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
3891 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
3892 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
3893
3894 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
3895 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
3896 supported.
3897
3898 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
3899 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
3900
3901 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
3902 stub provides the required support.
3903
3904 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
3905 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
3906
3907 * New commands
3908
3909 set substitute-path
3910 unset substitute-path
3911 show substitute-path
3912 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
3913 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
3914 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
3915 between compilation and debugging.
3916
3917 set trace-commands
3918 show trace-commands
3919 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
3920 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
3921 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
3922
3923 * REMOVED features
3924
3925 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
3926
3927 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
3928 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
3929
3930 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
3931
3932 * New remote packets
3933
3934 qSupported:
3935 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
3936 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
3937 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
3938 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
3939 target.
3940
3941 qXfer:auxv:read:
3942 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
3943 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
3944
3945 qXfer:memory-map:read:
3946 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
3947 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
3948
3949 vFlashErase:
3950 vFlashWrite:
3951 vFlashDone:
3952 Erase and program a flash memory device.
3953
3954 * Removed remote packets
3955
3956 qPart:auxv:read:
3957 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3958 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3959
3960 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
3961
3962 * New targets
3963
3964 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3965
3966 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3967
3968 * New commands
3969
3970 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3971 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3972
3973 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3974
3975 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3976
3977 restart <n> Return the program state to a
3978 previously saved state.
3979
3980 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3981
3982 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3983
3984 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3985 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3986
3987 info forks List forks of the user program that
3988 are available to be debugged.
3989
3990 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3991 forks of the user program that are
3992 available to be debugged.
3993
3994 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3995 that are available to be debugged (and
3996 kill the forked process).
3997
3998 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3999 that are available to be debugged (and
4000 allow the process to continue).
4001
4002 * New architecture
4003
4004 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
4005
4006 * Improved Windows host support
4007
4008 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
4009 native console support, and remote communications using either
4010 network sockets or serial ports.
4011
4012 * Improved Modula-2 language support
4013
4014 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
4015 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
4016 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
4017 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
4018 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
4019 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
4020
4021 * REMOVED features
4022
4023 The ARM rdi-share module.
4024
4025 The Netware NLM debug server.
4026
4027 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
4028
4029 * New native configurations
4030
4031 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
4032 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
4033
4034 * New targets
4035
4036 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4037
4038 * New command line options
4039
4040 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
4041 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
4042 the child (debugged) program exited with.
4043 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
4044 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
4045 specified multiple times and in conjunction
4046 with the --command (-x) option.
4047
4048 * Deprecated commands removed
4049
4050 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
4051 removed:
4052
4053 Command Replacement
4054 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
4055 othernames set arm disassembler
4056 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
4057 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
4058 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
4059 regs info registers
4060
4061 * New BSD user-level threads support
4062
4063 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
4064 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
4065 configurations are:
4066
4067 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4068 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
4069 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
4070
4071 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
4072 are not yet supported.
4073
4074 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
4075 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
4076
4077 * REMOVED configurations and files
4078
4079 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
4080 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4081 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
4082
4083 * New "set print array-indexes" command
4084
4085 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
4086 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
4087 behavior.
4088
4089 * VAX floating point support
4090
4091 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
4092
4093 * User-defined command support
4094
4095 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
4096 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
4097 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
4098
4099 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
4100
4101 * New command line option
4102
4103 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
4104 debugging.
4105
4106 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
4107
4108 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
4109 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
4110 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
4111 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
4112 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
4113
4114 * Internationalization
4115
4116 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
4117 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
4118 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
4119
4120 * Ada
4121
4122 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
4123 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
4124 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
4125
4126 * New native configurations
4127
4128 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
4129
4130 * Remote 'p' packet
4131
4132 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
4133 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
4134
4135 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
4136
4137 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4138 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
4139 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
4140 i386 application).
4141
4142 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
4143 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
4144 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
4145 configurations:
4146
4147 hppa-*-hpux
4148 ia64-*-aix
4149 mips-*-irix*
4150 *-*-lynx
4151 mips-*-linux-gnu
4152 sds protocol
4153 xdr protocol
4154 powerpc bdm protocol
4155
4156 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4157 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
4158
4159 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4160
4161 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4162 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4163 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4164 permanently REMOVED.
4165
4166 h8300-*-*
4167 mcore-*-*
4168 mn10300-*-*
4169 ns32k-*-*
4170 sh64-*-*
4171 v850-*-*
4172
4173 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
4174
4175 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
4176
4177 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
4178 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
4179 been fixed.
4180
4181 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
4182
4183 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
4184 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
4185 IRIX long double values).
4186
4187 * VAX and "next"
4188
4189 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
4190 command. This problem has been fixed.
4191
4192 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
4193
4194 * Fix for ``many threads''
4195
4196 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
4197 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
4198 error message:
4199
4200 ptrace: No such process.
4201 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
4202
4203 This problem has been fixed.
4204
4205 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
4206
4207 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
4208 GDB to dump core).
4209
4210 * New ``start'' command.
