1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.1:
6 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
8 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
9 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
10 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
11 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
12 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
14 These fixes were tested on i386 GNU/Linux systems that include a 2.4
17 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
19 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
21 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
22 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
24 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
26 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
27 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
28 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
30 * New native configurations
32 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
33 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
34 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
35 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
36 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
38 * REMOVED configurations and files
40 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
41 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
42 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
43 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
44 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
45 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
46 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
47 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
48 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
50 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
52 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
54 * Removed --with-mmalloc
56 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
57 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
59 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
61 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
62 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
63 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
64 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
66 * Revised SPARC target
68 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
69 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
70 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
71 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
72 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
76 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
77 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
78 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
81 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
83 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
84 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
87 * C++ nested types and namespaces
89 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
90 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
91 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
92 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
93 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
94 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
95 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
96 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
97 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
99 * New native configurations
101 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
102 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
103 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
104 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
105 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
107 * New debugging protocols
109 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
111 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
113 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
114 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
115 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
117 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
119 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
120 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
121 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
124 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
125 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
126 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
127 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
128 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
129 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
130 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
131 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
132 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
134 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
136 * REMOVED configurations and files
138 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
139 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
140 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
141 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
142 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
143 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
144 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
145 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
146 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
147 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
148 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
149 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
150 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
151 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
152 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
153 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
154 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
156 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
160 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
163 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
165 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
166 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
167 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
170 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
171 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
176 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
177 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
178 remote protocol documentation for details.
180 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
182 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
183 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
184 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
187 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
189 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
190 per-thread variables.
192 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
194 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
195 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
197 * Separate debug info.
199 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
200 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
201 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
202 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
203 and optional debug files.
205 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
207 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
208 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
211 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
212 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
216 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
217 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
218 considered "useable".
220 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
222 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
223 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
226 * GDB supports logging output to a file
228 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
229 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
231 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
233 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
234 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
237 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
239 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
240 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
244 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
245 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
246 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
247 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
248 data, for more informative profiling results.
250 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
252 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
253 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
254 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
256 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
259 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
260 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
261 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
262 in a subsequent -var-update.
264 * New native configurations.
266 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
268 * Multi-arched targets.
270 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
271 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
273 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
275 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
276 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
277 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
280 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
281 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
282 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
283 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
284 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
285 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
286 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
287 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
288 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
289 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
290 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
291 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
293 * REMOVED configurations and files
296 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
297 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
298 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
299 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
300 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
301 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
303 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
304 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
305 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
306 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
307 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
308 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
310 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
312 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
313 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
314 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
315 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
316 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
318 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
320 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
322 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
323 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
324 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
325 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
326 shared libs like mad''.
328 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
330 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
331 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
332 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
333 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
335 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
337 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
338 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
341 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
342 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
344 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
345 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
347 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
348 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
349 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
350 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
352 * Multi-arched targets.
354 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
355 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
357 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
358 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
359 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
363 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
366 * New native configurations
368 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
369 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
370 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
371 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
373 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
375 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
376 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
377 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
380 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
381 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
382 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
383 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
384 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
385 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
386 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
387 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
388 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
389 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
391 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
392 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
396 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
398 * REMOVED configurations and files
400 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
401 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
402 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
403 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
404 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
406 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
408 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
410 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
411 commands. The default is 1024.
413 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
415 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
417 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
419 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
420 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
421 from a file into memory (restore).
423 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
425 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
426 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
427 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
429 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
437 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
438 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
439 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
441 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
442 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
443 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
445 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
446 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
447 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
449 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
450 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
451 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
453 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
455 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
457 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
458 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
459 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
460 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
461 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
462 (notably embedded) targets.
464 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
466 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
467 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
468 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
469 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
471 * New command line option
473 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
475 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
477 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
478 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
479 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
480 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
481 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
482 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
483 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
484 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
485 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
486 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
488 * Changes in ARM configurations.
490 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
491 configuration is fully multi-arch.
