What has changed in GDB?
(Organized release by release)
-*** Changes since GDB 7.4
+*** Changes since GDB 7.5
+
+* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
+ --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
+ data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
+ time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
+ system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
+ --data-directory command-line option.
+
+* New command line options:
+
+-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
+ other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
+
+* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
+ type formatting.
+
+* Python scripting
+
+ ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
+
+ ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
+
+ ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
+
+* New Python-based convenience functions:
+
+ ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
+ ** $_streq(str1, str2)
+ ** $_strlen(str)
+ ** $_regex(str, regex)
+
+* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
+ given an argument.
+
+* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
+
+* New configure options
+
+--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
+ By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
+ that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
+ Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
+ by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
+ options allow the user to override that default.
+
+* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
+
+maint info bfds
+ List the BFDs known to GDB.
+
+python-interactive [command]
+pi [command]
+ Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
+ and print the result of expressions.
+
+py [command]
+ "py" is a new alias for "python".
+
+enable type-printer [name]...
+disable type-printer [name]...
+ Enable or disable type printers.
+
+* Removed commands
+
+ ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
+ (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
+ instead.
+
+* New options
+
+set print type methods (on|off)
+show print type methods
+ Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
+ The default is to show them.
+
+set print type typedefs (on|off)
+show print type typedefs
+ Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
+ The default is to show them.
+
+* MI changes
+
+ ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
+ "=cmd-param-changed".
+ ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
+ new async record "=traceframe-changed".
+ ** The creation and deletion of trace state variables are now notified
+ using new async records "=tsv-created" and "=tsv-deleted".
+ ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
+ async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
+ ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
+ "=memory-changed".
+ ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
+ containing the absolute file name when GDB can determine it and source
+ has been requested.
+ ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
+ command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
+
+*** Changes in GDB 7.5
+
+* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
+ for more x32 ABI info.
+
+* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
+
+* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
object associated with a PC value.
+ ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
+ of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
+
* Go language support.
GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
language.
* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
- until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new option
- --use-deprecated-index-sections will cause GDB to use any older
- .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but
- the ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost
- in symbol files with older .gdb_index sections.
+ until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
+ "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
+ .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
+ ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
+ files with older .gdb_index sections.
+
+ The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
+ about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
+ and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
+ section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
+ the .gdb_index section.
* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
target.
+* MI changes
+
+ ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
+
+ ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
+
* New commands
+ ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
+ "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
+ Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
+
** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
+* Deprecated commands
+
+ ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
+ deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
+
* New targets
Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
* New options
+set mips compression
+show mips compression
+ Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
+ information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
+ mips16
+ micromips
+ and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
+
set breakpoint condition-evaluation
show breakpoint condition-evaluation
Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
show debug auto-load
Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
-set dprintf-style gdb|call
+set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
show dprintf-style
- Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb" requests
- a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a function
- in the inferior.
+ Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
+ requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
+ function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
+ (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
set dprintf-function <expr>
show dprintf-function
Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
the "call" style of dynamic printf.
+set disconnected-dprintf on|off
+show disconnected-dprintf
+ Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
+ after GDB disconnects.
+
* New configure options
--with-auto-load-dir
Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
- setting above. It defaults to '$ddir/auto-load', $ddir representing
- GDB's data directory (available via show data-directory).
+ setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
+ $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
+ via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
+ directory (available via 'show data-directory').
--with-auto-load-safe-path
Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
* New options
+set debug dwarf2-read
+show debug dwarf2-read
+ Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
+ DWARF debug info. The default is off.
+
+set debug symtab-create
+show debug symtab-create
+ Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
+ creation. The default is off.
+
set extended-prompt
show extended-prompt
Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
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