4211
4212 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
4213
4214 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
4215
4216 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
4217 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
4218 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
4219
4220 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4221 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
4222 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
4223 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
4224 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
4225 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4226 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
4227 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
4228 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4229
4230 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
4231
4232 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
4233 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
4234 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
4235 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
4236 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
4237
4238 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
4239 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
4240 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
4241
4242 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
4243
4244 * New native configurations
4245
4246 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
4247 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
4248 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
4249 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
4250 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
4251 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
4252 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
4253
4254 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
4255
4256 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4257 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
4258 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
4259 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
4260 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
4261 work, was also included.
4262
4263 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
4264 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
4265
4266 h8300-*-*
4267 mcore-*-*
4268 mn10300-*-*
4269 ns32k-*-*
4270 sh64-*-*
4271 v850-*-*
4272 xstormy16-*-*
4273
4274 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4275 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
4276
4277 * REMOVED configurations and files
4278
4279 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4280 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4281 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4282 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4283 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4284 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4285 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4286 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4287 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4288 sonymips mips-sony-*
4289 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4290
4291 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
4292
4293 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
4294
4295 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
4296 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
4297 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
4298 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
4299 with GDB".
4300
4301 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
4302
4303 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
4304 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
4305 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
4306 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
4307 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
4308 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
4309 are created.
4310
4311 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
4312
4313 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
4314
4315 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
4316 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
4317 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
4318
4319 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
4320
4321 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
4322 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
4323
4324 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
4325
4326 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
4327 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
4328 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
4329
4330 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
4331
4332 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
4333 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
4334
4335 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
4336
4337 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
4338 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
4339 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
4340
4341 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
4342
4343 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
4344 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
4345 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
4346
4347 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
4348
4349 * Removed --with-mmalloc
4350
4351 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
4352 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
4353
4354 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
4355
4356 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
4357 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
4358 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
4359 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
4360
4361 * Revised SPARC target
4362
4363 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
4364 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
4365 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
4366 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
4367 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
4368
4369 * New C++ demangler
4370
4371 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
4372 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
4373 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
4374 programs.
4375
4376 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4377
4378 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
4379 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
4380 encountered these.
4381
4382 * C++ nested types and namespaces
4383
4384 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
4385 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
4386 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
4387 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
4388 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
4389 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
4390 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
4391 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
4392 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
4393
4394 * New native configurations
4395
4396 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
4397 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4398 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
4399 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4400 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
4401
4402 * New debugging protocols
4403
4404 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
4405
4406 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
4407
4408 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
4409 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
4410 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
4411
4412 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4413
4414 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4415 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4416 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4417 permanently REMOVED.
4418
4419 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4420 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4421 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4422 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4423 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4424 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4425 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4426 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4427 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4428 sonymips mips-sony-*
4429 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4430
4431 * REMOVED configurations and files
4432
4433 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4434 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4435 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4436 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4437 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4438 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4439 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4440 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4441 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4442 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4443 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4444 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4445 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4446 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
4447 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4448 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4449 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4450
4451 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
4452
4453 * Objective-C
4454
4455 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
4456 integrated into GDB.
4457
4458 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
4459
4460 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
4461 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
4462 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
4463 backtraces.
4464
4465 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
4466 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
4467 DWARF 2 CFI support.
4468
4469 * Hosted file I/O.
4470
4471 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
4472 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
4473 remote protocol documentation for details.
4474
4475 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
4476
4477 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
4478 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
4479 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
4480 ppc32 on ppc64).
4481
4482 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
4483
4484 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
4485 per-thread variables.
4486
4487 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
4488
4489 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
4490 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
4491
4492 * Separate debug info.
4493
4494 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
4495 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
4496 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
4497 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
4498 and optional debug files.
4499
4500 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4501
4502 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
4503 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
4504 debugger.
4505
4506 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
4507 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
4508
4509 * Java
4510
4511 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
4512 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
4513 considered "useable".
4514
4515 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
4516
4517 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
4518 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
4519 kernel.
4520
4521 * GDB supports logging output to a file
4522
4523 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4524 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
4525
4526 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4527
4528 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4529 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4530 command.
4531
4532 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
4533
4534 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4535 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4536
4537 * Profiling support
4538
4539 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4540 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4541 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4542 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4543 data, for more informative profiling results.
4544
4545 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4546
4547 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4548 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
4549 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
4550
4551 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4552 removed.
4553
4554 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4555 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4556 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4557 in a subsequent -var-update.
4558
4559 * New native configurations.
4560
4561 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4562
4563 * Multi-arched targets.
4564
4565 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
4566 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4567
4568 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4569
4570 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4571 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4572 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4573 permanently REMOVED.
4574
4575 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4576 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4577 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4578 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4579 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4580 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4581 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4582 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4583 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4584 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4585 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4586 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4587
4588 * REMOVED configurations and files
4589
4590 V850EA ISA
4591 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4592 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4593 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4594 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4595 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4596 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4597 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4598 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4599 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4600 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4601 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4602 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4603 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4604
4605 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
4606
4607 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
4608 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
4609 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
4610 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
4611 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
4612
4613 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
4614
4615 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
4616
4617 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
4618 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
4619 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
4620 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
4621 shared libs like mad''.
4622
4623 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
4624
4625 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
4626 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
4627 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
4628 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
4629
4630 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
4631
4632 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
4633 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
4634 they expand.
4635
4636 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
4637 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
4638
4639 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
4640 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
4641
4642 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
4643 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
4644 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
4645 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
4646
4647 * Multi-arched targets.
4648
4649 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
4650 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
4651 NEC V850 v850-*-*
4652 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
4653 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
4654 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4655
4656 * New targets.
4657
4658 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
4659
4660
4661 * New native configurations
4662
4663 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
4664 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
4665 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
4666 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
4667
4668 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4669
4670 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4671 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4672 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4673 permanently REMOVED.
4674
4675 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4676 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4677 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4678 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4679 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4680 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4681 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4682 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4683 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4684 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4685 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4686 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4687 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4688
4689 * OBSOLETE languages
4690
4691 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
4692
4693 * REMOVED configurations and files
4694
4695 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4696 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4697 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4698 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4699 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4700
4701 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4702
4703 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
4704
4705 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
4706 commands. The default is 1024.
4707
4708 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
4709
4710 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
4711
4712 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
4713
4714 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
4715 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
4716 from a file into memory (restore).
4717
4718 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
4719
4720 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
4721 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
4722 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
4723
4724 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
4725
4726 * New targets.
4727
4728 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
4729
4730 * Bug fixes
4731
4732 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
4733 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
4734 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
4735
4736 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
4737 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
4738 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
4739
4740 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
4741 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
4742 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
4743
4744 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
4745 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
4746 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
4747
4748 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
4749
4750 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
4751
4752 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
4753 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
4754 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
4755 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
4756 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
4757 (notably embedded) targets.
4758
4759 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
4760
4761 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
4762 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
4763 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
4764 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
4765
4766 * New command line option
4767
4768 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
4769
4770 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4771
4772 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
4773 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
4774 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
4775 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
4776 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
4777 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
4778 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
4779 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
4780 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
4781 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
4782
4783 * Changes in ARM configurations.
4784
4785 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
4786 configuration is fully multi-arch.
4787
4788 * New native configurations
4789
4790 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
4791 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
4792 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
4793 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
4794
4795 * New targets
4796
4797 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
4798
4799 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4800
4801 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4802 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4803 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4804 permanently REMOVED.
4805
4806 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4807 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4808 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4809 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4810 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4811
4812 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4813
4814 * REMOVED configurations and files
4815
4816 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4817 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4818 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4819 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4820 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4821 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4822 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4823 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4824 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4825 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4826 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4827 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4828 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
4829
4830 * Changes to command line processing
4831
4832 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
4833 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
4834
4835 * Changes to key bindings
4836
4837 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
4838
4839 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
4840
4841 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
4842
4843 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
4844 corrupted.
4845
4846 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
4847
4848 Numerous documentation fixes.
4849
4850 Numerous testsuite fixes.
4851
4852 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
4853
4854 * New native configurations
4855
4856 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
4857 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
4858 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
4859 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4860 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
4861 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
4862
4863 * New targets
4864
4865 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
4866 CRIS cris-axis
4867 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
4868
4869 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4870
4871 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
4872 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4873 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4874 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4875 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4876 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4877 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4878 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4879 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4880 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4881 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4882 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4883 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4884 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
4885
4886 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
4887 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
4888
4889 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4890 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4891 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4892 permanently REMOVED.
4893
4894 * REMOVED configurations and files
4895
4896 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4897 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4898 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
4899 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4900 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
4901 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
4902
4903 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
4904
4905 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
4906 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
4907 present.
4908
4909 * Other news:
4910
4911 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
4912
4913 * The MI enabled by default.
4914
4915 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
4916 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
4917 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
4918 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
4919 which is now deprecated.
4920
4921 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
4922
4923 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
4924 main features are supported:
4925
4926 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
4927
4928 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
4929 extension;
4930
4931 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
4932
4933 - a Pascal expression parser.
4934
4935 However, some important features are not yet supported.
4936
4937 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
4938
4939 - there are some problems with boolean types;
4940
4941 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
4942 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
4943
4944 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
4945
4946 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
4947
4948 * Changes in completion.
4949
4950 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
4951 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
4952 users expect at the shell prompt.
4953
4954 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
4955 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
4956 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4957 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4958 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4959 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4960 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4961
4962 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4963
4964 * New platform-independent commands:
4965
4966 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4967 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4968 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4969
4970 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4971
4972 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4973 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4974 many threads as your system allows you to have.
4975
4976 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4977
4978 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4979 multi-threaded programs though.
4980
4981 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
4982
4983 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4984
4985 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4986 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4987 supported.)
4988
4989 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4990
4991 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4992 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4993 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4994 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4995 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4996 registers.
4997
4998 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4999 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
5000 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
5001
5002 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
5003
5004 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
5005 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
5006
5007 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
5008 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
5009 IDT.
5010
5011 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
5012 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
5013 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
5014 a given linear address.
5015
5016 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
5017 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
5018 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
5019
5020 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
5021
5022 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
5023
5024 * Changes in documentation.
5025
5026 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
5027 Documentation License.
5028
5029 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5030 manual.
5031
5032 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
5033
5034 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5035 manual.
5036
5037 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
5038 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
5039 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
5040
5041 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
5042
5043 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
5044 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
5045 contents of this file.
5046
5047 * gdba.el deleted
5048
5049 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
5050
5051 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
5052
5053 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
5054
5055 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
5056 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
5057 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
5058 greater level of detail.
5059
5060 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
5061
5062 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
5063 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
5064 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
5065 written.
5066
5067 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
5068
5069 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
5070 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
5071 machines ``out of the box''.
5072
5073 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
5074 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
5075 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
5076 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
5077 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
5078
5079 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
5080 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
5081 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
5082 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
5083 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
5084
5085 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
5086 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
5087 also works.
5088
5089 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
5090 GDB.
5091
5092 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
5093 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
5094 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
5095 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
5096
5097 * New native configurations
5098
5099 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
5100 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5101
5102 * New targets
5103
5104 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
5105 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
5106 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
5107 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5108
5109 * OBSOLETE configurations
5110
5111 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5112 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5113 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5114 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5115 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5116
5117 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5118 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5119 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5120 be permanently REMOVED.
5121
5122 * Gould support removed
5123
5124 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
5125
5126 * New features for SVR4
5127
5128 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
5129 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
5130 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
5131
5132 * Many C++ enhancements
5133
5134 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
5135 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
5136
5137 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
5138
5139 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
5140 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
5141 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
5142 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
5143
5144 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
5145 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
5146
5147 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
5148
5149 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
5150 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
5151 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
5152
5153 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
5154 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
5155
5156 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
5157
5158 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
5159 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
5160 include ``set remote P-packet''.
5161
5162 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
5163
5164 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
5165 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
5166 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
5167
5168 * ``apropos'' command added.
5169
5170 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
5171 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
5172 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
5173
5174 * New MI interface
5175
5176 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
5177 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
5178 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
5179 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
5180 enabled by configuring with:
5181
5182 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
5183
5184 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
5185
5186 * New native configurations
5187
5188 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
5189 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
5190 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
5191
5192 * New targets
5193
5194 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5195 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
5196 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5197
5198 * OBSOLETE configurations
5199
5200 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
5201
5202 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5203 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5204 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5205 be permanently REMOVED.
5206
5207 * ANSI/ISO C
5208
5209 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
5210 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
5211 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
5212 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
5213 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
5214 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
5215 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
5216 already.
5217
5218 * Readline 2.2
5219
5220 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
5221
5222 * set extension-language
5223
5224 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
5225 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
5226 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
5227 set extension-language .c c++
5228 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
5229 and their associated languages.
5230
5231 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
5232
5233 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
5234 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
5235 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
5236
5237 set processor NAME
5238
5239 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
5240 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
5241
5242 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
5243 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
5244 403 IBM PowerPC 403
5245 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
5246 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
5247 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
5248 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
5249 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
5250 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
5251 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
5252 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
5253
5254 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
5255 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
5256 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
5257 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
5258
5259 * HP-UX support
5260
5261 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
5262 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
5263 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
5264 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
5265 for xdb and dbx commands.
5266
5267 * Catchpoints
5268
5269 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
5270 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
5271 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
5272
5273 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
5274 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
5275 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
5276
5277 * Debugging across forks
5278
5279 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
5280 in the inferior.
5281
5282 * TUI
5283
5284 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
5285 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
5286 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
5287
5288 * GDB remote protocol additions
5289
5290 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
5291 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
5292 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
5293 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
5294
5295 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
5296 full 64-bit address. The command
5297
5298 set remoteaddresssize 32
5299
5300 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
5301 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
5302 will be discarded.
5303
5304 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
5305 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
5306
5307 maint packet heythere
5308
5309 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
5310 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
5311 time.
5312
5313 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
5314 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
5315 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
5316
5317 * Tracing can collect general expressions
5318
5319 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
5320 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
5321 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
5322
5323 * mask-address variable for Mips
5324
5325 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
5326 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
5327 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
5328
5329 * Higher serial baud rates
5330
5331 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
5332 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
5333 to achieve all of these rates.)
5334
5335 * i960 simulator
5336
5337 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
5338 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
5339
5340
5341 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
5342
5343 * New native configurations
5344
5345 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
5346 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
5347 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5348 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5349 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5350 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
5351 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
5352
5353 * New targets
5354
5355 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5356 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
5357 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5358 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
5359 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
5360 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
5361 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
5362 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
5363 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5364 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5365 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
5366
5367 * New debugging protocols
5368
5369 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
5370 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
5371 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
5372 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5373 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5374 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5375
5376 * DWARF 2
5377
5378 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
5379 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
5380 information.
5381
5382 * Java frontend
5383
5384 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
5385 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
5386
5387 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
5388
5389 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
5390 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
5391 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
5392
5393 * Live range splitting
5394
5395 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
5396 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
5397 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
5398
5399 * Hurd support
5400
5401 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
5402 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
5403
5404 * ARM Thumb support
5405
5406 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
5407 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
5408 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
5409 accordingly.
5410
5411 * MIPS16 support
5412
5413 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
5414 instruction set.
5415
5416 * Overlay support
5417
5418 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
5419 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
5420 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
5421 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
5422 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
5423 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
5424
5425 * info symbol
5426
5427 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
5428 the symbol at the specified address.
5429
5430 * Trace support
5431
5432 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
5433 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
5434 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
5435 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
5436 file tracepoint.c for more details.
5437
5438 * MIPS simulator
5439
5440 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
5441 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
5442 of most MIPS variants.
5443
5444 * Sparc simulator
5445
5446 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
5447 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
5448 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
5449
5450 * set architecture
5451
5452 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
5453 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
5454 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
5455 the possible architectures.
5456
5457 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
5458
5459 * New native configurations
5460
5461 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
5462 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
5463 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
5464 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
5465 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5466 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
5467
5468 * New targets
5469
5470 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
5471 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5472 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
5473 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
5474 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
5475 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
5476 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5477
5478 * PowerPC simulator
5479
5480 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
5481 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
5482 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
5483 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
5484 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
5485
5486 * Solaris 2.5
5487
5488 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
5489
5490 * Windows 95/NT native
5491
5492 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
5493 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
5494 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
5495 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
5496 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
5497
5498 * dont-repeat command
5499
5500 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
5501 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
5502 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
5503 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
5504
5505 * Send break instead of ^C
5506
5507 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
5508 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
5509 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
5510
5511 * Remote protocol timeout
5512
5513 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
5514 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
5515 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
5516
5517 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
5518
5519 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
5520 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
5521 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
5522 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
5523 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5524
5525 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5526 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5527 automatically on hpux10.
5528
5529 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5530
5531 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5532
5533 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5534
5535 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5536 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5537 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5538 every character. The default value is 1050.
5539
5540 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5541
5542 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5543 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5544 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5545 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5546 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5547 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5548
5549 * Speedups for remote debugging
5550
5551 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5552 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5553 and more efficient S-record downloading.
5554
5555 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5556
5557 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5558 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5559
5560 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
5561
5562 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
5563
5564 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
5565 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
5566
5567 * Remote targets use caching
5568
5569 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
5570 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
5571 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
5572 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
5573 off' turns the the data cache off.
5574
5575 * Remote targets may have threads
5576
5577 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
5578 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
5579 gdb/remote.c for details.
5580
5581 * NetROM support
5582
5583 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
5584 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
5585 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
5586 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
5587 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
5588 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
5589 sequence is something like
5590
5591 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
5592 load <prog>
5593 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
5594
5595 * Macintosh host
5596
5597 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
5598 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
5599 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
5600 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
5601 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
5602 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
5603 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
5604 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
5605
5606 * Autoconf
5607
5608 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
5609 but does simplify configuration and building.
5610
5611 * hpux10
5612
5613 GDB now supports hpux10.
5614
5615 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
5616
5617 * New native configurations
5618
5619 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
5620 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
5621 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
5622 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
5623
5624 * New targets
5625
5626 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5627 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
5628 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
5629 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
5630 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5631
5632 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
5633
5634 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
5635 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
5636 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
5637 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
5638 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
5639
5640 * Arguments to user-defined commands
5641
5642 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
5643 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
5644 trivial example:
5645 define adder
5646 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
5647
5648 To execute the command use:
5649 adder 1 2 3
5650
5651 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
5652 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
5653 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
5654
5655 * New `if' and `while' commands
5656
5657 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
5658 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
5659 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
5660 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
5661 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
5662 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
5663 if the expression is zero.
5664
5665 * Fortran source language mode
5666
5667 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
5668 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
5669 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
5670 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
5671 Fortran compilers.
5672
5673 * Better HPUX support
5674
5675 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
5676 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
5677 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
5678 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
5679 that behavior do the following before running the program:
5680
5681 adb -w a.out
5682 __dld_flags?W 0x5
5683 control-d
5684
5685 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
5686 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
5687
5688 adb -w a.out
5689 __dld_flags?W 0x4
5690 control-d
5691
5692 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
5693 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
5694 external linkage.
5695
5696 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
5697 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
5698
5699 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
5700
5701 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
5702 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
5703 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
5704 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
5705 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
5706 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
5707
5708 * New DOS host serial code
5709
5710 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
5711 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
5712 a PC's serial port.
5713
5714 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
5715
5716 * New "complete" command
5717
5718 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
5719 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
5720
5721 * Trailing space optional in prompt
5722
5723 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
5724 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
5725
5726 * Breakpoint hit counts
5727
5728 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
5729 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
5730 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
5731 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
5732 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
5733 that breakpoint.
5734
5735 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
5736
5737 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
5738 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
5739 arrays actually contain only short strings.
5740
5741 * Shared library breakpoints
5742
5743 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
5744 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
5745
5746 * Hardware watchpoints
5747
5748 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
5749 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
5750
5751 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
5752
5753 * Annotations
5754
5755 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
5756 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
5757
5758 * Improved Irix 5 support
5759
5760 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
5761
5762 * Improved HPPA support
5763
5764 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
5765
5766 * New native configurations
5767
5768 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
5769 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5770 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
5771 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
5772
5773 * New targets
5774
5775 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5776 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
5777 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
5778
5779 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
5780
5781 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
5782 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
5783
5784 * Fixes
5785
5786 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
5787 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
5788
5789 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
5790
5791 * Irix 5 is now supported
5792
5793 * HPPA support
5794
5795 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
5796 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
5797 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
5798 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
5799 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
5800
5801
5802 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
5803
5804 * User visible changes:
5805
5806 * Remote Debugging
5807
5808 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
5809 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
5810 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
5811 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
5812 debugging info for the mips target).
5813
5814 * DEC Alpha native support
5815
5816 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
5817 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
5818 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
5819 Alpha-specific notes.
5820
5821 * Preliminary thread implementation
5822
5823 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
5824
5825 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
5826
5827 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
5828 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
5829 for details).
5830
5831 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
5832
5833 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
5834 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
5835 call methods, ...etc.
5836
5837 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
5838
5839 * User visible changes:
5840
5841 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
5842 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
5843 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
5844 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
5845
5846 Filename completion now works.
5847
5848 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
5849 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
5850 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
5851
5852 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
5853 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
5854 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
5855 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
5856 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
5857
5858 * DEC alpha support
5859
5860 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
5861 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
5862
5863
5864 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
5865
5866 * Testsuite
5867
5868 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
5869 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
5870 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
5871
5872 * C++ demangling
5873
5874 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
5875 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
5876 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
5877 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
5878 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
5879
5880 * Simulators
5881
5882 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
5883 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
5884 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
5885
5886 * New targets supported
5887
5888 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5889 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5890 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
5891 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5892 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
5893
5894 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
5895 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
5896 GO32 memory extender.
5897
5898 * New remote protocols
5899
5900 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
5901
5902 * New source languages supported
5903
5904 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
5905 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
5906 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
5907
5908
5909 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
5910
5911 * HP Precision Architecture supported
5912
5913 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
5914 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
5915 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
5916 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
5917 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
5918 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
5919
5920 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
5921
5922 * Faster and better demangling
5923
5924 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
5925 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
5926 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
5927 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
5928 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
5929 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
5930 symbol lookups.
5931
5932 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
5933 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
5934 compiler does not actually implement.
5935
5936 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
5937
5938 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
5939 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
5940 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
5941 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
5942 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
5943 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
5944 fix.
5945
5946 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
5947 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
5948
5949 * Improved configure script
5950
5951 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
5952 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
5953 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
5954 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
5955
5956 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5957 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5958 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5959 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5960 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5961 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5962
5963 * Documentation improvements
5964
5965 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5966 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5967 before submitting changes.
5968
5969 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5970 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5971 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5972 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5973 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5974
5975 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5976 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5977 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5978 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5979 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5980 around this problem.
5981
5982 * New features
5983
5984 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5985 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5986 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5987 the target program.
5988
5989 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5990 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5991
5992 * New native hosts supported
5993
5994 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5995 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5996
5997 * New targets supported
5998
5999 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
6000
6001 * New file formats supported
6002
6003 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
6004 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
6005
6006 * Major bug fixes
6007
6008 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
6009
6010 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
6011 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
6012
6013 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
6014 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
6015 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
6016
6017 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
6018 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
6019
6020 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
6021 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
6022 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
6023 libraries.
6024
6025 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
6026 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
6027 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
6028 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
6029 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
6030
6031 * Internal improvements
6032
6033 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
6034 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
6035
6036 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
6037 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
6038 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
6039 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
6040 shared code that handles any of them.
6041
6042 * New command line options
6043
6044 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
6045
6046 * Mmalloc licensing
6047
6048 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
6049 General Public License.
6050
6051 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
6052
6053 * Host/native/target split
6054
6055 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
6056 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
6057 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
6058 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
6059 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
6060
6061 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
6062 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
6063 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
6064 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
6065 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
6066 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
6067 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
6068
6069 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
6070 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
6071 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
6072
6073 * New hosts supported
6074
6075 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
6076 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6077 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
6078
6079 * New targets supported
6080
6081 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6082 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
6083
6084 * New native hosts supported
6085
6086 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6087 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
6088 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
6089
6090 * New file formats supported
6091
6092 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
6093 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
6094 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
6095
6096 * New commands
6097
6098 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
6099 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
6100 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
6101
6102 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
6103
6104 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
6105 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
6106 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
6107 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
6108
6109 * C++ improvements
6110
6111 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
6112 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
6113 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
6114
6115 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
6116
6117 * Major bug fixes
6118
6119 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
6120 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
6121 by the compiler.
6122
6123 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
6124 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
6125
6126 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
6127 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
6128 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
6129 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
6130 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
6131 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
6132
6133 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
6134 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
6135 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
6136 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
6137
6138 * AMD 29k support
6139
6140 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
6141 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
6142 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
6143 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
6144 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
6145
6146 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
6147 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
6148 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
6149 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
6150
6151 * Remote interfaces
6152
6153 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
6154 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
6155 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
6156 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
6157 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
6158 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
6159 each instruction being stepped through.
6160
6161 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
6162 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
6163
6164 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
6165 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
6166 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
6167 processor with a serial port.
6168
6169 * Configuration
6170
6171 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
6172 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
6173 supported, and what files each one uses.
6174
6175 * Library changes
6176
6177 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
6178 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
6179 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
6180 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
6181
6182 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
6183 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
6184 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
6185 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
6186
6187 * Documentation
6188
6189 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
6190 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
6191 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
6192 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
6193 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
6194 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
6195
6196 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
6197
6198
6199 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
6200
6201 * Better support for C++ function names
6202
6203 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
6204 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
6205 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
6206 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
6207 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
6208
6209 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
6210 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
6211 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
6212 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
6213 for the list of formats.
6214
6215 * G++ symbol mangling problem
6216
6217 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
6218 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
6219 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
6220 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
6221 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
6222 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
6223 this problem.)
6224
6225 * New 'maintenance' command
6226
6227 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
6228 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
6229 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
6230
6231 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
6232 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
6233 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
6234 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
6235 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
6236 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
6237
6238 The following commands are new:
6239
6240 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
6241 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
6242 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
6243
6244 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
6245
6246 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
6247 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
6248 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
6249 read after argv processing.
6250
6251 * New hosts supported
6252
6253 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
6254
6255 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
6256
6257 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
6258 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
6259 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
6260 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
6261 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
6262 It costs extra.
6263
6264 * New targets supported
6265
6266 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6267
6268 * More smarts about finding #include files
6269
6270 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
6271 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
6272 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
6273 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
6274 the one that contains your sources.
6275
6276 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
6277 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
6278 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
6279
6280 * Interesting infernals change
6281
6282 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
6283 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
6284 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
6285 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
6286
6287 * Bug fixes (of course!)
6288
6289 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
6290 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
6291 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
6292
6293 See the ChangeLog for details.
6294
6295 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
6296
6297 * New machines supported (host and target)
6298
6299 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
6300
6301 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6302
6303 * New malloc package
6304
6305 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
6306 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
6307 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
6308 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
6309 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
6310 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
6311
6312 * info proc
6313
6314 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
6315 'help info proc' for details.
6316
6317 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
6318
6319 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
6320 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
6321 possible.
6322
6323 * File name changes for MS-DOS
6324
6325 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
6326 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
6327 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
6328 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
6329 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
6330 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
6331
6332 * Cross byte order fixes
6333
6334 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
6335 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
6336
6337 * New -mapped and -readnow options
6338
6339 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
6340 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
6341 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
6342 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
6343 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
6344 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
6345 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
6346 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
6347 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
6348 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
6349
6350 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
6351 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
6352 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
6353 slower, but makes future operations faster.
6354
6355 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
6356 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
6357 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
6358 use is:
6359
6360 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
6361
6362 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
6363 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
6364 shared across multiple host platforms.
6365
6366 * longjmp() handling
6367
6368 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
6369 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
6370 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
6371 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
6372
6373 * Solaris 2.0
6374
6375 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
6376 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
6377 reading symbols.
6378
6379 * Bug fixes
6380
6381 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
6382 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
6383 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
6384
6385 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
6386
6387 * New machines supported (host and target)
6388
6389 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6390 (except core files)
6391 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
6392 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
6393
6394 * New machines supported (target)
6395
6396 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6397
6398 * C++ support
6399
6400 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
6401 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
6402 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
6403
6404 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
6405 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
6406 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
6407 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
6408 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
6409 released.
6410
6411 * New features for SVR4
6412
6413 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
6414 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
6415 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
6416
6417 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
6418 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
6419 it prints the address mappings of the process.
6420
6421 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
6422 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
6423
6424 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
6425
6426 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
6427 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
6428 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
6429 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
6430 same code linked statically.
6431
6432 * New Getopt
6433
6434 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
6435 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
6436 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
6437 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
6438 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
6439 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
6440
6441 * Bugs fixed
6442
6443 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6444 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6445 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6446
6447
6448 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
6449
6450 * New machines supported (host and target)
6451
6452 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
6453 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
6454 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6455
6456 * Almost SCO Unix support
6457
6458 We had hoped to support:
6459 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6460 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
6461 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
6462 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
6463
6464 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
6465
6466 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
6467 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
6468 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
6469 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
6470 reqired (if any).
6471
6472 * New Readline
6473
6474 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
6475 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
6476 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
6477
6478 * Bugs fixed
6479
6480 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6481 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6482 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6483
6484 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
6485
6486 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
6487 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
6488 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
6489
6490 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
6491 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
6492 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
6493 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
6494 version 2.
6495
6496 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
6497 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
6498 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
6499 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
6500 situation somewhat.
6501
6502 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
6503 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
6504 methods.
6505
6506 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
6507 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
6508 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
6509
6510
6511 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
6512
6513 * Improved configuration
6514
6515 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
6516 Porting BFD is simpler.
6517
6518 * Stepping improved
6519
6520 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
6521 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
6522 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
6523 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6524
6525 * Bug fixing
6526
6527 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6528
6529 * New host supported (not target)
6530
6531 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6532
6533
6534 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6535
6536 * Multiple source language support
6537
6538 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6539 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6540 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6541 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6542 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6543 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6544
6545 * GDB and Modula-2
6546
6547 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6548 currently under development at the State University of New York at
6549 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6550 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6551
6552 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6553 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6554 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6555
6556 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6557 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
6558
6559 * set write on/off
6560
6561 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
6562 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
6563 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
6564 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
6565 effect immediately.
6566
6567 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
6568
6569 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
6570 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
6571 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
6572 examining core files.
6573
6574 * set listsize
6575
6576 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
6577 The default is 10.
6578
6579 * New machines supported (host and target)
6580
6581 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6582 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
6583 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
6584
6585 * New hosts supported (not targets)
6586
6587 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
6588
6589 * New targets supported (not hosts)
6590
6591 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6592 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6593 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
6594
6595 * New remote interfaces
6596
6597 AMD 29000 Adapt
6598 AMD 29000 Minimon
6599
6600
6601 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
6602
6603 * New Facilities
6604
6605 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
6606
6607 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
6608 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
6609 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
6610 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
6611 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
6612 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
6613 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
6614 stub on the target system.
6615
6616 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
6617
6618 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
6619 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
6620 object file types such as a.out and coff.
6621
6622 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
6623 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
6624
6625
6626 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
6627
6628 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
6629 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
6630
6631 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
6632 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
6633 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
6634
6635 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
6636 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
6637 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
6638 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
6639
6640 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
6641 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
6642 it is already running. Default is ON.
6643
6644 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
6645 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
6646 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
6647 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
6648 Default is ON.
6649
6650 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
6651 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
6652 or the value of the environment variable
6653 GDBHISTFILE.
6654
6655 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
6656 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
6657 HISTSIZE.
6658
6659 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
6660 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
6661 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
6662
6663 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
6664 history expansion will be performed on
6665 command line input. The default is OFF.
6666
6667 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
6668 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
6669 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
6670
6671 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
6672 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
6673 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6674 variable TERM.
6675
6676 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
6677 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
6678 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6679 variable TERM.
6680
6681 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
6682 ``set width'' instead.
6683
6684 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
6685 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
6686 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
6687 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
6688
6689 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
6690 is OFF.
6691
6692 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
6693 "raw" form if off.
6694
6695 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
6696 like instructions.
6697
6698 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
6699
6700
6701 * Support for Epoch Environment.
6702
6703 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
6704 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
6705 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
6706 window.
6707
6708
6709 * Support for Shared Libraries
6710
6711 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
6712 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
6713 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
6714 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
6715 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
6716 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
6717 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
6718 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
6719
6720 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
6721 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
6722 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
6723
6724 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
6725
6726
6727 * Watchpoints
6728
6729 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
6730 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
6731 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
6732 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
6733 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
6734 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
6735
6736 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
6737
6738 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
6739
6740 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6741 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6742 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6743
6744
6745 * C++ multiple inheritance
6746
6747 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
6748 for C++ programs.
6749
6750 * C++ exception handling
6751
6752 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
6753 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
6754 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
6755 handler's context).
6756
6757 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
6758 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
6759 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
6760
6761 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
6762 current stack frame.
6763
6764
6765 * Minor command changes
6766
6767 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
6768 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
6769 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
6770
6771 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
6772 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
6773 frames without printing.
6774
6775 * New directory command
6776
6777 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
6778 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
6779 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
6780 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
6781 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
6782
6783 * Configuring GDB for compilation
6784
6785 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
6786 for more details.
6787
6788 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
6789 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
6790 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
6791 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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