1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.1:
6 * New native configurations
8 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
10 * REMOVED configurations and files
12 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
14 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
15 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
16 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
17 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
18 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
19 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
20 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
21 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
23 * Changes to command line processing
25 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
26 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
28 * Changes to key bindings
30 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
32 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
34 * New native configurations
36 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
37 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
38 MIPS Linux mips*-*-linux*
39 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
41 s390 and s390x Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
45 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
47 UltraSparc running Linux sparc64-*-linux*
49 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
51 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
52 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
53 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
54 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
55 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
57 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
58 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
59 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
60 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
61 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
62 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
63 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
64 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
66 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
67 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
69 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
70 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
71 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
74 * REMOVED configurations and files
76 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
79 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
83 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
85 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
86 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
91 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
93 * The MI enabled by default.
95 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
96 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
97 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
98 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
99 which is now deprecated.
101 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
103 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
104 main features are supported:
106 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
108 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
111 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
113 - a Pascal expression parser.
115 However, some important features are not yet supported.
117 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
119 - there are some problems with boolean types;
121 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
122 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
124 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
126 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
128 * Changes in completion.
130 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
131 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
132 users expect at the shell prompt.
134 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
135 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
136 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
137 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
138 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
139 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
140 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
142 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
144 * New platform-independent commands:
146 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
147 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
148 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
150 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
152 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
153 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
154 many threads as your system allows you to have.
156 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
158 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
159 multi-threaded programs though.
161 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
163 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
165 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
166 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
169 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
171 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
172 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
173 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
174 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
175 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
178 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
179 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
180 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
182 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
184 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
185 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
187 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
188 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
191 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
192 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
193 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
194 a given linear address.
196 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
197 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
198 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
200 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
202 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
204 * Changes in documentation.
206 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
207 Documentation License.
209 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
212 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
214 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
217 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
218 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
219 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
221 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
223 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
224 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
225 contents of this file.
229 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
231 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
233 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
235 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
236 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
237 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
238 greater level of detail.
240 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
242 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
243 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
244 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
247 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
249 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
250 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
251 machines ``out of the box''.
253 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
254 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
255 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
256 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
257 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
259 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
260 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
261 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
262 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
263 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
265 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
266 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
269 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
272 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
273 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
274 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
275 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
277 * New native configurations
279 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
280 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
284 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
285 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
286 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
287 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
289 * OBSOLETE configurations
291 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
292 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
294 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
297 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
298 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
299 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
300 be permanently REMOVED.
302 * Gould support removed
304 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
306 * New features for SVR4
308 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
309 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
310 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
312 * Many C++ enhancements
314 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
315 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
317 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
319 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
320 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
321 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
322 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
324 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
325 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
327 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
329 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
330 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
331 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
333 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
334 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
336 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
338 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
339 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
340 include ``set remote P-packet''.
342 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
344 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
345 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
346 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
348 * ``apropos'' command added.
350 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
351 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
352 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
356 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
357 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
358 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
359 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
360 enabled by configuring with:
362 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
364 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
366 * New native configurations
368 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
369 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
370 M68K Linux m68*-*-linux*
374 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
375 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
376 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
378 * OBSOLETE configurations
380 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
382 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
383 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
384 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
385 be permanently REMOVED.
389 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
390 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
391 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
392 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
393 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
394 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
395 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
400 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
402 * set extension-language
404 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
405 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
406 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
407 set extension-language .c c++
408 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
409 and their associated languages.
411 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
413 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
414 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
415 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
419 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
420 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
422 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
423 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
425 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
426 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
427 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
428 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
429 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
430 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
431 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
432 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
434 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
435 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
436 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
437 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
441 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
442 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
443 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
444 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
445 for xdb and dbx commands.
449 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
450 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
451 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
453 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
454 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
455 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
457 * Debugging across forks
459 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
464 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
465 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
466 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
468 * GDB remote protocol additions
470 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
471 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
472 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
473 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
475 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
476 full 64-bit address. The command
478 set remoteaddresssize 32
480 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
481 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
484 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
485 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
487 maint packet heythere
489 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
490 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
493 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
494 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
495 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
497 * Tracing can collect general expressions
499 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
500 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
501 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
503 * mask-address variable for Mips
505 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
506 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
507 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
509 * Higher serial baud rates
511 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
512 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
513 to achieve all of these rates.)
