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.
* 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.
-* New configure options
+* 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
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