1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
7 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
8 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
9 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
11 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
12 now complete on file names.
14 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
15 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
16 For instance, consider:
18 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
19 # struct example variable;
22 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
23 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
25 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
26 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
32 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
35 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
36 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
37 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
39 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
41 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
42 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
43 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
45 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
48 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
49 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
51 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
52 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
53 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
55 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
56 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
58 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
60 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
62 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
63 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
65 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
66 list of section offsets.
68 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
69 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
72 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
73 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
74 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
76 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
78 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
79 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
81 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
82 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
83 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
85 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
86 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
88 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
93 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
94 available is determined at configure time.
98 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
102 Print the list of Ada tasks.
104 Print detailed information about task number N.
106 Print the task number of the current task.
108 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
112 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
114 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
116 maint set python print-stack
117 maint show python print-stack
118 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
121 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
123 set print symbol-loading
124 show print symbol-loading
125 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
129 Display timestamps with GDB debugging output.
134 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
136 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
137 show multiple-symbols
138 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
139 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
140 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
142 set breakpoint always-inserted
143 show breakpoint always-inserted
144 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
145 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
146 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
148 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
149 show arm fallback-mode
150 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
152 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
153 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
154 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
155 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
157 set disable-randomization
158 show disable-randomization
159 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
160 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
161 multiple debugging sessions.
164 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
165 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
166 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
167 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
172 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
177 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
183 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
185 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
187 * New native configurations
189 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
190 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
194 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
195 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
197 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
199 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
200 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
201 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
202 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
204 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
205 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
207 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
210 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
211 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
212 and in inlined functions.
214 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
215 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
216 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
218 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
220 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
221 registers on PowerPC targets.
223 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
224 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
226 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
227 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
229 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
230 extended-remote mode.
232 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
233 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
234 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
235 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
237 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
238 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
239 target architectures.
241 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
242 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
243 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
244 stored in two consecutive float registers.
246 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
249 * Improved support for debugging Ada
250 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
252 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
253 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
254 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
255 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
257 - Improved command completion in Ada
260 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
265 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
266 show print frame-arguments
267 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
268 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
273 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
280 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
289 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
292 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
296 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
298 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
300 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
301 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
302 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
304 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
305 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
306 -Bsymbolic linker option.
308 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
309 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
312 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
313 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
315 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
316 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
318 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
320 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
321 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
322 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
324 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
325 automatically displayed as character or string data.
327 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
328 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
331 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
332 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
333 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
335 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
338 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
339 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
340 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
342 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
344 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
346 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
347 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
348 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
350 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
351 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
353 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
354 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
355 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
356 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
357 Windows and SymbianOS).
359 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
360 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
362 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
363 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
369 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
370 when debugging using remote targets.
372 set mem inaccessible-by-default
373 show mem inaccessible-by-default
374 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
375 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
376 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
377 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
378 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
380 set breakpoint auto-hw
381 show breakpoint auto-hw
382 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
383 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
384 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
385 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
386 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
387 including "next" and "finish".
390 catch exception unhandled
391 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
394 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
398 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
399 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
400 an alias to "set sysroot".
403 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
404 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
407 * New native configurations
409 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
414 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
415 not query the target for its built-in description.
419 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
420 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
421 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
426 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
427 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
430 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
435 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
436 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
438 qXfer:libraries:read:
439 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
440 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
441 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
442 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
446 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
455 i[34567]86-*-netware*
456 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
457 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
459 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
462 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
463 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
472 * Other removed features
479 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
486 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
491 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
492 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
497 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
498 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
500 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
502 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
503 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
504 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
505 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
509 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
510 in debugging information.
514 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
515 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
517 set mips stack-arg-size
518 set mips saved-gpreg-size
520 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
522 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
527 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
529 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
530 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
531 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
533 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
534 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
537 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
538 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
540 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
541 stub provides the required support.
543 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
544 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
549 unset substitute-path
551 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
552 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
553 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
554 between compilation and debugging.
558 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
559 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
560 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
564 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
566 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
567 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
569 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
574 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
575 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
576 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
577 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
581 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
582 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
584 qXfer:memory-map:read:
585 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
586 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
591 Erase and program a flash memory device.
593 * Removed remote packets
596 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
597 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
599 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
603 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
605 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
609 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
610 only if it doesn't already have a value.
612 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
614 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
616 restart <n> Return the program state to a
617 previously saved state.
619 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
621 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
623 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
624 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
626 info forks List forks of the user program that
627 are available to be debugged.
629 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
630 forks of the user program that are
631 available to be debugged.
633 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
634 that are available to be debugged (and
635 kill the forked process).
637 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
638 that are available to be debugged (and
639 allow the process to continue).
643 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
645 * Improved Windows host support
647 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
648 native console support, and remote communications using either
649 network sockets or serial ports.
651 * Improved Modula-2 language support
653 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
654 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
655 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
656 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
657 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
658 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
662 The ARM rdi-share module.
664 The Netware NLM debug server.
666 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
668 * New native configurations
670 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
671 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
675 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
677 * New command line options
679 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
680 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
681 the child (debugged) program exited with.
682 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
683 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
684 specified multiple times and in conjunction
685 with the --command (-x) option.
687 * Deprecated commands removed
689 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
693 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
694 othernames set arm disassembler
695 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
696 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
697 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
700 * New BSD user-level threads support
702 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
703 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
706 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
707 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
708 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
710 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
711 are not yet supported.
713 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
714 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
716 * REMOVED configurations and files
718 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
719 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
720 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
722 * New "set print array-indexes" command
724 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
725 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
728 * VAX floating point support
730 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
732 * User-defined command support
734 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
735 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
736 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
738 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
740 * New command line option
742 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
745 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
747 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
748 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
749 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
750 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
751 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
753 * Internationalization
755 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
756 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
757 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
761 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
762 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
763 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
765 * New native configurations
767 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
771 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
772 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
774 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
776 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
777 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
778 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
781 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
782 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
783 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
795 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
796 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
798 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
800 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
801 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
802 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
812 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
814 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
816 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
817 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
820 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
822 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
823 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
824 IRIX long double values).
828 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
829 command. This problem has been fixed.
831 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
833 * Fix for ``many threads''
835 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
836 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
839 ptrace: No such process.
840 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
842 This problem has been fixed.
844 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
846 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
849 * New ``start'' command.
851 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
853 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
855 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
856 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
857 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
859 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
860 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
861 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
862 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
863 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
864 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
865 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
866 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
867 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
869 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
871 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
872 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
873 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
874 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
875 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
877 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
878 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
879 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
881 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
883 * New native configurations
885 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
886 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
887 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
888 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
889 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
890 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
891 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
893 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
895 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
896 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
897 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
898 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
899 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
900 work, was also included.
902 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
903 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
913 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
914 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
916 * REMOVED configurations and files
918 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
919 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
920 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
921 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
922 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
923 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
924 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
925 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
926 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
928 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
930 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
932 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
934 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
935 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
936 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
937 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
940 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
942 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
943 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
944 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
945 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
946 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
947 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
950 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
952 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
954 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
955 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
956 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
958 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
960 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
961 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
963 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
965 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
966 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
967 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
969 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
971 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
972 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
974 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
976 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
977 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
978 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
980 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
982 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
983 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
984 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
986 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
988 * Removed --with-mmalloc
990 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
991 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
993 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
995 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
996 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
997 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
998 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1000 * Revised SPARC target
1002 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1003 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1004 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1005 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1006 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1010 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1011 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1012 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1015 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1017 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1018 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1021 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1023 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1024 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1025 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1026 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1027 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1028 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1029 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1030 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1031 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1033 * New native configurations
1035 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1036 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1037 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1038 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1039 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1041 * New debugging protocols
1043 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1045 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1047 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1048 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1049 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1051 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1053 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1054 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1055 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1056 permanently REMOVED.
1058 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1059 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1060 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1061 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1062 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1063 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1064 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1065 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1066 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1067 sonymips mips-sony-*
1068 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1070 * REMOVED configurations and files
1072 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1073 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1074 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1075 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1076 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1077 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1078 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1079 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1080 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1081 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1082 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1083 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1084 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1085 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1086 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1087 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1088 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1090 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1094 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1095 integrated into GDB.
1097 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1099 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1100 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1101 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1104 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1105 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1106 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1110 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1111 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1112 remote protocol documentation for details.
1114 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1116 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1117 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1118 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1121 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1123 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1124 per-thread variables.
1126 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1128 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1129 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1131 * Separate debug info.
1133 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1134 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1135 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1136 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1137 and optional debug files.
1139 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1141 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1142 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1145 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1146 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1150 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1151 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1152 considered "useable".
1154 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1156 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1157 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1160 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1162 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1163 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1165 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1167 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1168 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1171 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1173 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1174 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1178 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1179 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1180 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1181 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1182 data, for more informative profiling results.
1184 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1186 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1187 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1188 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1190 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1193 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1194 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1195 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1196 in a subsequent -var-update.
1198 * New native configurations.
1200 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1202 * Multi-arched targets.
1204 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1205 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1207 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1209 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1210 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1211 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1212 permanently REMOVED.
1214 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1215 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1216 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1217 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1218 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1219 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1220 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1221 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1222 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1223 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1224 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1225 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1227 * REMOVED configurations and files
1230 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1231 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1232 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1233 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1234 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1235 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1237 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1238 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1239 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1240 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1241 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1242 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1244 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1246 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1247 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1248 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1249 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1250 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1252 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1254 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1256 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1257 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1258 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1259 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1260 shared libs like mad''.
1262 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1264 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1265 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1266 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1267 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1269 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1271 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1272 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1275 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1276 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1278 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1279 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1281 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1282 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1283 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1284 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1286 * Multi-arched targets.
1288 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1289 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1291 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1292 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1293 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1297 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1300 * New native configurations
1302 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1303 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1304 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1305 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1307 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1309 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1310 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1311 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1312 permanently REMOVED.
1314 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1315 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1316 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1317 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1318 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1319 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1320 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1321 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1322 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1323 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1325 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1326 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1328 * OBSOLETE languages
1330 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1332 * REMOVED configurations and files
1334 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1335 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1336 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1337 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1338 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1340 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1342 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1344 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1345 commands. The default is 1024.
1347 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1349 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1351 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1353 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1354 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1355 from a file into memory (restore).
1357 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1359 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1360 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1361 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1363 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1371 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1372 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1373 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1375 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1376 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1377 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1379 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1380 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1381 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1383 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1384 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1385 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1387 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1389 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1391 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1392 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1393 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1394 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1395 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1396 (notably embedded) targets.
1398 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1400 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1401 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1402 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1403 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1405 * New command line option
1407 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1409 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1411 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1412 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1413 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1414 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1415 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1416 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1417 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1418 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1419 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1420 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1422 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1424 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1425 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1427 * New native configurations
1429 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1430 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1431 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1432 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1436 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1438 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1440 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1441 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1442 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1443 permanently REMOVED.
1445 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1446 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1447 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1448 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1449 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1451 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1453 * REMOVED configurations and files
1455 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1457 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1458 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1459 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1460 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1461 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1462 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1463 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1464 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1465 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1466 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1467 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1469 * Changes to command line processing
1471 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1472 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1474 * Changes to key bindings
1476 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1478 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1480 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1482 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1485 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1487 Numerous documentation fixes.
1489 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1491 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1493 * New native configurations
1495 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1496 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1497 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1498 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1499 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1500 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1504 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1506 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1508 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1510 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1511 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1512 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1513 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1514 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1516 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1517 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1518 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1519 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1520 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1521 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1522 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1523 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1525 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1526 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1528 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1529 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1530 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1531 permanently REMOVED.
1533 * REMOVED configurations and files
1535 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1536 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1538 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1542 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1544 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1545 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1550 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1552 * The MI enabled by default.
1554 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1555 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1556 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1557 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1558 which is now deprecated.
1560 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1562 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1563 main features are supported:
1565 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1567 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1570 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1572 - a Pascal expression parser.
1574 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1576 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1578 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1580 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1581 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1583 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1585 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1587 * Changes in completion.
1589 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1590 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1591 users expect at the shell prompt.
1593 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1594 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1595 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1596 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1597 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1598 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1599 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1601 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1603 * New platform-independent commands:
1605 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1606 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1607 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1609 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1611 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1612 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1613 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1615 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1617 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1618 multi-threaded programs though.
1620 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1622 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1624 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1625 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1628 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1630 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1631 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1632 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1633 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1634 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1637 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1638 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1639 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1641 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1643 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1644 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1646 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1647 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1650 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1651 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1652 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1653 a given linear address.
1655 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1656 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1657 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1659 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1661 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1663 * Changes in documentation.
1665 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1666 Documentation License.
1668 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1671 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1673 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1676 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1677 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1678 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1680 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1682 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1683 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1684 contents of this file.
1688 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1690 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1692 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1694 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1695 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1696 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1697 greater level of detail.
1699 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1701 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1702 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1703 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1706 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1708 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1709 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1710 machines ``out of the box''.
1712 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1713 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1714 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1715 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1716 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1718 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1719 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1720 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1721 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1722 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1724 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1725 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1728 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1731 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1732 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1733 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1734 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1736 * New native configurations
1738 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1739 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1743 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1744 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1745 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1746 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1748 * OBSOLETE configurations
1750 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1751 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1753 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1756 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1757 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1758 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1759 be permanently REMOVED.
1761 * Gould support removed
1763 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1765 * New features for SVR4
1767 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1768 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1769 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1771 * Many C++ enhancements
1773 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1774 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1776 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1778 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1779 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1780 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1781 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1783 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1784 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1786 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1788 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1789 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1790 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1792 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1793 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1795 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1797 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1798 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1799 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1801 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1803 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1804 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1805 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1807 * ``apropos'' command added.
1809 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1810 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1811 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1815 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1816 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1817 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1818 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1819 enabled by configuring with:
1821 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1823 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1825 * New native configurations
1827 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1828 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1829 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1833 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1834 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1835 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1837 * OBSOLETE configurations
1839 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1841 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1842 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1843 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1844 be permanently REMOVED.
1848 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1849 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1850 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1851 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1852 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1853 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1854 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1859 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1861 * set extension-language
1863 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1864 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1865 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1866 set extension-language .c c++
1867 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1868 and their associated languages.
1870 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1872 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1873 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1874 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1878 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1879 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1881 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1882 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1884 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1885 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1886 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1887 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1888 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1889 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1890 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1891 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1893 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1894 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1895 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1896 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1900 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1901 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1902 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1903 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1904 for xdb and dbx commands.
1908 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1909 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1910 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1912 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1913 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1914 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1916 * Debugging across forks
1918 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1923 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1924 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1925 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1927 * GDB remote protocol additions
1929 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1930 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1931 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1932 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1934 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1935 full 64-bit address. The command
1937 set remoteaddresssize 32
1939 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1940 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1943 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1944 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1946 maint packet heythere
1948 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1949 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1952 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1953 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1954 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1956 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1958 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1959 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1960 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1962 * mask-address variable for Mips
1964 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1965 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1966 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1968 * Higher serial baud rates
1970 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1971 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1972 to achieve all of these rates.)
1976 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1977 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1980 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1982 * New native configurations
1984 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1985 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1986 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1987 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1988 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1989 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1990 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1994 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1995 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1996 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1997 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1998 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1999 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2000 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2001 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2002 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2003 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2004 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2006 * New debugging protocols
2008 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2009 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2010 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2011 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2012 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2013 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2017 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2018 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2023 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2024 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2026 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2028 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2029 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2030 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2032 * Live range splitting
2034 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2035 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2036 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2040 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2041 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2045 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2046 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2047 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2052 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2057 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2058 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2059 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2060 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2061 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2062 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2066 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2067 the symbol at the specified address.
2071 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2072 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2073 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2074 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2075 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2079 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2080 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2081 of most MIPS variants.
2085 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2086 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2087 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2091 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2092 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2093 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2094 the possible architectures.
2096 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2098 * New native configurations
2100 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2101 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2102 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2103 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2104 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2105 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2109 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2110 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2111 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2112 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2113 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2115 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2119 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2120 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2121 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2122 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2123 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2127 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2129 * Windows 95/NT native
2131 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2132 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2133 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2134 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2135 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2137 * dont-repeat command
2139 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2140 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2141 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2142 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2144 * Send break instead of ^C
2146 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2147 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2148 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2150 * Remote protocol timeout
2152 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2153 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2154 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2156 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2158 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2159 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2160 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2161 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2162 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2164 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2165 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2166 automatically on hpux10.
2168 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2170 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2172 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2174 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2175 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2176 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2177 every character. The default value is 1050.
2179 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2181 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2182 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2183 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2184 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2185 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2186 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2188 * Speedups for remote debugging
2190 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2191 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2192 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2194 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2196 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2197 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2199 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2201 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2203 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2204 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2206 * Remote targets use caching
2208 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2209 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2210 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2211 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2212 off' turns the the data cache off.
2214 * Remote targets may have threads
2216 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2217 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2218 gdb/remote.c for details.
2222 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2223 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2224 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2225 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2226 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2227 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2228 sequence is something like
2230 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2232 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2236 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2237 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2238 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2239 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2240 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2241 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2242 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2243 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2247 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2248 but does simplify configuration and building.
2252 GDB now supports hpux10.
2254 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2256 * New native configurations
2258 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2259 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2260 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2261 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2265 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2266 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2267 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2268 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2271 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2273 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2274 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2275 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2276 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2277 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2279 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2281 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2282 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2285 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2287 To execute the command use:
2290 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2291 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2292 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2294 * New `if' and `while' commands
2296 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2297 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2298 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2299 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2300 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2301 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2302 if the expression is zero.
2304 * Fortran source language mode
2306 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2307 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2308 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2309 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2312 * Better HPUX support
2314 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2315 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2316 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2317 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2318 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2324 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2325 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2331 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2332 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2335 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2336 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2338 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2340 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2341 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2342 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2343 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2344 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2345 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2347 * New DOS host serial code
2349 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2350 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2353 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2355 * New "complete" command
2357 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2358 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2360 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2362 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2363 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2365 * Breakpoint hit counts
2367 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2368 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2369 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2370 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2371 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2374 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2376 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2377 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2378 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2380 * Shared library breakpoints
2382 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2383 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2385 * Hardware watchpoints
2387 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2388 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2390 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2394 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2395 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2397 * Improved Irix 5 support
2399 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2401 * Improved HPPA support
2403 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2405 * New native configurations
2407 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2408 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2409 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2410 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2414 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2415 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2418 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2420 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2421 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2425 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2426 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2428 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2430 * Irix 5 is now supported
2434 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2435 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2436 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2437 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2438 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2441 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2443 * User visible changes:
2447 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2448 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2449 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2450 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2451 debugging info for the mips target).
2453 * DEC Alpha native support
2455 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2456 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2457 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2458 Alpha-specific notes.
2460 * Preliminary thread implementation
2462 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2464 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2466 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2467 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2470 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2472 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2473 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2474 call methods, ...etc.
2476 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2478 * User visible changes:
2480 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2481 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2482 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2483 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2485 Filename completion now works.
2487 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2488 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2489 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2491 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2492 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2493 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2494 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2495 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2499 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2500 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2503 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2507 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2508 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2509 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2513 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2514 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2515 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2516 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2517 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2521 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2522 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2523 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2525 * New targets supported
2527 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2528 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2529 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2530 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2531 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2533 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2534 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2535 GO32 memory extender.
2537 * New remote protocols
2539 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2541 * New source languages supported
2543 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2544 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2545 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2548 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2550 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2552 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2553 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2554 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2555 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2556 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2557 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2559 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2561 * Faster and better demangling
2563 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2564 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2565 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2566 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2567 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2568 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2571 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2572 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2573 compiler does not actually implement.
2575 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2577 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2578 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2579 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2580 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2581 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2582 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2585 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2586 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2588 * Improved configure script
2590 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2591 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2592 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2593 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2595 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2596 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2597 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2598 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2599 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2600 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2602 * Documentation improvements
2604 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2605 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2606 before submitting changes.
2608 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2609 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2610 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2611 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2612 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2614 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2615 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2616 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2617 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2618 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2619 around this problem.
2623 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2624 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2625 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2628 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2629 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2631 * New native hosts supported
2633 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2634 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2636 * New targets supported
2638 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2640 * New file formats supported
2642 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2643 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2647 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2649 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2650 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2652 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2653 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2654 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2656 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2657 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2659 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2660 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2661 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2664 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2665 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2666 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2667 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2668 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2670 * Internal improvements
2672 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2673 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2675 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2676 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2677 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2678 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2679 shared code that handles any of them.
2681 * New command line options
2683 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2687 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2688 General Public License.
2690 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2692 * Host/native/target split
2694 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2695 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2696 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2697 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2698 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2700 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2701 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2702 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2703 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2704 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2705 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2706 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2708 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2709 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2710 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2712 * New hosts supported
2714 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2715 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2716 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2718 * New targets supported
2720 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2721 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2723 * New native hosts supported
2725 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2726 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2727 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2729 * New file formats supported
2731 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2732 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2733 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2737 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2738 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2739 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2741 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2743 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2744 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2745 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2746 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2750 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2751 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2752 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2754 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2758 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2759 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2762 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2763 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2765 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2766 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2767 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2768 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2769 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2770 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2772 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2773 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2774 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2775 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2779 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2780 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2781 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2782 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2783 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2785 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2786 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2787 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2788 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2792 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2793 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2794 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2795 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2796 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2797 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2798 each instruction being stepped through.
2800 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2801 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2803 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2804 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2805 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2806 processor with a serial port.
2810 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2811 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2812 supported, and what files each one uses.
2816 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2817 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2818 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2819 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2821 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2822 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2823 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2824 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2828 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2829 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2830 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2831 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2832 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2833 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2835 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2838 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2840 * Better support for C++ function names
2842 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2843 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2844 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2845 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2846 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2848 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2849 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2850 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2851 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2852 for the list of formats.
2854 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2856 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2857 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2858 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2859 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2860 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2861 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2864 * New 'maintenance' command
2866 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2867 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2868 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2870 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2871 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2872 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2873 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2874 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2875 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2877 The following commands are new:
2879 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2880 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2881 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2883 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2885 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2886 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2887 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2888 read after argv processing.
2890 * New hosts supported
2892 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2894 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2896 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2897 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2898 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2899 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2900 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2903 * New targets supported
2905 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2907 * More smarts about finding #include files
2909 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2910 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2911 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2912 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2913 the one that contains your sources.
2915 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2916 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2917 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2919 * Interesting infernals change
2921 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2922 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2923 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2924 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2926 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2928 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2929 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2930 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2932 See the ChangeLog for details.
