What has changed in GDB?
(Organized release by release)
-*** Changes since GDB 7.12
+*** Changes since GDB 9
+
+* Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
+ inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
+
+* Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
+ that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
+ performance for programs with many symbols.
+
+*** Changes in GDB 9
+
+* '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.
+
+* New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
+ $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
+ of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
+ for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
+ current GDB settings.
+
+* 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 (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
+ addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
+ postfix [PAC].
+
+* 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".
+
+* The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
+ User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
+ commands.
+
+* Command names can now use the . character.
+
+* The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
+
+* GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
+ messages.
+
+* GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
+
+* New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
+ Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
+
+* GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
+ Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
+ child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
+
+ (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
+
+ The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
+ not visible in the current scope.
+
+* In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
+ --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
+ as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
+ with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
+ compiled with support for that language.
+
+* GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
+ This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
+ can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
+
+* Multi-target debugging support
+
+ GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
+ simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
+ connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
+ or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
+ debugging a core dump, etc.
+
+ This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
+ can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
+ support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
+ the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
+ connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
+ target-non-stop" in the user manual.
+
+* 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.
+
+ ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
+ is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
+ there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
+ is given.
+
+ ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
+ symbols with static linkage.
+
+ ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
+ all static symbols with static linkage.
+
+ ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
+ 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
+
+ ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
+ this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
+
+* 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.
+
+define-prefix COMMAND
+ Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
+
+with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
+w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
+ Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
+ Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
+ With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
+ SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
+ subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
+ temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
+ Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
+ usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
+ of array elements to print.
+
+maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
+ Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
+
+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 print raw-values [on|off]
+show print raw-values
+ By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
+ value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
+ of commands. The default is 'off'.
+
+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 worker-threads
+maint show worker-threads
+ Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
+ default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
+ reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
+ the names of linker symbols.
+
+set style tui-border foreground COLOR
+set style tui-border background COLOR
+ Control the styling of TUI borders.
+
+set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
+set style tui-active-border background COLOR
+ Control the styling of the active TUI border.
+
+maint set test-settings KIND
+maint show test-settings KIND
+ A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
+ infrastructure.
+
+maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
+maint show tui-resize-message
+ Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
+ resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
+ TUI.
+
+set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
+ |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
+show print frame-info
+ This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
+ a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
+ 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
+ The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
+
+set tui compact-source
+show tui compact-source
+
+ Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
+ compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
+ numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
+ line numbers from the source.
+
+info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
+ Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
+ no REGEXP is given.
+
+info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
+ Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
+ The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
+ expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
+ TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
+ matches against the function name.
+
+info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
+ Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
+ The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
+ expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
+ TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
+ against the variable name.
+
+set debug remote-packet-max-chars
+show debug remote-packet-max-chars
+ Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
+ "set debug remote".
+ The default is 512 bytes.
+
+info connections
+ Lists the target connections currently in use.
+
+* 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.
+
+printf
+eval
+ The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
+ string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
+ This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
+ a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
+
+info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
+ This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
+ whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
+ allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
+ parts of the files.
+
+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 frame-arguments
+ The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
+ arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
+
+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.
+
+add-inferior [-no-connection]
+ The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
+ makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
+ By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
+ current inferior. See also "info connections".
+
+info inferior
+ This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
+ indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
+ "info connections" above.
+
+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.
+
+focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
+ These commands are now case-sensitive.
+
+* 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]
+ -raw-values [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]
+ -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
+ |location-and-address|short-location
+ -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]
+
+ ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
+ are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
+
+ 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 -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
+
+ The above is equivalent to:
+
+ (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
+
+ ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
+ printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
+ variables" and "info functions".
+
+ ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
+ now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
+ from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
+ from the results.
+
+* 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", "info
+ functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
+ commands.
+
+ ** 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'.
+
+-symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
+ These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
+ functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
+
+-symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
+ modules' command.
+
+-symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
+ These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
+ module functions' and 'info module variables'.
+
+* Other MI changes
+
+ ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
+
+ ** 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.
+
+ ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
+ given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
+ has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
+ present.
+
+* 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.
+
+* Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
+
+ Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
+ GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
+
+* Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
+
+ GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
+ --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
+
+* The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
+ from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
+ available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
+
+* Removed targets and native configurations
+
+ GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
+ both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
+ of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
+
+* New Simulators
+
+TI PRU pru-*-elf
+
+* Removed targets and native configurations
+
+Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
+ sparc*-*-solaris2.10
+
+*** 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 '-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.
+
+* 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
+ or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
+ default.
+
+* The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
+ for the rest of the current command.
+
+* The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
+ numbers of symbol definitions when available.
+
+* 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
+ files created on FreeBSD systems.
+
+* 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
+show debug fbsd-nat
+ Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
+
+set|show varsize-limit
+ This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
+ objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
+ instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
+
+set|show record btrace cpu
+ Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
+ branch trace decode.
+
+maint check libthread-db
+ Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
+ library
+
+maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
+maint show check-libthread-db
+ Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
+ debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
+ perform such checks.
+
+* Python API
+
+ ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
+
+ ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
+ the breakpoint's "commands" field.
+
+ ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
+
+ ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
+ gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
+ of convenience variables.
+
+ ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
+ ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
+ the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
+
+* New targets
+
+RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
+
+* Removed targets and native configurations
+
+m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
+SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
+SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
+SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
+
+* Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
+
+ Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
+ supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
+ watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
+ lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
+ watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
+ 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
+ in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
+ registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
+
+* The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
+ offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
+
+* New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
+ symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
+ but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
+ This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
+ not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
+
+* GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
+ floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
+ uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
+ 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
+
+* GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
+ software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
+
+* On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
+ that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
+ affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
+
+ To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
+ GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
+ environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
+
+ To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
+ the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
+ environment" command.
+
+* Completion improvements
+
+ ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
+ explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
+ quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
+ generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
+ correctly:
+
+ (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
+ (gdb) b function(int)
+
+ Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
+ C++ anonymous namespaces:
+
+ (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
+ (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
+ (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
+ (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
+
+ ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
+ completion support, that better understands what you're
+ completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
+ longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
+ setting a breakpoint.
+
+ ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
+
+ ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
+
+* New command line options (gcore)
+
+-a
+ Dump all memory mappings.
+
+* Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
+
+ By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
+ specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
+ leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
+
+ For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
+
+ A::B::func()
+ B::func()
+
+ both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
+ on both symbols.
+
+ You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
+ GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
+ fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
+ program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
+ "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
+ gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
+ a breakpoint from Python.
+
+* Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
+
+ GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
+ (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
+ https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
+
+ Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
+
+ function[abi:cxx11](int)
+ ^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+ You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
+ no tag, like:
+
+ (gdb) b function(int)
+
+ Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
+
+ (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
+
+ Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
+
+* Python Scripting
+
+ ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
+ gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
+ description of these.
+
+ ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
+ This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
+ via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
+
+ ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
+ manual for a further description of this feature.
+
+
+* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
+
+ ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
+ specified initial working directory.
+
+ The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
+ GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
+
+ ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
+ tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
+
+ ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
+ substitution in inferior command line arguments.
+
+ This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
+ See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
+ this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
+ "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
+ new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
+
+ ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
+ variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
+ will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
+
+* When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
+ the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
+ information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
+ in the *stopped notification.
+
+* Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
+ requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
+
+* New remote packets
+
+QEnvironmentHexEncoded
+ Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
+ the inferior when starting it.
+
+QEnvironmentUnset
+ Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
+ before starting the remote inferior.
+
+QEnvironmentReset
+ Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
+ user-set environment variables should be unset).
+
+QStartupWithShell
+ Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
+
+QSetWorkingDir
+ Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
+ working directory.
+
+* The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
+ argument which is the file name of XML target description.
+
+* The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
+ filter the tests to be run.
+
+* The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
+ breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
+
+* New commands
+
+set|show cwd
+ Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
+
+set|show compile-gcc
+ Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
+ with the 'compile' commands.
+
+set debug separate-debug-file
+show debug separate-debug-file
+ Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
+
+set dump-excluded-mappings
+show dump-excluded-mappings
+ Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
+ dumped when generating a core file.
+
+maint info selftests
+ List the registered selftests.
+
+starti
+ Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
+
+set|show debug or1k
+ Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
+
+set|show print type nested-type-limit
+ Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
+ type printer will show.
+
+* TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
+ `o' for nexti.
+
+* Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
+
+ GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
+ 'int'.
+
+ This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
+ tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
+ declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
+ pointer of the right type, and calling that:
+
+ (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
+ 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
+ (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
+ $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
+ (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
+ $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
+
+ Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
+ info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
+ unless you tell it the variable's type:
+
+ (gdb) p var
+ 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
+ (gdb) p (float) var
+ $3 = 3.14
+
+* New native configurations
+
+FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
+FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
+
+* New targets
+
+FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
+FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
+OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
+
+* Removed targets and native configurations
+
+Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
+
+*** Changes in GDB 8.0
+
+* GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
+ added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
+ available in future Intel CPUs.
+
+* GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
+
+* Python Scripting
+
+ ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
+ ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
+
+* GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
+ instructions.
* Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
end
end
+* Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
+
+* GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
+ Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
+
+* New native configurations
+
+FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
+
* New targets
Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
+* Removed targets and native configurations
+
+Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
+Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
+
+* New commands
+
+flash-erase
+ Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
+
+maint print arc arc-instruction address
+ Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
+
+* New options
+
+set disassembler-options
+show disassembler-options
+ Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
+ If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
+ multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
+ The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
+ targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
+
+* New MI commands
+
+-target-flash-erase
+ Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
+ equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
+
+-file-list-shared-libraries
+ List the shared libraries in the program. This is
+ equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
+
+-catch-handlers
+ Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
+ handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
+
*** Changes in GDB 7.12
* GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
* Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
+catch handlers
+ Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
+
* New remote packets
exec stop reason
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blobdiff