What has changed in GDB?
(Organized release by release)
-*** Changes since GDB 8.0
+*** Changes since GDB 8.2
+
+* 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.
+
+* 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.
+
+* 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.
+
+* New targets
+
+ NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
+ GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
+
+* 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
+
+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.
+
+* 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*
+
+* Python API
+
+ ** 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.
+
+* 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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
-* New remote packets
+catch handlers
+ Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
-QStartupWithShell
- Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
+* New remote packets
exec stop reason
Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blobdiff