517 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
518 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
521 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
523 * New native configurations
525 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
526 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
527 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
528 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
529 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
530 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
531 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
535 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
536 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
537 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
538 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
539 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
540 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
541 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
542 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
543 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
544 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
545 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
547 * New debugging protocols
549 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
550 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
551 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
552 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
553 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
554 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
558 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
559 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
564 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
565 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
567 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
569 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
570 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
571 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
573 * Live range splitting
575 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
576 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
577 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
581 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
582 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
586 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
587 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
588 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
593 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
598 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
599 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
600 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
601 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
602 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
603 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
607 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
608 the symbol at the specified address.
612 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
613 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
614 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
615 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
616 file tracepoint.c for more details.
620 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
621 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
622 of most MIPS variants.
626 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
627 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
628 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
632 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
633 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
634 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
635 the possible architectures.
637 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
639 * New native configurations
641 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
642 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
643 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
644 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
645 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
646 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
650 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
651 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
652 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
653 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
654 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
656 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
660 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
661 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
662 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
663 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
664 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
668 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
670 * Windows 95/NT native
672 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
673 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
674 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
675 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
676 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
678 * dont-repeat command
680 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
681 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
682 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
683 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
685 * Send break instead of ^C
687 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
688 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
689 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
691 * Remote protocol timeout
693 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
694 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
695 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
697 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
699 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
700 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
701 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
702 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
703 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
705 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
706 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
707 automatically on hpux10.
709 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
711 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
713 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
715 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
716 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
717 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
718 every character. The default value is 1050.
720 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
722 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
723 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
724 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
725 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
726 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
727 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
729 * Speedups for remote debugging
731 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
732 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
733 and more efficient S-record downloading.
735 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
737 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
738 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
740 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
744 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
745 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
747 * Remote targets use caching
749 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
750 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
751 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
752 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
753 off' turns the the data cache off.
755 * Remote targets may have threads
757 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
758 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
759 gdb/remote.c for details.
763 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
764 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
765 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
766 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
767 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
768 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
769 sequence is something like
771 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
773 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
777 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
778 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
779 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
780 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
781 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
782 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
783 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
784 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
788 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
789 but does simplify configuration and building.
793 GDB now supports hpux10.
795 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
797 * New native configurations
799 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
800 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
801 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
802 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
806 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
807 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
808 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
809 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
812 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
814 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
815 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
816 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
817 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
818 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
820 * Arguments to user-defined commands
822 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
823 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
826 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
828 To execute the command use:
831 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
832 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
833 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
835 * New `if' and `while' commands
837 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
838 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
839 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
840 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
841 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
842 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
843 if the expression is zero.
845 * Fortran source language mode
847 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
848 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
849 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
850 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
853 * Better HPUX support
855 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
856 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
857 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
858 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
859 that behavior do the following before running the program:
865 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
866 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
872 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
873 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
876 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
877 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
879 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
881 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
882 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
883 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
884 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
885 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
886 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
888 * New DOS host serial code
890 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
891 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
894 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
896 * New "complete" command
898 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
899 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
901 * Trailing space optional in prompt
903 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
904 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
906 * Breakpoint hit counts
908 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
909 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
910 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
911 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
912 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
915 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
917 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
918 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
919 arrays actually contain only short strings.
921 * Shared library breakpoints
923 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
924 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
926 * Hardware watchpoints
928 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
929 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
931 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under Linux.
935 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
936 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
938 * Improved Irix 5 support
940 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
942 * Improved HPPA support
944 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
946 * New native configurations
948 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
949 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
950 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
951 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
955 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
956 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
959 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
961 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
962 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
966 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
967 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
969 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
971 * Irix 5 is now supported
975 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
976 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
977 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
978 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
979 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
982 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
984 * User visible changes:
988 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
989 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
990 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
991 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
992 debugging info for the mips target).
994 * DEC Alpha native support
996 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
997 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
998 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
999 Alpha-specific notes.
1001 * Preliminary thread implementation
1003 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1005 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1007 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1008 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1011 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1013 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1014 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1015 call methods, ...etc.
1017 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1019 * User visible changes:
1021 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1022 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1023 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1024 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1026 Filename completion now works.
1028 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1029 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1030 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1032 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1033 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1034 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1035 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1036 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1040 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1041 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1044 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1048 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1049 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1050 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1054 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1055 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1056 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1057 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1058 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1062 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1063 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1064 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1066 * New targets supported
1068 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1069 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1070 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1071 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1072 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1074 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1075 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1076 GO32 memory extender.
1078 * New remote protocols
1080 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1082 * New source languages supported
1084 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1085 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1086 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1089 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1091 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1093 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1094 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1095 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1096 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1097 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1098 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1100 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1102 * Faster and better demangling
1104 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1105 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1106 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1107 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1108 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1109 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1112 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1113 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1114 compiler does not actually implement.
1116 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1118 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1119 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1120 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1121 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1122 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1123 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1126 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1127 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1129 * Improved configure script
1131 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1132 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1133 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1134 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1136 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1137 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1138 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1139 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1140 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1141 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1143 * Documentation improvements
1145 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1146 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1147 before submitting changes.
1149 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1150 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1151 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1152 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1153 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1155 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1156 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1157 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1158 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1159 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1160 around this problem.
1164 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1165 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1166 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1169 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1170 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1172 * New native hosts supported
1174 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1175 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1177 * New targets supported
1179 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1181 * New file formats supported
1183 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1184 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1188 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1190 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1191 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1193 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1194 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1195 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1197 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1198 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1200 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1201 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1202 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1205 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1206 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1207 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1208 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1209 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1211 * Internal improvements
1213 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1214 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1216 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1217 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1218 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1219 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1220 shared code that handles any of them.
1222 * New command line options
1224 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1228 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1229 General Public License.
1231 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1233 * Host/native/target split
1235 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1236 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1237 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1238 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1239 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1241 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1242 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1243 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1244 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1245 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1246 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1247 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1249 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1250 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1251 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1253 * New hosts supported
1255 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1256 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1257 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1259 * New targets supported
1261 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1262 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1264 * New native hosts supported
1266 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1267 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1268 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1270 * New file formats supported
1272 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1273 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1274 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1278 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1279 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1280 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1282 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1284 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1285 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1286 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1287 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1291 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1292 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1293 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1295 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1299 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1300 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1303 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1304 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1306 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1307 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1308 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1309 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1310 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1311 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1313 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1314 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1315 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1316 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1320 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1321 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1322 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1323 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1324 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1326 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1327 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1328 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1329 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1333 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1334 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1335 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1336 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1337 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1338 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1339 each instruction being stepped through.
1341 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1342 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1344 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1345 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1346 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1347 processor with a serial port.
1351 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1352 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1353 supported, and what files each one uses.
1357 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1358 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1359 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1360 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1362 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1363 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1364 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1365 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1369 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1370 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1371 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1372 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1373 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1374 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1376 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1379 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1381 * Better support for C++ function names
1383 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1384 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1385 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1386 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1387 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1389 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1390 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1391 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1392 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1393 for the list of formats.
1395 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1397 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1398 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1399 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1400 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1401 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1402 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1405 * New 'maintenance' command
1407 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1408 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1409 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1411 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1412 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1413 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1414 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1415 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1416 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1418 The following commands are new:
1420 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1421 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1422 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1424 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1426 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1427 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1428 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1429 read after argv processing.
1431 * New hosts supported
1433 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1435 Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1437 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1438 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1439 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1440 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1441 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1444 * New targets supported
1446 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1448 * More smarts about finding #include files
1450 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1451 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1452 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1453 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1454 the one that contains your sources.
1456 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1457 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1458 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1460 * Interesting infernals change
1462 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1463 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1464 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1465 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1467 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1469 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1470 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1471 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1473 See the ChangeLog for details.
1475 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1477 * New machines supported (host and target)
1479 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1481 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1483 * New malloc package
1485 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1486 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1487 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1488 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1489 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1490 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1494 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1495 'help info proc' for details.
1497 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1499 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1500 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1503 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1505 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1506 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1507 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1508 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1509 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1510 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1512 * Cross byte order fixes
1514 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1515 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1517 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1519 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1520 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1521 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1522 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1523 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1524 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1525 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1526 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1527 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1528 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1530 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1531 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1532 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1533 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1535 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1536 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1537 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1540 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1542 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1543 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1544 shared across multiple host platforms.
1546 * longjmp() handling
1548 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1549 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1550 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1551 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1555 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1556 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1561 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1562 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1563 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1565 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1567 * New machines supported (host and target)
1569 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1571 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1572 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1574 * New machines supported (target)
1576 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1580 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1581 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1582 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1584 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1585 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1586 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1587 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1588 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1591 * New features for SVR4
1593 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1594 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1595 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1597 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1598 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1599 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1601 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1602 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1604 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1606 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1607 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1608 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1609 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1610 same code linked statically.
1614 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1615 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1616 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1617 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1618 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1619 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1623 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1624 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1625 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1628 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1630 * New machines supported (host and target)
1632 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1633 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1634 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1636 * Almost SCO Unix support
1638 We had hoped to support:
1639 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1640 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1641 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1642 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1644 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1646 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1647 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1648 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1649 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1654 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1655 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1656 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1660 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1661 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1662 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1664 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1666 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1667 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1668 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1670 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1671 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1672 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1673 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1676 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1677 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1678 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1679 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1682 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1683 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1686 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1687 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1688 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1691 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1693 * Improved configuration
1695 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1696 Porting BFD is simpler.
1700 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1701 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1702 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1703 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1707 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1709 * New host supported (not target)
1711 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1714 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1716 * Multiple source language support
1718 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1719 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1720 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1721 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1722 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1723 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1727 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1728 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1729 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1730 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1732 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1733 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1734 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1736 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1737 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1741 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1742 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1743 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1744 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1747 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1749 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1750 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1751 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1752 examining core files.
1756 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1759 * New machines supported (host and target)
1761 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1762 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1763 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1765 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1767 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1769 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1771 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1772 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1773 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1775 * New remote interfaces
1781 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1785 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1787 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1788 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1789 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1790 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1791 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1792 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1793 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1794 stub on the target system.
1796 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1798 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1799 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1800 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1802 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1803 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1806 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1808 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1809 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1811 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1812 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1813 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1815 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1816 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1817 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1818 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1820 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1821 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1822 it is already running. Default is ON.
1824 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1825 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1826 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1827 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1830 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1831 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1832 or the value of the environment variable
1835 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1836 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
1839 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
1840 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
1841 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
1843 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
1844 history expansion will be performed on
1845 command line input. The default is OFF.
1847 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
1848 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
1849 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
1851 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
1852 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
1853 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1856 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
1857 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
1858 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
1861 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
1862 ``set width'' instead.
1864 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
1865 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
1866 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
1867 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
1869 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
1872 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
1875 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
1878 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
1881 * Support for Epoch Environment.
1883 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
1884 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
1885 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
1889 * Support for Shared Libraries
1891 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
1892 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
1893 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
1894 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
1895 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
1896 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
1897 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
1898 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
1900 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
1901 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
1902 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
1904 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
1909 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
1910 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
1911 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
1912 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
1913 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
1914 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
1916 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
1918 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
1920 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1921 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1922 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
1925 * C++ multiple inheritance
1927 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
1930 * C++ exception handling
1932 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
1933 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
1934 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
1937 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
1938 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
1939 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
1941 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
1942 current stack frame.
1945 * Minor command changes
1947 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
1948 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
1949 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
1951 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
1952 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
1953 frames without printing.
1955 * New directory command
1957 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
1958 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
1959 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
1960 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
1961 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
1963 * Configuring GDB for compilation
1965 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
1968 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
1969 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
1970 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
1971 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob