What has changed in GDB?
(Organized release by release)
-*** Changes since GDB 8.1
+*** Changes since GDB 8.3
+
+* 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
+
+* New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
+ provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
+ features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
+ scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
+ such as in system-wide init files.
+
+* GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
+ FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
+ architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
+ amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
+
+* Support for Pointer Authentication on AArch64 Linux.
+
+* Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
+ imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
+
+* New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
+ provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
+ GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
+
+* Python API
+
+ ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
+ string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
+ optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
+ 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
+ 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
+
+ ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
+ type was defined in.
+
+* New commands
+
+| [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
+| -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
+pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
+pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
+ Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
+ With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
+ and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
+
+set may-call-functions [on|off]
+show may-call-functions
+ This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
+ the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
+ defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
+ can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
+ such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
+ an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
+ in the program.
+
+set print finish [on|off]
+show print finish
+ This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
+ that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
+ still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
+ default is `on'.
+
+set print max-depth
+show print max-depth
+ Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
+ replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
+ The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
+ the old behavior back.
+
+set logging debugredirect [on|off]
+ By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
+ Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
+
+set style title foreground COLOR
+set style title background COLOR
+set style title intensity VALUE
+ Control the styling of titles.
+
+set style highlight foreground COLOR
+set style highlight background COLOR
+set style highlight intensity VALUE
+ Control the styling of highlightings.
+
+maint set test-settings KIND
+maint show test-settings KIND
+ A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
+ infrastructure.
+
+* Changed commands
+
+help
+ The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
+ readibility of its output by styling the classes and
+ command names.
+
+apropos [-v] REGEXP
+ Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
+ title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
+ a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
+ of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
+ the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
+
+show style
+ The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
+ a style name in their output using its own style, to help
+ the user visualize the different styles.
+
+set print raw-frame-arguments
+show print raw-frame-arguments
+
+ These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
+ frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
+ old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
+ release.
+
+maint test-options require-delimiter
+maint test-options unknown-is-error
+maint test-options unknown-is-operand
+maint show test-options-completion-result
+ Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
+ framework.
+
+* New command options, command completion
+
+ GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
+ options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
+ easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
+ -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
+ time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
+ number of commands got support for new command options in this
+ release:
+
+ ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
+ options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
+ set by "set print" subcommands:
+
+ -address [on|off]
+ -array [on|off]
+ -array-indexes [on|off]
+ -elements NUMBER|unlimited
+ -null-stop [on|off]
+ -object [on|off]
+ -pretty [on|off]
+ -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
+ -static-members [on|off]
+ -symbol [on|off]
+ -union [on|off]
+ -vtbl [on|off]
+
+ Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
+ arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
+ abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
+ use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
+
+ ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
+ allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
+ backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
+
+ -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
+ -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
+ -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
+ -past-main [on|off]
+ -past-entry [on|off]
+
+ In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
+ exposed as command options too:
+
+ -full
+ -no-filters
+ -hide
+
+ ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
+ support the following options:
+
+ -past-main [on|off]
+ -past-entry [on|off]
+
+ All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
+ (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
+ "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
+ like for example:
+
+ (gdb) p -r -p -o 0 -- *myptr
+
+ The above is equivalent to:
+
+ (gdb) print -raw -pretty -object off -- *myptr
+
+* Completion improvements
+
+ ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
+ "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
+ abbreviated.
+
+ ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads" command.
+
+ ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
+ "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
+ completes on filenames.
+
+ ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
+ "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
+
+* In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
+
+ E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
+ elements unlimited".
+
+* New MI commands
+
+-complete
+ This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
+ were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
+ frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
+
+-catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
+ These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
+ the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
+
+* Testsuite
+
+ The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
+ used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
+ GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
+ are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
+
+*** Changes in GDB 8.3
+
+* GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
+ PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
+ HTM registers.
+
+* GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
+ C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
+ support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
+ and operators.
+
+ This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
+ (the C++ plug-in).
+
+* GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
+ can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
+ 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
+
+* DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
+ symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
+
+* Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
+ debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
+ see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
+ in the GDB user manual.
+
+* GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
+ executed failed.
+
+* The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
+
+* System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
+ When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
+ implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
+ at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
+ the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
+ kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
+ kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
+ The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
+ so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
+ catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
+ binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
+ binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
+
+* Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
+ Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
+ source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
+ information.
+
+* Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
+ lucid.
+
+* New commands
+
+set debug compile-cplus-types
+show debug compile-cplus-types
+ Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
+ C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiliong
+ for other languages.
+
+set debug skip
+show debug skip
+ Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
+ displayed.
+
+frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
+ Apply a command to some frames.
+ FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
+ errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
+
+taas COMMAND
+ Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
+ Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
+
+faas COMMAND
+ Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
+ Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
+
+tfaas COMMAND
+ Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
+ output).
+ Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
+
+maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
+maint show dwarf unwinders
+ Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
+
+info proc files
+ Display a list of open files for a process.
+
+* Changed commands
+
+Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
+ These commands all now take a frame specification which
+ is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
+ 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
+ address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
+ requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
+ unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
+
+target remote FILENAME
+target extended-remote FILENAME
+ If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
+ to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
+
+info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
+info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
+info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
+info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
+ These commands can now print only the searched entities
+ matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
+ on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
+ printing headers or informations messages.
+
+info functions
+info types
+info variables
+rbreak
+ These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
+ according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
+ `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
+ the shown entities.
+
+thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
+ The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
+ FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
+ errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
+
+set tui tab-width NCHARS
+show tui tab-width NCHARS
+ "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
+
+set style enabled [on|off]
+show style enabled
+ Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
+ on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
+
+set style sources [on|off]
+show style sources
+ Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
+ enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
+ enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
+
+set style filename foreground COLOR
+set style filename background COLOR
+set style filename intensity VALUE
+ Control the styling of file names.
+
+set style function foreground COLOR
+set style function background COLOR
+set style function intensity VALUE
+ Control the styling of function names.
+
+set style variable foreground COLOR
+set style variable background COLOR
+set style variable intensity VALUE
+ Control the styling of variable names.
+
+set style address foreground COLOR
+set style address background COLOR
+set style address intensity VALUE
+ Control the styling of addresses.
+
+* MI changes
+
+ ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
+
+ ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
+ disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
+ counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
+ verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
+ contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
+
+ ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
+ the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
+
+ ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
+ syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
+ the following commands and events:
+
+ - -break-insert
+ - -break-info
+ - =breakpoint-created
+ - =breakpoint-modified
+
+ The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
+ this behavior with previous MI versions.
+
+* New native configurations
+
+GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
+FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
+
+* New targets
+
+GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
+CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
+CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
+FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
+NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
+GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
+
+* Removed targets
+
+GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
+before Windows XP.
+
+* Python API
+
+ ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
+
+ ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
+ space associated to that inferior.
+
+ ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
+ of objfiles associated to that program space.
+
+ ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
+ gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
+ the gdb core.
+
+ ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
+ gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
+ correct and did not work properly.
+
+ ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
+ gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
+
+* Configure changes
+
+--enable-ubsan
+
+ Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
+ disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
+ --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
+ cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
+ first introduced in GCC 4.9.
+
+*** Changes in GDB 8.2
+
+* The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
+ for the MIPS target.
* The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
offset to all sections.
+* Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
+ a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
+ address of individual sections using '-s'.
+
+* The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
+ (address of the text section).
+
* The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
* C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
alignof.
+* Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
+ the vector length while the process is running.
+
* New commands
set debug fbsd-nat
the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
reported.
+* Configure changes
+
+--enable-codesign=CERT
+ This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
+ This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
+ gdb to work properly.
+
+--disable-gdbcli has been removed
+ This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
+
*** Changes in GDB 8.1
* GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blobdiff