493 * New native configurations
495 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
496 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
497 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
498 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
502 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
504 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
506 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
507 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
508 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
511 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
512 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
513 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
514 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
515 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
517 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
519 * REMOVED configurations and files
521 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
523 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
524 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
525 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
526 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
527 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
528 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
529 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
530 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
531 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
532 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
533 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
535 * Changes to command line processing
537 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
538 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
540 * Changes to key bindings
542 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
544 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
546 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
548 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
551 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
553 Numerous documentation fixes.
555 Numerous testsuite fixes.
557 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
559 * New native configurations
561 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
562 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
563 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
564 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
566 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
570 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
572 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
574 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
576 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
577 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
578 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
579 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
580 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
582 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
583 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
584 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
585 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
586 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
587 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
588 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
589 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
591 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
592 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
594 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
595 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
596 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
599 * REMOVED configurations and files
601 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
602 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
604 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
608 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
610 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
611 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
616 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
618 * The MI enabled by default.
620 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
621 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
622 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
623 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
624 which is now deprecated.
626 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
628 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
629 main features are supported:
631 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
633 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
636 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
638 - a Pascal expression parser.
640 However, some important features are not yet supported.
642 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
644 - there are some problems with boolean types;
646 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
647 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
649 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
651 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
653 * Changes in completion.
655 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
656 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
657 users expect at the shell prompt.
659 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
660 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
661 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
662 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
663 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
664 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
665 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
667 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
669 * New platform-independent commands:
671 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
672 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
673 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
675 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
677 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
678 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
679 many threads as your system allows you to have.
681 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
683 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
684 multi-threaded programs though.
686 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
688 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
690 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
691 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
694 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
696 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
697 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
698 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
699 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
700 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
703 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
704 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
705 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
707 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
709 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
710 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
712 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
713 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
716 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
717 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
718 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
719 a given linear address.
721 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
722 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
723 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
725 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
727 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
729 * Changes in documentation.
731 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
732 Documentation License.
734 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
737 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
739 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
742 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
743 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
744 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
746 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
748 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
749 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
750 contents of this file.
754 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
756 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
758 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
760 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
761 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
762 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
763 greater level of detail.
765 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
767 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
768 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
769 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
772 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
774 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
775 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
776 machines ``out of the box''.
778 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
779 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
780 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
781 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
782 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
784 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
785 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
786 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
787 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
788 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
790 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
791 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
794 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
797 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
798 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
799 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
800 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
802 * New native configurations
804 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
805 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
809 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
810 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
811 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
812 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
814 * OBSOLETE configurations
816 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
817 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
819 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
822 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
823 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
824 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
825 be permanently REMOVED.
827 * Gould support removed
829 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
831 * New features for SVR4
833 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
834 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
835 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
837 * Many C++ enhancements
839 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
840 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
842 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
844 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
845 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
846 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
847 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
849 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
850 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
852 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
854 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
855 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
856 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
858 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
859 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
861 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
863 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
864 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
865 include ``set remote P-packet''.
867 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
869 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
870 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
871 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
873 * ``apropos'' command added.
875 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
876 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
877 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
881 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
882 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
883 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
884 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
885 enabled by configuring with:
887 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
889 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
891 * New native configurations
893 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
894 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
895 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
899 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
900 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
901 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
903 * OBSOLETE configurations
905 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
907 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
908 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
909 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
910 be permanently REMOVED.
914 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
915 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
916 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
917 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
918 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
919 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
920 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
925 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
927 * set extension-language
929 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
930 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
931 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
932 set extension-language .c c++
933 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
934 and their associated languages.
936 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
938 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
939 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
940 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
944 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
945 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
947 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
948 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
950 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
951 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
952 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
953 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
954 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
955 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
956 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
957 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
959 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
960 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
961 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
962 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
966 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
967 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
968 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
969 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
970 for xdb and dbx commands.
974 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
975 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
976 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
978 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
979 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
980 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
982 * Debugging across forks
984 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
989 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
990 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
991 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
993 * GDB remote protocol additions
995 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
996 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
997 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
998 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1000 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1001 full 64-bit address. The command
1003 set remoteaddresssize 32
1005 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1006 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1009 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1010 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1012 maint packet heythere
1014 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1015 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1018 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1019 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1020 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1022 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1024 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1025 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1026 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1028 * mask-address variable for Mips
1030 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1031 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1032 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1034 * Higher serial baud rates
1036 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1037 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1038 to achieve all of these rates.)
1042 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1043 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1046 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1048 * New native configurations
1050 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1051 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1052 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1053 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1054 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1055 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1056 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1060 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1061 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1062 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1063 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1064 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1065 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1066 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1067 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1068 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1069 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1070 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1072 * New debugging protocols
1074 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1075 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1076 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1077 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1078 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1079 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1083 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1084 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1089 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1090 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1092 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1094 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1095 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1096 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1098 * Live range splitting
1100 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1101 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1102 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1106 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1107 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1111 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1112 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1113 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1118 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1123 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1124 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1125 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1126 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1127 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1128 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1132 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1133 the symbol at the specified address.
1137 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1138 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1139 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1140 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1141 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1145 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1146 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1147 of most MIPS variants.
1151 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1152 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1153 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1157 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1158 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1159 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1160 the possible architectures.
1162 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1164 * New native configurations
1166 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1167 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1168 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1169 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1170 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1171 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1175 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1176 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1177 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1178 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1179 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1181 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1185 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1186 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1187 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1188 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1189 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1193 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1195 * Windows 95/NT native
1197 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1198 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1199 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1200 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1201 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1203 * dont-repeat command
1205 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1206 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1207 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1208 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1210 * Send break instead of ^C
1212 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1213 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1214 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1216 * Remote protocol timeout
1218 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1219 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1220 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1222 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1224 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1225 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1226 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1227 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1228 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1230 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1231 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1232 automatically on hpux10.
1234 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1236 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1238 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1240 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1241 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1242 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1243 every character. The default value is 1050.
1245 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1247 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1248 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1249 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1250 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1251 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1252 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1254 * Speedups for remote debugging
1256 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1257 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1258 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1260 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1262 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1263 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1265 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1267 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1269 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1270 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1272 * Remote targets use caching
1274 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1275 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1276 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1277 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1278 off' turns the the data cache off.
1280 * Remote targets may have threads
1282 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1283 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1284 gdb/remote.c for details.
1288 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1289 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1290 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1291 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1292 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1293 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1294 sequence is something like
1296 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1298 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1302 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1303 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1304 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1305 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1306 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1307 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1308 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1309 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1313 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1314 but does simplify configuration and building.
1318 GDB now supports hpux10.
1320 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1322 * New native configurations
1324 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1325 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1326 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1327 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1331 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1332 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1333 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1334 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1337 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1339 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1340 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1341 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1342 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1343 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1345 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1347 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1348 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1351 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1353 To execute the command use:
1356 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1357 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1358 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1360 * New `if' and `while' commands
1362 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1363 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1364 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1365 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1366 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1367 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1368 if the expression is zero.
1370 * Fortran source language mode
1372 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1373 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1374 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1375 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1378 * Better HPUX support
1380 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1381 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1382 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1383 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1384 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1390 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1391 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1397 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1398 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1401 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1402 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1404 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1406 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1407 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1408 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1409 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1410 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1411 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1413 * New DOS host serial code
1415 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1416 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1419 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1421 * New "complete" command
1423 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1424 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1426 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1428 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1429 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1431 * Breakpoint hit counts
1433 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1434 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1435 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1436 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1437 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1440 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1442 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1443 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1444 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1446 * Shared library breakpoints
1448 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1449 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1451 * Hardware watchpoints
1453 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1454 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1456 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1460 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1461 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1463 * Improved Irix 5 support
1465 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1467 * Improved HPPA support
1469 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1471 * New native configurations
1473 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1474 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1475 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1476 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1480 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1481 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1484 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1486 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1487 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1491 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1492 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1494 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1496 * Irix 5 is now supported
1500 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1501 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1502 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1503 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1504 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1507 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1509 * User visible changes:
1513 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1514 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1515 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1516 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1517 debugging info for the mips target).