2934 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2936 * New machines supported (host and target)
2938 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2940 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2942 * New malloc package
2944 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2945 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2946 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2947 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2948 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2949 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2953 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2954 'help info proc' for details.
2956 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2958 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2959 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2962 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2964 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2965 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2966 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2967 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2968 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2969 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2971 * Cross byte order fixes
2973 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2974 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2976 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2978 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2979 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2980 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2981 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2982 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2983 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2984 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2985 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2986 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2987 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2989 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2990 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2991 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2992 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2994 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2995 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2996 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2999 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3001 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3002 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3003 shared across multiple host platforms.
3005 * longjmp() handling
3007 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3008 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3009 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3010 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3014 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3015 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3020 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3021 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3022 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3024 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3026 * New machines supported (host and target)
3028 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3030 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3031 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3033 * New machines supported (target)
3035 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3039 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3040 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3041 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3043 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3044 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3045 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3046 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3047 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3050 * New features for SVR4
3052 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3053 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3054 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3056 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3057 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3058 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3060 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3061 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3063 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3065 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3066 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3067 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3068 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3069 same code linked statically.
3073 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3074 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3075 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3076 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3077 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3078 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3082 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3083 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3084 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3087 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3089 * New machines supported (host and target)
3091 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3092 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3093 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3095 * Almost SCO Unix support
3097 We had hoped to support:
3098 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3099 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3100 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3101 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3103 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3105 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3106 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3107 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3108 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3113 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3114 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3115 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3119 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3120 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3121 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3123 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3125 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3126 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3127 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3129 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3130 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3131 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3132 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3135 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3136 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3137 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3138 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3141 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3142 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3145 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3146 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3147 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3150 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3152 * Improved configuration
3154 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3155 Porting BFD is simpler.
3159 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3160 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3161 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3162 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3166 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3168 * New host supported (not target)
3170 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3173 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3175 * Multiple source language support
3177 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3178 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3179 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3180 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3181 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3182 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3186 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3187 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3188 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3189 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3191 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3192 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3193 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3195 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3196 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3200 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3201 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3202 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3203 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3206 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3208 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3209 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3210 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3211 examining core files.
3215 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3218 * New machines supported (host and target)
3220 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3221 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3222 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3224 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3226 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3228 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3230 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3231 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3232 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3234 * New remote interfaces
3240 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3244 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3246 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3247 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3248 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3249 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3250 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3251 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3252 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3253 stub on the target system.
3255 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3257 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3258 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3259 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3261 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3262 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3265 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3267 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3268 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3270 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3271 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3272 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3274 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3275 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3276 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3277 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3279 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3280 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3281 it is already running. Default is ON.
3283 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3284 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3285 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3286 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3289 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3290 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3291 or the value of the environment variable
3294 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3295 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3298 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3299 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3300 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3302 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3303 history expansion will be performed on
3304 command line input. The default is OFF.
3306 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3307 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3308 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3310 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3311 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3312 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3315 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3316 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3317 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3320 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3321 ``set width'' instead.
3323 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3324 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3325 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3326 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3328 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3331 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3334 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3337 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3340 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3342 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3343 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3344 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3348 * Support for Shared Libraries
3350 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3351 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3352 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3353 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3354 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3355 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3356 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3357 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3359 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3360 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3361 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3363 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3368 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3369 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3370 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3371 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3372 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3373 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3375 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3377 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3379 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3380 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3381 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3384 * C++ multiple inheritance
3386 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3389 * C++ exception handling
3391 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3392 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3393 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3396 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3397 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3398 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3400 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3401 current stack frame.
3404 * Minor command changes
3406 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3407 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3408 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3410 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3411 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3412 frames without printing.
3414 * New directory command
3416 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3417 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3418 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3419 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3420 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3422 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3424 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3427 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3428 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3429 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3430 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob