PR gdb/9598:
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
8d5b6c2b 4*** Changes since GDB 7.4
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6* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
7 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
8
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9* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
10 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
11
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12*** Changes in GDB 7.4
13
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14* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
15 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
16 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
17 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
18 inferior changes.
19
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20* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
21 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
22
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23* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
24 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
25 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
26 target hardware watchpoint.
27
28 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
29 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
30 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
31 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
32
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33* Python scripting
34
32d1c362 35 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 36 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
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37 existing one.
38
3a7bf607 39 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
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40 removed. A new command: "set python print-stack
41 none|full|message" has replaced it. Additionally, the default
42 for "print-stack" is now "message", which just prints the error
43 message without the stack trace.
3a7bf607 44
baacfb07 45 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 46 Python API.
713389e0 47
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48 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
49 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 50 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
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51 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
52 corresponding value.
53
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54 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
55 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
56 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
57 on GDB start-up.
58
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59 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
60 static_block will return the global and static blocks
61 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
62 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
63
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64 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
65
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66 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
67 "gdb.breakpoints".
68
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69 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
70 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
71 available in the CLI.
72
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73 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
74 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
75 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
76 "some_type.items()".
77
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78 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
79 new object file.
80
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81 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
82 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
83 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
84 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
85 any anonymous fields.
86
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87* MI changes
88
89 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
90 "solib-event".
91
92 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
93 "=breakpoint-modified".
94
95 ** New command -ada-task-info.
96
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97* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
98 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
99 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
100 lives.
101
102 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
103 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
104 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
105 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
106 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
107
108 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
109 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
110
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111* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
112 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
113 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
114 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
115 use this option to specify where to find it.
116
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117* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
118 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
119 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
120 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
121 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
122 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
123 section in the user manual for more details.
124
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125* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
126 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
127 become available after that.
128
71eba9c2 129* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 130
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131* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
132 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
133 gcc version 4.7.
134
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135* New commands
136
137!SHELL COMMAND
138 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
139 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
140
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141* Changed commands
142
143watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
144 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
145 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
146
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147info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
148 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
149 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
150
71eba9c2 151info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
152 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
153 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
154 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
155 name starts with a hyphen.
156
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157collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
158 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
159 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
160 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
161 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
162 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
163 number of bytes that will be collected.
164
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165tstart [NOTES]
166 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
167 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
168 setting the variable trace-notes.
169
170tstop [NOTES]
171 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
172 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
173 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
174 trace-stop-notes.
175
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176* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
177 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
178 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
179 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
180 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
181 is running.
182
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183* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
184 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
185 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
186
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187* New options
188
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189set extended-prompt
190show extended-prompt
191 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
192 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
193 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
194 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
195 prompt is displayed.
196
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197set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
198show print entry-values
199 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
200 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
201 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
202
203set debug entry-values
204show debug entry-values
205 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
206 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
207
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208set basenames-may-differ
209show basenames-may-differ
210 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
211 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
212 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
213 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
214 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
215 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
216 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
217 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
218
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219set trace-user
220show trace-user
221set trace-notes
222show trace-notes
223 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
224 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
225 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
226 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
227
228set trace-stop-notes
229show trace-stop-notes
230 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
231 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
232 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
233 started by someone else.
234
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235* New remote packets
236
237QTEnable
238
239 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
240
241QTDisable
242
243 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
244
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245QTNotes
246
247 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
248
249qTP
250
251 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
252
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253qTMinFTPILen
254
255 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
256 be placed.
257
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258* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
259 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
260
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261* New targets
262
263Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
264
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265* New Simulators
266
267Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
268
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269*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
270
271* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
272
d6e00af6 273*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 274
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275* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
276 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
277 matches the given regular expression.
278
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279* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
280
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281* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
282 dumping the instruction opcodes.
283
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284* New command line options
285
286-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
287 This is mostly for testing purposes.
288
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289* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
290 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
291
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292* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
293 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
294 source path list instead of augmenting it.
295
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296* GDB now understands thread names.
297
298 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
299 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
300
301 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
302 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
303
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304* OpenCL C
305 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
306 has been integrated into GDB.
307
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308* Python scripting
309
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310 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
311 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
312 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
313
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314 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
315 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
316 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
317 and allows for more dynamic content.
318
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319 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
320 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
321 have an is_valid method.
322
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323 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
324 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
325 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
326
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327 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
328
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329 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
330 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
331 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
332 that function like so:
333
334 result = some_value (10,20)
335
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336 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
337 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
338 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
339
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340 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
341 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
342 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
343 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
344 New function: register_pretty_printer.
345
346 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
347 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
348
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349 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
350
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351 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
352 selected thread.
353
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354 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
355 holds the thread's name.
356
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357 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
358 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 359 occurring in the process being debugged.
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360 The following events are currently supported:
361 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
362 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
363 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
364
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365* C++ Improvements:
366
367 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
368 instantiation. For example, if you have:
369
370 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
371
372 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
373 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
374 was added to GCC 4.5.
375
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376 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
377 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
378 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
379 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
380 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
381 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
382
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383* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
384 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
385 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
386 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
387 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
388
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389* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
390 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
391 execution to a label.
392
393* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
394 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
395 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
396 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
397
b56df873 398* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 399 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
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400 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
401 of scope.
402
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403* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
404
405 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
406 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
407 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
408 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
409 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
410 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
411
412 (gdb) info threads
413 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
414
415 While now you see this:
416
417 (gdb) info threads
418 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
419
420 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
421 dumps.
422
423 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
424 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
425 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
426 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
427
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428* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
429 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
430 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
431 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
432 section in the user manual for more details.
433
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434* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
435
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436 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
437 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 438
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439 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
440
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441* New native configurations
442
443ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
444
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445* New targets:
446
447Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
448
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449* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
450 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
451 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
452 in the GDB user manual.
453
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454* Guile support was removed.
455
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456* New features in the GNU simulator
457
458 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
459
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460 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
461
76b8507d 462*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 463
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464* Shared library support for remote targets by default
465
466 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
467 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
468 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
469 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
470 was always disabled for such configurations.
471
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472* C++ Improvements:
473
474 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
475
476 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
477 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
478 For example:
479 namespace A
480 {
481 class B { };
482 void foo (B) { }
483 }
484 ...
485 A::B b
486 foo(b)
487 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
488 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
489 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
490
491 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
492
493 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
494 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
495 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
496 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
497 entry.
498 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
499 mentioned flavors of operators.
500
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501 ** static const class members
502
503 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
504 class definition has been fixed.
505
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506* Windows Thread Information Block access.
507
508 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
509 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
510 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
511 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
512 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
513 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
514
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515* Static tracepoints
516
517 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
518 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
519 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
520 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
521 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
522 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
523 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
524 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
525 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
526 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
527 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
528 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
529 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
530 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
531 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
532 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
533 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
534 the "New remote packets" section below.
535
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536* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
537
538 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
539 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
540 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
541 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
542
543* Observer mode
544
545 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
546 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
547 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
548 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
549 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
550 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
551 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
552
553* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
554 current thread.
555
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556* New remote packets
557
558qGetTIBAddr
559
560 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
561
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562qRelocInsn
563
564 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
565 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
566 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
567 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
568 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
569 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
570
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571qTfSTM, qTsSTM
572
573 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
574
575qTSTMat
576
577 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
578 program.
579
580qXfer:statictrace:read
581
582 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
583 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
584 to gdb's qSupported query.
585
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586QAllow
587
588 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
589
590QTDPsrc
591
592 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
593 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
594
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595* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
596 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
597 a directory.
598
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599* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
600
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601 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
602 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
603 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
604 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
605
606 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
607 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
608 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
609 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
610 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
611 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
612 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
613
614 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
615 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 616
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617 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
618
c8d5aac9
L
619* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
620 it understands register description.
621
7c953934
TT
622* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
623
8685c86f
L
624* X86 general purpose registers
625
626 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
627 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
628 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
629 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
630 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
631
95a42b64 632* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
86b17b60
PA
633 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
634 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
635 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
636 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
637 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 638
8bd10a10
CM
639* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
640 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
641 in the specified file.
642
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PA
643* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
644 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
645 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
646 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
647 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
648 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
649 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
650 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
651 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
652 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
653
6149aea9
PA
654* New commands
655
f1421989
HZ
656eval template, expressions...
657 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
658 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
659
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PA
660set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
661show target-file-system-kind
662 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
663 names.
664
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PA
665save breakpoints <filename>
666 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
667 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
668 definitions, use the `source' command.
669
670`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
671is now deprecated.
672
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PA
673info static-tracepoint-markers
674 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
675
676strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
677 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
678 function, line, address, or marker ID.
679
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SS
680set observer on|off
681show observer
682 Enable and disable observer mode.
683
684set may-write-registers on|off
685set may-write-memory on|off
686set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
687set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
688set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
689set may-interrupt on|off
690 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
691 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
692 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
693 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
694 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
695 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
696 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
697
698set record memory-query on|off
699show record memory-query
700 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
701 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
702
53a71c06
CR
703* Changed commands
704
705disassemble
706 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
707
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708* Python scripting
709
9279c692
JB
710** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
711 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
712 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
713 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
714 GDB using Python' in the manual.
715
adc36818 716** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
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PM
717 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
718 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
719 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 720
fa33c3cd 721** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
722 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
723
724** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
725
726** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 727
967cf477
DE
728** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
729
8a1ea21f
DE
730** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
731 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
732 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
733
a7bdde9e
VP
734* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
735there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
736tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
737regular breakpoints.
738
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PA
739* New targets
740
741ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
742
6aecb9c2
JB
743* D language support.
744 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
745 language.
746
431e49aa
TJB
747* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
748 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
749 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
750 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
751 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
752
753* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
754 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
755 conditions of the form:
756
757 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
758
759 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
760 interface mentioned above.
761
bfbf3774 762*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 763
4eef138c
TT
764* C++ Improvements
765
766 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
767
768 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
769 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
770 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
771 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
772 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
773
4eef138c
TT
774 ** Bug Fixes
775
776 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
777 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
778 qualified name.
779
780 ** Cast Operators
781
782 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
783 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
784
2d1c1221
ME
785* New targets
786
787Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 788Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
789
790* New Simulators
791
792Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 793Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 794
6c95b8df
PA
795* Multi-program debugging.
796
797 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
798 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
799 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
800 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
801 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
802 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
803 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
804 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
805
d5551862
SS
806* New tracing features
807
808 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
809
810 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
811
812 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
813 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
814 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
815 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
816 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
817 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
818 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
819 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
820 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
821 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 822
d5551862 823 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
824
825 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
826 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
827 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
828 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
829 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
830 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
831 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
832 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
833 the regular trace command.
834
d5551862
SS
835 ** Disconnected tracing
836
837 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
838 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
839 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
840 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
841 connection is lost unexpectedly.
842
00bf0b85
SS
843 ** Trace files
844
845 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
846 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
847 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
848 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
849 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
850 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
851 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
852
853 ** Circular trace buffer
854
855 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
856 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
857 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
858 not be available for all target agents.
859
21a0512e
PP
860* Changed commands
861
862disassemble
863 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
864 the arguments to be comma-separated.
865
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DJ
866info variables
867 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
868 which only declare a variable are not shown.
869
fb2e7cb4
JB
870source
871 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
872 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
873 support.
874
875 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
876 "set script-extension" (see below).
877
6c95b8df
PA
878* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
879
399cd161
MS
880record save [<FILENAME>]
881 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
882 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
883
884record restore <FILENAME>
885 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
886 earlier time, for replay debugging.
887
6c95b8df
PA
888add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
889 Add a new inferior.
890
891clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
892 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
893 inferior has loaded.
894
895remove-inferior ID
896 Remove an inferior.
897
898maint info program-spaces
899 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
900
9a7071a8
JB
901set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
902show remote interrupt-sequence
903 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
904 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
905 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
906 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
907 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
908
909set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
910show remote interrupt-on-connect
911 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
912 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
913 Linux kernel.
914
915set remotebreak [on | off]
916show remotebreak
917Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
918
f61e138d
SS
919tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
920 Create or modify a trace state variable.
921
922info tvariables
923 List trace state variables and their values.
924
925delete tvariable $NAME ...
926 Delete one or more trace state variables.
927
6da95a67
SS
928teval EXPR, ...
929 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
930 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
931
7a697b8d
SS
932ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
933 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
934
b0f02ee9
JK
935* New expression syntax
936
937 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
938 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
939
6c95b8df
PA
940* New options
941
942set follow-exec-mode new|same
943show follow-exec-mode
944 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
945 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
946 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
947
236f1d4d
SS
948set default-collect EXPR, ...
949show default-collect
950 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
951 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
952 such as registers or a critical global variable.
953
d5551862
SS
954set disconnected-tracing
955show disconnected-tracing
956 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
957 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
958 upon disconnection.
959
4daf5ac0
SS
960set circular-trace-buffer
961show circular-trace-buffer
962 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
963 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
964 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
965 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
966
fb2e7cb4
JB
967set script-extension off|soft|strict
968show script-extension
969 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
970 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
971 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
972 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
973 evaluation failed.
974 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
975
2b71fc8e
JB
976set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
977show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
978 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
979 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
980 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
981 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
982 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
983 is on.
984
de2e5182
TT
985* Python API Improvements
986
987 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
988 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
989 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
990
991 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
992 `is_base_class' attribute.
993
994 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
995
996 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
997 evaluate an expression.
998
f61e138d
SS
999* New remote packets
1000
1001QTDV
1002 Define a trace state variable.
1003
1004qTV
1005 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1006
d5551862
SS
1007QTDisconnected
1008 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1009
4daf5ac0
SS
1010QTBuffer:circular
1011 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1012
d5551862
SS
1013qTfP, qTsP
1014 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1015
2d483d34
MS
1016* Bug fixes
1017
1018Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1019
6e0e5977
JB
1020Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1021much more reliable. In particular:
1022 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1023 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1024 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1025 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1026 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1027 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1028 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1029 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1030 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1031 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1032 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1033 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1034 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1035 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1036 non-threaded programs.
1037
93c26624
JK
1038PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1039This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1040libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1041executable program.
1042
abc7453d 1043*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 1044
4efc6507
DE
1045* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1046dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1047them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1048for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1049"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1050
782b2b07
SS
1051* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1052breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1053or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1054the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1055for tracepoint actions.
1056
53a71c06
CR
1057* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1058raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1059modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 1060
e7a8dbfb
HZ
1061* Process record and replay
1062
1063 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1064 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1065 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1066 execute commands.
1067
64644d9b
MS
1068* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1069step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1070set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1071reverse execution.
1072
b9412953
DD
1073* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1074feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
10752.6.28 or later.
1076
6c7a06a3
TT
1077* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1078target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1079char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1080literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1081U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1082`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1083system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1084the installation instructions for more information.
1085
f1838a98
UW
1086* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1087remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1088with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1089the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1090
55333a84
DE
1091* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1092and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1093
7f6a6314
PM
1094* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1095now complete on file names.
1096
65d12d83
TT
1097* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1098completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1099For instance, consider:
1100
1101 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1102 # struct example variable;
1103 (gdb) p variable.
1104
1105If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1106completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1107
edb3359d
DJ
1108* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1109the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1110
2fae03e8
TT
1111* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1112operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1113macros.
1114
47a3467a 1115* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
1116the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1117implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1118
1119* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1120registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1121can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1122and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 1123
08388c79
DE
1124* New remote packets
1125
1126qSearch:memory:
1127 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1128
a6f3e723
SL
1129QStartNoAckMode
1130 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1131 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1132 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1133
d7713ae0
EZ
1134vKill
1135 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1136 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1137
07e059b5
VP
1138qXfer:osdata:read
1139 Obtains additional operating system information
1140
47a3467a
PA
1141qXfer:siginfo:read
1142qXfer:siginfo:write
1143 Read or write additional signal information.
1144
060871df
PA
1145* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1146
1147 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1148 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1149 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1150
c055b101 1151* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 1152DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
1153
1154* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
1155and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1156`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 1157
31fffb02
CS
1158* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1159with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1160
88d8a8e0
JB
1161* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1162
7f99b190
JB
1163* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1164
ccd213ac
DJ
1165* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1166which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1167
1fddbabb 1168* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 1169list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 1170
a0ef4274
DJ
1171* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1172conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1173have also been fixed.
1174
bfb8797a 1175* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
1176From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1177are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 1178
71c25dea
TT
1179* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1180example, given:
1181
1182 template<typename T> class C { };
1183 C<char const *> c;
1184
1185GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1186
1187 ptype C<char const *>
1188 ptype C<char const*>
1189 ptype C<const char *>
1190 ptype C<const char*>
1191
ccd213ac
DJ
1192* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1193
1194 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1195 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1196
7ae0e2a2
UW
1197 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1198 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1199 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1200
a6f3e723
SL
1201 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1202 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1203
da8bd9a3
DJ
1204 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1205 gdbserver.
1206
d70e31dd
DE
1207 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1208 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1209
1210 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1211 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1212 as appropriate.
1213
d57a3c85
TJB
1214* Python scripting
1215
1216 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1217 available is determined at configure time.
1218
d8906c6f
TJB
1219 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1220
aadc346a
JB
1221* Ada tasking support
1222
1223 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1224 been introduced:
1225
1226 info tasks
1227 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1228 info task N
1229 Print detailed information about task number N.
1230 task
1231 Print the task number of the current task.
1232 task N
1233 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1234
adb483fe
DJ
1235* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1236add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1237
2277426b
PA
1238* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1239
1240 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1241 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1242 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1243 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1244 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1245 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1246 below.
1247
08d16641
PA
1248* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1249"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1250information.
1251
e35359c5
UW
1252* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1253to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1254architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1255See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1256more information.
1257
85e747d2
UW
1258* Multi-architecture debugging.
1259
1260 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1261 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1262 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1263 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1264 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1265
1266* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1267use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1268Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1269powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1270--enable-targets configure option.
1271
11ade57a
PA
1272* Non-stop mode debugging.
1273
1274 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1275 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1276 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1277 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1278 section in the user manual for more information.
1279
1280 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1281 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1282 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1283 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1284 extensions on linux targets.
1285
d7713ae0 1286* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 1287
a96d9b2e
SDJ
1288catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1289 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1290 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1291 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1292 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1293 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1294 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1295 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1296 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1297
08388c79
DE
1298find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1299 val1 [, val2, ...]
1300 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1301
d57a3c85
TJB
1302maint set python print-stack
1303maint show python print-stack
1304 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1305
1306python [CODE]
1307 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1308
d7713ae0
EZ
1309macro define
1310macro list
1311macro undef
1312 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1313 interactively.
1314
1315info os processes
1316 Show operating system information about processes.
1317
2277426b
PA
1318info inferiors
1319 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1320
1321inferior NUM
1322 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1323
1324detach inferior NUM
1325 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1326
1327kill inferior NUM
1328 Kill inferior number NUM.
1329
d7713ae0
EZ
1330* New options
1331
3285f3fe
UW
1332set spu stop-on-load
1333show spu stop-on-load
1334 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1335
ff1a52c6
UW
1336set spu auto-flush-cache
1337show spu auto-flush-cache
1338 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1339 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1340
d7713ae0
EZ
1341set sh calling-convention
1342show sh calling-convention
1343 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1344
e0a3ce09 1345set debug timestamp
75feb17d 1346show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
1347 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1348
1349set disassemble-next-line
1350show disassemble-next-line
1351 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1352 the debuggee stops.
1353
1354set remote noack-packet
1355show remote noack-packet
1356 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1357 under "New remote packets."
1358
1359set remote query-attached-packet
1360show remote query-attached-packet
1361 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1362
1363set remote read-siginfo-object
1364show remote read-siginfo-object
1365 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1366 packet.
1367
1368set remote write-siginfo-object
1369show remote write-siginfo-object
1370 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1371 packet.
1372
40ab02ce
MS
1373set remote reverse-continue
1374show remote reverse-continue
1375 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1376
1377set remote reverse-step
1378show remote reverse-step
1379 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1380
d7713ae0
EZ
1381set displaced-stepping
1382show displaced-stepping
1383 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1384 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1385 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1386
1387set debug displaced
1388show debug displaced
1389 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1390
1391maint set internal-error
1392maint show internal-error
1393 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1394
1395maint set internal-warning
1396maint show internal-warning
1397 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 1398
ccd213ac
DJ
1399set exec-wrapper
1400show exec-wrapper
1401unset exec-wrapper
1402 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 1403
aad4b048
JB
1404set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1405show multiple-symbols
1406 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1407 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1408 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1409
74960c60
VP
1410set breakpoint always-inserted
1411show breakpoint always-inserted
1412 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1413 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1414 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1415
0428b8f5
DJ
1416set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1417show arm fallback-mode
1418set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1419show arm force-mode
1420 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1421 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1422 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1423 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1424
10568435
JK
1425set disable-randomization
1426show disable-randomization
1427 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1428 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1429 multiple debugging sessions.
1430
d7713ae0
EZ
1431set non-stop
1432show non-stop
1433 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1434 a breakpoint.
1435
b3eb342c 1436set target-async
d7713ae0 1437show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
1438 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1439 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1440 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1441 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1442
6c7a06a3
TT
1443set target-wide-charset
1444show target-wide-charset
1445 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1446 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1447
84603566
SL
1448set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1449show tcp auto-retry
1450set tcp connect-timeout
1451show tcp connect-timeout
1452 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1453 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1454 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1455
17a37d48
PP
1456set libthread-db-search-path
1457show libthread-db-search-path
1458 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1459 libthread_db.
1460
d4db2f36
PA
1461set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1462show schedule-multiple
1463 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1464 the current process.
1465
4e5d721f
DE
1466set stack-cache
1467show stack-cache
1468 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1469 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1470 affecting correctness.
1471
910c5da8
JB
1472set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1473show interactive-mode
1474 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1475 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1476 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1477 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1478 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1479
2277426b
PA
1480* Removed commands
1481
1482info forks
1483 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1484 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1485 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1486 command.
1487
1488fork NUM
1489 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1490 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1491 alias for the `fork' command.
1492
1493process PID
1494 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1495 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1496 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1497
1498delete fork NUM
1499 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1500 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1501 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1502 fork' command.
1503
1504detach fork NUM
1505 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1506 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1507 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1508 fork' command.
1509
a80b95ba
TG
1510* New native configurations
1511
1512x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1513
b8bfd3ed
JB
1514x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1515
75a2d5e7
TT
1516* New targets
1517
c28c63d8 1518Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 1519x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 1520x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 1521S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 1522
6de3146c
PA
1523* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1524 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1525
d5cbbe6e
JB
1526* Removed commands
1527
1528catch load
1529catch unload
1530 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1531
75feb17d 1532*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 1533
af5ca30d
NH
1534* New native configurations
1535
1536NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 1537Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
1538
1539* New targets
1540
1541NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 1542Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 1543
7a404eba
PA
1544* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1545
1546 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1547 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1548 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1549 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1550
430ebac9
PA
1551* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1552(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1553
fe6fbf8b 1554* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 1555is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
1556
1557* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
1558including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1559and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 1560
10665d76
JB
1561* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1562accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1563more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1564
7cc46491
DJ
1565* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1566
d71340b8
DJ
1567* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1568registers on PowerPC targets.
1569
523c4513
DJ
1570* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1571targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1572
a6b151f1
DJ
1573* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1574commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1575
2d717e4f
DJ
1576* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1577extended-remote mode.
1578
24a836bd 1579* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
1580The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1581error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1582The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 1583
d0c678e6
UW
1584* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1585building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1586target architectures.
1587
d64a946d
TJB
1588* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1589Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1590now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1591stored in two consecutive float registers.
1592
ee163bf5
VP
1593* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1594breakpoints now.
1595
b93b6ca7 1596* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
1597Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1598include:
b93b6ca7
JB
1599 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1600 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1601 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1602 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1603 of an assignment
1604 - Improved command completion in Ada
1605 - Several bug fixes
1606
d001be7a
DJ
1607* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1608process.
1609
a6b151f1
DJ
1610* New commands
1611
6d53d0af
JB
1612set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1613show print frame-arguments
1614 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1615 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1616
a6b151f1
DJ
1617remote put
1618remote get
1619remote delete
1620 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1621
1622* New MI commands
1623
1624-target-file-put
1625-target-file-get
1626-target-file-delete
1627 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1628
1629* New remote packets
1630
1631vFile:open:
1632vFile:close:
1633vFile:pread:
1634vFile:pwrite:
1635vFile:unlink:
1636 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 1637
2d717e4f
DJ
1638vAttach
1639 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1640 mode.
1641
1642vRun
1643 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1644
8d5f9c6f 1645*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 1646
19d378fc
MS
1647* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1648bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1649Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1650
3a40aaa0
UW
1651* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1652symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1653-Bsymbolic linker option.
1654
a6ec25f2
BW
1655* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1656recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1657is not supported.
1658
6dd09645
JB
1659* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1660frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1661
c9bb8148
DJ
1662* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
166332-bit or 64-bit register values.
1664
0d5de010
DJ
1665* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1666
23181151
DJ
1667* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1668target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1669a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1670
ea37ba09
DJ
1671* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1672automatically displayed as character or string data.
1673
1674* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1675arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1676as strings.
e1f48ead 1677
123dc839
DJ
1678* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1679for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 1680only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 1681
05a4558a
DJ
1682* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1683iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 1684
7c963485
PA
1685* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1686ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1687has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1688
b18be20d
DJ
1689* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1690
0ca420ce
UW
1691* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1692
31d99776
DJ
1693* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1694layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1695segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1696
a4642986
MR
1697* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1698immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1699
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1700* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1701"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1702packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1703where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1704Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
1705
1706* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1707(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
1708
1709* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1710according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 1711
c9bb8148
DJ
1712* New commands
1713
23776285
MR
1714set remoteflow
1715show remoteflow
1716 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1717 when debugging using remote targets.
1718
c9bb8148
DJ
1719set mem inaccessible-by-default
1720show mem inaccessible-by-default
1721 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1722 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1723 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1724 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1725 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1726
1727set breakpoint auto-hw
1728show breakpoint auto-hw
1729 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1730 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1731 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1732 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1733 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1734 including "next" and "finish".
1735
0e420bd8
JB
1736catch exception
1737catch exception unhandled
1738 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1739
1740catch assert
1741 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1742
f822c95b
DJ
1743set sysroot
1744show sysroot
1745 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1746 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1747 an alias to "set sysroot".
1748
83cc5c53
UW
1749info spu
1750 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1751 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1752 architecture.
1753
bd372731
MK
1754* New native configurations
1755
1756OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1757
23181151
DJ
1758set tdesc filename
1759unset tdesc filename
1760show tdesc filename
1761 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1762 not query the target for its built-in description.
1763
c9bb8148
DJ
1764* New targets
1765
54fe9172 1766OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 1767MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 1768Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 1769
6dd09645
JB
1770* New remote packets
1771
1772QPassSignals:
1773 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1774 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1775
23181151
DJ
1776qXfer:features:read:
1777 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1778 features.
6dd09645 1779
83cc5c53
UW
1780qXfer:spu:read:
1781qXfer:spu:write:
1782 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1783 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1784
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1785qXfer:libraries:read:
1786 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1787 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1788 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1789 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1790
483367ee
DJ
1791* Removed targets
1792
1793Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1794
d08950c4
UW
1795alpha*-*-osf1*
1796alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 1797d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
1798hppa*-*-hiux*
1799i[34567]86-ncr-*
1800i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1801i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1802i[34567]86-*-netware*
1803i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1804i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1805i[34567]86-*-sco*
1806i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1807i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1808i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1809i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1810i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1811i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1812i[34567]86-*-isc*
1813m68*-cisco*-*
1814m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 1815mips*-*-pe
483367ee 1816rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 1817sh*-*-pe
483367ee 1818
7ce59000
DJ
1819* Other removed features
1820
1821target abug
1822target cpu32bug
1823target est
1824target rom68k
1825
1826 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1827
ea35711c
DJ
1828target hms
1829target e7000
1830target sh3
1831target sh3e
1832
1833 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1834 H8/300.
1835
1836target ocd
1837
1838 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1839 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1840 interfaces.
1841
7ce59000
DJ
1842DWARF 1 support
1843
1844 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1845 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1846
54d61198
DJ
1847Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1848
1849 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1850 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1851 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1852 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1853
ea35711c
DJ
1854MIPS ".pdr" sections
1855
1856 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1857 in debugging information.
1858
1859Scheme support
1860
1861 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1862 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1863
1a69e1e4
DJ
1864set mips stack-arg-size
1865set mips saved-gpreg-size
1866
1867 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1868
6dd09645 1869*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 1870
ca3bf3bd
DJ
1871* New targets
1872
1873Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 1874Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 1875
6aec2e11
DJ
1876* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1877(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1878running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1879
1880* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1881Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1882supported.
1883
17218d91
DJ
1884* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1885broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1886
9ebce043
DJ
1887* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1888stub provides the required support.
1889
7d3d3ece
DJ
1890* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1891longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1892
4f8253f3
JB
1893* New commands
1894
1895set substitute-path
1896unset substitute-path
1897show substitute-path
1898 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1899 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1900 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1901 between compilation and debugging.
1902
9fa66fd7
AS
1903set trace-commands
1904show trace-commands
1905 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1906 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1907 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1908
1f5befc1
DJ
1909* REMOVED features
1910
1911The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1912
2ec3381a
DJ
1913Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1914an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1915
3d00d119
DJ
1916The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1917
be2a5f71
DJ
1918* New remote packets
1919
1920qSupported:
1921 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1922 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1923 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1924 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1925 target.
1926
0876f84a
DJ
1927qXfer:auxv:read:
1928 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1929 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1930
9ebce043
DJ
1931qXfer:memory-map:read:
1932 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1933 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1934
1935vFlashErase:
1936vFlashWrite:
1937vFlashDone:
1938 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1939
0876f84a
DJ
1940* Removed remote packets
1941
1942qPart:auxv:read:
1943 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1944 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1945
e374b601 1946*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 1947
96309189
MS
1948* New targets
1949
1950Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1951
1952Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1953
53e5f3cf
AS
1954* New commands
1955
1956init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1957 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1958
ac264b3b
MS
1959The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1960
1961checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1962
1963restart <n> Return the program state to a
1964 previously saved state.
1965
1966info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1967
1968delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1969
1970set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1971 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1972
1973info forks List forks of the user program that
1974 are available to be debugged.
1975
1976fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1977 forks of the user program that are
1978 available to be debugged.
1979
1980delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1981 that are available to be debugged (and
1982 kill the forked process).
1983
1984detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1985 that are available to be debugged (and
1986 allow the process to continue).
1987
3950dc3f
NS
1988* New architecture
1989
1990Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1991
0ea3f30e
DJ
1992* Improved Windows host support
1993
1994GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1995native console support, and remote communications using either
1996network sockets or serial ports.
1997
f79daebb
GM
1998* Improved Modula-2 language support
1999
2000GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2001basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2002pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2003printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2004written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2005GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2006
acab6ab2
MM
2007* REMOVED features
2008
2009The ARM rdi-share module.
2010
f4267320
DJ
2011The Netware NLM debug server.
2012
53e5f3cf 2013*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 2014
e0ecbda1
MK
2015* New native configurations
2016
02a677ac 2017OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
2018OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2019
d64a6579
KB
2020* New targets
2021
2022Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2023
b33a6190
AS
2024* New command line options
2025
2026--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2027--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2028 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2029--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2030 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2031 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2032 with the --command (-x) option.
2033
11dced61
AC
2034* Deprecated commands removed
2035
2036The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2037removed:
2038
2039 Command Replacement
2040 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2041 othernames set arm disassembler
2042 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2043 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2044 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2045 regs info registers
2046
6fe85783
MK
2047* New BSD user-level threads support
2048
2049It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2050library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2051configurations are:
2052
2053FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2054FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2055OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2056
2057Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2058are not yet supported.
2059
5260ca71
MS
2060* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2061(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2062
e84ecc99
AC
2063* REMOVED configurations and files
2064
2065VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 2066Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 2067National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 2068
31e35378
JB
2069* New "set print array-indexes" command
2070
2071After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2072when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2073behavior.
2074
e85e5c83
MK
2075* VAX floating point support
2076
2077GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2078
d91e9901
AS
2079* User-defined command support
2080
2081In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2082to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2083section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2084
f2cb65ca
MC
2085*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2086
f47b1503
AS
2087* New command line option
2088
2089GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2090debugging.
2091
f2cb65ca
MC
2092* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2093
2094GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2095information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2096by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2097proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2098to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 2099
d08c0230
AC
2100* Internationalization
2101
2102When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2103internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2104continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2105
117ea3cf
PH
2106* Ada
2107
2108Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2109implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2110into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2111
d08c0230
AC
2112* New native configurations
2113
2114GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2115
2116* Remote 'p' packet
2117
2118GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2119packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2120
2121* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2122
2123GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2124The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2125features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2126i386 application).
2127
2128GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2129compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2130continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2131configurations:
2132
2133hppa-*-hpux
2134ia64-*-aix
2135mips-*-irix*
2136*-*-lynx
2137mips-*-linux-gnu
2138sds protocol
2139xdr protocol
2140powerpc bdm protocol
2141
2142Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2143made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2144
2145* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2146
2147Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2148been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2149configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2150permanently REMOVED.
2151
2152h8300-*-*
2153mcore-*-*
2154mn10300-*-*
2155ns32k-*-*
2156sh64-*-*
2157v850-*-*
2158
ebb7c577
AC
2159*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2160
2161* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2162
2163When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2164heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2165been fixed.
2166
2167* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2168
2169When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2170fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2171IRIX long double values).
2172
2173* VAX and "next"
2174
2175A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2176command. This problem has been fixed.
2177
860660cb 2178*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 2179
0dea2468
AC
2180* Fix for ``many threads''
2181
2182On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2183rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2184error message:
2185
2186 ptrace: No such process.
2187 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2188
2189This problem has been fixed.
2190
2c07db7a
AC
2191* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2192
2193Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2194GDB to dump core).
2195
c23968a2
JB
2196* New ``start'' command.
2197
2198This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2199
71009278
MK
2200* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2201
2202Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2203live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2204platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2205
2206FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2207FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2208NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2209NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2210NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2211OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2212OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2213OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2214OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2215
3c0b7db2
AC
2216* Signal trampoline code overhauled
2217
2218Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2219These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2220of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2221call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2222signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2223
73cc75f3
AC
2224Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2225features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2226include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 2227
7243600a
BF
2228* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2229
6f606e1c
MK
2230* New native configurations
2231
97dc871c 2232GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 2233OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
2234OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2235OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 2236OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2237NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 2238OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2239
a1b461bf
AC
2240* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2241
2242GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2243The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2244including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2245migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2246compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2247work, was also included.
2248
2249GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2250module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2251
2252h8300-*-*
2253mcore-*-*
2254mn10300-*-*
2255ns32k-*-*
2256sh64-*-*
2257v850-*-*
2258xstormy16-*-*
2259
2260Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2261made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2262
3c7012f5
AC
2263* REMOVED configurations and files
2264
2265Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2266Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2267Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2268Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2269Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2270AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2271Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2272decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2273riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2274sonymips mips-sony-*
2275sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2276
e5fe55f7
AC
2277*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2278
2279* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2280
2281The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2282GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2283command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2284program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2285with GDB".
2286
2287* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2288
2289Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2290libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2291cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2292GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2293shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2294the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2295are created.
2296
2297Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2298
2299* Fixed ISO-C build problems
2300
2301The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2302non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2303compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2304
2305* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2306
2307Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2308wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2309
2310* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2311
2312The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2313permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2314systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2315
2316* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2317
2318Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2319has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2320
2321* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2322
2323GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2324its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2325panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2326
2327* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2328
2329When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2330by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2331not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2332
faae5abe 2333*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 2334
9175c9a3
MC
2335* Removed --with-mmalloc
2336
2337Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2338conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2339
3cc87ec0
MK
2340* Changes in AMD64 configurations
2341
2342The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2343the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2344and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2345you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2346
f0424ef6
MK
2347* Revised SPARC target
2348
2349The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2350FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
2351support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2352from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2353(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 2354
59659be2
ILT
2355* New C++ demangler
2356
2357GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2358names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2359with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2360programs.
2361
9e08b29b
DJ
2362* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2363
2364GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2365arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2366encountered these.
2367
8dfe8985
DC
2368* C++ nested types and namespaces
2369
2370GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2371improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2372is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2373Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2374namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2375"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2376frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2377if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2378GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2379
cced5e27
MK
2380* New native configurations
2381
2382NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 2383OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 2384OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
2385OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2386OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 2387
b4b4b794
KI
2388* New debugging protocols
2389
2390M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2391
7989c619
AC
2392* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2393
2394The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2395and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2396tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2397
5994185b
AC
2398* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2399
2400Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2401been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2402configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2403permanently REMOVED.
2404
2405Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2406Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2407Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2408Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2409Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2410AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2411Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
2412decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2413riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2414sonymips mips-sony-*
2415sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 2416
0ddabb4c
AC
2417* REMOVED configurations and files
2418
2419SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2420SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
2421Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2422Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2423H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2424HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2425HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2426HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2427PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 2428386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
2429Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2430 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2431 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
2432SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2433SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
2434Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2435Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 2436
c7f1390e
DJ
2437*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2438
1fe43d45
AC
2439* Objective-C
2440
2441Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2442integrated into GDB.
2443
e6beb428
AC
2444* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2445
2446DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2447information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2448By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2449backtraces.
2450
2451The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2452have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2453DWARF 2 CFI support.
2454
2455* Hosted file I/O.
2456
2457GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2458file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2459remote protocol documentation for details.
2460
2461* All targets using the new architecture framework.
2462
2463All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2464architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2465to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2466ppc32 on ppc64).
2467
2468* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2469
2470GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2471per-thread variables.
2472
2473* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2474
2475GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2476GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2477
2478* Separate debug info.
2479
2480GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2481automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2482of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2483system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2484and optional debug files.
2485
2486* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2487
2488DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2489describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2490debugger.
2491
2492GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2493for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2494
2495* Java
2496
2497A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2498Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2499considered "useable".
2500
85f8f974
DJ
2501* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2502
2503The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2504commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2505kernel.
2506
0fac0b41
DJ
2507* GDB supports logging output to a file
2508
2509There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2510used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 2511
6ad8ae5c
DJ
2512* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2513
2514The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2515disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2516command.
2517
e286caf2 2518* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
2519
2520The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2521registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2522
d28f9cdf
DJ
2523* Profiling support
2524
2525A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2526be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2527session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2528"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2529data, for more informative profiling results.
2530
da0f9dcd
AC
2531* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2532
2533The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2534option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 2535"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
2536
2537Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2538removed.
2539
fb9b6b35
JJ
2540Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2541Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2542Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2543 in a subsequent -var-update.
2544
954a4db8
MK
2545* New native configurations.
2546
2547FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2548
6760f9e6
JB
2549* Multi-arched targets.
2550
b4263afa 2551HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 2552Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 2553
1b831c93
AC
2554* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2555
2556Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2557been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2558configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2559permanently REMOVED.
2560
8b0e5691 2561Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 2562Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 2563H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
2564HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2565HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2566HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 2567PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
2568Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2569 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2570 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
2571Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2572Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 2573
5835abe7
NC
2574* REMOVED configurations and files
2575
2576V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
2577Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2578IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2579i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2580i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2581i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2582HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2583 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2584 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2585Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2586Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2587Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2588OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2589I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 2590
a094c6fb
AC
2591* MIPS $fp behavior changed
2592
2593The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2594the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2595context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2596address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2597The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2598
299ffc64 2599*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 2600
46248966
AC
2601* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2602
2603When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2604`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2605in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2606library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2607shared libs like mad''.
2608
b9d14705 2609* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 2610
b9d14705
DJ
2611Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2612the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2613arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2614powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 2615
e0e9281e
JB
2616* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2617
2618GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2619and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2620they expand.
2621
dd73b9bb
AC
2622The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2623invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2624
2625The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2626macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2627
e0e9281e
JB
2628Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2629information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2630your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2631information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2632
2250ee0c
CV
2633* Multi-arched targets.
2634
6e3ba3b8
JT
2635DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2636DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 2637NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 2638National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
2639Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2640Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 2641
cd9bfe15 2642* New targets.
e33ce519 2643
456f8b9d
DB
2644Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2645
e33ce519 2646
da8ca43d
JT
2647* New native configurations
2648
2649Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 2650SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 2651MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 2652UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 2653
cd9bfe15
AC
2654* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2655
2656Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2657been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2658configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2659permanently REMOVED.
2660
92eb23c5 2661Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 2662OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 2663IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 2664Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 2665Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 2666Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
2667i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2668i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2669i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
2670HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2671 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2672 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 2673I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 2674
db034ac5
AC
2675* OBSOLETE languages
2676
2677CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2678
cd9bfe15
AC
2679* REMOVED configurations and files
2680
2681AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2682A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2683AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2684AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2685AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2686
2687testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2688
20f01a46
DH
2689* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2690
2691This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2692commands. The default is 1024.
2693
a5941fbf
MK
2694* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2695
2696Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2697
89743e04
MS
2698* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2699
2700These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2701to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2702from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 2703
9fb14e79
JB
2704* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2705
2706The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2707including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2708of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2709
2037aebb
AC
2710*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2711
2712* New targets.
2713
2714Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2715
2716* Bug fixes
2717
2718gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2719mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2720Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2721
2722gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2723dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2724Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2725
2726Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2727Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2728By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2729
2730i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2731avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2732By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2733
37057839 2734*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 2735
1a703748
MS
2736* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2737
2738This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2739really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2740In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2741target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2742This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2743(notably embedded) targets.
2744
cefd4ef5
MS
2745* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2746
55241689
AC
2747This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2748process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2749GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2750hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 2751
352ed7b4
MS
2752* New command line option
2753
2754GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2755
2756* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2757
2758There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2759command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2760a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2761be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2762open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2763issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2764a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2765it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2766GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2767is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2768
fe419ffc
RE
2769* Changes in ARM configurations.
2770
2771Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2772configuration is fully multi-arch.
2773
eb7cedd9
MK
2774* New native configurations
2775
fe419ffc 2776ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 2777x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 2778AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 2779Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 2780
c9f63e6b
CV
2781* New targets
2782
2783Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2784
9b4ff276
AC
2785* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2786
2787Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2788been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2789configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2790permanently REMOVED.
2791
2792AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2793A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2794AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2795AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2796AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2797
b4ceaee6 2798testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 2799
e2caac18
AC
2800* REMOVED configurations and files
2801
2802TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 2803WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
2804PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2805PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2806PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 2807Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
2808Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2809 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 2810SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 2811Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
2812Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2813ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 2814Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 2815
c2a727fa
TT
2816* Changes to command line processing
2817
2818The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2819for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2820
467d8519
TT
2821* Changes to key bindings
2822
2823There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2824
7072a954
AC
2825*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2826
2827Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2828
2829Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2830corrupted.
2831
2832Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2833
2834Numerous documentation fixes.
2835
2836Numerous testsuite fixes.
2837
34f47bc4 2838*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
2839
2840* New native configurations
2841
2842Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2843x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 2844MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
2845MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2846ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 2847s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 2848
bf64bfd6
AC
2849* New targets
2850
def90278 2851Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 2852CRIS cris-axis
55241689 2853UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 2854
17e78a56 2855* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
2856
2857x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 2858Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
2859Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2860 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
2861TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2862WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 2863Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
2864PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2865PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2866PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 2867SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
2868Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2869ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 2870Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 2871
17e78a56
AC
2872stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2873kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2874
7fcca85b
AC
2875Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2876been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2877configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2878permanently REMOVED.
2879
a196c81c 2880* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
2881
2882Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2883Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2884Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2885ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2886Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 2887ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 2888
6d6b80e5 2889* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 2890
6d6b80e5 2891GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
2892sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2893present.
2894
bf64bfd6
AC
2895* Other news:
2896
e23194cb
EZ
2897* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2898
2899* The MI enabled by default.
2900
2901The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2902revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2903engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2904using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2905which is now deprecated.
2906
2907* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2908
2909GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2910main features are supported:
2911
2912 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2913
2914 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2915 extension;
2916
2917 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2918
2919 - a Pascal expression parser.
2920
2921However, some important features are not yet supported.
2922
2923 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2924
2925 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2926
2927 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2928 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2929
2930 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2931
2932 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2933
2934* Changes in completion.
2935
2936Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2937to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2938users expect at the shell prompt.
2939
2940Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2941`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2942program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2943files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2944be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2945considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2946name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2947
2948`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2949
2950* New platform-independent commands:
2951
2952It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2953hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2954documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2955
2956* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2957
d7275149
MK
2958Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2959revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2960many threads as your system allows you to have.
2961
e23194cb
EZ
2962Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2963
d7275149
MK
2964Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2965multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
2966
2967* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
2968
2969Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2970
e23194cb
EZ
2971GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2972debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2973supported.)
2974
2975* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2976
2977Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2978breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2979implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2980put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2981and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2982registers.
2983
2984The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2985debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2986watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2987
2988* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2989
2990New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2991the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2992
2993New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2994display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2995IDT.
2996
2997New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2998from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2999New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3000a given linear address.
3001
3002GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3003program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3004which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3005
3006DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3007
6c56c069
EZ
3008It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3009
e23194cb
EZ
3010* Changes in documentation.
3011
3012All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3013Documentation License.
3014
3015Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3016manual.
3017
3018TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3019
3020Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3021manual.
3022
3023The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3024documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3025hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3026
5d6640b1
AC
3027* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3028
3029The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3030``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3031contents of this file.
3032
1a1d8446
AC
3033* gdba.el deleted
3034
3035GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 3036
9debab2f 3037*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 3038
c63ce875
EZ
3039* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3040
3041Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3042programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3043displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3044greater level of detail.
3045
3046* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3047
3048It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3049bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3050on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3051written.
3052
3053* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3054
3055The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3056necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3057machines ``out of the box''.
3058
3059The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3060possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3061signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3062would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3063interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3064
3065It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3066standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3067even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3068and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3069terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3070
3071The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3072enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3073also works.
3074
3075DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3076GDB.
3077
3078It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3079directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3080times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3081breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3082
ed9a39eb
JM
3083* New native configurations
3084
3085ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 3086PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 3087
7a292a7a
SS
3088* New targets
3089
96baa820 3090Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
3091x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3092PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
3093TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3094
085dd6e6
JM
3095* OBSOLETE configurations
3096
3097Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3098Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 3099Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 3100ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 3101Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 3102
9debab2f
AC
3103Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3104but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3105these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3106be permanently REMOVED.
3107
5330533d
SS
3108* Gould support removed
3109
3110Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3111
bc9e5bbf
AC
3112* New features for SVR4
3113
3114On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3115without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3116load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3117
3118* Many C++ enhancements
3119
3120C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3121in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3122
adf40b2e
JM
3123* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3124
3125A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3126sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3127with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3128``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3129
3130 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3131 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3132
43e526b9
JM
3133* MIPS 64 remote protocol
3134
3135A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3136expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3137instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3138
3139The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3140added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3141
96baa820
JM
3142* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3143
3144The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3145``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3146include ``set remote P-packet''.
3147
11cf8741
JM
3148* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3149
3150The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3151accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3152``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3153
7876dd43
DB
3154* ``apropos'' command added.
3155
3156The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3157documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3158try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3159
bc9e5bbf
AC
3160* New MI interface
3161
3162A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3163interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
3164process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3165"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3166enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
3167
3168 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3169
c906108c
SS
3170*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3171
3172* New native configurations
3173
3174HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3175HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 3176M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
3177
3178* New targets
3179
3180Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3181Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3182Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3183
3184* OBSOLETE configurations
3185
3186Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3187
3188Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3189but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3190these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3191be permanently REMOVED.
3192
3193* ANSI/ISO C
3194
3195As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3196buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3197containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3198use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3199available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3200configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3201information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3202already.
3203
3204* Readline 2.2
3205
3206GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3207
3208* set extension-language
3209
3210You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3211languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3212you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3213 set extension-language .c c++
3214The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3215and their associated languages.
3216
3217* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3218
3219When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3220you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3221PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3222
3223 set processor NAME
3224
3225sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3226following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3227
3228 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3229 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3230 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3231 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3232 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3233 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3234 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3235 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3236 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3237 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3238 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3239
3240At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3241special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3242registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3243only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3244
3245* HP-UX support
3246
3247Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3248more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3249library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3250support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3251for xdb and dbx commands.
3252
3253* Catchpoints
3254
3255HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3256generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3257to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3258
3259This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3260argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3261output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3262
3263* Debugging across forks
3264
3265On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3266in the inferior.
3267
3268* TUI
3269
3270HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3271it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3272configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3273
3274* GDB remote protocol additions
3275
3276A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3277Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3278fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3279allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3280
3281For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3282full 64-bit address. The command
3283
3284 set remoteaddresssize 32
3285
3286can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3287the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3288will be discarded.
3289
3290In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3291command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3292
3293 maint packet heythere
3294
3295sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3296disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3297time.
3298
3299The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3300target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3301downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3302
3303* Tracing can collect general expressions
3304
3305You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3306further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3307doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3308
3309* mask-address variable for Mips
3310
3311For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3312a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3313of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3314
3315* Higher serial baud rates
3316
3317GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3318230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3319to achieve all of these rates.)
3320
3321* i960 simulator
3322
3323The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3324builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3325
3326
3327*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3328
3329* New native configurations
3330
3331Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3332Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3333Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3334PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3335PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3336Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3337Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3338
3339* New targets
3340
3341Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3342Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3343Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3344Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3345MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3346MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3347MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3348Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3349Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3350Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3351NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3352
3353* New debugging protocols
3354
3355ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3356M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3357DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3358PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3359PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3360Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3361
3362* DWARF 2
3363
3364All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3365format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3366information.
3367
3368* Java frontend
3369
3370GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3371only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3372
3373* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3374
3375For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3376loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3377locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3378
3379* Live range splitting
3380
3381GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3382range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3383more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3384
3385* Hurd support
3386
3387GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3388updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3389
3390* ARM Thumb support
3391
3392GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3393instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3394instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3395accordingly.
3396
3397* MIPS16 support
3398
3399GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3400instruction set.
3401
3402* Overlay support
3403
3404GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3405linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3406will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3407control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3408additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3409in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3410
3411* info symbol
3412
3413The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3414the symbol at the specified address.
3415
3416* Trace support
3417
3418The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3419asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3420extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3421includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3422file tracepoint.c for more details.
3423
3424* MIPS simulator
3425
3426Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3427by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3428of most MIPS variants.
3429
3430* Sparc simulator
3431
3432Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3433by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3434Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3435
3436* set architecture
3437
3438For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3439basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3440architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3441the possible architectures.
3442
3443*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3444
3445* New native configurations
3446
3447Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3448M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3449PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3450PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3451PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3452RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3453
3454* New targets
3455
3456ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3457I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3458MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3459MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3460PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3461Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
3462Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3463
3464* PowerPC simulator
3465
3466The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3467contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3468PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3469basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3470performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3471
3472* Solaris 2.5
3473
3474GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3475
3476* Windows 95/NT native
3477
3478GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3479To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3480which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3481Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3482ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3483
3484* dont-repeat command
3485
3486If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3487command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3488useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3489extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3490
3491* Send break instead of ^C
3492
3493The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3494rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3495GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3496
3497* Remote protocol timeout
3498
3499The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3500that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3501to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3502
3503* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3504
3505By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3506loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3507stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3508when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3509in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3510
3511Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3512/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3513automatically on hpux10.
3514
3515* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3516
3517Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3518
3519* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3520
3521When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3522may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3523the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3524every character. The default value is 1050.
3525
3526* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3527
3528If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3529a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3530replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3531details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3532remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3533to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3534
3535* Speedups for remote debugging
3536
3537GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3538the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3539and more efficient S-record downloading.
3540
3541* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3542
3543GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3544Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3545
3546*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3547
3548* Psymtabs for XCOFF
3549
3550The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3551can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3552
3553* Remote targets use caching
3554
3555Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3556remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3557it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3558debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3559off' turns the the data cache off.
3560
3561* Remote targets may have threads
3562
3563The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3564in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3565gdb/remote.c for details.
3566
3567* NetROM support
3568
3569If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3570support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3571acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3572write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3573support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3574another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3575sequence is something like
3576
3577 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3578 load <prog>
3579 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3580
3581* Macintosh host
3582
3583GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3584may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3585it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3586available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3587device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3588directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3589scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3590mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3591
3592* Autoconf
3593
3594GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3595but does simplify configuration and building.
3596
3597* hpux10
3598
3599GDB now supports hpux10.
3600
3601*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3602
3603* New native configurations
3604
3605x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3606x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3607NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3608Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3609
3610* New targets
3611
3612A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3613HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3614CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3615PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3616WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3617
3618* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3619
3620GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3621possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3622filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3623the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3624if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3625
3626* Arguments to user-defined commands
3627
3628User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3629Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3630trivial example:
3631define adder
3632 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3633
3634To execute the command use:
3635adder 1 2 3
3636
3637Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3638Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3639use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3640
3641* New `if' and `while' commands
3642
3643This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3644commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3645expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3646execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3647terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3648`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3649if the expression is zero.
3650
3651* Fortran source language mode
3652
3653GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3654Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3655variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3656with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3657Fortran compilers.
3658
3659* Better HPUX support
3660
3661Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3662running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3663processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3664for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3665that behavior do the following before running the program:
3666
3667 adb -w a.out
3668 __dld_flags?W 0x5
3669 control-d
3670
3671This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3672To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3673
3674 adb -w a.out
3675 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3676 control-d
3677
3678You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3679the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3680external linkage.
3681
3682GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3683HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3684
3685* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3686
3687You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3688commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3689current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3690"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3691associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3692configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3693
3694* New DOS host serial code
3695
3696This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3697no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3698a PC's serial port.
3699
3700*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3701
3702* New "complete" command
3703
3704This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3705were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3706
3707* Trailing space optional in prompt
3708
3709"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3710allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3711
3712* Breakpoint hit counts
3713
3714"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3715has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3716can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3717to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3718less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3719that breakpoint.
3720
3721* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3722
3723"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3724an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3725arrays actually contain only short strings.
3726
3727* Shared library breakpoints
3728
3729In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3730breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3731
3732* Hardware watchpoints
3733
3734There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3735targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3736
55241689 3737Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
3738
3739* Annotations
3740
3741Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3742and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3743
3744* Improved Irix 5 support
3745
3746GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3747
3748* Improved HPPA support
3749
3750GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3751
3752* New native configurations
3753
3754Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3755HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3756Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3757RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3758
3759* New targets
3760
3761OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3762MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3763Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3764
3765* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3766
3767There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3768This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3769
3770* Fixes
3771
3772As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3773and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3774
3775*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3776
3777* Irix 5 is now supported
3778
3779* HPPA support
3780
3781GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3782to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3783GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3784of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3785can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3786
3787
3788*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3789
3790* User visible changes:
3791
3792* Remote Debugging
3793
3794The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3795target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3796debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3797integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3798debugging info for the mips target).
3799
3800* DEC Alpha native support
3801
3802GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3803debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3804work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3805Alpha-specific notes.
3806
3807* Preliminary thread implementation
3808
3809GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3810
3811* LynxOS native and target support for 386
3812
3813This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3814to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3815for details).
3816
3817* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3818
3819This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3820mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3821call methods, ...etc.
3822
3823*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3824
3825 * User visible changes:
3826
3827Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3828supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3829other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3830somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3831
3832Filename completion now works.
3833
3834When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3835arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3836addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3837
3838All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3839vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3840should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3841your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3842to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3843
3844 * DEC alpha support
3845
3846This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3847cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3848
3849
3850*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3851
3852 * Testsuite
3853
3854This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3855The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3856via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3857
3858 * C++ demangling
3859
3860'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3861emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3862Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3863disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3864use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3865
3866 * Simulators
3867
3868GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3869So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3870Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3871
3872 * New targets supported
3873
3874H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3875H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3876SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3877Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3878IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3879
3880Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3881version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3882GO32 memory extender.
3883
3884 * New remote protocols
3885
3886MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3887
3888 * New source languages supported
3889
3890This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3891used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3892into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3893
3894
3895*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3896
3897 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3898
3899GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3900version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3901University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3902compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3903format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3904(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3905
3906Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3907
3908 * Faster and better demangling
3909
3910We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3911demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3912character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3913only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3914This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3915increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3916symbol lookups.
3917
3918`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3919from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3920compiler does not actually implement.
3921
3922 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3923
3924In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3925inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3926recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3927very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3928The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3929circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3930fix.
3931
3932The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3933release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3934
3935 * Improved configure script
3936
3937The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3938you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3939host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3940done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3941
3942We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3943version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3944`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3945The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3946only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3947We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3948
3949 * Documentation improvements
3950
3951There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3952produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3953before submitting changes.
3954
3955The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3956M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3957`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3958you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3959a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3960
3961*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3962We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3963been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3964or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3965`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3966around this problem.
3967
3968 * New features
3969
3970GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3971the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3972`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3973the target program.
3974
3975The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3976how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3977
3978 * New native hosts supported
3979
3980HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3981386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3982
3983 * New targets supported
3984
3985AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3986
3987 * New file formats supported
3988
3989BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3990HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3991
3992 * Major bug fixes
3993
3994Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3995
3996We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3997printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3998
3999We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4000for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4001release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4002
4003You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4004will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4005
4006We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4007for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4008especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4009libraries.
4010
4011The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4012information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4013command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4014any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4015when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4016
4017 * Internal improvements
4018
4019GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4020debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4021
4022GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4023Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4024symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4025contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4026shared code that handles any of them.
4027
4028 * New command line options
4029
4030We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4031
4032 * Mmalloc licensing
4033
4034The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4035General Public License.
4036
4037*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4038
4039 * Host/native/target split
4040
4041GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4042hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4043target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4044local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4045ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4046
4047The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4048GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4049is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4050code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4051any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4052built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4053handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4054
4055GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4056It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4057plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4058
4059 * New hosts supported
4060
4061HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4062386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4063386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4064
4065 * New targets supported
4066
4067Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
406868030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4069
4070 * New native hosts supported
4071
4072386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4073 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4074386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4075
4076 * New file formats supported
4077
4078BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4079supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4080format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4081
4082 * New commands
4083
4084`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4085`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4086These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4087
4088`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4089
4090You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4091scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4092prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4093executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4094
4095 * C++ improvements
4096
4097We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4098info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4099symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4100
4101Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4102
4103 * Major bug fixes
4104
4105The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4106fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4107by the compiler.
4108
4109We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4110support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4111
4112John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4113slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4114that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4115purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4116the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4117mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4118
4119Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4120about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4121completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4122we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4123
4124 * AMD 29k support
4125
4126A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4127specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4128calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4129usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4130in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4131
4132We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4133Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4134of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4135resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4136
4137 * Remote interfaces
4138
4139We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4140with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4141message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4142This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4143needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4144breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4145each instruction being stepped through.
4146
4147The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4148registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4149
4150There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4151find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4152Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4153processor with a serial port.
4154
4155 * Configuration
4156
4157Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4158`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4159supported, and what files each one uses.
4160
4161 * Library changes
4162
4163There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4164disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4165Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4166disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4167
4168The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4169Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4170can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4171grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4172
4173 * Documentation
4174
4175The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4176reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4177as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4178encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4179system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4180bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4181
4182And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4183
4184
4185*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4186
4187 * Better support for C++ function names
4188
4189GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4190names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4191(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4192single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4193Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4194
4195GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4196the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4197You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4198lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4199for the list of formats.
4200
4201 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4202
4203Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4204C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4205directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4206can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4207usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4208about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4209this problem.)
4210
4211 * New 'maintenance' command
4212
4213All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4214the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4215can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4216
4217 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4218 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4219 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4220 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4221 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4222 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4223
4224The following commands are new:
4225
4226 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4227 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4228 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4229
4230 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4231
4232We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4233(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4234be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4235read after argv processing.
4236
4237 * New hosts supported
4238
4239Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4240
55241689 4241GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
4242
4243We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4244is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4245for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4246masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4247fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4248It costs extra.
4249
4250 * New targets supported
4251
4252Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4253
4254 * More smarts about finding #include files
4255
4256GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4257all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4258greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4259especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4260the one that contains your sources.
4261
4262We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4263breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4264try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4265
4266 * Interesting infernals change
4267
4268GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4269section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4270target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4271stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4272
4273 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4274
4275There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4276 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4277 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4278
4279See the ChangeLog for details.
4280
4281*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4282
4283 * New machines supported (host and target)
4284
4285IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4286
4287SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4288
4289 * New malloc package
4290
4291GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4292Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4293capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4294This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4295pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4296more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4297
4298 * info proc
4299
4300The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4301'help info proc' for details.
4302
4303 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4304
4305The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4306Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4307possible.
4308
4309 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4310
4311Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4312support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4313conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4314environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4315that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4316in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4317
4318 * Cross byte order fixes
4319
4320Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4321targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4322
4323 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4324
4325If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4326system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4327`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4328program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4329called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4330Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4331and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4332the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4333option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4334starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4335
4336You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4337the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4338information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4339slower, but makes future operations faster.
4340
4341The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4342build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4343A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4344use is:
4345
4346 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4347
4348The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4349It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4350shared across multiple host platforms.
4351
4352 * longjmp() handling
4353
4354GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4355siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4356all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4357platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4358
4359 * Solaris 2.0
4360
4361Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4362this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4363reading symbols.
4364
4365 * Bug fixes
4366
4367As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4368People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4369crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4370
4371*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4372
4373 * New machines supported (host and target)
4374
4375SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4376 (except core files)
4377BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4378Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4379
4380 * New machines supported (target)
4381
4382AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4383
4384 * C++ support
4385
4386GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4387The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4388per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4389
4390GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4391`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4392extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4393good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4394will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4395released.
4396
4397 * New features for SVR4
4398
4399GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4400shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4401only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4402
4403The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4404on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4405it prints the address mappings of the process.
4406
4407If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4408bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4409
4410 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4411
4412Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4413now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4414skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4415make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4416same code linked statically.
4417
4418 * New Getopt
4419
4420GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4421version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4422continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4423Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4424added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4425future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4426
4427 * Bugs fixed
4428
4429The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4430Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4431See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4432
4433
4434*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4435
4436 * New machines supported (host and target)
4437
4438Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4439NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4440Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4441
4442 * Almost SCO Unix support
4443
4444We had hoped to support:
4445SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4446(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4447that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4448about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4449
4450 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4451
4452GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4453debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4454is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4455send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4456reqired (if any).
4457
4458 * New Readline
4459
4460GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4461is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4462required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4463
4464 * Bugs fixed
4465
4466The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4467Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4468See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4469
4470 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4471
4472GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4473supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4474symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4475
4476Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4477mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4478debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4479mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4480version 2.
4481
4482Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4483really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4484line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4485variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4486situation somewhat.
4487
4488When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4489However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4490methods.
4491
4492We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4493DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4494encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4495
4496
4497*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4498
4499 * Improved configuration
4500
4501Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4502Porting BFD is simpler.
4503
4504 * Stepping improved
4505
4506The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4507of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4508in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4509function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4510
4511 * Bug fixing
4512
4513Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4514
4515 * New host supported (not target)
4516
4517Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4518
4519
4520*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4521
4522 * Multiple source language support
4523
4524GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4525It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4526and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4527language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4528You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4529`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4530
4531 * GDB and Modula-2
4532
4533GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4534currently under development at the State University of New York at
4535Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4536continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4537
4538Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4539debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4540symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4541
4542There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4543in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4544
4545 * set write on/off
4546
4547GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4548a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4549the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4550by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4551effect immediately.
4552
4553 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4554
4555When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4556shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4557The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4558examining core files.
4559
4560 * set listsize
4561
4562You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4563The default is 10.
4564
4565 * New machines supported (host and target)
4566
4567SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4568Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4569Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4570
4571 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4572
4573IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4574
4575 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4576
4577AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4578AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4579Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4580
4581 * New remote interfaces
4582
4583AMD 29000 Adapt
4584AMD 29000 Minimon
4585
4586
4587*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4588
4589 * New Facilities
4590
4591Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4592
4593Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4594target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4595is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4596remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4597remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4598also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4599using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4600stub on the target system.
4601
4602New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4603
4604GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4605library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4606object file types such as a.out and coff.
4607
4608There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4609refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4610
4611
4612 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4613
4614All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4615by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4616
4617For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4618``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4619Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4620
4621What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4622print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4623will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4624all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4625
4626confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4627 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4628 it is already running. Default is ON.
4629
4630editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4631 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4632 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4633 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4634 Default is ON.
4635
4636history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4637 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4638 or the value of the environment variable
4639 GDBHISTFILE.
4640
4641history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4642 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4643 HISTSIZE.
4644
4645history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4646 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4647 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4648
4649history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4650 history expansion will be performed on
4651 command line input. The default is OFF.
4652
4653radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4654 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4655 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4656
4657height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4658 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4659 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4660 variable TERM.
4661
4662width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4663 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4664 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4665 variable TERM.
4666
4667Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4668``set width'' instead.
4669
4670print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4671 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4672 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4673 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4674
4675print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4676 is OFF.
4677
4678print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4679 "raw" form if off.
4680
4681print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4682 like instructions.
4683
4684print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4685
4686
4687 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4688
4689The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4690new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4691are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4692window.
4693
4694
4695 * Support for Shared Libraries
4696
4697GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4698Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4699before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4700happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4701At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4702from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4703shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4704It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4705
4706sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4707 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4708 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4709
4710info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4711
4712
4713 * Watchpoints
4714
4715A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4716expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4717tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4718quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4719problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4720more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4721
4722watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4723
4724info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4725
4726delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4727disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4728enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4729
4730
4731 * C++ multiple inheritance
4732
4733When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4734for C++ programs.
4735
4736 * C++ exception handling
4737
4738Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4739ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4740the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4741handler's context).
4742
4743catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4744 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4745 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4746
4747info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4748 current stack frame.
4749
4750
4751 * Minor command changes
4752
4753The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4754command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4755is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4756
4757The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4758at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4759frames without printing.
4760
4761 * New directory command
4762
4763'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4764The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4765about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4766with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4767find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4768
4769 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4770
4771For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4772for more details.
4773
4774GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4775two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4776Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4777where the program that you are debugging will run.
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