1519 * DEC Alpha native support
1521 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1522 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1523 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1524 Alpha-specific notes.
1526 * Preliminary thread implementation
1528 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1530 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1532 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1533 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1536 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1538 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1539 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1540 call methods, ...etc.
1542 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1544 * User visible changes:
1546 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1547 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1548 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1549 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1551 Filename completion now works.
1553 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1554 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1555 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1557 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1558 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1559 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1560 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1561 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1565 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1566 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1569 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1573 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1574 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1575 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1579 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1580 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1581 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1582 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1583 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1587 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1588 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1589 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1591 * New targets supported
1593 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1594 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1595 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1596 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1597 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1599 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1600 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1601 GO32 memory extender.
1603 * New remote protocols
1605 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1607 * New source languages supported
1609 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1610 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1611 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1614 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1616 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1618 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1619 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1620 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1621 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1622 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1623 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1625 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1627 * Faster and better demangling
1629 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1630 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1631 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1632 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1633 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1634 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1637 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1638 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1639 compiler does not actually implement.
1641 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1643 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1644 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1645 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1646 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1647 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1648 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1651 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1652 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1654 * Improved configure script
1656 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1657 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1658 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1659 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1661 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1662 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1663 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1664 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1665 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1666 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1668 * Documentation improvements
1670 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1671 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1672 before submitting changes.
1674 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1675 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1676 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1677 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1678 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1680 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1681 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1682 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1683 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1684 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1685 around this problem.
1689 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1690 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1691 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1694 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1695 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1697 * New native hosts supported
1699 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1700 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1702 * New targets supported
1704 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1706 * New file formats supported
1708 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1709 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1713 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1715 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1716 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1718 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1719 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1720 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1722 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1723 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1725 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1726 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1727 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1730 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1731 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1732 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1733 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1734 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1736 * Internal improvements
1738 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1739 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1741 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1742 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1743 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1744 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1745 shared code that handles any of them.
1747 * New command line options
1749 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1753 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1754 General Public License.
1756 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1758 * Host/native/target split
1760 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1761 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1762 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1763 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1764 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1766 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1767 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1768 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1769 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1770 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1771 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1772 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1774 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1775 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1776 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1778 * New hosts supported
1780 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1781 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1782 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1784 * New targets supported
1786 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1787 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1789 * New native hosts supported
1791 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1792 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1793 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1795 * New file formats supported
1797 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1798 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1799 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1803 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1804 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1805 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1807 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1809 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1810 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1811 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1812 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1816 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1817 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1818 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1820 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1824 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1825 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1828 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1829 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1831 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1832 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1833 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1834 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1835 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1836 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1838 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1839 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1840 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1841 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1845 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1846 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1847 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1848 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1849 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1851 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1852 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1853 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1854 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1858 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1859 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1860 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1861 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1862 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1863 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1864 each instruction being stepped through.
1866 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1867 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1869 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1870 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1871 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1872 processor with a serial port.
1876 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1877 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1878 supported, and what files each one uses.
1882 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1883 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1884 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1885 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1887 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1888 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1889 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1890 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1894 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1895 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1896 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1897 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1898 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1899 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1901 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1904 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1906 * Better support for C++ function names
1908 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1909 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1910 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1911 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1912 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1914 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1915 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1916 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1917 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1918 for the list of formats.
1920 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1922 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1923 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1924 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1925 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1926 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1927 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1930 * New 'maintenance' command
1932 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1933 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1934 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1936 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1937 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1938 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1939 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1940 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1941 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1943 The following commands are new:
1945 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1946 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1947 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1949 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1951 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1952 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1953 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1954 read after argv processing.
1956 * New hosts supported
1958 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1960 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1962 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1963 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1964 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1965 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1966 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1969 * New targets supported
1971 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1973 * More smarts about finding #include files
1975 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1976 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1977 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1978 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1979 the one that contains your sources.
1981 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1982 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1983 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1985 * Interesting infernals change
1987 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1988 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1989 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1990 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1992 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1994 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1995 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1996 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1998 See the ChangeLog for details.
2000 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2002 * New machines supported (host and target)
2004 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2006 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2008 * New malloc package
2010 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2011 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2012 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2013 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2014 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2015 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2019 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2020 'help info proc' for details.
2022 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2024 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2025 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2028 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2030 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2031 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2032 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2033 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2034 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2035 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2037 * Cross byte order fixes
2039 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2040 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2042 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2044 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2045 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2046 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2047 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2048 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2049 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2050 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2051 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2052 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2053 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2055 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2056 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2057 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2058 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2060 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2061 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2062 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2065 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2067 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2068 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2069 shared across multiple host platforms.
2071 * longjmp() handling
2073 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2074 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2075 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2076 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2080 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2081 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2086 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2087 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2088 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2090 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2092 * New machines supported (host and target)
2094 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2096 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2097 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2099 * New machines supported (target)
2101 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2105 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2106 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2107 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2109 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2110 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2111 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2112 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2113 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2116 * New features for SVR4
2118 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2119 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2120 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2122 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2123 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2124 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2126 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2127 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2129 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2131 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2132 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2133 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2134 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2135 same code linked statically.
2139 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2140 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2141 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2142 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2143 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2144 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2148 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2149 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2150 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2153 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2155 * New machines supported (host and target)
2157 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2158 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2159 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2161 * Almost SCO Unix support
2163 We had hoped to support:
2164 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2165 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2166 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2167 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2169 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2171 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2172 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2173 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2174 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2179 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2180 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2181 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2185 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2186 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2187 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2189 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2191 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2192 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2193 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2195 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2196 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2197 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2198 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2201 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2202 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2203 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2204 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2207 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2208 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2211 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2212 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2213 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2216 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2218 * Improved configuration
2220 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2221 Porting BFD is simpler.
2225 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2226 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2227 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2228 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2232 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2234 * New host supported (not target)
2236 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2239 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2241 * Multiple source language support
2243 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2244 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2245 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2246 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2247 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2248 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2252 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2253 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2254 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2255 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2257 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2258 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2259 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2261 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2262 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2266 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2267 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2268 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2269 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2272 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2274 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2275 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2276 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2277 examining core files.
2281 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2284 * New machines supported (host and target)
2286 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2287 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2288 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2290 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2292 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2294 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2296 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2297 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2298 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2300 * New remote interfaces
2306 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2310 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2312 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2313 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2314 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2315 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2316 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2317 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2318 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2319 stub on the target system.
2321 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2323 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2324 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2325 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2327 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2328 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2331 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2333 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2334 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2336 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2337 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2338 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2340 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2341 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2342 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2343 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2345 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2346 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2347 it is already running. Default is ON.
2349 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2350 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2351 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2352 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2355 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2356 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2357 or the value of the environment variable
2360 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2361 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2364 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2365 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2366 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2368 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2369 history expansion will be performed on
2370 command line input. The default is OFF.
2372 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2373 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2374 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2376 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2377 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2378 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2381 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2382 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2383 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2386 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2387 ``set width'' instead.
2389 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2390 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2391 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2392 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2394 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2397 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2400 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2403 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2406 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2408 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2409 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2410 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2414 * Support for Shared Libraries
2416 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2417 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2418 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2419 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2420 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2421 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2422 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2423 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2425 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2426 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2427 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2429 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2434 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2435 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2436 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2437 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2438 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2439 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2441 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2443 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2445 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2446 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2447 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2450 * C++ multiple inheritance
2452 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2455 * C++ exception handling
2457 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2458 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2459 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2462 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2463 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2464 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2466 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2467 current stack frame.
2470 * Minor command changes
2472 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2473 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2474 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2476 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2477 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2478 frames without printing.
2480 * New directory command
2482 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2483 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2484 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2485 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2486 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2488 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2490 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2493 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2494 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2495 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2496 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob