1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.1:
6 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
8 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
9 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
11 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
13 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
14 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
15 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
17 * New native configurations
19 OpenBSD/m68k m68k-*-openbsd*
20 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
21 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
22 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
24 * REMOVED configurations and files
26 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
27 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
28 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
29 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
30 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
31 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
32 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
33 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
34 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
36 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
38 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
40 * Removed --with-mmalloc
42 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
43 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
45 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
47 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
48 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
49 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
50 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
52 * Revised SPARC target
54 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
55 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
56 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
57 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
58 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
62 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
63 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
64 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
67 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
69 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
70 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
73 * C++ nested types and namespaces
75 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
76 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
77 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
78 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
79 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
80 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
81 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
82 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
83 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
85 * New native configurations
87 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
88 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
89 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
90 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
91 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
93 * New debugging protocols
95 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
97 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
99 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
100 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
101 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
103 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
105 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
106 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
107 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
110 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
111 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
112 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
113 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
114 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
115 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
116 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
117 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
118 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
120 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
122 * REMOVED configurations and files
124 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
125 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
126 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
127 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
128 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
129 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
130 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
131 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
132 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
133 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
134 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
135 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
136 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
137 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
138 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
139 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
140 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
142 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
146 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
149 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
151 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
152 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
153 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
156 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
157 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
162 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
163 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
164 remote protocol documentation for details.
166 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
168 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
169 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
170 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
173 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
175 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
176 per-thread variables.
178 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
180 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
181 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
183 * Separate debug info.
185 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
186 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
187 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
188 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
189 and optional debug files.
191 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
193 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
194 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
197 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
198 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
202 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
203 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
204 considered "useable".
206 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
208 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
209 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
212 * GDB supports logging output to a file
214 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
215 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
217 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
219 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
220 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
223 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
225 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
226 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
230 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
231 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
232 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
233 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
234 data, for more informative profiling results.
236 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
238 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
239 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
240 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
242 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
245 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
246 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
247 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
248 in a subsequent -var-update.
250 * New native configurations.
252 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
254 * Multi-arched targets.
256 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
257 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
259 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
261 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
262 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
263 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
266 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
267 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
268 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
269 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
270 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
271 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
272 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
273 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
274 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
275 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
276 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
277 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
279 * REMOVED configurations and files
282 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
283 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
284 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
285 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
286 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
287 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
289 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
290 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
291 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
292 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
293 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
294 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
296 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
298 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
299 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
300 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
301 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
302 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
304 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
306 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
308 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
309 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
310 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
311 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
312 shared libs like mad''.
314 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
316 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
317 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
318 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
319 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
321 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
323 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
324 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
327 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
328 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
330 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
331 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
333 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
334 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
335 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
336 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
338 * Multi-arched targets.
340 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
341 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
343 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
344 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
345 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
349 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
352 * New native configurations
354 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
355 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
356 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
357 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
359 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
361 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
362 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
363 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
366 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
367 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
368 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
369 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
370 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
371 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
372 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
373 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
374 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
375 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
377 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
378 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
382 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
384 * REMOVED configurations and files
386 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
387 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
388 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
389 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
390 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
392 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
394 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
396 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
397 commands. The default is 1024.
399 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
401 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
403 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
405 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
406 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
407 from a file into memory (restore).
409 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
411 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
412 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
413 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
415 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
423 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
424 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
425 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
427 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
428 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
429 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
431 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
432 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
433 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
435 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
436 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
437 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
439 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
441 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
443 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
444 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
445 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
446 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
447 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
448 (notably embedded) targets.
450 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
452 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
453 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
454 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
455 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
457 * New command line option
459 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
461 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
463 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
464 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
465 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
466 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
467 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
468 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
469 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
470 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
471 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
472 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
474 * Changes in ARM configurations.
476 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
477 configuration is fully multi-arch.
479 * New native configurations
481 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
482 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
483 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
484 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
488 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
490 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
492 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
493 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
494 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
497 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
498 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
499 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
500 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
501 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
503 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
505 * REMOVED configurations and files
507 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
509 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
510 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
511 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
512 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
513 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
514 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
515 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
516 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
517 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
518 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
519 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
521 * Changes to command line processing
523 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
524 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
526 * Changes to key bindings
528 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
530 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
532 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
534 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
537 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
539 Numerous documentation fixes.
541 Numerous testsuite fixes.
543 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
545 * New native configurations
547 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
548 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
549 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
550 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
552 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
556 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
558 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
560 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
562 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
563 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
564 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
565 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
566 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
568 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
569 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
570 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
571 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
572 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
573 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
574 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
575 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
577 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
578 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
580 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
581 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
582 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
585 * REMOVED configurations and files
587 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
588 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
590 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
594 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
596 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
597 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
602 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
604 * The MI enabled by default.
606 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
607 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
608 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
609 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
610 which is now deprecated.
612 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
614 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
615 main features are supported:
617 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
619 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
622 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
624 - a Pascal expression parser.
626 However, some important features are not yet supported.
628 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
630 - there are some problems with boolean types;
632 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
633 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
635 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
637 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
639 * Changes in completion.
641 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
642 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
643 users expect at the shell prompt.
645 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
646 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
647 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
648 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
649 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
650 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
651 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
653 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
655 * New platform-independent commands:
657 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
658 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
659 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
661 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
663 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
664 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
665 many threads as your system allows you to have.
667 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
669 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
670 multi-threaded programs though.
672 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
674 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
676 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
677 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
680 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
682 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
683 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
684 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
685 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
686 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
689 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
690 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
691 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
693 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
695 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
696 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
698 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
699 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
702 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
703 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
704 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
705 a given linear address.
707 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
708 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
709 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
711 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
713 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
715 * Changes in documentation.
717 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
718 Documentation License.
720 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
723 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
725 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
728 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
729 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
730 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
732 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
734 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
735 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
736 contents of this file.
740 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
742 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
744 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
746 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
747 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
748 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
749 greater level of detail.
751 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
753 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
754 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
755 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
758 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
760 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
761 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
762 machines ``out of the box''.
764 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
765 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
766 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
767 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
768 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
770 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
771 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
772 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
773 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
774 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
776 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
777 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
780 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
783 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
784 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
785 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
786 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
788 * New native configurations
790 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
791 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
795 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
796 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
797 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
798 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
800 * OBSOLETE configurations
802 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
803 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
805 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
808 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
809 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
810 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
811 be permanently REMOVED.
813 * Gould support removed
815 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
817 * New features for SVR4
819 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
820 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
821 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
823 * Many C++ enhancements
825 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
826 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
828 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
830 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
831 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
832 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
833 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
835 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
836 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
838 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
840 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
841 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
842 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
844 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
845 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
847 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
849 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
850 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
851 include ``set remote P-packet''.
853 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
855 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
856 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
857 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
859 * ``apropos'' command added.
861 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
862 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
863 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
867 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
868 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
869 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
870 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
871 enabled by configuring with:
873 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
875 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
877 * New native configurations
879 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
880 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
881 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
885 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
886 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
887 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
889 * OBSOLETE configurations
891 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
893 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
894 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
895 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
896 be permanently REMOVED.
900 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
901 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
902 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
903 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
904 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
905 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
906 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
911 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
913 * set extension-language
915 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
916 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
917 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
918 set extension-language .c c++
919 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
920 and their associated languages.
922 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
924 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
925 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
926 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
930 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
931 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
933 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
934 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
936 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
937 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
938 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
939 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
940 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
941 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
942 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
943 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
945 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
946 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
947 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
948 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
952 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
953 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
954 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
955 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
956 for xdb and dbx commands.
960 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
961 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
962 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
964 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
965 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
966 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
968 * Debugging across forks
970 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
975 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
976 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
977 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
979 * GDB remote protocol additions
981 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
982 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
983 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
984 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
986 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
987 full 64-bit address. The command
989 set remoteaddresssize 32
991 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
992 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
995 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
996 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
998 maint packet heythere
1000 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1001 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1004 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1005 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1006 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1008 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1010 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1011 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1012 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1014 * mask-address variable for Mips
1016 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1017 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1018 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1020 * Higher serial baud rates
1022 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1023 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1024 to achieve all of these rates.)
1028 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1029 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1032 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1034 * New native configurations
1036 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1037 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1038 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1039 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1040 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1041 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1042 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1046 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1047 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1048 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1049 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1050 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1051 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1052 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1053 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1054 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1055 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1056 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1058 * New debugging protocols
1060 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1061 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1062 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1063 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1064 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1065 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1069 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1070 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1075 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1076 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1078 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1080 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1081 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1082 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1084 * Live range splitting
1086 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1087 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1088 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1092 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1093 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1097 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1098 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1099 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1104 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1109 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1110 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1111 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1112 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1113 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1114 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1118 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1119 the symbol at the specified address.
1123 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1124 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1125 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1126 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1127 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1131 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1132 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1133 of most MIPS variants.
1137 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1138 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1139 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1143 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1144 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1145 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1146 the possible architectures.
1148 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1150 * New native configurations
1152 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1153 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1154 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1155 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1156 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1157 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1161 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1162 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1163 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1164 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1165 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1167 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1171 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1172 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1173 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1174 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1175 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1179 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1181 * Windows 95/NT native
1183 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1184 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1185 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1186 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1187 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1189 * dont-repeat command
1191 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1192 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1193 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1194 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1196 * Send break instead of ^C
1198 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1199 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1200 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1202 * Remote protocol timeout
1204 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1205 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1206 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1208 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1210 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1211 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1212 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1213 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1214 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1216 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1217 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1218 automatically on hpux10.
1220 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1222 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1224 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1226 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1227 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1228 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1229 every character. The default value is 1050.
1231 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1233 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1234 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1235 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1236 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1237 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1238 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1240 * Speedups for remote debugging
1242 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1243 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1244 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1246 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1248 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1249 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1251 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1253 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1255 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1256 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1258 * Remote targets use caching
1260 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1261 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1262 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1263 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1264 off' turns the the data cache off.
1266 * Remote targets may have threads
1268 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1269 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1270 gdb/remote.c for details.
1274 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1275 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1276 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1277 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1278 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1279 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1280 sequence is something like
1282 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1284 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1288 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1289 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1290 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1291 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1292 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1293 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1294 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1295 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1299 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1300 but does simplify configuration and building.
1304 GDB now supports hpux10.
1306 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1308 * New native configurations
1310 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1311 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1312 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1313 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1317 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1318 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1319 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1320 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1323 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1325 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1326 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1327 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1328 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1329 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1331 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1333 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1334 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1337 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1339 To execute the command use:
1342 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1343 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1344 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1346 * New `if' and `while' commands
1348 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1349 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1350 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1351 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1352 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1353 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1354 if the expression is zero.
1356 * Fortran source language mode
1358 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1359 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1360 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1361 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1364 * Better HPUX support
1366 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1367 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1368 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1369 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1370 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1376 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1377 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1383 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1384 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1387 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1388 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1390 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1392 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1393 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1394 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1395 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1396 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1397 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1399 * New DOS host serial code
1401 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1402 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1405 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1407 * New "complete" command
1409 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1410 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1412 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1414 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1415 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1417 * Breakpoint hit counts
1419 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1420 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1421 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1422 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1423 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1426 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1428 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1429 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1430 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1432 * Shared library breakpoints
1434 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1435 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1437 * Hardware watchpoints
1439 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1440 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1442 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1446 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1447 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1449 * Improved Irix 5 support
1451 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1453 * Improved HPPA support
1455 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1457 * New native configurations
1459 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1460 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1461 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1462 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1466 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1467 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1470 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1472 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1473 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1477 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1478 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1480 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1482 * Irix 5 is now supported
1486 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1487 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1488 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1489 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1490 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1493 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1495 * User visible changes:
1499 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1500 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1501 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1502 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1503 debugging info for the mips target).
1505 * DEC Alpha native support
1507 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1508 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1509 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1510 Alpha-specific notes.
1512 * Preliminary thread implementation
1514 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1516 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1518 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1519 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1522 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1524 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1525 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1526 call methods, ...etc.
1528 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1530 * User visible changes:
1532 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1533 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1534 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1535 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1537 Filename completion now works.
1539 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1540 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1541 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1543 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1544 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1545 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1546 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1547 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1551 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1552 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1555 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1559 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1560 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1561 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1565 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1566 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1567 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1568 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1569 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1573 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1574 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1575 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1577 * New targets supported
1579 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1580 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1581 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1582 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1583 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1585 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1586 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1587 GO32 memory extender.
1589 * New remote protocols
1591 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1593 * New source languages supported
1595 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1596 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1597 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1600 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1602 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1604 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1605 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1606 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1607 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1608 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1609 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1611 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1613 * Faster and better demangling
1615 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1616 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1617 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1618 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1619 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1620 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1623 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1624 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1625 compiler does not actually implement.
1627 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1629 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1630 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1631 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1632 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1633 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1634 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1637 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1638 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1640 * Improved configure script
1642 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1643 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1644 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1645 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1647 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1648 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1649 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1650 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1651 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1652 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1654 * Documentation improvements
1656 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1657 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1658 before submitting changes.
1660 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1661 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1662 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1663 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1664 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1666 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1667 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1668 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1669 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1670 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1671 around this problem.
1675 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1676 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1677 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1680 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1681 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1683 * New native hosts supported
1685 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1686 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1688 * New targets supported
1690 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1692 * New file formats supported
1694 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1695 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1699 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1701 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1702 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1704 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1705 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1706 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1708 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1709 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1711 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1712 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1713 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1716 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1717 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1718 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1719 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1720 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1722 * Internal improvements
1724 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1725 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1727 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1728 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1729 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1730 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1731 shared code that handles any of them.
1733 * New command line options
1735 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1739 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1740 General Public License.
1742 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1744 * Host/native/target split
1746 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1747 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1748 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1749 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1750 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1752 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1753 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1754 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1755 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1756 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1757 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1758 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1760 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1761 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1762 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1764 * New hosts supported
1766 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1767 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1768 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1770 * New targets supported
1772 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1773 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1775 * New native hosts supported
1777 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1778 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1779 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1781 * New file formats supported
1783 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1784 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1785 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1789 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1790 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1791 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1793 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1795 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1796 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1797 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1798 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1802 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1803 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1804 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1806 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1810 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1811 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1814 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1815 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1817 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1818 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1819 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1820 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1821 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1822 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1824 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1825 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1826 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1827 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1831 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1832 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1833 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1834 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1835 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1837 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1838 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1839 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1840 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1844 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1845 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1846 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1847 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1848 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1849 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1850 each instruction being stepped through.
1852 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1853 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1855 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1856 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1857 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1858 processor with a serial port.
1862 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1863 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1864 supported, and what files each one uses.
1868 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1869 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1870 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1871 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1873 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1874 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1875 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1876 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1880 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1881 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1882 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1883 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1884 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1885 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1887 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1890 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1892 * Better support for C++ function names
1894 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1895 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1896 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1897 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1898 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1900 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1901 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1902 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1903 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1904 for the list of formats.
1906 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1908 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1909 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1910 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1911 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1912 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1913 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1916 * New 'maintenance' command
1918 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1919 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1920 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1922 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1923 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1924 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1925 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1926 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1927 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1929 The following commands are new:
1931 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1932 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1933 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1935 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1937 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1938 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1939 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1940 read after argv processing.
1942 * New hosts supported
1944 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1946 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1948 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1949 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1950 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1951 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1952 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1955 * New targets supported
1957 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1959 * More smarts about finding #include files
1961 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1962 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1963 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1964 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1965 the one that contains your sources.
1967 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1968 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1969 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1971 * Interesting infernals change
1973 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1974 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1975 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1976 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1978 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1980 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1981 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1982 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1984 See the ChangeLog for details.
1986 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1988 * New machines supported (host and target)
1990 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1992 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1994 * New malloc package
1996 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1997 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1998 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1999 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2000 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2001 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2005 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2006 'help info proc' for details.
2008 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2010 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2011 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2014 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2016 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2017 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2018 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2019 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2020 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2021 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2023 * Cross byte order fixes
2025 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2026 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2028 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2030 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2031 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2032 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2033 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2034 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2035 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2036 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2037 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2038 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2039 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2041 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2042 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2043 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2044 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2046 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2047 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2048 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2051 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2053 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2054 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2055 shared across multiple host platforms.
2057 * longjmp() handling
2059 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2060 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2061 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2062 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2066 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2067 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2072 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2073 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2074 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2076 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2078 * New machines supported (host and target)
2080 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2082 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2083 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2085 * New machines supported (target)
2087 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2091 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2092 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2093 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2095 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2096 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2097 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2098 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2099 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2102 * New features for SVR4
2104 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2105 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2106 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2108 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2109 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2110 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2112 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2113 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2115 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2117 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2118 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2119 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2120 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2121 same code linked statically.
2125 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2126 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2127 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2128 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2129 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2130 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2134 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2135 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2136 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2139 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2141 * New machines supported (host and target)
2143 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2144 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2145 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2147 * Almost SCO Unix support
2149 We had hoped to support:
2150 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2151 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2152 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2153 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2155 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2157 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2158 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2159 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2160 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2165 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2166 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2167 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2171 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2172 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2173 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2175 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2177 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2178 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2179 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2181 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2182 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2183 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2184 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2187 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2188 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2189 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2190 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2193 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2194 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2197 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2198 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2199 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2202 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2204 * Improved configuration
2206 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2207 Porting BFD is simpler.
2211 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2212 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2213 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2214 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2218 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2220 * New host supported (not target)
2222 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2225 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2227 * Multiple source language support
2229 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2230 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2231 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2232 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2233 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2234 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2238 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2239 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2240 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2241 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2243 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2244 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2245 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2247 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2248 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2252 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2253 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2254 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2255 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2258 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2260 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2261 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2262 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2263 examining core files.
2267 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2270 * New machines supported (host and target)
2272 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2273 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2274 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2276 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2278 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2280 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2282 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2283 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2284 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2286 * New remote interfaces
2292 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2296 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2298 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2299 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2300 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2301 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2302 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2303 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2304 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2305 stub on the target system.
2307 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2309 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2310 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2311 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2313 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2314 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2317 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2319 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2320 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2322 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2323 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2324 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2326 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2327 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2328 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2329 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2331 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2332 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2333 it is already running. Default is ON.
2335 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2336 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2337 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2338 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2341 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2342 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2343 or the value of the environment variable
2346 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2347 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2350 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2351 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2352 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2354 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2355 history expansion will be performed on
2356 command line input. The default is OFF.
2358 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2359 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2360 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2362 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2363 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2364 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2367 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2368 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2369 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2372 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2373 ``set width'' instead.
2375 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2376 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2377 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2378 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2380 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2383 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2386 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2389 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2392 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2394 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2395 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2396 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2400 * Support for Shared Libraries
2402 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2403 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2404 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2405 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2406 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2407 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2408 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2409 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2411 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2412 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2413 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2415 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2420 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2421 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2422 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2423 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2424 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2425 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2427 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2429 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2431 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2432 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2433 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2436 * C++ multiple inheritance
2438 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2441 * C++ exception handling
2443 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2444 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2445 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2448 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2449 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2450 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2452 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2453 current stack frame.
2456 * Minor command changes
2458 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2459 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2460 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2462 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2463 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2464 frames without printing.
2466 * New directory command
2468 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2469 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2470 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2471 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2472 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2474 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2476 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2479 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2480 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2481 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2482 where the program that you are debugging will run.