gold: Add sparc IFUNC support to Gold.
[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* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
7 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
8 record/replay support.
9
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10* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
11
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12* Python scripting
13
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14 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
15 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
16
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17 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
18
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19 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
20 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
21
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22 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
23
24 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
25 the source at which the symbol was defined.
26
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27 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
28 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
29 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
30 symbol's value.
31
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32 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
33 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
34
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35* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
36 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
37
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38* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
39 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
40
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41* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
42 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
43 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
44 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
45 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
46 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
47
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48* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
49 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
50 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
51 build/libcpp/expr.c.
52
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53* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
54 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
55
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56* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
57 since December 2007.
58
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59* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
60 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
61 command does. For instance:
62
63 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
64
65 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
66 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
67 created, using the "condition" command.
68
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69* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
70 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
71
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72* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
73
74* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
75 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
76 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
77 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new option
78 --use-deprecated-index-sections will cause GDB to use any older
79 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but
80 the ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost
81 in symbol files with older .gdb_index sections.
82
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83* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
84
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85* New commands
86
87 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
88 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
89
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90 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
91 several hits.
92
57651221 93 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
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94 C++ and Java objects.
95
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96 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
97 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
98 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
99 configured with '--with-python'.
100
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101* New targets
102
103Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 104HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
a58b110a 105
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106* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
107 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
108 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
109 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
110 evaluates to true.
111
112* New options
113
114set breakpoint condition-evaluation
115show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 116 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
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117 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
118 available mode.
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119 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
120 target.
121
122* New remote packets
123
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124z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
125
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126 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
127 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
128 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
129 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
130
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131QProgramSignals:
132
133 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
134 program without GDB involvement.
135
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136* New command line options
137
138--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
139 before loading inferior.
140--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
141 execute it before loading inferior.
142
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143*** Changes in GDB 7.4
144
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145* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
146 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
147 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
148 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
149 inferior changes.
150
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151* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
152 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
153
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154* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
155 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
156 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
157 target hardware watchpoint.
158
159 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
160 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
161 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
162 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
163
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164* Python scripting
165
32d1c362 166 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 167 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
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168 existing one.
169
3a7bf607 170 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
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171 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
172 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
173 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
174 now "message", which just prints the error message without
175 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 176
baacfb07 177 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 178 Python API.
713389e0 179
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180 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
181 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 182 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
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183 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
184 corresponding value.
185
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186 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
187 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
188 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
189 on GDB start-up.
190
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191 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
192 static_block will return the global and static blocks
193 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
194 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
195
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196 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
197
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198 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
199 "gdb.breakpoints".
200
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201 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
202 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
203 available in the CLI.
204
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205 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
206 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
207 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
208 "some_type.items()".
209
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210 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
211 new object file.
212
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213 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
214 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
215 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
216 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
217 any anonymous fields.
218
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219* MI changes
220
221 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
222 "solib-event".
223
224 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
225 "=breakpoint-modified".
226
227 ** New command -ada-task-info.
228
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229* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
230 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
231 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
232 lives.
233
234 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
235 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
236 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
237 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
238 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
239
240 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
241 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
242
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243* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
244 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
245 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
246 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
247 use this option to specify where to find it.
248
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249* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
250 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
251 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
252 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
253 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
254 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
255 section in the user manual for more details.
256
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257* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
258 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
259 become available after that.
260
71eba9c2 261* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 262
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263* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
264 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
265 gcc version 4.7.
266
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267* New commands
268
269!SHELL COMMAND
270 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
271 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
272
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273* Changed commands
274
275watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
276 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
277 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
278
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279info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
280 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
281 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
282
71eba9c2 283info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
284 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
285 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
286 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
287 name starts with a hyphen.
288
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289collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
290 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
291 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
292 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
293 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
294 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
295 number of bytes that will be collected.
296
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297tstart [NOTES]
298 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
299 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
300 setting the variable trace-notes.
301
302tstop [NOTES]
303 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
304 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
305 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
306 trace-stop-notes.
307
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308* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
309 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
310 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
311 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
312 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
313 is running.
314
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315* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
316 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
317 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
318
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319* New options
320
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321set extended-prompt
322show extended-prompt
323 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
324 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
325 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
326 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
327 prompt is displayed.
328
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329set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
330show print entry-values
331 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
332 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
333 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
334
335set debug entry-values
336show debug entry-values
337 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
338 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
339
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340set basenames-may-differ
341show basenames-may-differ
342 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
343 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
344 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
345 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
346 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
347 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
348 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
349 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
350
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351set trace-user
352show trace-user
353set trace-notes
354show trace-notes
355 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
356 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
357 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
358 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
359
360set trace-stop-notes
361show trace-stop-notes
362 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
363 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
364 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
365 started by someone else.
366
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367* New remote packets
368
369QTEnable
370
371 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
372
373QTDisable
374
375 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
376
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377QTNotes
378
379 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
380
381qTP
382
383 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
384
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385qTMinFTPILen
386
387 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
388 be placed.
389
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390* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
391 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
392
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393* New targets
394
395Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
396
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397* New Simulators
398
399Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
400
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401*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
402
403* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
404
d6e00af6 405*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 406
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407* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
408 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
409 matches the given regular expression.
410
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411* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
412
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413* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
414 dumping the instruction opcodes.
415
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416* New command line options
417
418-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
419 This is mostly for testing purposes.
420
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421* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
422 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
423
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424* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
425 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
426 source path list instead of augmenting it.
427
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428* GDB now understands thread names.
429
430 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
431 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
432
433 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
434 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
435
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436* OpenCL C
437 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
438 has been integrated into GDB.
439
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440* Python scripting
441
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442 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
443 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
444 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
445
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446 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
447 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
448 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
449 and allows for more dynamic content.
450
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451 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
452 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
453 have an is_valid method.
454
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455 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
456 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
457 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
458
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459 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
460
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461 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
462 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
463 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
464 that function like so:
465
466 result = some_value (10,20)
467
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468 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
469 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
470 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
471
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472 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
473 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
474 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
475 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
476 New function: register_pretty_printer.
477
478 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
479 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
480
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481 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
482
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483 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
484 selected thread.
485
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486 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
487 holds the thread's name.
488
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489 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
490 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 491 occurring in the process being debugged.
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492 The following events are currently supported:
493 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
494 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
495 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
496
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497* C++ Improvements:
498
499 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
500 instantiation. For example, if you have:
501
502 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
503
504 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
505 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
506 was added to GCC 4.5.
507
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508 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
509 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
510 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
511 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
512 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
513 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
514
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515* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
516 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
517 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
518 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
519 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
520
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521* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
522 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
523 execution to a label.
524
525* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
526 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
527 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
528 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
529
b56df873 530* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 531 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
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532 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
533 of scope.
534
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535* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
536
537 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
538 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
539 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
540 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
541 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
542 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
543
544 (gdb) info threads
545 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
546
547 While now you see this:
548
549 (gdb) info threads
550 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
551
552 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
553 dumps.
554
555 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
556 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
557 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
558 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
559
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560* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
561 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
562 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
563 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
564 section in the user manual for more details.
565
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566* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
567
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568 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
569 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 570
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571 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
572
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573* New native configurations
574
575ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
576
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577* New targets:
578
579Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
580
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581* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
582 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
583 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
584 in the GDB user manual.
585
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586* Guile support was removed.
587
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588* New features in the GNU simulator
589
590 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
591
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592 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
593
76b8507d 594*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 595
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596* Shared library support for remote targets by default
597
598 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
599 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
600 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
601 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
602 was always disabled for such configurations.
603
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604* C++ Improvements:
605
606 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
607
608 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
609 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
610 For example:
611 namespace A
612 {
613 class B { };
614 void foo (B) { }
615 }
616 ...
617 A::B b
618 foo(b)
619 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
620 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
621 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
622
623 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
624
625 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
626 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
627 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
628 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
629 entry.
630 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
631 mentioned flavors of operators.
632
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DE
633 ** static const class members
634
635 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
636 class definition has been fixed.
637
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638* Windows Thread Information Block access.
639
640 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
641 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
642 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
643 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
644 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
645 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
646
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647* Static tracepoints
648
649 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
650 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
651 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
652 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
653 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
654 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
655 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
656 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
657 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
658 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
659 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
660 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
661 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
662 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
663 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
664 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
665 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
666 the "New remote packets" section below.
667
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668* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
669
670 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
671 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
672 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
673 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
674
675* Observer mode
676
677 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
678 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
679 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
680 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
681 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
682 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
683 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
684
685* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
686 current thread.
687
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688* New remote packets
689
690qGetTIBAddr
691
692 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
693
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694qRelocInsn
695
696 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
697 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
698 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
699 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
700 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
701 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
702
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703qTfSTM, qTsSTM
704
705 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
706
707qTSTMat
708
709 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
710 program.
711
712qXfer:statictrace:read
713
714 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
715 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
716 to gdb's qSupported query.
717
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718QAllow
719
720 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
721
722QTDPsrc
723
724 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
725 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
726
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DE
727* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
728 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
729 a directory.
730
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731* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
732
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PA
733 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
734 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
735 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
736 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
737
738 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
739 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
740 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
741 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
742 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
743 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
744 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
745
746 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
747 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 748
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749 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
750
c8d5aac9
L
751* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
752 it understands register description.
753
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TT
754* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
755
8685c86f
L
756* X86 general purpose registers
757
758 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
759 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
760 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
761 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
762 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
763
95a42b64 764* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
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PA
765 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
766 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
767 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
768 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
769 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 770
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CM
771* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
772 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
773 in the specified file.
774
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775* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
776 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
777 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
778 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
779 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
780 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
781 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
782 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
783 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
784 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
785
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786* New commands
787
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HZ
788eval template, expressions...
789 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
790 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
791
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PA
792set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
793show target-file-system-kind
794 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
795 names.
796
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PA
797save breakpoints <filename>
798 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
799 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
800 definitions, use the `source' command.
801
802`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
803is now deprecated.
804
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PA
805info static-tracepoint-markers
806 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
807
808strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
809 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
810 function, line, address, or marker ID.
811
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SS
812set observer on|off
813show observer
814 Enable and disable observer mode.
815
816set may-write-registers on|off
817set may-write-memory on|off
818set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
819set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
820set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
821set may-interrupt on|off
822 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
823 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
824 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
825 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
826 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
827 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
828 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
829
830set record memory-query on|off
831show record memory-query
832 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
833 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
834
53a71c06
CR
835* Changed commands
836
837disassemble
838 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
839
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PM
840* Python scripting
841
9279c692
JB
842** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
843 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
844 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
845 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
846 GDB using Python' in the manual.
847
adc36818 848** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
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849 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
850 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
851 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 852
fa33c3cd 853** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
854 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
855
856** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
857
858** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 859
967cf477
DE
860** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
861
8a1ea21f
DE
862** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
863 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
864 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
865
a7bdde9e
VP
866* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
867there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
868tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
869regular breakpoints.
870
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PA
871* New targets
872
873ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
874
6aecb9c2
JB
875* D language support.
876 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
877 language.
878
431e49aa
TJB
879* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
880 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
881 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
882 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
883 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
884
885* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
886 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
887 conditions of the form:
888
889 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
890
891 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
892 interface mentioned above.
893
bfbf3774 894*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 895
4eef138c
TT
896* C++ Improvements
897
898 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
899
900 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
901 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
902 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
903 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
904 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
905
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TT
906 ** Bug Fixes
907
908 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
909 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
910 qualified name.
911
912 ** Cast Operators
913
914 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
915 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
916
2d1c1221
ME
917* New targets
918
919Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 920Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
921
922* New Simulators
923
924Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 925Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 926
6c95b8df
PA
927* Multi-program debugging.
928
929 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
930 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
931 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
932 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
933 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
934 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
935 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
936 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
937
d5551862
SS
938* New tracing features
939
940 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
941
942 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
943
944 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
945 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
946 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
947 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
948 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
949 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
950 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
951 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
952 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
953 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 954
d5551862 955 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
956
957 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
958 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
959 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
960 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
961 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
962 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
963 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
964 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
965 the regular trace command.
966
d5551862
SS
967 ** Disconnected tracing
968
969 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
970 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
971 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
972 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
973 connection is lost unexpectedly.
974
00bf0b85
SS
975 ** Trace files
976
977 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
978 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
979 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
980 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
981 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
982 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
983 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
984
985 ** Circular trace buffer
986
987 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
988 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
989 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
990 not be available for all target agents.
991
21a0512e
PP
992* Changed commands
993
994disassemble
995 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
996 the arguments to be comma-separated.
997
0fe7935b
DJ
998info variables
999 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1000 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1001
fb2e7cb4
JB
1002source
1003 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1004 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1005 support.
1006
1007 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1008 "set script-extension" (see below).
1009
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PA
1010* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1011
399cd161
MS
1012record save [<FILENAME>]
1013 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1014 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1015
1016record restore <FILENAME>
1017 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1018 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1019
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PA
1020add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1021 Add a new inferior.
1022
1023clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1024 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1025 inferior has loaded.
1026
1027remove-inferior ID
1028 Remove an inferior.
1029
1030maint info program-spaces
1031 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1032
9a7071a8
JB
1033set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1034show remote interrupt-sequence
1035 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1036 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1037 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1038 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1039 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1040
1041set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1042show remote interrupt-on-connect
1043 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1044 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1045 Linux kernel.
1046
1047set remotebreak [on | off]
1048show remotebreak
1049Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1050
f61e138d
SS
1051tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1052 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1053
1054info tvariables
1055 List trace state variables and their values.
1056
1057delete tvariable $NAME ...
1058 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1059
6da95a67
SS
1060teval EXPR, ...
1061 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1062 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1063
7a697b8d
SS
1064ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1065 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1066
b0f02ee9
JK
1067* New expression syntax
1068
1069 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1070 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1071
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PA
1072* New options
1073
1074set follow-exec-mode new|same
1075show follow-exec-mode
1076 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1077 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1078 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1079
236f1d4d
SS
1080set default-collect EXPR, ...
1081show default-collect
1082 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1083 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1084 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1085
d5551862
SS
1086set disconnected-tracing
1087show disconnected-tracing
1088 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1089 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1090 upon disconnection.
1091
4daf5ac0
SS
1092set circular-trace-buffer
1093show circular-trace-buffer
1094 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1095 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1096 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1097 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1098
fb2e7cb4
JB
1099set script-extension off|soft|strict
1100show script-extension
1101 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1102 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1103 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1104 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1105 evaluation failed.
1106 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1107
2b71fc8e
JB
1108set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1109show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1110 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1111 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1112 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1113 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1114 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1115 is on.
1116
de2e5182
TT
1117* Python API Improvements
1118
1119 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1120 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1121 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1122
1123 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1124 `is_base_class' attribute.
1125
1126 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1127
1128 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1129 evaluate an expression.
1130
f61e138d
SS
1131* New remote packets
1132
1133QTDV
1134 Define a trace state variable.
1135
1136qTV
1137 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1138
d5551862
SS
1139QTDisconnected
1140 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1141
4daf5ac0
SS
1142QTBuffer:circular
1143 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1144
d5551862
SS
1145qTfP, qTsP
1146 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1147
2d483d34
MS
1148* Bug fixes
1149
1150Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1151
6e0e5977
JB
1152Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1153much more reliable. In particular:
1154 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1155 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1156 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1157 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1158 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1159 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1160 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1161 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1162 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1163 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1164 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1165 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1166 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1167 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1168 non-threaded programs.
1169
93c26624
JK
1170PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1171This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1172libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1173executable program.
1174
abc7453d 1175*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 1176
4efc6507
DE
1177* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1178dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1179them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1180for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1181"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1182
782b2b07
SS
1183* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1184breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1185or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1186the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1187for tracepoint actions.
1188
53a71c06
CR
1189* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1190raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1191modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 1192
e7a8dbfb
HZ
1193* Process record and replay
1194
1195 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1196 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1197 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1198 execute commands.
1199
64644d9b
MS
1200* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1201step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1202set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1203reverse execution.
1204
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DD
1205* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1206feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
12072.6.28 or later.
1208
6c7a06a3
TT
1209* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1210target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1211char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1212literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1213U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1214`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1215system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1216the installation instructions for more information.
1217
f1838a98
UW
1218* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1219remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1220with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1221the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1222
55333a84
DE
1223* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1224and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1225
7f6a6314
PM
1226* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1227now complete on file names.
1228
65d12d83
TT
1229* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1230completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1231For instance, consider:
1232
1233 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1234 # struct example variable;
1235 (gdb) p variable.
1236
1237If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1238completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1239
edb3359d
DJ
1240* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1241the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1242
2fae03e8
TT
1243* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1244operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1245macros.
1246
47a3467a 1247* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
1248the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1249implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1250
1251* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1252registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1253can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1254and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 1255
08388c79
DE
1256* New remote packets
1257
1258qSearch:memory:
1259 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1260
a6f3e723
SL
1261QStartNoAckMode
1262 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1263 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1264 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1265
d7713ae0
EZ
1266vKill
1267 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1268 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1269
07e059b5
VP
1270qXfer:osdata:read
1271 Obtains additional operating system information
1272
47a3467a
PA
1273qXfer:siginfo:read
1274qXfer:siginfo:write
1275 Read or write additional signal information.
1276
060871df
PA
1277* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1278
1279 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1280 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1281 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1282
c055b101 1283* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 1284DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
1285
1286* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
1287and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1288`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 1289
31fffb02
CS
1290* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1291with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1292
88d8a8e0
JB
1293* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1294
7f99b190
JB
1295* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1296
ccd213ac
DJ
1297* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1298which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1299
1fddbabb 1300* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 1301list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 1302
a0ef4274
DJ
1303* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1304conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1305have also been fixed.
1306
bfb8797a 1307* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
1308From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1309are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 1310
71c25dea
TT
1311* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1312example, given:
1313
1314 template<typename T> class C { };
1315 C<char const *> c;
1316
1317GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1318
1319 ptype C<char const *>
1320 ptype C<char const*>
1321 ptype C<const char *>
1322 ptype C<const char*>
1323
ccd213ac
DJ
1324* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1325
1326 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1327 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1328
7ae0e2a2
UW
1329 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1330 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1331 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1332
a6f3e723
SL
1333 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1334 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1335
da8bd9a3
DJ
1336 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1337 gdbserver.
1338
d70e31dd
DE
1339 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1340 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1341
1342 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1343 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1344 as appropriate.
1345
d57a3c85
TJB
1346* Python scripting
1347
1348 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1349 available is determined at configure time.
1350
d8906c6f
TJB
1351 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1352
aadc346a
JB
1353* Ada tasking support
1354
1355 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1356 been introduced:
1357
1358 info tasks
1359 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1360 info task N
1361 Print detailed information about task number N.
1362 task
1363 Print the task number of the current task.
1364 task N
1365 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1366
adb483fe
DJ
1367* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1368add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1369
2277426b
PA
1370* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1371
1372 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1373 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1374 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1375 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1376 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1377 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1378 below.
1379
08d16641
PA
1380* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1381"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1382information.
1383
e35359c5
UW
1384* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1385to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1386architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1387See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1388more information.
1389
85e747d2
UW
1390* Multi-architecture debugging.
1391
1392 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1393 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1394 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1395 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1396 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1397
1398* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1399use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1400Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1401powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1402--enable-targets configure option.
1403
11ade57a
PA
1404* Non-stop mode debugging.
1405
1406 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1407 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1408 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1409 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1410 section in the user manual for more information.
1411
1412 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1413 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1414 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1415 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1416 extensions on linux targets.
1417
d7713ae0 1418* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 1419
a96d9b2e
SDJ
1420catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1421 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1422 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1423 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1424 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1425 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1426 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1427 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1428 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1429
08388c79
DE
1430find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1431 val1 [, val2, ...]
1432 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1433
d57a3c85
TJB
1434maint set python print-stack
1435maint show python print-stack
1436 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1437
1438python [CODE]
1439 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1440
d7713ae0
EZ
1441macro define
1442macro list
1443macro undef
1444 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1445 interactively.
1446
1447info os processes
1448 Show operating system information about processes.
1449
2277426b
PA
1450info inferiors
1451 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1452
1453inferior NUM
1454 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1455
1456detach inferior NUM
1457 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1458
1459kill inferior NUM
1460 Kill inferior number NUM.
1461
d7713ae0
EZ
1462* New options
1463
3285f3fe
UW
1464set spu stop-on-load
1465show spu stop-on-load
1466 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1467
ff1a52c6
UW
1468set spu auto-flush-cache
1469show spu auto-flush-cache
1470 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1471 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1472
d7713ae0
EZ
1473set sh calling-convention
1474show sh calling-convention
1475 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1476
e0a3ce09 1477set debug timestamp
75feb17d 1478show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
1479 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1480
1481set disassemble-next-line
1482show disassemble-next-line
1483 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1484 the debuggee stops.
1485
1486set remote noack-packet
1487show remote noack-packet
1488 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1489 under "New remote packets."
1490
1491set remote query-attached-packet
1492show remote query-attached-packet
1493 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1494
1495set remote read-siginfo-object
1496show remote read-siginfo-object
1497 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1498 packet.
1499
1500set remote write-siginfo-object
1501show remote write-siginfo-object
1502 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1503 packet.
1504
40ab02ce
MS
1505set remote reverse-continue
1506show remote reverse-continue
1507 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1508
1509set remote reverse-step
1510show remote reverse-step
1511 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1512
d7713ae0
EZ
1513set displaced-stepping
1514show displaced-stepping
1515 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1516 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1517 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1518
1519set debug displaced
1520show debug displaced
1521 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1522
1523maint set internal-error
1524maint show internal-error
1525 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1526
1527maint set internal-warning
1528maint show internal-warning
1529 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 1530
ccd213ac
DJ
1531set exec-wrapper
1532show exec-wrapper
1533unset exec-wrapper
1534 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 1535
aad4b048
JB
1536set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1537show multiple-symbols
1538 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1539 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1540 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1541
74960c60
VP
1542set breakpoint always-inserted
1543show breakpoint always-inserted
1544 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1545 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1546 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1547
0428b8f5
DJ
1548set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1549show arm fallback-mode
1550set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1551show arm force-mode
1552 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1553 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1554 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1555 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1556
10568435
JK
1557set disable-randomization
1558show disable-randomization
1559 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1560 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1561 multiple debugging sessions.
1562
d7713ae0
EZ
1563set non-stop
1564show non-stop
1565 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1566 a breakpoint.
1567
b3eb342c 1568set target-async
d7713ae0 1569show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
1570 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1571 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1572 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1573 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1574
6c7a06a3
TT
1575set target-wide-charset
1576show target-wide-charset
1577 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1578 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1579
84603566
SL
1580set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1581show tcp auto-retry
1582set tcp connect-timeout
1583show tcp connect-timeout
1584 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1585 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1586 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1587
17a37d48
PP
1588set libthread-db-search-path
1589show libthread-db-search-path
1590 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1591 libthread_db.
1592
d4db2f36
PA
1593set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1594show schedule-multiple
1595 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1596 the current process.
1597
4e5d721f
DE
1598set stack-cache
1599show stack-cache
1600 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1601 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1602 affecting correctness.
1603
910c5da8
JB
1604set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1605show interactive-mode
1606 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1607 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1608 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1609 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1610 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1611
2277426b
PA
1612* Removed commands
1613
1614info forks
1615 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1616 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1617 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1618 command.
1619
1620fork NUM
1621 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1622 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1623 alias for the `fork' command.
1624
1625process PID
1626 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1627 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1628 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1629
1630delete fork NUM
1631 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1632 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1633 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1634 fork' command.
1635
1636detach fork NUM
1637 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1638 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1639 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1640 fork' command.
1641
a80b95ba
TG
1642* New native configurations
1643
1644x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1645
b8bfd3ed
JB
1646x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1647
75a2d5e7
TT
1648* New targets
1649
c28c63d8 1650Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 1651x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 1652x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 1653S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 1654
6de3146c
PA
1655* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1656 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1657
d5cbbe6e
JB
1658* Removed commands
1659
1660catch load
1661catch unload
1662 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1663
75feb17d 1664*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 1665
af5ca30d
NH
1666* New native configurations
1667
1668NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 1669Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
1670
1671* New targets
1672
1673NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 1674Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 1675
7a404eba
PA
1676* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1677
1678 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1679 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1680 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1681 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1682
430ebac9
PA
1683* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1684(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1685
fe6fbf8b 1686* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 1687is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
1688
1689* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
1690including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1691and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 1692
10665d76
JB
1693* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1694accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1695more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1696
7cc46491
DJ
1697* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1698
d71340b8
DJ
1699* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1700registers on PowerPC targets.
1701
523c4513
DJ
1702* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1703targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1704
a6b151f1
DJ
1705* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1706commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1707
2d717e4f
DJ
1708* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1709extended-remote mode.
1710
24a836bd 1711* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
1712The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1713error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1714The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 1715
d0c678e6
UW
1716* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1717building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1718target architectures.
1719
d64a946d
TJB
1720* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1721Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1722now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1723stored in two consecutive float registers.
1724
ee163bf5
VP
1725* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1726breakpoints now.
1727
b93b6ca7 1728* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
1729Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1730include:
b93b6ca7
JB
1731 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1732 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1733 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1734 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1735 of an assignment
1736 - Improved command completion in Ada
1737 - Several bug fixes
1738
d001be7a
DJ
1739* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1740process.
1741
a6b151f1
DJ
1742* New commands
1743
6d53d0af
JB
1744set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1745show print frame-arguments
1746 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1747 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1748
a6b151f1
DJ
1749remote put
1750remote get
1751remote delete
1752 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1753
1754* New MI commands
1755
1756-target-file-put
1757-target-file-get
1758-target-file-delete
1759 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1760
1761* New remote packets
1762
1763vFile:open:
1764vFile:close:
1765vFile:pread:
1766vFile:pwrite:
1767vFile:unlink:
1768 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 1769
2d717e4f
DJ
1770vAttach
1771 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1772 mode.
1773
1774vRun
1775 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1776
8d5f9c6f 1777*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 1778
19d378fc
MS
1779* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1780bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1781Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1782
3a40aaa0
UW
1783* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1784symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1785-Bsymbolic linker option.
1786
a6ec25f2
BW
1787* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1788recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1789is not supported.
1790
6dd09645
JB
1791* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1792frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1793
c9bb8148
DJ
1794* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
179532-bit or 64-bit register values.
1796
0d5de010
DJ
1797* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1798
23181151
DJ
1799* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1800target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1801a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1802
ea37ba09
DJ
1803* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1804automatically displayed as character or string data.
1805
1806* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1807arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1808as strings.
e1f48ead 1809
123dc839
DJ
1810* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1811for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 1812only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 1813
05a4558a
DJ
1814* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1815iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 1816
7c963485
PA
1817* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1818ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1819has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1820
b18be20d
DJ
1821* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1822
0ca420ce
UW
1823* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1824
31d99776
DJ
1825* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1826layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1827segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1828
a4642986
MR
1829* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1830immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1831
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1832* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1833"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1834packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1835where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1836Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
1837
1838* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1839(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
1840
1841* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1842according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 1843
c9bb8148
DJ
1844* New commands
1845
23776285
MR
1846set remoteflow
1847show remoteflow
1848 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1849 when debugging using remote targets.
1850
c9bb8148
DJ
1851set mem inaccessible-by-default
1852show mem inaccessible-by-default
1853 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1854 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1855 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1856 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1857 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1858
1859set breakpoint auto-hw
1860show breakpoint auto-hw
1861 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1862 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1863 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1864 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1865 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1866 including "next" and "finish".
1867
0e420bd8
JB
1868catch exception
1869catch exception unhandled
1870 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1871
1872catch assert
1873 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1874
f822c95b
DJ
1875set sysroot
1876show sysroot
1877 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1878 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1879 an alias to "set sysroot".
1880
83cc5c53
UW
1881info spu
1882 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1883 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1884 architecture.
1885
bd372731
MK
1886* New native configurations
1887
1888OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1889
23181151
DJ
1890set tdesc filename
1891unset tdesc filename
1892show tdesc filename
1893 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1894 not query the target for its built-in description.
1895
c9bb8148
DJ
1896* New targets
1897
54fe9172 1898OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 1899MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 1900Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 1901
6dd09645
JB
1902* New remote packets
1903
1904QPassSignals:
1905 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1906 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1907
23181151
DJ
1908qXfer:features:read:
1909 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1910 features.
