1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
7 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
8 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
9 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
10 for tracepoint actions.
12 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
13 in hex as well as in symbolic form."
15 * Process record and replay
17 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
18 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
19 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
22 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
23 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
24 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
27 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
28 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
31 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
32 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
33 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
34 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
35 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
36 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
37 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
38 the installation instructions for more information.
40 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
41 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
42 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
43 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
45 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
46 now complete on file names.
48 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
49 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
50 For instance, consider:
52 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
53 # struct example variable;
56 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
57 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
59 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
60 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
62 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
63 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
66 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
67 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
68 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
70 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
71 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
72 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
73 and simulator targets may also provide them.
78 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
81 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
82 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
83 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
86 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
87 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
90 Obtains additional operating system information
94 Read or write additional signal information.
96 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
98 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
99 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
100 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
102 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
105 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
106 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
108 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
109 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
110 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
112 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
113 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
115 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
117 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
119 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
120 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
122 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
123 list of section offsets.
125 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
126 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
127 have also been fixed.
129 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
130 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
131 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
133 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
136 template<typename T> class C { };
139 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
141 ptype C<char const *>
143 ptype C<const char *>
146 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
148 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
149 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
151 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
152 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
153 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
155 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
156 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
158 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
161 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
162 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
164 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
165 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
170 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
171 available is determined at configure time.
173 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
175 * Ada tasking support
177 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
181 Print the list of Ada tasks.
183 Print detailed information about task number N.
185 Print the task number of the current task.
187 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
189 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
190 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
192 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
194 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
195 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
196 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
197 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
198 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
199 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
202 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
203 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
206 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
207 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
208 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
209 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
212 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
214 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
216 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
218 maint set python print-stack
219 maint show python print-stack
220 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
223 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
228 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
232 Show operating system information about processes.
235 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
238 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
241 Detach from inferior number NUM.
244 Kill inferior number NUM.
248 set sh calling-convention
249 show sh calling-convention
250 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
252 set print symbol-loading
253 show print symbol-loading
254 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
258 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
260 set disassemble-next-line
261 show disassemble-next-line
262 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
265 set remote noack-packet
266 show remote noack-packet
267 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
268 under "New remote packets."
270 set remote query-attached-packet
271 show remote query-attached-packet
272 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
274 set remote read-siginfo-object
275 show remote read-siginfo-object
276 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
279 set remote write-siginfo-object
280 show remote write-siginfo-object
281 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
284 set displaced-stepping
285 show displaced-stepping
286 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
287 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
288 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
292 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
294 maint set internal-error
295 maint show internal-error
296 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
298 maint set internal-warning
299 maint show internal-warning
300 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
305 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
307 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
308 show multiple-symbols
309 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
310 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
311 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
313 set breakpoint always-inserted
314 show breakpoint always-inserted
315 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
316 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
317 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
319 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
320 show arm fallback-mode
321 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
323 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
324 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
325 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
326 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
328 set disable-randomization
329 show disable-randomization
330 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
331 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
332 multiple debugging sessions.
336 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
341 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
342 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
343 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
344 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
346 set target-wide-charset
347 show target-wide-charset
348 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
349 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
351 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
353 set tcp connect-timeout
354 show tcp connect-timeout
355 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
356 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
357 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
359 set libthread-db-search-path
360 show libthread-db-search-path
361 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
364 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
365 show schedule-multiple
366 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
372 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
373 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
374 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
378 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
379 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
380 alias for the `fork' command.
383 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
384 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
385 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
388 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
389 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
390 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
394 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
395 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
396 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
399 * New native configurations
401 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
403 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
407 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
408 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
409 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
411 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
412 (mingw32ce) debugging.
418 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
420 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
422 * New native configurations
424 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
425 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
429 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
430 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
432 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
434 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
435 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
436 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
437 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
439 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
440 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
442 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
445 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
446 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
447 and in inlined functions.
449 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
450 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
451 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
453 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
455 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
456 registers on PowerPC targets.
458 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
459 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
461 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
462 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
464 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
465 extended-remote mode.
467 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
468 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
469 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
470 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
472 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
473 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
474 target architectures.
476 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
477 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
478 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
479 stored in two consecutive float registers.
481 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
484 * Improved support for debugging Ada
485 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
487 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
488 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
489 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
490 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
492 - Improved command completion in Ada
495 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
500 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
501 show print frame-arguments
502 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
503 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
508 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
515 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
524 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
527 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
531 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
533 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
535 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
536 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
537 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
539 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
540 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
541 -Bsymbolic linker option.
543 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
544 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
547 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
548 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
550 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
551 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
553 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
555 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
556 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
557 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
559 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
560 automatically displayed as character or string data.
562 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
563 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
566 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
567 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
568 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
570 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
573 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
574 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
575 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
577 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
579 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
581 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
582 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
583 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
585 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
586 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
588 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
589 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
590 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
591 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
592 Windows and SymbianOS).
594 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
595 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
597 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
598 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
604 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
605 when debugging using remote targets.
607 set mem inaccessible-by-default
608 show mem inaccessible-by-default
609 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
610 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
611 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
612 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
613 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
615 set breakpoint auto-hw
616 show breakpoint auto-hw
617 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
618 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
619 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
620 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
621 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
622 including "next" and "finish".
625 catch exception unhandled
626 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
629 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
633 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
634 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
635 an alias to "set sysroot".
638 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
639 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
642 * New native configurations
644 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
649 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
650 not query the target for its built-in description.
654 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
655 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
656 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
661 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
662 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
665 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
670 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
671 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
673 qXfer:libraries:read:
674 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
675 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
676 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
677 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
681 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
690 i[34567]86-*-netware*
691 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
692 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
694 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
697 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
698 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
707 * Other removed features
714 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
721 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
726 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
727 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
732 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
733 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
735 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
737 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
738 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
739 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
740 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
744 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
745 in debugging information.
749 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
750 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
752 set mips stack-arg-size
753 set mips saved-gpreg-size
755 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
757 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
762 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
764 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
765 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
766 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
768 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
769 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
772 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
773 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
775 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
776 stub provides the required support.
778 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
779 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
784 unset substitute-path
786 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
787 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
788 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
789 between compilation and debugging.
793 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
794 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
795 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
799 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
801 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
802 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
804 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
809 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
810 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
811 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
812 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
816 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
817 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
819 qXfer:memory-map:read:
820 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
821 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
826 Erase and program a flash memory device.
828 * Removed remote packets
831 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
832 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
834 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
838 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
840 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
844 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
845 only if it doesn't already have a value.
847 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
849 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
851 restart <n> Return the program state to a
852 previously saved state.
854 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
856 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
858 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
859 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
861 info forks List forks of the user program that
862 are available to be debugged.
864 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
865 forks of the user program that are
866 available to be debugged.
868 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
869 that are available to be debugged (and
870 kill the forked process).
872 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
873 that are available to be debugged (and
874 allow the process to continue).
878 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
880 * Improved Windows host support
882 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
883 native console support, and remote communications using either
884 network sockets or serial ports.
886 * Improved Modula-2 language support
888 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
889 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
890 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
891 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
892 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
893 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
897 The ARM rdi-share module.
899 The Netware NLM debug server.
901 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
903 * New native configurations
905 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
906 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
910 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
912 * New command line options
914 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
915 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
916 the child (debugged) program exited with.
917 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
918 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
919 specified multiple times and in conjunction
920 with the --command (-x) option.
922 * Deprecated commands removed
924 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
928 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
929 othernames set arm disassembler
930 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
931 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
932 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
935 * New BSD user-level threads support
937 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
938 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
941 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
942 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
943 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
945 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
946 are not yet supported.
948 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
949 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
951 * REMOVED configurations and files
953 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
954 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
955 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
957 * New "set print array-indexes" command
959 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
960 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
963 * VAX floating point support
965 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
967 * User-defined command support
969 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
970 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
971 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
973 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
975 * New command line option
977 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
980 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
982 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
983 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
984 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
985 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
986 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
988 * Internationalization
990 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
991 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
992 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
996 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
997 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
998 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1000 * New native configurations
1002 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1006 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1007 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1009 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1011 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1012 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1013 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1016 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1017 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1018 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1028 powerpc bdm protocol
1030 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1031 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1033 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1035 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1036 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1037 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1038 permanently REMOVED.
1047 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1049 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1051 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1052 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1055 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1057 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1058 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1059 IRIX long double values).
1063 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1064 command. This problem has been fixed.
1066 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1068 * Fix for ``many threads''
1070 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1071 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1074 ptrace: No such process.
1075 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1077 This problem has been fixed.
1079 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1081 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1084 * New ``start'' command.
1086 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1088 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1090 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1091 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1092 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1094 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1095 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1096 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1097 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1098 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1099 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1100 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1101 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1102 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1104 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1106 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1107 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1108 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1109 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1110 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1112 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1113 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1114 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1116 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1118 * New native configurations
1120 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1121 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1122 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1123 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1124 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1125 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1126 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1128 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1130 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1131 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1132 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1133 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1134 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1135 work, was also included.
1137 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1138 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1148 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1149 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1151 * REMOVED configurations and files
1153 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1154 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1155 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1156 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1157 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1158 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1159 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1160 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1161 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1162 sonymips mips-sony-*
1163 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1165 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1167 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1169 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1170 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1171 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1172 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1175 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1177 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1178 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1179 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1180 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1181 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1182 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1185 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1187 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1189 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1190 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1191 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1193 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1195 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1196 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1198 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1200 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1201 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1202 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1204 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1206 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1207 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1209 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1211 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1212 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1213 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1215 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1217 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1218 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1219 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1221 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1223 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1225 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1226 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1228 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1230 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1231 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1232 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1233 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1235 * Revised SPARC target
1237 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1238 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1239 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1240 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1241 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1245 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1246 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1247 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1250 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1252 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1253 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1256 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1258 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1259 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1260 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1261 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1262 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1263 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1264 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1265 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1266 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1268 * New native configurations
1270 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1271 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1272 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1273 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1274 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1276 * New debugging protocols
1278 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1280 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1282 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1283 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1284 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1286 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1288 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1289 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1290 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1291 permanently REMOVED.
1293 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1294 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1295 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1296 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1297 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1298 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1299 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1300 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1301 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1302 sonymips mips-sony-*
1303 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1305 * REMOVED configurations and files
1307 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1308 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1309 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1310 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1311 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1312 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1313 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1314 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1315 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1316 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1317 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1318 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1319 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1320 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1321 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1322 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1323 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1325 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1329 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1330 integrated into GDB.
1332 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1334 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1335 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1336 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1339 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1340 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1341 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1345 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1346 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1347 remote protocol documentation for details.
1349 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1351 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1352 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1353 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1356 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1358 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1359 per-thread variables.
1361 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1363 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1364 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1366 * Separate debug info.
1368 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1369 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1370 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1371 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1372 and optional debug files.
1374 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1376 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1377 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1380 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1381 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1385 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1386 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1387 considered "useable".
1389 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1391 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1392 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1395 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1397 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1398 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1400 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1402 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1403 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1406 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1408 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1409 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1413 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1414 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1415 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1416 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1417 data, for more informative profiling results.
1419 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1421 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1422 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1423 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1425 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1428 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1429 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1430 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1431 in a subsequent -var-update.
1433 * New native configurations.
1435 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1437 * Multi-arched targets.
1439 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1440 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1442 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1444 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1445 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1446 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1447 permanently REMOVED.
1449 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1450 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1451 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1452 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1453 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1454 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1455 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1456 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1457 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1458 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1459 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1460 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1462 * REMOVED configurations and files
1465 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1466 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1467 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1468 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1469 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1470 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1472 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1473 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1474 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1475 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1476 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1477 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1479 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1481 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1482 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1483 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1484 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1485 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1487 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1489 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1491 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1492 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1493 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1494 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1495 shared libs like mad''.
1497 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1499 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1500 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1501 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1502 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1504 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1506 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1507 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1510 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1511 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1513 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1514 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1516 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1517 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1518 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1519 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1521 * Multi-arched targets.
1523 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1524 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1526 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1527 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1528 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1532 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1535 * New native configurations
1537 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1538 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1539 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1540 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1542 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1544 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1545 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1546 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1547 permanently REMOVED.
1549 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1550 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1551 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1552 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1553 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1554 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1555 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1556 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1557 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1558 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1560 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1561 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1563 * OBSOLETE languages
1565 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1567 * REMOVED configurations and files
1569 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1570 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1571 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1572 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1573 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1575 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1577 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1579 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1580 commands. The default is 1024.
1582 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1584 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1586 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1588 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1589 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1590 from a file into memory (restore).
1592 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1594 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1595 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1596 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1598 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1606 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1607 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1608 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1610 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1611 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1612 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1614 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1615 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1616 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1618 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1619 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1620 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1622 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1624 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1626 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1627 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1628 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1629 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1630 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1631 (notably embedded) targets.
1633 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1635 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1636 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1637 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1638 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1640 * New command line option
1642 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1644 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1646 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1647 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1648 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1649 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1650 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1651 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1652 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1653 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1654 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1655 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1657 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1659 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1660 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1662 * New native configurations
1664 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1665 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1666 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1667 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1671 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1673 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1675 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1676 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1677 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1678 permanently REMOVED.
1680 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1681 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1682 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1683 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1684 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1686 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1688 * REMOVED configurations and files
1690 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1692 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1693 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1694 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1695 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1696 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1697 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1698 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1699 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1700 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1701 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1702 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1704 * Changes to command line processing
1706 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1707 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1709 * Changes to key bindings
1711 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1713 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1715 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1717 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1720 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1722 Numerous documentation fixes.
1724 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1726 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1728 * New native configurations
1730 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1731 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1732 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1733 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1734 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1735 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1739 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1741 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1743 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1745 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1746 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1747 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1748 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1749 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1751 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1752 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1753 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1754 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1755 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1756 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1757 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1758 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1760 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1761 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1763 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1764 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1765 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1766 permanently REMOVED.
1768 * REMOVED configurations and files
1770 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1771 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1773 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1777 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1779 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1780 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1785 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1787 * The MI enabled by default.
1789 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1790 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1791 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1792 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1793 which is now deprecated.
1795 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1797 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1798 main features are supported:
1800 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1802 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1805 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1807 - a Pascal expression parser.
1809 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1811 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1813 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1815 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1816 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1818 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1820 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1822 * Changes in completion.
1824 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1825 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1826 users expect at the shell prompt.
1828 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1829 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1830 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1831 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1832 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1833 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1834 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1836 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1838 * New platform-independent commands:
1840 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1841 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1842 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1844 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1846 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1847 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1848 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1850 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1852 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1853 multi-threaded programs though.
1855 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1857 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1859 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1860 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1863 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1865 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1866 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1867 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1868 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1869 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1872 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1873 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1874 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1876 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1878 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1879 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1881 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1882 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1885 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1886 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1887 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1888 a given linear address.
1890 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1891 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1892 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1894 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1896 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1898 * Changes in documentation.
1900 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1901 Documentation License.
1903 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1906 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1908 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1911 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1912 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1913 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1915 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1917 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1918 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1919 contents of this file.
1923 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1925 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1927 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1929 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1930 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1931 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1932 greater level of detail.
1934 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1936 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1937 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1938 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1941 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1943 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1944 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1945 machines ``out of the box''.
1947 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1948 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1949 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1950 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1951 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1953 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1954 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1955 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1956 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1957 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1959 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1960 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1963 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1966 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1967 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1968 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1969 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1971 * New native configurations
1973 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1974 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1978 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1979 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1980 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1981 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1983 * OBSOLETE configurations
1985 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1986 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1988 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1991 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1992 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1993 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1994 be permanently REMOVED.
1996 * Gould support removed
1998 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2000 * New features for SVR4
2002 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2003 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2004 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2006 * Many C++ enhancements
2008 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2009 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2011 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2013 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2014 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2015 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2016 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2018 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2019 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2021 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2023 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2024 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2025 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2027 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2028 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2030 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2032 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2033 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2034 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2036 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2038 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2039 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2040 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2042 * ``apropos'' command added.
2044 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2045 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2046 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2050 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2051 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2052 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2053 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2054 enabled by configuring with:
2056 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2058 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2060 * New native configurations
2062 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2063 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2064 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2068 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2069 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2070 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2072 * OBSOLETE configurations
2074 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2076 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2077 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2078 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2079 be permanently REMOVED.
2083 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2084 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2085 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2086 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2087 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2088 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2089 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2094 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2096 * set extension-language
2098 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2099 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2100 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2101 set extension-language .c c++
2102 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2103 and their associated languages.
2105 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2107 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2108 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2109 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2113 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2114 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2116 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2117 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2119 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2120 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2121 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2122 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2123 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2124 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2125 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2126 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2128 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2129 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2130 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2131 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2135 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2136 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2137 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2138 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2139 for xdb and dbx commands.
2143 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2144 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2145 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2147 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2148 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2149 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2151 * Debugging across forks
2153 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2158 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2159 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2160 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2162 * GDB remote protocol additions
2164 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2165 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2166 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2167 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2169 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2170 full 64-bit address. The command
2172 set remoteaddresssize 32
2174 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2175 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2178 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2179 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2181 maint packet heythere
2183 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2184 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2187 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2188 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2189 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2191 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2193 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2194 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2195 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2197 * mask-address variable for Mips
2199 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2200 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2201 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2203 * Higher serial baud rates
2205 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2206 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2207 to achieve all of these rates.)
2211 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2212 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2215 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2217 * New native configurations
2219 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2220 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2221 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2222 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2223 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2224 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2225 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2229 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2230 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2231 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2232 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2233 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2234 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2235 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2236 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2237 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2238 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2239 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2241 * New debugging protocols
2243 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2244 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2245 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2246 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2247 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2248 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2252 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2253 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2258 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2259 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2261 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2263 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2264 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2265 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2267 * Live range splitting
2269 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2270 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2271 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2275 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2276 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2280 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2281 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2282 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2287 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2292 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2293 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2294 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2295 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2296 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2297 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2301 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2302 the symbol at the specified address.
2306 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2307 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2308 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2309 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2310 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2314 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2315 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2316 of most MIPS variants.
2320 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2321 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2322 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2326 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2327 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2328 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2329 the possible architectures.
2331 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2333 * New native configurations
2335 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2336 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2337 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2338 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2339 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2340 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2344 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2345 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2346 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2347 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2348 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2350 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2354 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2355 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2356 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2357 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2358 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2362 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2364 * Windows 95/NT native
2366 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2367 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2368 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2369 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2370 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2372 * dont-repeat command
2374 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2375 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2376 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2377 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2379 * Send break instead of ^C
2381 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2382 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2383 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2385 * Remote protocol timeout
2387 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2388 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2389 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2391 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2393 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2394 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2395 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2396 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2397 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2399 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2400 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2401 automatically on hpux10.
2403 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2405 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2407 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2409 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2410 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2411 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2412 every character. The default value is 1050.
2414 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2416 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2417 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2418 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2419 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2420 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2421 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2423 * Speedups for remote debugging
2425 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2426 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2427 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2429 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2431 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2432 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2434 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2436 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2438 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2439 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2441 * Remote targets use caching
2443 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2444 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2445 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2446 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2447 off' turns the the data cache off.
2449 * Remote targets may have threads
2451 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2452 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2453 gdb/remote.c for details.
2457 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2458 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2459 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2460 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2461 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2462 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2463 sequence is something like
2465 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2467 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2471 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2472 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2473 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2474 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2475 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2476 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2477 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2478 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2482 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2483 but does simplify configuration and building.
2487 GDB now supports hpux10.
2489 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2491 * New native configurations
2493 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2494 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2495 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2496 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2500 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2501 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2502 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2503 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2506 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2508 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2509 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2510 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2511 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2512 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2514 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2516 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2517 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2520 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2522 To execute the command use:
2525 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2526 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2527 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2529 * New `if' and `while' commands
2531 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2532 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2533 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2534 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2535 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2536 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2537 if the expression is zero.
2539 * Fortran source language mode
2541 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2542 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2543 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2544 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2547 * Better HPUX support
2549 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2550 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2551 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2552 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2553 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2559 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2560 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2566 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2567 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2570 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2571 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2573 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2575 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2576 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2577 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2578 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2579 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2580 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2582 * New DOS host serial code
2584 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2585 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2588 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2590 * New "complete" command
2592 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2593 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2595 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2597 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2598 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2600 * Breakpoint hit counts
2602 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2603 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2604 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2605 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2606 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2609 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2611 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2612 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2613 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2615 * Shared library breakpoints
2617 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2618 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2620 * Hardware watchpoints
2622 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2623 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2625 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2629 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2630 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2632 * Improved Irix 5 support
2634 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2636 * Improved HPPA support
2638 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2640 * New native configurations
2642 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2643 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2644 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2645 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2649 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2650 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2653 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2655 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2656 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2660 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2661 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2663 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2665 * Irix 5 is now supported
2669 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2670 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2671 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2672 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2673 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2676 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2678 * User visible changes:
2682 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2683 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2684 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2685 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2686 debugging info for the mips target).
2688 * DEC Alpha native support
2690 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2691 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2692 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2693 Alpha-specific notes.
2695 * Preliminary thread implementation
2697 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2699 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2701 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2702 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2705 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2707 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2708 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2709 call methods, ...etc.
2711 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2713 * User visible changes:
2715 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2716 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2717 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2718 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2720 Filename completion now works.
2722 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2723 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2724 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2726 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2727 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2728 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2729 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2730 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2734 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2735 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2738 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2742 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2743 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2744 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2748 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2749 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2750 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2751 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2752 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2756 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2757 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2758 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2760 * New targets supported
2762 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2763 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2764 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2765 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2766 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2768 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2769 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2770 GO32 memory extender.
2772 * New remote protocols
2774 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2776 * New source languages supported
2778 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2779 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2780 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2783 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2785 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2787 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2788 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2789 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2790 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2791 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2792 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2794 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2796 * Faster and better demangling
2798 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2799 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2800 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2801 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2802 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2803 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2806 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2807 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2808 compiler does not actually implement.
2810 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2812 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2813 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2814 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2815 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2816 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2817 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2820 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2821 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2823 * Improved configure script
2825 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2826 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2827 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2828 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2830 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2831 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2832 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2833 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2834 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2835 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2837 * Documentation improvements
2839 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2840 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2841 before submitting changes.
2843 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2844 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2845 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2846 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2847 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2849 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2850 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2851 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2852 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2853 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2854 around this problem.
2858 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2859 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2860 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2863 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2864 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2866 * New native hosts supported
2868 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2869 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2871 * New targets supported
2873 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2875 * New file formats supported
2877 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2878 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2882 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2884 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2885 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2887 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2888 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2889 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2891 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2892 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2894 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2895 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2896 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2899 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2900 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2901 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2902 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2903 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2905 * Internal improvements
2907 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2908 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2910 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2911 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2912 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2913 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2914 shared code that handles any of them.
2916 * New command line options
2918 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2922 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2923 General Public License.
2925 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2927 * Host/native/target split
2929 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2930 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2931 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2932 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2933 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2935 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2936 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2937 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2938 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2939 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2940 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2941 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2943 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2944 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2945 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2947 * New hosts supported
2949 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2950 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2951 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2953 * New targets supported
2955 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2956 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2958 * New native hosts supported
2960 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2961 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2962 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2964 * New file formats supported
2966 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2967 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2968 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2972 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2973 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2974 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2976 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2978 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2979 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2980 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2981 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2985 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2986 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2987 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2989 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2993 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2994 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2997 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2998 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3000 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3001 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3002 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3003 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3004 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3005 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3007 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3008 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3009 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3010 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3014 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3015 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3016 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3017 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3018 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3020 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3021 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3022 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3023 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3027 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3028 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3029 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3030 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3031 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3032 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3033 each instruction being stepped through.
3035 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3036 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3038 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3039 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3040 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3041 processor with a serial port.
3045 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3046 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3047 supported, and what files each one uses.
3051 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3052 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3053 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3054 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3056 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3057 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3058 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3059 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3063 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3064 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3065 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3066 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3067 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3068 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3070 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3073 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3075 * Better support for C++ function names
3077 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3078 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3079 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3080 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3081 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3083 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3084 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3085 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3086 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3087 for the list of formats.
3089 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3091 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3092 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3093 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3094 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3095 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3096 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3099 * New 'maintenance' command
3101 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3102 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3103 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3105 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3106 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3107 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3108 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3109 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3110 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3112 The following commands are new:
3114 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3115 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3116 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3118 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3120 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3121 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3122 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3123 read after argv processing.
3125 * New hosts supported
3127 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3129 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3131 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3132 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3133 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3134 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3135 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3138 * New targets supported
3140 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3142 * More smarts about finding #include files
3144 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3145 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3146 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3147 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3148 the one that contains your sources.
3150 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3151 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3152 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3154 * Interesting infernals change
3156 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3157 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3158 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3159 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3161 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3163 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3164 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3165 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3167 See the ChangeLog for details.
3169 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3171 * New machines supported (host and target)
3173 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3175 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3177 * New malloc package
3179 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3180 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3181 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3182 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3183 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3184 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3188 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3189 'help info proc' for details.
3191 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3193 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3194 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3197 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3199 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3200 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3201 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3202 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3203 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3204 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3206 * Cross byte order fixes
3208 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3209 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3211 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3213 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3214 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3215 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3216 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3217 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3218 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3219 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3220 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3221 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3222 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3224 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3225 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3226 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3227 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3229 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3230 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3231 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3234 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3236 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3237 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3238 shared across multiple host platforms.
3240 * longjmp() handling
3242 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3243 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3244 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3245 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3249 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3250 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3255 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3256 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3257 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3259 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3261 * New machines supported (host and target)
3263 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3265 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3266 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3268 * New machines supported (target)
3270 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3274 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3275 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3276 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3278 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3279 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3280 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3281 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3282 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3285 * New features for SVR4
3287 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3288 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3289 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3291 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3292 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3293 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3295 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3296 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3298 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3300 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3301 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3302 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3303 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3304 same code linked statically.
3308 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3309 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3310 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3311 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3312 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3313 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3317 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3318 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3319 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3322 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3324 * New machines supported (host and target)
3326 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3327 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3328 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3330 * Almost SCO Unix support
3332 We had hoped to support:
3333 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3334 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3335 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3336 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3338 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3340 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3341 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3342 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3343 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3348 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3349 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3350 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3354 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3355 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3356 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3358 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3360 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3361 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3362 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3364 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3365 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3366 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3367 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3370 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3371 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3372 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3373 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3376 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3377 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3380 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3381 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3382 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3385 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3387 * Improved configuration
3389 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3390 Porting BFD is simpler.
3394 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3395 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3396 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3397 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3401 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3403 * New host supported (not target)
3405 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3408 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3410 * Multiple source language support
3412 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3413 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3414 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3415 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3416 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3417 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3421 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3422 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3423 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3424 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3426 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3427 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3428 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3430 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3431 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3435 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3436 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3437 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3438 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3441 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3443 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3444 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3445 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3446 examining core files.
3450 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3453 * New machines supported (host and target)
3455 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3456 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3457 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3459 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3461 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3463 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3465 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3466 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3467 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3469 * New remote interfaces
3475 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3479 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3481 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3482 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3483 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3484 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3485 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3486 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3487 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3488 stub on the target system.
3490 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3492 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3493 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3494 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3496 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3497 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3500 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3502 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3503 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3505 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3506 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3507 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3509 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3510 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3511 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3512 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3514 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3515 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3516 it is already running. Default is ON.
3518 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3519 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3520 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3521 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3524 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3525 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3526 or the value of the environment variable
3529 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3530 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3533 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3534 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3535 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3537 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3538 history expansion will be performed on
3539 command line input. The default is OFF.
3541 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3542 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3543 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3545 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3546 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3547 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3550 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3551 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3552 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3555 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3556 ``set width'' instead.
3558 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3559 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3560 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3561 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3563 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3566 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3569 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3572 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3575 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3577 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3578 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3579 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3583 * Support for Shared Libraries
3585 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3586 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3587 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3588 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3589 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3590 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3591 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3592 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3594 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3595 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3596 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3598 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3603 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3604 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3605 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3606 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3607 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3608 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3610 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3612 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3614 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3615 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3616 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3619 * C++ multiple inheritance
3621 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3624 * C++ exception handling
3626 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3627 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3628 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3631 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3632 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3633 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3635 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3636 current stack frame.
3639 * Minor command changes
3641 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3642 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3643 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3645 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3646 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3647 frames without printing.
3649 * New directory command
3651 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3652 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3653 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3654 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3655 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3657 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3659 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3662 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3663 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3664 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3665 where the program that you are debugging will run.