1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 9
6 * There are new feature names for ARC targets: "org.gnu.gdb.arc.core"
7 and "org.gnu.gdb.arc.aux". The old names are still supported but
8 must be considered obsolete. They will be deprecated after some
11 * Help and apropos commands will now show the documentation of a
12 command only once, even if that command has one or more aliases.
13 These commands now show the command name, then all of its aliases,
14 and finally the description of the command.
16 * 'help aliases' now shows only the user defined aliases. GDB predefined
17 aliases are shown together with their aliased command.
19 * GDB now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing ELF/DWARF
20 debugging information as well as source code.
22 When built with debuginfod, GDB can automatically query debuginfod
23 servers for the separate debug files and source code of the executable
26 To build GDB with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure (this
27 requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library).
29 debuginfod is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178.
31 You can get the latest version from https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
33 * Multi-target debugging support
35 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
36 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
37 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
38 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
39 debugging a core dump, etc.
41 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
42 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
43 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
44 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
45 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
46 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
48 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
50 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
52 ** GDBserver no longer supports these host triplets:
63 i[34567]86-*-mingw32ce*
65 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
66 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
68 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
69 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
70 performance for programs with many symbols.
72 * The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
73 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
75 * TUI windows can now be arranged horizontally.
77 * The command history filename can now be set to the empty string
78 either using 'set history filename' or by setting 'GDBHISTFILE=' in
79 the environment. The effect of setting this filename to the empty
80 string is that GDB will not try to load any previous command
83 * On Windows targets, it is now possible to debug 32-bit programs with a
88 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
89 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
90 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to a
91 running process, this new option indicates whether to detect
92 a mismatch between the current executable file loaded by GDB and the
93 executable file used to start the process. If 'ask', the default,
94 display a warning and ask the user whether to load the process
95 executable file; if 'warn', just display a warning; if 'off', don't
96 attempt to detect a mismatch.
98 tui new-layout NAME WINDOW WEIGHT [WINDOW WEIGHT]...
99 Define a new TUI layout, specifying its name and the windows that
102 maintenance print xml-tdesc [FILE]
103 Prints the current target description as an XML document. If the
104 optional FILE is provided (which is an XML target description) then
105 the target description is read from FILE into GDB, and then
108 maintenance print core-file-backed-mappings
109 Prints file-backed mappings loaded from a core file's note section.
110 Output is expected to be similar to that of "info proc mappings".
114 alias [-a] [--] ALIAS = COMMAND [DEFAULT-ARGS...]
115 The alias command can now specify default args for an alias.
116 GDB automatically prepends the alias default args to the argument list
117 provided explicitly by the user.
118 For example, to have a backtrace with full details, you can define
120 'alias bt_ALL = backtrace -entry-values both -frame-arg all
121 -past-main -past-entry -full'.
122 Alias default arguments can also use a set of nested 'with' commands,
123 e.g. 'alias pp10 = with print pretty -- with print elem 10 -- print'
124 defines the alias pp10 that will pretty print a maximum of 10 elements
125 of the given expression (if the expression is an array).
129 GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
134 ** gdb.register_window_type can be used to implement new TUI windows
137 ** Dynamic types can now be queried. gdb.Type has a new attribute,
138 "dynamic", and gdb.Type.sizeof can be None for a dynamic type. A
139 field of a dynamic type may have None for its "bitpos" attribute
142 ** Commands written in Python can be in the "TUI" help class by
143 registering with the new constant gdb.COMMAND_TUI.
145 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.architecture () to retrieve the
146 architecture of the pending frame.
148 ** New gdb.Architecture.registers method that returns a
149 gdb.RegisterDescriptorIterator object, an iterator that returns
150 gdb.RegisterDescriptor objects. The new RegisterDescriptor is a
151 way to query the registers available for an architecture.
153 ** New gdb.Architecture.register_groups method that returns a
154 gdb.RegisterGroupIterator object, an iterator that returns
155 gdb.RegisterGroup objects. The new RegisterGroup is a way to
156 discover the available register groups.
160 ** GDB can now be built with GNU Guile 3.0 and 2.2 in addition to 2.0.
162 ** Procedures 'memory-port-read-buffer-size',
163 'set-memory-port-read-buffer-size!', 'memory-port-write-buffer-size',
164 and 'set-memory-port-write-buffer-size!' are deprecated. When
165 using Guile 2.2 and later, users who need to control the size of
166 a memory port's internal buffer can use the 'setvbuf' procedure.
170 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
172 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
173 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
174 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
175 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
176 such as in system-wide init files.
178 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
179 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
180 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
181 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
182 current GDB settings.
184 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
185 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
186 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
187 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
189 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
190 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
193 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
194 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
196 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
197 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
198 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
200 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
201 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
204 * Command names can now use the . character.
206 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
208 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
211 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
213 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
214 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
216 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
217 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
218 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
220 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
222 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
223 not visible in the current scope.
225 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
226 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
227 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
228 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
229 compiled with support for that language.
231 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
232 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
233 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
237 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
238 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
239 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
240 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
241 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
243 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
246 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
247 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
248 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
251 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
252 symbols with static linkage.
254 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
255 all static symbols with static linkage.
257 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
258 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
260 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
261 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
265 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
266 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
267 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
268 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
269 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
270 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
271 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
273 define-prefix COMMAND
274 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
276 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
277 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
278 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
279 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
280 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
281 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
282 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
283 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
284 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
285 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
286 of array elements to print.
288 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
289 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
291 set may-call-functions [on|off]
292 show may-call-functions
293 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
294 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
295 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
296 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
297 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
298 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
301 set print finish [on|off]
303 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
304 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
305 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
310 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
311 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
312 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
313 the old behavior back.
315 set print raw-values [on|off]
316 show print raw-values
317 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
318 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
319 of commands. The default is 'off'.
321 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
322 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
323 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
325 set style title foreground COLOR
326 set style title background COLOR
327 set style title intensity VALUE
328 Control the styling of titles.
330 set style highlight foreground COLOR
331 set style highlight background COLOR
332 set style highlight intensity VALUE
333 Control the styling of highlightings.
335 maint set worker-threads
336 maint show worker-threads
337 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
338 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
339 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
340 the names of linker symbols.
342 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
343 set style tui-border background COLOR
344 Control the styling of TUI borders.
346 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
347 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
348 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
350 maint set test-settings KIND
351 maint show test-settings KIND
352 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
355 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
356 maint show tui-resize-message
357 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
358 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
361 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
362 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
363 show print frame-info
364 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
365 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
366 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
367 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
369 set tui compact-source
370 show tui compact-source
372 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
373 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
374 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
375 line numbers from the source.
377 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
378 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
381 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
382 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
383 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
384 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
385 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
386 matches against the function name.
388 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
389 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
390 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
391 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
392 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
393 against the variable name.
395 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
396 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
397 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
399 The default is 512 bytes.
402 Lists the target connections currently in use.
407 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
408 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
412 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
413 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
414 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
415 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
416 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
420 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
421 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
422 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
423 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
425 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
426 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
427 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
428 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
432 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
433 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
434 the user visualize the different styles.
436 set print frame-arguments
437 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
438 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
440 set print raw-frame-arguments
441 show print raw-frame-arguments
443 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
444 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
445 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
448 add-inferior [-no-connection]
449 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
450 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
451 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
452 current inferior. See also "info connections".
455 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
456 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
457 "info connections" above.
459 maint test-options require-delimiter
460 maint test-options unknown-is-error
461 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
462 maint show test-options-completion-result
463 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
466 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
467 These commands are now case-sensitive.
469 * New command options, command completion
471 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
472 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
473 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
474 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
475 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
476 number of commands got support for new command options in this
479 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
480 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
481 set by "set print" subcommands:
485 -array-indexes [on|off]
486 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
491 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
492 -static-members [on|off]
497 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
498 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
499 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
500 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
502 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
503 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
504 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
506 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
507 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
508 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
509 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
510 |location-and-address|short-location
514 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
515 exposed as command options too:
521 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
522 support the following options:
527 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
528 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
530 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
531 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
532 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
535 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
537 The above is equivalent to:
539 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
541 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
542 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
543 variables" and "info functions".
545 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
546 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
547 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
550 * Completion improvements
552 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
553 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
556 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
557 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
560 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
561 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
562 completes on filenames.
564 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
565 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
567 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
569 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
575 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
576 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
577 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
579 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
580 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
581 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
583 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
584 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
585 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
587 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
590 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
591 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
592 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
596 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
598 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
599 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
600 the following commands and events:
604 - =breakpoint-created
605 - =breakpoint-modified
607 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
608 this behavior with previous MI versions.
610 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
611 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
612 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
617 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
618 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
619 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
620 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
622 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
624 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
625 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
627 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
629 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
630 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
632 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
633 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
634 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
636 * Removed targets and native configurations
638 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
639 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
640 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
646 * Removed targets and native configurations
648 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
651 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
653 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
654 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
657 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
658 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
659 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
662 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
665 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
666 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
667 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
669 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
670 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
672 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
673 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
674 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
675 in the GDB user manual.
677 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
680 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
682 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
683 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
684 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
685 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
686 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
687 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
688 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
689 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
690 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
691 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
692 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
693 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
695 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
696 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
697 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
700 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
705 set debug compile-cplus-types
706 show debug compile-cplus-types
707 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
708 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiling
713 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
716 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
717 Apply a command to some frames.
718 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
719 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
722 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
723 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
726 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
727 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
730 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
732 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
734 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
735 maint show dwarf unwinders
736 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
739 Display a list of open files for a process.
743 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
744 These commands all now take a frame specification which
745 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
746 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
747 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
748 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
749 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
751 target remote FILENAME
752 target extended-remote FILENAME
753 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
754 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
756 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
757 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
758 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
759 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
760 These commands can now print only the searched entities
761 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
762 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
763 printing headers or informations messages.
769 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
770 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
771 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
774 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
775 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
776 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
777 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
779 set tui tab-width NCHARS
780 show tui tab-width NCHARS
781 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
783 set style enabled [on|off]
785 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
786 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
788 set style sources [on|off]
790 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
791 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
792 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
794 set style filename foreground COLOR
795 set style filename background COLOR
796 set style filename intensity VALUE
797 Control the styling of file names.
799 set style function foreground COLOR
800 set style function background COLOR
801 set style function intensity VALUE
802 Control the styling of function names.
804 set style variable foreground COLOR
805 set style variable background COLOR
806 set style variable intensity VALUE
807 Control the styling of variable names.
809 set style address foreground COLOR
810 set style address background COLOR
811 set style address intensity VALUE
812 Control the styling of addresses.
816 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
817 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
818 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
819 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
820 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
822 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
823 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
825 * New native configurations
827 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
828 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
832 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
834 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
835 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
837 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
841 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
846 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
848 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
849 space associated to that inferior.
851 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
852 of objfiles associated to that program space.
854 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
855 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
858 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
859 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
860 correct and did not work properly.
862 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
863 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
869 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
870 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
871 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
872 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
873 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
875 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
877 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
880 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
881 offset to all sections.
883 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
884 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
885 address of individual sections using '-s'.
887 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
888 (address of the text section).
890 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
891 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
892 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
893 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
896 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
897 for the rest of the current command.
899 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
900 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
902 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
903 files created on FreeBSD systems.
905 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
908 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
909 the vector length while the process is running.
915 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
917 set|show varsize-limit
918 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
919 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
920 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
922 set|show record btrace cpu
923 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
926 maint check libthread-db
927 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
930 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
931 maint show check-libthread-db
932 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
933 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
938 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
940 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
941 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
943 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
945 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
946 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
947 of convenience variables.
949 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
950 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
951 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
955 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
957 * Removed targets and native configurations
959 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
960 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
961 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
962 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
964 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
966 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
967 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
968 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
969 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
970 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
971 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
976 --enable-codesign=CERT
977 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
978 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
979 gdb to work properly.
981 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
982 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
984 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
986 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
987 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
988 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
990 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
991 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
993 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
994 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
995 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
996 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
997 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
999 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
1000 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
1001 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
1002 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
1004 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
1005 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
1007 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
1008 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
1009 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
1011 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
1012 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
1013 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
1015 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
1016 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
1017 environment" command.
1019 * Completion improvements
1021 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
1022 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
1023 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
1024 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
1027 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
1028 (gdb) b function(int)
1030 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
1031 C++ anonymous namespaces:
1034 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
1035 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
1036 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
1038 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
1039 completion support, that better understands what you're
1040 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
1041 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
1042 setting a breakpoint.
1044 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
1046 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
1048 * New command line options (gcore)
1051 Dump all memory mappings.
1053 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
1055 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
1056 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
1057 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
1059 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
1064 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
1067 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
1068 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
1069 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
1070 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
1071 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
1072 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
1073 a breakpoint from Python.
1075 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1077 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1078 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
1079 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
1081 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
1083 function[abi:cxx11](int)
1086 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
1089 (gdb) b function(int)
1091 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
1093 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
1095 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
1099 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
1100 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
1101 description of these.
1103 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
1104 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
1105 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
1107 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
1108 manual for a further description of this feature.
1111 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1113 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
1114 specified initial working directory.
1116 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
1117 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
1119 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
1120 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
1122 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
1123 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
1125 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
1126 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
1127 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
1128 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
1129 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
1131 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
1132 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
1133 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
1135 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
1136 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
1137 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
1138 in the *stopped notification.
1140 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
1141 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
1143 * New remote packets
1145 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
1146 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
1147 the inferior when starting it.
1150 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
1151 before starting the remote inferior.
1154 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
1155 user-set environment variables should be unset).
1158 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
1161 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
1164 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
1165 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
1167 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
1168 filter the tests to be run.
1170 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
1171 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
1176 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
1178 set|show compile-gcc
1179 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
1180 with the 'compile' commands.
1182 set debug separate-debug-file
1183 show debug separate-debug-file
1184 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
1186 set dump-excluded-mappings
1187 show dump-excluded-mappings
1188 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
1189 dumped when generating a core file.
1191 maint info selftests
1192 List the registered selftests.
1195 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
1198 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
1200 set|show print type nested-type-limit
1201 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
1202 type printer will show.
1204 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
1207 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
1209 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
1212 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
1213 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
1214 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
1215 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
1217 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
1218 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
1219 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
1220 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1221 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
1222 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1224 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
1225 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
1226 unless you tell it the variable's type:
1229 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
1233 * New native configurations
1235 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1236 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1240 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1241 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1242 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
1244 * Removed targets and native configurations
1246 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
1248 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
1250 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
1251 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
1252 available in future Intel CPUs.
1254 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
1258 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
1259 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
1261 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
1264 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
1266 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
1268 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
1269 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
1272 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
1274 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
1275 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
1277 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
1279 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
1280 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
1281 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
1282 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
1285 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
1287 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
1288 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
1291 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
1293 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
1294 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
1296 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
1298 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
1303 eval "print $arg%d", $i
1308 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
1310 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
1311 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
1313 * New native configurations
1315 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1319 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1320 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1322 * Removed targets and native configurations
1324 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1325 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1330 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1332 maint print arc arc-instruction address
1333 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1337 set disassembler-options
1338 show disassembler-options
1339 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1340 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1341 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1342 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1343 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
1348 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
1349 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1351 -file-list-shared-libraries
1352 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
1353 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1356 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
1357 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
1359 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
1361 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
1363 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
1364 default. One must now explicitly configure with
1365 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
1366 option will be removed in a future release.
1368 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
1371 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
1372 memory backward from the given address. For example:
1375 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
1376 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
1377 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
1378 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
1379 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
1380 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
1381 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
1382 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
1383 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
1385 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
1386 arrays of dynamic types.
1388 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
1389 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1390 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1391 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1392 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1393 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
1395 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
1398 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
1399 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
1400 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
1402 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
1404 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
1405 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
1406 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
1407 signal received and code location.
1411 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
1412 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
1413 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
1414 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
1416 * Rust language support.
1417 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
1418 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
1421 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
1423 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
1424 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
1425 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
1426 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
1427 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
1428 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
1429 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
1430 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
1431 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
1432 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
1435 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
1437 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
1438 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
1443 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
1444 skip -function function
1445 skip -rfunction regular-expression
1446 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
1447 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
1448 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
1450 maint info line-table REGEXP
1451 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data structure.
1454 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
1457 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
1458 using the TTY file for input/output.
1462 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
1463 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
1464 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
1465 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
1466 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
1468 signal-event EVENTID
1469 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
1470 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
1471 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
1472 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
1473 signalling an event.
1475 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
1476 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
1477 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
1479 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
1482 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
1483 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
1484 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
1485 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
1486 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
1487 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
1489 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
1490 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
1491 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
1492 bytecode into native code.
1494 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
1495 recording. For example:
1497 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
1499 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
1501 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
1505 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
1507 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
1509 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
1511 * Per-inferior thread numbers
1513 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
1514 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
1515 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
1519 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
1520 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
1521 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
1522 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
1524 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
1525 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
1526 are no longer unique between inferiors.
1528 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
1529 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
1530 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
1532 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
1535 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
1536 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
1539 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
1542 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
1543 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
1544 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
1545 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
1548 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
1551 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
1554 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
1557 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
1558 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
1561 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
1562 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
1564 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
1566 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
1568 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
1569 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
1571 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
1572 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
1575 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1576 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
1579 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
1580 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
1583 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1585 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
1586 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
1587 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
1589 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
1590 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
1594 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
1595 maint show target-non-stop
1596 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
1597 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
1598 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
1600 maint set bfd-sharing
1601 maint show bfd-sharing
1602 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
1605 show debug bfd-cache
1606 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
1610 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
1612 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1613 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1614 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
1616 set remote thread-events
1617 show remote thread-events
1618 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
1620 set ada print-signatures on|off
1621 show ada print-signatures"
1622 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
1623 selection menus. It is activated (@code{on}) by default.
1627 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
1628 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
1629 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
1631 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1632 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
1633 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
1634 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
1635 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
1636 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
1638 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1639 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
1641 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
1642 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
1644 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
1646 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
1647 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
1648 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
1649 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
1650 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
1651 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
1653 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
1654 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
1657 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
1659 * New remote packets
1662 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
1664 exec-events feature in qSupported
1665 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
1666 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
1667 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
1668 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
1671 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
1674 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
1675 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
1677 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
1678 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
1681 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
1682 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
1683 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
1684 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
1685 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
1686 stop for that same thread.
1689 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
1690 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
1691 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
1694 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
1695 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
1697 syscall_entry stop reason
1698 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
1700 syscall_return stop reason
1701 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
1703 * Extended-remote exec events
1705 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
1706 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1707 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1709 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1710 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1711 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1713 * Thread names in remote protocol
1715 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1718 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
1720 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1721 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1722 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1723 fork and exec catchpoints.
1725 * Remote syscall events
1727 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1728 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1730 set remote catch-syscall-packet
1731 show remote catch-syscall-packet
1732 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
1736 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
1737 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
1742 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
1743 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
1744 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
1745 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
1746 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
1747 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
1749 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
1751 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
1752 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
1753 including advance SIMD instructions.
1755 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
1757 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
1758 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
1759 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
1760 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
1761 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
1762 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
1763 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
1765 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1767 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
1769 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
1770 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
1773 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
1774 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
1775 and may include things like its command line arguments.
1777 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
1778 is now available on all platforms.
1780 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
1781 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
1782 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
1783 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
1784 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
1785 backward compatibility.
1787 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
1788 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
1789 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
1790 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
1792 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
1793 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
1794 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
1795 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
1798 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
1800 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
1802 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
1803 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
1804 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
1805 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
1806 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
1807 See "New remote packets" below.
1809 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
1810 available register groups, including target specific groups.
1812 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
1813 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
1814 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1815 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1820 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1824 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1825 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1826 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
1827 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
1828 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
1829 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
1830 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
1831 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
1832 "const" version of the value respectively.
1836 maint print symbol-cache
1837 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1839 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1840 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1842 maint flush-symbol-cache
1843 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1847 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1850 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1854 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1857 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
1858 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
1862 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
1865 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1867 maint btrace packet-history
1868 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1870 maint btrace clear-packet-history
1871 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1874 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1875 anew by the next "record" command.
1880 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1881 show debug dwarf-die
1882 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1884 set debug dwarf-read
1885 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1886 show debug dwarf-read
1887 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1889 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1890 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1891 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1892 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1894 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1895 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1896 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1897 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1899 set debug dwarf-line
1900 show debug dwarf-line
1901 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1904 show max-completions
1905 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1906 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1907 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1908 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1910 set history remove-duplicates
1911 show history remove-duplicates
1912 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1914 maint set symbol-cache-size
1915 maint show symbol-cache-size
1916 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1918 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1919 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1921 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1922 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1924 set debug linux-namespaces
1925 show debug linux-namespaces
1926 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1928 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1929 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1930 Intel Processor Trace format.
1931 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1932 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1934 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1935 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1938 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1939 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1941 * Python/Guile scripting
1943 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1944 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1946 * New remote packets
1948 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1949 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1951 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1952 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1955 Enable Intel Processor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1956 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1959 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1960 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1964 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1965 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1966 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1970 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1971 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1974 Return information about files on the remote system.
1976 qXfer:exec-file:read
1977 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1978 create a process running on the remote system.
1981 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1982 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1983 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1984 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1987 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1990 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1992 vforkdone stop reason
1993 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1994 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1996 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1997 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1998 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1999 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
2000 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
2001 whether these features are enabled.
2003 * Extended-remote fork events
2005 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
2006 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
2007 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
2008 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
2010 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
2011 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
2012 the btrace record target.
2013 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
2015 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
2016 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
2018 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
2021 * Removed command line options
2023 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
2025 * Removed targets and native configurations
2027 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
2028 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2030 * New configure options
2033 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
2034 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
2036 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
2037 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
2038 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
2039 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
2041 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
2045 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
2047 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
2049 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
2053 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
2054 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
2055 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
2056 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
2057 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
2058 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
2059 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
2060 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
2061 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
2062 selecting a new file to debug.
2063 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
2064 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
2066 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
2069 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
2070 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
2071 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
2072 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
2074 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2076 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2077 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2078 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2079 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2081 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
2082 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
2083 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
2084 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
2085 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
2086 interface with this new feature are:
2088 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
2089 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
2093 demangle [-l language] [--] name
2094 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
2095 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
2096 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
2097 as "maint demangler-warning".
2099 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
2100 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
2102 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
2103 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
2106 maint print user-registers
2107 List all currently available "user" registers.
2109 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
2110 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
2111 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
2113 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
2114 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
2115 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
2118 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
2119 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
2120 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
2121 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
2124 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
2125 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
2126 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
2127 switched threads meanwhile.
2129 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
2131 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
2132 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
2133 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
2134 is now the default mode.
2138 set debug symbol-lookup
2139 show debug symbol-lookup
2140 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
2144 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
2145 inferiors that have exited.
2149 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
2153 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2155 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
2156 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
2157 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
2158 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
2159 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
2161 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2162 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2163 its alias "share", instead.
2165 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
2167 * New command line options
2170 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
2172 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
2173 as specified in ISO C99.
2175 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
2176 with or without disassembly.
2180 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
2181 available is determined at configure time.
2182 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
2183 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
2185 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2189 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
2193 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
2195 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
2196 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
2198 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
2199 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
2203 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
2204 show print symbol-loading
2205 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
2206 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
2207 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
2208 becomes less useful.
2210 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
2211 show guile print-stack
2212 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
2214 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
2215 show auto-load guile-scripts
2216 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
2218 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
2219 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
2220 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
2221 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
2222 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
2223 usage of this option.
2225 set auto-connect-native-target
2227 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
2228 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
2229 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
2231 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
2232 show record btrace replay-memory-access
2233 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
2235 maint set target-async (on|off)
2236 maint show target-async
2237 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
2238 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
2239 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
2240 occurring only in synchronous mode.
2242 set mi-async (on|off)
2244 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
2245 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
2247 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
2248 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
2250 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
2251 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
2252 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
2253 "set target-async on" command.
2255 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2257 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
2258 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
2259 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
2260 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
2261 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
2263 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
2264 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
2265 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
2267 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
2268 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
2269 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
2270 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
2271 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
2272 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
2273 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
2275 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
2276 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
2278 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
2279 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
2280 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
2282 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
2283 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
2284 memory or registers.
2286 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
2288 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
2289 remote. It now works with all targets.
2291 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
2292 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
2293 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
2294 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
2295 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
2296 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
2297 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
2298 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
2299 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
2302 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
2303 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
2304 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
2306 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
2308 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
2309 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
2310 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
2312 * New remote packets
2314 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
2315 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2316 branch trace incrementally.
2320 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2321 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2323 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2324 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2325 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2326 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2327 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2330 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2332 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2333 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2334 its alias "share", instead.
2336 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2337 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2342 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2343 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2344 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2345 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2346 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2347 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
2348 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
2349 commands and CLI execution commands.
2351 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
2353 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
2354 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
2355 recording has been added.
2357 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2359 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
2360 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
2362 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
2363 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
2364 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
2365 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
2366 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
2367 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
2370 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
2372 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
2374 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
2375 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
2376 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
2377 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
2382 (gdb) info registers rax
2385 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
2386 "*value not available*".
2388 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
2393 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
2394 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
2395 ** Line tables representation has been added.
2396 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
2397 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
2398 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
2402 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
2403 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
2404 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
2406 * Removed native configurations
2408 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
2409 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
2411 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2412 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2413 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
2414 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
2415 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2416 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2417 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2421 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
2422 maint check-psymtabs
2423 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
2425 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
2426 maint expand-symtabs
2427 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
2430 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2432 maint set|show per-command
2433 maint set|show per-command space
2434 maint set|show per-command time
2435 maint set|show per-command symtab
2436 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
2438 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
2439 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
2440 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
2441 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
2442 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
2445 info exceptions REGEXP
2446 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
2447 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
2452 set debug symfile off|on
2454 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
2455 symbol tables within those files
2457 set print raw frame-arguments
2458 show print raw frame-arguments
2459 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
2460 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
2462 set remote trace-status-packet
2463 show remote trace-status-packet
2464 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
2468 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
2472 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
2474 set startup-with-shell
2475 show startup-with-shell
2476 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
2481 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
2482 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
2484 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
2485 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
2486 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
2487 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
2490 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
2491 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
2492 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
2494 * New command-line options
2496 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2498 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
2499 buffer in Common Trace Format.
2501 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
2504 * GDB now implements the C++ 'typeid' operator.
2506 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
2507 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
2509 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
2510 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
2512 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
2513 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
2514 due to an uncaught signal.
2518 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
2519 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
2520 command, which should contain "language-option".
2522 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
2523 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
2525 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
2526 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
2527 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
2528 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2529 "undefined-command-error-code".
2531 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
2534 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
2536 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
2537 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
2540 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
2541 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
2543 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
2544 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
2545 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
2547 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
2548 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
2549 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
2550 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
2551 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2552 "exec-run-start-option".
2554 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
2555 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
2557 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
2558 the new "info exceptions" command.
2560 * New system-wide configuration scripts
2561 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
2562 configuration scripts for the following systems:
2566 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
2567 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
2568 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
2571 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
2572 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
2574 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
2575 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
2576 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
2578 * New remote packets
2582 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
2583 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
2584 involvemement at each single-step.
2586 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
2587 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
2588 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
2589 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
2590 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
2591 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
2594 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2596 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
2597 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
2599 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
2600 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
2601 trace state variables.
2603 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
2606 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
2607 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
2609 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
2611 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
2612 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
2613 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
2614 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2616 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
2618 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
2619 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
2620 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
2621 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
2623 set|show record full insn-number-max
2624 set|show record full stop-at-limit
2625 set|show record full memory-query
2627 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
2628 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
2629 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
2630 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
2631 This new recording method can be enabled using:
2635 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
2636 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
2638 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
2639 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
2640 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
2642 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
2643 instruction granularity
2645 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
2646 function granularity
2648 * New native configurations
2650 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
2651 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
2652 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2653 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
2657 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
2658 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
2659 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
2660 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2661 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
2663 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
2664 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
2665 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
2666 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
2667 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
2668 --data-directory command-line option.
2670 * New command line options:
2672 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
2673 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
2675 * Removed command line options
2677 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
2680 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
2683 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
2687 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
2689 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
2691 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
2693 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
2695 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
2696 of architecture in the Python API.
2698 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
2699 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
2701 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2703 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
2704 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
2706 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2708 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2711 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2712 default for GCC since November 2000.
2714 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2716 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2717 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2719 * New configure options
2721 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2722 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2723 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2724 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2725 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2726 options allow the user to override that default.
2727 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2728 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2729 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2731 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2734 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
2735 conditions to be attached.
2738 List the BFDs known to GDB.
2740 python-interactive [command]
2742 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
2743 and print the result of expressions.
2746 "py" is a new alias for "python".
2748 enable type-printer [name]...
2749 disable type-printer [name]...
2750 Enable or disable type printers.
2754 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
2755 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
2760 set print type methods (on|off)
2761 show print type methods
2762 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
2763 The default is to show them.
2765 set print type typedefs (on|off)
2766 show print type typedefs
2767 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
2768 The default is to show them.
2770 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
2771 show filename-display
2772 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
2773 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
2775 set trace-buffer-size
2776 show trace-buffer-size
2777 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
2779 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
2780 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
2781 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
2785 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
2788 set debug coff-pe-read
2789 show debug coff-pe-read
2790 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
2795 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
2798 set debug notification
2799 show debug notification
2800 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
2804 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
2805 "=cmd-param-changed".
2806 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
2807 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
2808 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
2809 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
2810 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
2811 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
2812 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
2813 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
2815 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
2816 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
2817 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2818 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
2819 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2820 library load/unload events.
2821 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2822 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2823 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
2824 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2825 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2826 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
2827 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2828 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
2830 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
2831 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
2832 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
2833 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
2835 * New remote packets
2838 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2839 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2842 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2843 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2847 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2848 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2851 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2852 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2854 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
2856 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2857 for more x32 ABI info.
2859 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2861 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2863 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2864 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2865 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2866 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2867 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2868 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2869 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2870 "info os msg" lists message queues
2871 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2873 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2874 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2875 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2876 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2877 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2878 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2880 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2881 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2882 record/replay support.
2884 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2888 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2891 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2893 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2894 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2896 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2898 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2899 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2901 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2902 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2903 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2906 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2907 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2909 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2910 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2911 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2913 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2914 object associated with a PC value.
2916 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2917 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2919 * Go language support.
2920 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2923 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2924 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2926 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2927 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2929 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2930 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2931 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2932 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2933 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2936 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2937 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2938 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2939 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2941 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2942 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2944 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2945 since December 2007.
2947 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2948 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2949 command does. For instance:
2951 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2953 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2954 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2955 created, using the "condition" command.
2957 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2958 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2960 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2962 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2963 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2964 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2965 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2966 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2967 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2968 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2969 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2971 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2972 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2973 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2974 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2975 the .gdb_index section.
2977 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2979 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2984 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2986 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2990 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2991 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2992 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2994 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2995 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2997 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
3000 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
3001 C++ and Java objects.
3003 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
3004 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
3005 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
3006 configured with '--with-python'.
3008 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
3009 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
3010 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
3011 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
3012 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
3013 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
3014 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
3016 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
3017 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
3018 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
3019 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
3021 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
3022 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
3023 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
3024 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
3026 ** "set print symbol"
3028 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
3029 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
3030 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
3032 * Deprecated commands
3034 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
3035 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
3039 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3040 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
3042 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
3043 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
3044 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
3045 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
3050 set mips compression
3051 show mips compression
3052 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
3053 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
3056 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
3058 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
3059 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
3060 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
3061 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
3063 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
3067 Disable auto-loading globally.
3070 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
3072 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
3073 show auto-load gdb-scripts
3074 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
3076 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
3077 show auto-load python-scripts
3078 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
3080 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
3081 show auto-load local-gdbinit
3082 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
3084 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
3085 show auto-load libthread-db
3086 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
3088 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3089 show auto-load scripts-directory
3090 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
3091 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
3092 of the directories listed by this option.
3093 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3095 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3096 show auto-load safe-path
3097 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
3098 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3100 set debug auto-load on|off
3101 show debug auto-load
3102 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
3104 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
3106 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
3107 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
3108 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
3109 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
3111 set dprintf-function <expr>
3112 show dprintf-function
3113 set dprintf-channel <expr>
3114 show dprintf-channel
3115 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
3116 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
3118 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
3119 show disconnected-dprintf
3120 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
3121 after GDB disconnects.
3123 * New configure options
3125 --with-auto-load-dir
3126 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
3127 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
3128 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
3129 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
3130 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
3132 --with-auto-load-safe-path
3133 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
3134 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
3136 --without-auto-load-safe-path
3137 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
3140 * New remote packets
3142 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
3144 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
3145 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
3146 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
3147 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
3151 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
3152 program without GDB involvement.
3154 * New command line options
3156 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
3157 before loading inferior.
3158 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
3159 execute it before loading inferior.
3161 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
3163 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
3164 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
3165 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
3166 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
3169 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
3170 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
3172 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
3173 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
3174 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
3175 target hardware watchpoint.
3177 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
3178 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
3179 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
3180 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
3184 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
3185 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
3188 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
3189 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
3190 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
3191 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
3192 now "message", which just prints the error message without
3195 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3198 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
3199 modules library. This module provides functionality for
3200 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
3201 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
3202 corresponding value.
3204 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
3205 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
3206 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
3209 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
3210 static_block will return the global and static blocks
3211 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
3212 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
3214 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
3216 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
3219 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
3220 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
3221 available in the CLI.
3223 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
3224 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
3225 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
3226 "some_type.items()".
3228 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
3231 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
3232 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
3233 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
3234 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
3235 any anonymous fields.
3239 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
3242 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
3243 "=breakpoint-modified".
3245 ** New command -ada-task-info.
3247 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
3248 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
3249 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
3252 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
3253 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
3254 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
3255 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
3256 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
3258 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
3259 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
3261 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
3262 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
3263 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
3264 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
3265 use this option to specify where to find it.
3267 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3268 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
3269 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
3270 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
3271 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
3272 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3273 section in the user manual for more details.
3275 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
3276 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
3277 become available after that.
3279 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
3281 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
3282 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
3288 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
3289 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
3293 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
3294 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
3295 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
3297 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
3298 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
3299 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
3301 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
3302 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
3303 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
3304 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
3305 name starts with a hyphen.
3307 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
3308 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
3309 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
3310 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
3311 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
3312 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
3313 number of bytes that will be collected.
3316 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3317 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3318 setting the variable trace-notes.
3321 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3322 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3323 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3326 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3327 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3328 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3329 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3330 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3333 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3334 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3335 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3339 set debug dwarf2-read
3340 show debug dwarf2-read
3341 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3342 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3344 set debug symtab-create
3345 show debug symtab-create
3346 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3347 creation. The default is off.
3350 show extended-prompt
3351 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
3352 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
3353 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
3354 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
3355 prompt is displayed.
3357 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
3358 show print entry-values
3359 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
3360 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
3361 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
3363 set debug entry-values
3364 show debug entry-values
3365 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
3366 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
3368 set basenames-may-differ
3369 show basenames-may-differ
3370 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
3371 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
3372 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
3373 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
3374 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
3375 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
3376 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
3377 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
3383 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
3384 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
3385 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
3386 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
3388 set trace-stop-notes
3389 show trace-stop-notes
3390 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
3391 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
3392 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
3393 started by someone else.
3395 * New remote packets
3399 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3403 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3407 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
3411 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
3415 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
3418 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
3419 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
3423 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
3427 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3429 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
3431 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
3433 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
3435 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
3436 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
3437 matches the given regular expression.
3439 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
3441 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
3442 dumping the instruction opcodes.
3444 * New command line options
3446 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
3447 This is mostly for testing purposes.
3449 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
3450 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
3452 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
3453 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
3454 source path list instead of augmenting it.
3456 * GDB now understands thread names.
3458 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
3459 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
3461 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
3462 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
3465 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
3466 has been integrated into GDB.
3470 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
3471 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
3472 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
3474 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3475 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
3476 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
3477 and allows for more dynamic content.
3479 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
3480 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
3481 have an is_valid method.
3483 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3484 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
3485 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
3487 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
3489 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
3490 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
3491 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
3492 that function like so:
3494 result = some_value (10,20)
3496 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
3497 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
3498 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
3500 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
3501 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
3502 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
3503 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
3504 New function: register_pretty_printer.
3506 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
3507 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
3509 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
3511 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
3514 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
3515 holds the thread's name.
3517 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
3518 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
3519 occurring in the process being debugged.
3520 The following events are currently supported:
3521 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
3522 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
3523 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
3527 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
3528 instantiation. For example, if you have:
3530 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
3532 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
3533 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
3534 was added to GCC 4.5.
3536 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
3537 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
3538 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
3539 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
3540 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
3541 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
3543 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
3544 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
3545 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
3546 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
3547 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
3549 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
3550 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
3551 execution to a label.
3553 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
3554 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
3555 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
3556 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
3558 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
3559 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
3560 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
3563 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
3565 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
3566 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
3567 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
3568 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
3569 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
3570 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
3573 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
3575 While now you see this:
3578 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
3580 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
3583 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
3584 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
3585 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
3586 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
3588 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3589 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
3590 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
3591 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3592 section in the user manual for more details.
3594 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3596 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
3597 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
3599 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
3601 * New native configurations
3603 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3607 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
3609 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
3610 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
3611 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
3612 in the GDB user manual.
3614 * Guile support was removed.
3616 * New features in the GNU simulator
3618 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
3620 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
3622 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
3624 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
3626 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
3627 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
3628 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
3629 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
3630 was always disabled for such configurations.
3634 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
3636 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
3637 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
3647 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
3648 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
3649 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
3651 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
3653 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
3654 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
3655 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
3656 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
3658 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
3659 mentioned flavors of operators.
3661 ** static const class members
3663 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
3664 class definition has been fixed.
3666 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
3668 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
3669 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
3670 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
3671 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
3672 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
3673 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
3675 * Static tracepoints
3677 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
3678 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
3679 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
3680 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
3681 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
3682 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
3683 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
3684 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
3685 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
3686 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
3687 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
3688 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
3689 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
3690 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
3691 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
3692 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
3693 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
3694 the "New remote packets" section below.
3696 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
3698 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
3699 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
3700 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
3701 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
3705 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
3706 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3707 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3708 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3709 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3710 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3711 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3713 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3716 * New remote packets
3720 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3724 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3725 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3726 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3727 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3728 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3729 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3733 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
3737 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
3740 qXfer:statictrace:read
3742 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
3743 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
3744 to gdb's qSupported query.
3748 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
3752 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
3753 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
3755 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
3756 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
3759 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3761 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
3762 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
3763 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
3764 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
3766 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
3767 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
3768 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
3769 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
3770 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
3771 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
3772 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
3774 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
3775 for static tracepoints support.
3777 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
3779 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
3780 it understands register description.
3782 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
3784 * X86 general purpose registers
3786 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
3787 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
3788 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
3789 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
3790 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
3792 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
3793 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
3794 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
3795 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
3796 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
3797 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
3799 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
3800 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
3801 in the specified file.
3803 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
3804 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
3805 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
3806 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
3807 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
3808 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
3809 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
3810 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
3811 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
3812 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
3816 eval template, expressions...
3817 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3818 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3820 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3821 show target-file-system-kind
3822 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3825 save breakpoints <filename>
3826 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3827 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3828 definitions, use the `source' command.
3830 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
3833 info static-tracepoint-markers
3834 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
3836 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3837 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3838 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3842 Enable and disable observer mode.
3844 set may-write-registers on|off
3845 set may-write-memory on|off
3846 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3847 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3848 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3849 set may-interrupt on|off
3850 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3851 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3852 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3853 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3854 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3855 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3856 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3858 set record memory-query on|off
3859 show record memory-query
3860 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3861 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3866 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3870 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3871 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3872 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3873 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3874 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3876 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3877 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3878 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3879 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3881 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3882 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3884 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3886 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3888 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3890 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3891 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3892 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3894 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3895 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3896 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3897 regular breakpoints.
3901 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3903 * D language support.
3904 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3907 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3908 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3909 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3910 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3911 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3913 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3914 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3915 conditions of the form:
3917 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3919 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3920 interface mentioned above.
3922 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
3926 ** Namespace Support
3928 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3929 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3930 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3931 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3932 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3936 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3937 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3942 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3943 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3947 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3952 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3955 * Multi-program debugging.
3957 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3958 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3959 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3960 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3961 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3962 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3963 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3964 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3966 * New tracing features
3968 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3970 ** Trace state variables
3972 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3973 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3974 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3975 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3976 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3977 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3978 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3979 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3980 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3981 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3985 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3986 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3987 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3988 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3989 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3990 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3991 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3992 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3993 the regular trace command.
3995 ** Disconnected tracing
3997 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3998 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3999 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
4000 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
4001 connection is lost unexpectedly.
4005 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
4006 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
4007 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
4008 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
4009 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
4010 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
4013 ** Circular trace buffer
4015 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
4016 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
4017 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
4018 not be available for all target agents.
4023 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
4024 the arguments to be comma-separated.
4027 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
4028 which only declare a variable are not shown.
4031 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
4032 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
4035 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
4036 "set script-extension" (see below).
4038 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4040 record save [<FILENAME>]
4041 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
4042 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
4044 record restore <FILENAME>
4045 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
4046 earlier time, for replay debugging.
4048 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
4051 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
4052 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
4053 inferior has loaded.
4058 maint info program-spaces
4059 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
4061 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
4062 show remote interrupt-sequence
4063 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
4064 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
4065 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
4066 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
4067 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
4069 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
4070 show remote interrupt-on-connect
4071 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
4072 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
4075 set remotebreak [on | off]
4077 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
4079 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
4080 Create or modify a trace state variable.
4083 List trace state variables and their values.
4085 delete tvariable $NAME ...
4086 Delete one or more trace state variables.
4089 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
4090 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
4092 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
4093 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
4095 * New expression syntax
4097 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
4098 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
4102 set follow-exec-mode new|same
4103 show follow-exec-mode
4104 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
4105 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
4106 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
4108 set default-collect EXPR, ...
4109 show default-collect
4110 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
4111 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
4112 such as registers or a critical global variable.
4114 set disconnected-tracing
4115 show disconnected-tracing
4116 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
4117 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
4120 set circular-trace-buffer
4121 show circular-trace-buffer
4122 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
4123 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
4124 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
4125 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
4127 set script-extension off|soft|strict
4128 show script-extension
4129 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
4130 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
4131 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
4132 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
4134 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
4136 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
4137 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
4138 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
4139 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
4140 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
4141 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
4142 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
4145 * Python API Improvements
4147 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
4148 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
4149 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
4151 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
4152 `is_base_class' attribute.
4154 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
4156 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
4157 evaluate an expression.
4159 * New remote packets
4162 Define a trace state variable.
4165 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
4168 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
4171 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
4174 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
4178 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
4180 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
4181 much more reliable. In particular:
4182 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
4183 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
4184 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
4185 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
4186 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
4187 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
4188 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
4189 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
4190 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
4191 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
4192 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
4193 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
4194 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
4195 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
4196 non-threaded programs.
4198 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
4199 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
4200 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
4203 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
4205 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
4206 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
4207 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
4208 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
4209 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
4211 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
4212 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
4213 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
4214 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
4215 for tracepoint actions.
4217 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
4218 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
4219 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
4221 * Process record and replay
4223 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
4224 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
4225 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
4228 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
4229 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
4230 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
4233 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
4234 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4237 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
4238 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
4239 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
4240 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
4241 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
4242 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
4243 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
4244 the installation instructions for more information.
4246 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
4247 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
4248 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
4249 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
4251 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
4252 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
4254 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
4255 now complete on file names.
4257 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
4258 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
4259 For instance, consider:
4261 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
4262 # struct example variable;
4265 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
4266 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
4268 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
4269 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
4271 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
4272 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
4275 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
4276 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
4277 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
4279 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
4280 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
4281 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
4282 and simulator targets may also provide them.
4284 * New remote packets
4287 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4290 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
4291 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
4292 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
4295 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
4296 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
4299 Obtains additional operating system information
4303 Read or write additional signal information.
4305 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
4307 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
4308 packet that permitted the stub to pass a process id was removed.
4309 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
4311 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
4312 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
4314 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
4315 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4316 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
4318 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4319 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4321 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4323 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4325 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4326 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4328 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote protocol packet now allows passing a
4329 list of section offsets.
4331 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4332 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4333 have also been fixed.
4335 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4336 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4337 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4339 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4342 template<typename T> class C { };
4345 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4347 ptype C<char const *>
4348 ptype C<char const*>
4349 ptype C<const char *>
4350 ptype C<const char*>
4352 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
4354 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
4355 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4357 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
4358 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4359 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
4361 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
4362 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
4364 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
4367 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
4368 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4370 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
4371 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
4376 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
4377 available is determined at configure time.
4379 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
4381 * Ada tasking support
4383 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
4387 Print the list of Ada tasks.
4389 Print detailed information about task number N.
4391 Print the task number of the current task.
4393 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
4395 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
4396 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
4398 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
4400 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
4401 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
4402 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
4403 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
4404 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
4405 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
4408 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
4409 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
4412 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
4413 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
4414 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
4415 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
4418 * Multi-architecture debugging.
4420 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
4421 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
4422 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
4423 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
4424 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
4426 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
4427 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
4428 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
4429 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
4430 --enable-targets configure option.
4432 * Non-stop mode debugging.
4434 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
4435 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
4436 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
4437 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
4438 section in the user manual for more information.
4440 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
4441 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
4442 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
4443 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
4444 extensions on linux targets.
4446 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4448 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
4449 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
4450 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
4451 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
4452 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
4453 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
4454 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
4455 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
4456 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
4458 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
4460 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4462 maint set python print-stack
4463 maint show python print-stack
4464 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
4467 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
4472 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
4476 Show operating system information about processes.
4479 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
4482 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
4485 Detach from inferior number NUM.
4488 Kill inferior number NUM.
4492 set spu stop-on-load
4493 show spu stop-on-load
4494 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4496 set spu auto-flush-cache
4497 show spu auto-flush-cache
4498 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
4499 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4501 set sh calling-convention
4502 show sh calling-convention
4503 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
4506 show debug timestamp
4507 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
4509 set disassemble-next-line
4510 show disassemble-next-line
4511 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
4514 set remote noack-packet
4515 show remote noack-packet
4516 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
4517 under "New remote packets."
4519 set remote query-attached-packet
4520 show remote query-attached-packet
4521 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
4523 set remote read-siginfo-object
4524 show remote read-siginfo-object
4525 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
4528 set remote write-siginfo-object
4529 show remote write-siginfo-object
4530 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
4533 set remote reverse-continue
4534 show remote reverse-continue
4535 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
4537 set remote reverse-step
4538 show remote reverse-step
4539 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
4541 set displaced-stepping
4542 show displaced-stepping
4543 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
4544 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
4545 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
4548 show debug displaced
4549 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
4551 maint set internal-error
4552 maint show internal-error
4553 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
4555 maint set internal-warning
4556 maint show internal-warning
4557 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
4562 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4564 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
4565 show multiple-symbols
4566 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
4567 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
4568 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
4570 set breakpoint always-inserted
4571 show breakpoint always-inserted
4572 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
4573 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
4574 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
4576 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4577 show arm fallback-mode
4578 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4580 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
4581 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
4582 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
4583 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
4585 set disable-randomization
4586 show disable-randomization
4587 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
4588 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
4589 multiple debugging sessions.
4593 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
4598 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
4599 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
4600 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
4601 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
4603 set target-wide-charset
4604 show target-wide-charset
4605 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
4606 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
4608 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
4610 set tcp connect-timeout
4611 show tcp connect-timeout
4612 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
4613 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
4614 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
4616 set libthread-db-search-path
4617 show libthread-db-search-path
4618 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
4621 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
4622 show schedule-multiple
4623 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
4624 the current process.
4628 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
4629 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
4630 affecting correctness.
4632 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
4633 show interactive-mode
4634 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
4635 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
4636 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
4637 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
4638 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
4643 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
4644 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
4645 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
4649 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
4650 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
4651 alias for the `fork' command.
4654 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
4655 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
4656 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
4659 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
4660 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
4661 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
4665 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
4666 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
4667 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
4670 * New native configurations
4672 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
4674 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
4678 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
4679 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4680 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
4683 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
4684 (mingw32ce) debugging.
4690 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
4692 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
4694 * New native configurations
4696 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
4697 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4701 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
4702 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4704 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4706 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4707 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4708 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4709 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4711 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4712 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4714 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4717 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4718 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4719 and in inlined functions.
4721 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4722 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4723 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4725 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4727 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4728 registers on PowerPC targets.
4730 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4731 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4733 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
4734 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
4736 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
4737 extended-remote mode.
4739 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
4740 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
4741 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
4742 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
4744 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
4745 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
4746 target architectures.
4748 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
4749 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
4750 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
4751 stored in two consecutive float registers.
4753 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
4756 * Improved support for debugging Ada
4757 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
4759 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
4760 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
4761 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
4762 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
4764 - Improved command completion in Ada
4767 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
4772 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
4773 show print frame-arguments
4774 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
4775 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
4780 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4787 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4789 * New remote packets
4796 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
4799 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
4803 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
4805 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
4807 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
4808 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
4809 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
4811 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
4812 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
4813 -Bsymbolic linker option.
4815 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4816 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4819 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4820 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4822 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
4823 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
4825 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4827 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4828 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
4829 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
4831 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
4832 automatically displayed as character or string data.
4834 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
4835 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
4838 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4839 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
4840 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
4842 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4845 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4846 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4847 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4849 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4851 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4853 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4854 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4855 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4857 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4858 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4860 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4861 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4862 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4863 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4864 Windows and SymbianOS).
4866 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4867 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
4869 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4870 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
4876 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4877 when debugging using remote targets.
4879 set mem inaccessible-by-default
4880 show mem inaccessible-by-default
4881 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4882 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4883 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4884 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4885 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4887 set breakpoint auto-hw
4888 show breakpoint auto-hw
4889 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4890 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4891 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4892 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4893 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4894 including "next" and "finish".
4897 catch exception unhandled
4898 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4901 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4905 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4906 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4907 an alias to "set sysroot".
4910 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4911 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4914 * New native configurations
4916 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4919 unset tdesc filename
4921 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4922 not query the target for its built-in description.
4926 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4927 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4928 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4930 * New remote packets
4933 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4934 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4936 qXfer:features:read:
4937 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4942 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4943 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4945 qXfer:libraries:read:
4946 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4947 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4948 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4949 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4953 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4961 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4962 i[34567]86-*-netware*
4963 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4964 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4966 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4969 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4970 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4979 * Other removed features
4986 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4993 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4998 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4999 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
5004 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
5005 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
5007 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
5009 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
5010 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
5011 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
5012 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
5014 MIPS ".pdr" sections
5016 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
5017 in debugging information.
5021 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
5022 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
5024 set mips stack-arg-size
5025 set mips saved-gpreg-size
5027 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
5029 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
5034 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
5036 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
5037 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
5038 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
5040 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
5041 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
5044 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
5045 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
5047 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
5048 stub provides the required support.
5050 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
5051 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
5056 unset substitute-path
5057 show substitute-path
5058 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
5059 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
5060 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
5061 between compilation and debugging.
5065 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
5066 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
5067 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
5071 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
5073 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
5074 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
5076 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
5078 * New remote packets
5081 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
5082 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
5083 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
5084 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
5088 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
5089 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
5091 qXfer:memory-map:read:
5092 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
5093 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
5098 Erase and program a flash memory device.
5100 * Removed remote packets
5103 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
5104 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
5106 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
5110 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
5112 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5116 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
5117 only if it doesn't already have a value.
5119 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
5121 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
5123 restart <n> Return the program state to a
5124 previously saved state.
5126 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
5128 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
5130 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
5131 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
5133 info forks List forks of the user program that
5134 are available to be debugged.
5136 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
5137 forks of the user program that are
5138 available to be debugged.
5140 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5141 that are available to be debugged (and
5142 kill the forked process).
5144 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5145 that are available to be debugged (and
5146 allow the process to continue).
5150 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
5152 * Improved Windows host support
5154 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
5155 native console support, and remote communications using either
5156 network sockets or serial ports.
5158 * Improved Modula-2 language support
5160 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
5161 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
5162 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
5163 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
5164 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
5165 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
5169 The ARM rdi-share module.
5171 The Netware NLM debug server.
5173 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
5175 * New native configurations
5177 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
5178 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
5182 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5184 * New command line options
5186 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
5187 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
5188 the child (debugged) program exited with.
5189 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
5190 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
5191 specified multiple times and in conjunction
5192 with the --command (-x) option.
5194 * Deprecated commands removed
5196 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
5200 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
5201 othernames set arm disassembler
5202 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
5203 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
5204 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
5207 * New BSD user-level threads support
5209 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
5210 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
5213 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5214 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
5215 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
5217 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
5218 are not yet supported.
5220 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
5221 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
5223 * REMOVED configurations and files
5225 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
5226 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5227 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
5229 * New "set print array-indexes" command
5231 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
5232 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
5235 * VAX floating point support
5237 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
5239 * User-defined command support
5241 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
5242 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
5243 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
5245 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
5247 * New command line option
5249 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
5252 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
5254 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
5255 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
5256 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
5257 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
5258 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
5260 * Internationalization
5262 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
5263 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
5264 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
5268 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
5269 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
5270 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
5272 * New native configurations
5274 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
5278 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
5279 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
5281 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
5283 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5284 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
5285 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
5288 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the registers[]
5289 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
5290 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
5300 powerpc bdm protocol
5302 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5303 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
5305 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5307 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5308 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5309 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5310 permanently REMOVED.
5319 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5321 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5323 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5324 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5327 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5329 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5330 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5331 IRIX long double values).
5335 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5336 command. This problem has been fixed.
5338 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5340 * Fix for ``many threads''
5342 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
5343 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
5346 ptrace: No such process.
5347 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
5349 This problem has been fixed.
5351 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
5353 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
5356 * New ``start'' command.
5358 This command runs the program until the beginning of the main procedure.
5360 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
5362 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
5363 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
5364 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
5366 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5367 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
5368 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
5369 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
5370 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
5371 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5372 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
5373 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
5374 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5376 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
5378 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
5379 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
5380 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
5381 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
5382 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
5384 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
5385 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
5386 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
5388 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
5390 * New native configurations
5392 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
5393 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
5394 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
5395 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
5396 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
5397 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
5398 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
5400 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
5402 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5403 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
5404 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
5405 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
5406 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
5407 work, was also included.
5409 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
5410 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
5420 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5421 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
5423 * REMOVED configurations and files
5425 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5426 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5427 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5428 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5429 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5430 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5431 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5432 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5433 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5434 sonymips mips-sony-*
5435 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5437 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
5439 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
5441 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
5442 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
5443 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
5444 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
5447 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
5449 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
5450 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
5451 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
5452 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
5453 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
5454 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
5457 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
5459 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
5461 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
5462 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
5463 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
5465 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
5467 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
5468 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
5470 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
5472 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
5473 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
5474 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
5476 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
5478 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
5479 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
5481 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
5483 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
5484 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
5485 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
5487 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
5489 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
5490 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
5491 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
5493 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
5495 * Removed --with-mmalloc
5497 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
5498 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
5500 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
5502 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
5503 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
5504 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
5505 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
5507 * Revised SPARC target
5509 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
5510 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
5511 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
5512 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
5513 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
5517 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
5518 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
5519 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
5522 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5524 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
5525 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
5528 * C++ nested types and namespaces
5530 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
5531 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
5532 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
5533 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
5534 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
5535 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
5536 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
5537 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
5538 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
5540 * New native configurations
5542 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
5543 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5544 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
5545 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5546 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
5548 * New debugging protocols
5550 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
5552 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
5554 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
5555 and its very obscure effect on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
5556 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
5558 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5560 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5561 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5562 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5563 permanently REMOVED.
5565 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5566 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5567 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5568 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5569 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5570 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5571 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5572 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5573 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5574 sonymips mips-sony-*
5575 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5577 * REMOVED configurations and files
5579 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5580 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5581 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5582 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5583 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5584 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5585 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5586 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5587 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5588 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
5589 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5590 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5591 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5592 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
5593 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
5594 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5595 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5597 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
5601 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
5602 integrated into GDB.
5604 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
5606 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
5607 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
5608 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
5611 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
5612 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
5613 DWARF 2 CFI support.
5617 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
5618 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
5619 remote protocol documentation for details.
5621 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
5623 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
5624 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
5625 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
5628 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
5630 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
5631 per-thread variables.
5633 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
5635 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
5636 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
5638 * Separate debug info.
5640 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
5641 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
5642 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
5643 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
5644 and optional debug files.
5646 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5648 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
5649 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
5652 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
5653 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
5657 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
5658 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
5659 considered "useable".
5661 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
5663 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
5664 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
5667 * GDB supports logging output to a file
5669 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
5670 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
5672 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
5674 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
5675 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
5678 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5680 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
5681 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
5685 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
5686 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
5687 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
5688 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
5689 data, for more informative profiling results.
5691 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
5693 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
5694 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
5695 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
5697 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
5700 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
5701 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
5702 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
5703 in a subsequent -var-update.
5705 * New native configurations.
5707 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5709 * Multi-arched targets.
5711 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5712 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5714 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5716 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5717 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5718 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5719 permanently REMOVED.
5721 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5722 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5723 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5724 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5725 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5726 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5727 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5728 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5729 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5730 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5731 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5732 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5734 * REMOVED configurations and files
5737 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5738 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5739 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5740 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5741 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5742 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5744 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5745 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5746 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5747 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5748 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5749 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5751 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
5753 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
5754 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
5755 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
5756 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
5757 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
5759 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
5761 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
5763 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
5764 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
5765 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
5766 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
5767 shared libs like mad''.
5769 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
5771 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
5772 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
5773 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
5774 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
5776 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
5778 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
5779 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
5782 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
5783 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
5785 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
5786 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
5788 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
5789 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
5790 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
5791 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
5793 * Multi-arched targets.
5795 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
5796 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
5798 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
5799 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
5800 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5804 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
5807 * New native configurations
5809 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
5810 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
5811 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
5812 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
5814 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5816 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5817 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5818 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5819 permanently REMOVED.
5821 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5822 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5823 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5824 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5825 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5826 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5827 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5828 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5829 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5830 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5832 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5833 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835 * OBSOLETE languages
5837 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5839 * REMOVED configurations and files
5841 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5842 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5843 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5844 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5845 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5847 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5849 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5851 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5852 commands. The default is 1024.
5854 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5856 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5858 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5860 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5861 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5862 from a file into memory (restore).
5864 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5866 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5867 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5868 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5870 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5878 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5879 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5880 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5882 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5883 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5884 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5886 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5887 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5888 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5890 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5891 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5892 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5894 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5896 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5898 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5899 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5900 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5901 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5902 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5903 (notably embedded) targets.
5905 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5907 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5908 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5909 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5910 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5912 * New command line option
5914 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5916 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5918 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5919 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5920 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5921 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5922 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5923 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5924 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5925 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5926 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5927 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5929 * Changes in ARM configurations.
5931 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5932 configuration is fully multi-arch.
5934 * New native configurations
5936 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5937 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5938 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5939 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5943 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5945 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5947 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5948 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5949 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5950 permanently REMOVED.
5952 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5953 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5954 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5955 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5956 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5958 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5960 * REMOVED configurations and files
5962 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5964 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5965 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5966 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5967 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5968 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5969 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5970 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5971 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5972 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5973 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5974 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5976 * Changes to command line processing
5978 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5979 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5981 * Changes to key bindings
5983 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5985 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5987 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5989 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5992 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5994 Numerous documentation fixes.
5996 Numerous testsuite fixes.
5998 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
6000 * New native configurations
6002 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
6003 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
6004 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
6005 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6006 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
6007 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
6011 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
6013 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
6015 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6017 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
6018 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6019 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6020 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6021 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6023 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6024 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6025 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6026 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6027 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6028 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6029 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6030 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
6032 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
6033 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
6035 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6036 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6037 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6038 permanently REMOVED.
6040 * REMOVED configurations and files
6042 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6043 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6045 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6049 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
6051 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
6052 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
6057 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
6059 * The MI enabled by default.
6061 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
6062 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
6063 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
6064 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
6065 which is now deprecated.
6067 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
6069 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
6070 main features are supported:
6072 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
6074 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
6077 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
6079 - a Pascal expression parser.
6081 However, some important features are not yet supported.
6083 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
6085 - there are some problems with boolean types;
6087 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
6088 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
6090 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
6092 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
6094 * Changes in completion.
6096 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
6097 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
6098 users expect at the shell prompt.
6100 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
6101 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
6102 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
6103 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
6104 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
6105 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
6106 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
6108 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
6110 * New platform-independent commands:
6112 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
6113 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
6114 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
6116 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
6118 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
6119 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
6120 many threads as your system allows you to have.
6122 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
6124 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
6125 multi-threaded programs though.
6127 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
6129 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
6131 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
6132 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
6135 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
6137 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
6138 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
6139 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
6140 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
6141 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
6144 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
6145 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
6146 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
6148 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
6150 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
6151 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
6153 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
6154 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
6157 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
6158 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
6159 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
6160 a given linear address.
6162 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
6163 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
6164 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
6166 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
6168 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
6170 * Changes in documentation.
6172 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
6173 Documentation License.
6175 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6178 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
6180 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6183 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
6184 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
6185 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
6187 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
6189 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
6190 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
6191 contents of this file.
6195 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
6197 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
6199 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
6201 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
6202 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
6203 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
6204 greater level of detail.
6206 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
6208 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
6209 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
6210 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
6213 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
6215 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
6216 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
6217 machines ``out of the box''.
6219 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
6220 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
6221 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
6222 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
6223 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
6225 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
6226 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
6227 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
6228 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
6229 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
6231 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
6232 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
6235 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
6238 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
6239 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
6240 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
6241 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
6243 * New native configurations
6245 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
6246 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6250 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
6251 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
6252 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
6253 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6255 * OBSOLETE configurations
6257 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6258 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6260 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6263 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6264 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6265 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6266 be permanently REMOVED.
6268 * Gould support removed
6270 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
6272 * New features for SVR4
6274 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
6275 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
6276 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
6278 * Many C++ enhancements
6280 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
6281 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
6283 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
6285 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
6286 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
6287 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
6288 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
6290 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
6291 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
6293 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
6295 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
6296 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
6297 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
6299 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
6300 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
6302 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
6304 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
6305 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
6306 include ``set remote P-packet''.
6308 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
6310 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
6311 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
6312 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
6314 * ``apropos'' command added.
6316 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6317 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6318 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6322 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6323 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6324 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6325 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6326 enabled by configuring with:
6328 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6330 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6332 * New native configurations
6334 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6335 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6336 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6340 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6341 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6342 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6344 * OBSOLETE configurations
6346 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
6348 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6349 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6350 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6351 be permanently REMOVED.
6355 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
6356 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
6357 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
6358 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
6359 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
6360 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
6361 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
6366 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
6368 * set extension-language
6370 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
6371 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
6372 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
6373 set extension-language .c c++
6374 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
6375 and their associated languages.
6377 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
6379 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
6380 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
6381 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
6385 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
6386 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
6388 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
6389 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
6391 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
6392 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
6393 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
6394 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
6395 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
6396 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
6397 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
6398 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
6400 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
6401 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
6402 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
6403 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
6407 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
6408 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
6409 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
6410 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
6411 for xdb and dbx commands.
6415 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
6416 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
6417 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
6419 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
6420 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
6421 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
6423 * Debugging across forks
6425 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
6430 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
6431 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
6432 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
6434 * GDB remote protocol additions
6436 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
6437 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
6438 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
6439 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
6441 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
6442 full 64-bit address. The command
6444 set remoteaddresssize 32
6446 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
6447 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
6450 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
6451 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
6453 maint packet heythere
6455 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
6456 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
6459 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
6460 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
6461 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
6463 * Tracing can collect general expressions
6465 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
6466 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
6467 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
6469 * mask-address variable for Mips
6471 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
6472 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
6473 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
6475 * Higher serial baud rates
6477 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
6478 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
6479 to achieve all of these rates.)
6483 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
6484 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
6487 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
6489 * New native configurations
6491 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
6492 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
6493 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6494 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6495 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6496 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
6497 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
6501 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6502 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
6503 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6504 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
6505 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
6506 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
6507 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
6508 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
6509 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6510 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6511 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
6513 * New debugging protocols
6515 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
6516 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
6517 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
6518 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6519 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6520 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6524 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
6525 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
6530 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
6531 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
6533 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
6535 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
6536 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
6537 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
6539 * Live range splitting
6541 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
6542 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
6543 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
6547 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
6548 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
6552 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
6553 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
6554 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
6559 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
6564 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
6565 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
6566 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
6567 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
6568 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
6569 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
6573 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
6574 the symbol at the specified address.
6578 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
6579 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
6580 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
6581 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
6582 file tracepoint.c for more details.
6586 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
6587 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
6588 of most MIPS variants.
6592 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
6593 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
6594 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
6598 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
6599 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
6600 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
6601 the possible architectures.
6603 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
6605 * New native configurations
6607 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
6608 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
6609 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
6610 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
6611 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6612 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
6616 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
6617 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6618 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
6619 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
6620 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
6622 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6626 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
6627 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
6628 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
6629 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
6630 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
6634 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
6636 * Windows 95/NT native
6638 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
6639 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
6640 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
6641 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
6642 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
6644 * dont-repeat command
6646 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
6647 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
6648 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
6649 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
6651 * Send break instead of ^C
6653 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
6654 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
6655 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
6657 * Remote protocol timeout
6659 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
6660 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
6661 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
6663 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
6665 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
6666 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
6667 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
6668 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
6669 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
6671 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
6672 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
6673 automatically on hpux10.
6675 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
6677 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
6679 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
6681 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
6682 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
6683 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
6684 every character. The default value is 1050.
6686 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
6688 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
6689 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
6690 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
6691 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
6692 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
6693 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
6695 * Speedups for remote debugging
6697 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
6698 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
6699 and more efficient S-record downloading.
6701 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
6703 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
6704 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
6706 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6708 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
6710 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6711 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6713 * Remote targets use caching
6715 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6716 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6717 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6718 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6719 off' turns the data cache off.
6721 * Remote targets may have threads
6723 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6724 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6725 gdb/remote.c for details.
6729 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6730 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6731 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6732 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
6733 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
6734 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
6735 sequence is something like
6737 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
6739 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
6743 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
6744 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
6745 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
6746 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
6747 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
6748 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
6749 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
6750 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
6754 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
6755 but does simplify configuration and building.
6759 GDB now supports hpux10.
6761 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
6763 * New native configurations
6765 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
6766 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
6767 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
6768 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
6772 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6773 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
6774 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
6775 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
6778 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
6780 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
6781 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
6782 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
6783 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
6784 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
6786 * Arguments to user-defined commands
6788 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
6789 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
6792 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
6794 To execute the command use:
6797 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
6798 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
6799 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
6801 * New `if' and `while' commands
6803 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
6804 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
6805 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
6806 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
6807 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
6808 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
6809 if the expression is zero.
6811 * Fortran source language mode
6813 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
6814 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6815 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6816 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6819 * Better HPUX support
6821 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6822 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6823 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6824 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6825 that behavior do the following before running the program:
6831 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
6832 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
6838 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6839 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6842 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6843 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6845 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6847 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6848 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6849 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6850 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6851 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6852 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6854 * New DOS host serial code
6856 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6857 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6860 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6862 * New "complete" command
6864 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6865 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6867 * Trailing space optional in prompt
6869 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6870 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6872 * Breakpoint hit counts
6874 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6875 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6876 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6877 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6878 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6881 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6883 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6884 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6885 arrays actually contain only short strings.
6887 * Shared library breakpoints
6889 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6890 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6892 * Hardware watchpoints
6894 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6895 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6897 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6901 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6902 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6904 * Improved Irix 5 support
6906 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6908 * Improved HPPA support
6910 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6912 * New native configurations
6914 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6915 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6916 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6917 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6921 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6922 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6925 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6927 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6928 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6932 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6933 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6935 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6937 * Irix 5 is now supported
6941 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6942 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6943 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6944 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6945 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6948 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6950 * User visible changes:
6954 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6955 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6956 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6957 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6958 debugging info for the mips target).
6960 * DEC Alpha native support
6962 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6963 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6964 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6965 Alpha-specific notes.
6967 * Preliminary thread implementation
6969 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6971 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
6973 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6974 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6977 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6979 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6980 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6981 call methods, ...etc.
6983 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6985 * User visible changes:
6987 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6988 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6989 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6990 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6992 Filename completion now works.
6994 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6995 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6996 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6998 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6999 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
7000 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
7001 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
7002 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
7006 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
7007 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
7010 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
7014 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
7015 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
7016 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
7020 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
7021 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
7022 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
7023 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
7024 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
7028 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
7029 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
7030 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
7032 * New targets supported
7034 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7035 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7036 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
7037 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7038 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
7040 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
7041 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
7042 GO32 memory extender.
7044 * New remote protocols
7046 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
7048 * New source languages supported
7050 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
7051 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
7052 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
7055 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
7057 * HP Precision Architecture supported
7059 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
7060 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
7061 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
7062 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
7063 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
7064 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
7066 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
7068 * Faster and better demangling
7070 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
7071 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
7072 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
7073 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
7074 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
7075 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
7078 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
7079 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
7080 compiler does not actually implement.
7082 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
7084 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
7085 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
7086 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
7087 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
7088 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
7089 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
7092 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
7093 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
7095 * Improved configure script
7097 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
7098 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
7099 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
7100 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
7102 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
7103 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
7104 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
7105 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
7106 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
7107 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
7109 * Documentation improvements
7111 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
7112 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
7113 before submitting changes.
7115 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
7116 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
7117 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
7118 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
7119 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
7121 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
7122 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
7123 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
7124 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
7125 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
7126 around this problem.
7130 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
7131 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
7132 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
7135 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
7136 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
7138 * New native hosts supported
7140 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
7141 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
7143 * New targets supported
7145 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
7147 * New file formats supported
7149 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
7150 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
7154 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
7156 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
7157 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
7159 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
7160 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
7161 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
7163 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
7164 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
7166 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
7167 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
7168 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
7171 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
7172 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
7173 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
7174 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
7175 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
7177 * Internal improvements
7179 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
7180 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
7182 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
7183 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
7184 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
7185 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
7186 shared code that handles any of them.
7188 * New command line options
7190 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
7194 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
7195 General Public License.
7197 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
7199 * Host/native/target split
7201 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
7202 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
7203 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
7204 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
7205 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
7207 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
7208 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
7209 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
7210 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
7211 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
7212 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
7213 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
7215 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
7216 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
7217 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
7219 * New hosts supported
7221 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
7222 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7223 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
7225 * New targets supported
7227 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7228 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
7230 * New native hosts supported
7232 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7233 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
7234 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
7236 * New file formats supported
7238 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
7239 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
7240 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
7244 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
7245 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
7246 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
7248 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
7250 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
7251 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
7252 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
7253 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
7257 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
7258 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
7259 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
7261 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
7265 The crash that occurred when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
7266 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
7269 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
7270 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
7272 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
7273 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
7274 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
7275 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
7276 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
7277 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
7279 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
7280 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
7281 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
7282 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
7286 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
7287 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
7288 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
7289 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
7290 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
7292 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
7293 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
7294 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
7295 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
7299 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
7300 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
7301 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
7302 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
7303 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
7304 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
7305 each instruction being stepped through.
7307 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
7308 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
7310 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
7311 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
7312 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
7313 processor with a serial port.
7317 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7318 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7319 supported, and what files each one uses.
7323 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7324 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7325 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7326 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7328 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7329 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7330 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7331 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7335 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7336 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7337 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7338 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7339 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7340 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7342 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
7345 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
7347 * Better support for C++ function names
7349 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
7350 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
7351 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
7352 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
7353 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
7355 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
7356 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
7357 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
7358 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
7359 for the list of formats.
7361 * G++ symbol mangling problem
7363 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
7364 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
7365 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
7366 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compiling gdb/symtab.c. The
7367 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
7368 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
7371 * New 'maintenance' command
7373 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
7374 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
7375 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
7377 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
7378 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
7379 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
7380 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
7381 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
7382 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
7384 The following commands are new:
7386 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
7387 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
7388 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
7390 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
7392 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
7393 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
7394 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
7395 read after argv processing.
7397 * New hosts supported
7399 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
7401 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
7403 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
7404 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
7405 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
7406 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
7407 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
7410 * New targets supported
7412 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7414 * More smarts about finding #include files
7416 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
7417 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
7418 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
7419 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
7420 the one that contains your sources.
7422 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
7423 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
7424 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
7426 * Interesting infernals change
7428 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
7429 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
7430 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
7431 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
7433 * Bug fixes (of course!)
7435 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
7436 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
7437 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
7439 See the ChangeLog for details.
7441 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
7443 * New machines supported (host and target)
7445 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
7447 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7449 * New malloc package
7451 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
7452 Mmalloc is capable of handling multiple heaps of memory. It is also
7453 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
7454 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
7455 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
7456 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
7460 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
7461 'help info proc' for details.
7463 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
7465 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
7466 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
7469 * File name changes for MS-DOS
7471 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
7472 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
7473 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
7474 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
7475 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
7476 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
7478 * Cross byte order fixes
7480 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
7481 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
7483 * New -mapped and -readnow options
7485 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
7486 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
7487 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
7488 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
7489 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
7490 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
7491 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
7492 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
7493 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
7494 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
7496 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
7497 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
7498 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
7499 slower, but makes future operations faster.
7501 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
7502 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
7503 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
7506 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
7508 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
7509 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
7510 shared across multiple host platforms.
7512 * longjmp() handling
7514 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
7515 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
7516 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
7517 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
7521 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
7522 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
7527 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
7528 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
7529 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
7531 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
7533 * New machines supported (host and target)
7535 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7537 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
7538 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
7540 * New machines supported (target)
7542 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7546 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
7547 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
7548 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
7550 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
7551 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
7552 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
7553 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
7554 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
7557 * New features for SVR4
7559 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
7560 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
7561 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
7563 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
7564 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
7565 it prints the address mappings of the process.
7567 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
7568 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
7570 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
7572 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
7573 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
7574 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
7575 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
7576 same code linked statically.
7580 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
7581 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
7582 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
7583 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
7584 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
7585 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
7589 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7590 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7591 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7594 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
7596 * New machines supported (host and target)
7598 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
7599 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
7600 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7602 * Almost SCO Unix support
7604 We had hoped to support:
7605 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7606 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
7607 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
7608 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
7610 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
7612 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
7613 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
7614 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
7615 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
7620 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
7621 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
7622 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
7626 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7627 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7628 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7630 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
7632 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
7633 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
7634 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
7636 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
7637 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
7638 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
7639 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
7642 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
7643 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
7644 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
7645 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
7648 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
7649 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
7652 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
7653 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
7654 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
7657 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
7659 * Improved configuration
7661 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
7662 Porting BFD is simpler.
7666 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
7667 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
7668 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
7669 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
7673 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
7675 * New host supported (not target)
7677 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
7680 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
7682 * Multiple source language support
7684 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
7685 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
7686 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
7687 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
7688 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
7689 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
7693 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
7694 currently under development at the State University of New York at
7695 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
7696 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
7698 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
7699 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
7700 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
7702 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
7703 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7707 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7708 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7709 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7710 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7713 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7715 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7716 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7717 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7718 examining core files.
7722 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7725 * New machines supported (host and target)
7727 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7728 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7729 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7731 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7733 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
7735 * New targets supported (not hosts)
7737 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7738 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7739 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
7741 * New remote interfaces
7747 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
7751 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
7753 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
7754 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
7755 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
7756 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
7757 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
7758 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
7759 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
7760 stub on the target system.
7762 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
7764 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
7765 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
7766 object file types such as a.out and coff.
7768 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
7769 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
7772 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
7774 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
7775 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
7777 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
7778 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
7779 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
7781 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
7782 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
7783 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
7784 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
7786 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
7787 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
7788 it is already running. Default is ON.
7790 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
7791 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
7792 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
7793 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
7796 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
7797 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
7798 or the value of the environment variable
7801 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
7802 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
7805 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
7806 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
7807 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
7809 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
7810 history expansion will be performed on
7811 command line input. The default is OFF.
7813 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
7814 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7815 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7817 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7818 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7819 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7822 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7823 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7824 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7827 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7828 ``set width'' instead.
7830 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
7831 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
7832 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
7833 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
7835 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
7838 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7841 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7844 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7847 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7849 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7850 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7851 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7855 * Support for Shared Libraries
7857 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7858 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7859 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7860 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7861 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7862 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7863 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7864 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7866 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7867 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7868 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7870 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7875 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7876 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7877 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7878 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7879 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7880 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7882 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7884 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7886 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7887 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7888 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7891 * C++ multiple inheritance
7893 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7896 * C++ exception handling
7898 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7899 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7900 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7903 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7904 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7905 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7907 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7908 current stack frame.
7911 * Minor command changes
7913 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7914 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7915 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7917 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7918 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7919 frames without printing.
7921 * New directory command
7923 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7924 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7925 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7926 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7927 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7929 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7931 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7934 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7935 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7936 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7937 where the program that you are debugging will run.