6dd09645 1911
83cc5c53
UW
1912qXfer:spu:read:
1913qXfer:spu:write:
1914 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1915 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1916
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1917qXfer:libraries:read:
1918 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1919 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1920 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1921 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1922
483367ee
DJ
1923* Removed targets
1924
1925Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1926
d08950c4
UW
1927alpha*-*-osf1*
1928alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 1929d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
1930hppa*-*-hiux*
1931i[34567]86-ncr-*
1932i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1933i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1934i[34567]86-*-netware*
1935i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1936i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1937i[34567]86-*-sco*
1938i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1939i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1940i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1941i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1942i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1943i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1944i[34567]86-*-isc*
1945m68*-cisco*-*
1946m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 1947mips*-*-pe
483367ee 1948rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 1949sh*-*-pe
483367ee 1950
7ce59000
DJ
1951* Other removed features
1952
1953target abug
1954target cpu32bug
1955target est
1956target rom68k
1957
1958 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1959
ea35711c
DJ
1960target hms
1961target e7000
1962target sh3
1963target sh3e
1964
1965 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1966 H8/300.
1967
1968target ocd
1969
1970 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1971 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1972 interfaces.
1973
7ce59000
DJ
1974DWARF 1 support
1975
1976 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1977 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1978
54d61198
DJ
1979Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1980
1981 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1982 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1983 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1984 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1985
ea35711c
DJ
1986MIPS ".pdr" sections
1987
1988 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1989 in debugging information.
1990
1991Scheme support
1992
1993 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1994 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1995
1a69e1e4
DJ
1996set mips stack-arg-size
1997set mips saved-gpreg-size
1998
1999 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2000
6dd09645 2001*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 2002
ca3bf3bd
DJ
2003* New targets
2004
2005Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 2006Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 2007
6aec2e11
DJ
2008* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2009(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2010running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2011
2012* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2013Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2014supported.
2015
17218d91
DJ
2016* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2017broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2018
9ebce043
DJ
2019* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2020stub provides the required support.
2021
7d3d3ece
DJ
2022* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2023longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2024
4f8253f3
JB
2025* New commands
2026
2027set substitute-path
2028unset substitute-path
2029show substitute-path
2030 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2031 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2032 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2033 between compilation and debugging.
2034
9fa66fd7
AS
2035set trace-commands
2036show trace-commands
2037 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2038 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2039 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2040
1f5befc1
DJ
2041* REMOVED features
2042
2043The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2044
2ec3381a
DJ
2045Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2046an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2047
3d00d119
DJ
2048The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2049
be2a5f71
DJ
2050* New remote packets
2051
2052qSupported:
2053 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2054 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2055 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2056 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2057 target.
2058
0876f84a
DJ
2059qXfer:auxv:read:
2060 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2061 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2062
9ebce043
DJ
2063qXfer:memory-map:read:
2064 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2065 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2066
2067vFlashErase:
2068vFlashWrite:
2069vFlashDone:
2070 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2071
0876f84a
DJ
2072* Removed remote packets
2073
2074qPart:auxv:read:
2075 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2076 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2077
e374b601 2078*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 2079
96309189
MS
2080* New targets
2081
2082Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2083
2084Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2085
53e5f3cf
AS
2086* New commands
2087
2088init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2089 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2090
ac264b3b
MS
2091The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2092
2093checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2094
2095restart <n> Return the program state to a
2096 previously saved state.
2097
2098info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2099
2100delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2101
2102set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2103 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2104
2105info forks List forks of the user program that
2106 are available to be debugged.
2107
2108fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2109 forks of the user program that are
2110 available to be debugged.
2111
2112delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2113 that are available to be debugged (and
2114 kill the forked process).
2115
2116detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2117 that are available to be debugged (and
2118 allow the process to continue).
2119
3950dc3f
NS
2120* New architecture
2121
2122Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2123
0ea3f30e
DJ
2124* Improved Windows host support
2125
2126GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2127native console support, and remote communications using either
2128network sockets or serial ports.
2129
f79daebb
GM
2130* Improved Modula-2 language support
2131
2132GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2133basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2134pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2135printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2136written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2137GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2138
acab6ab2
MM
2139* REMOVED features
2140
2141The ARM rdi-share module.
2142
f4267320
DJ
2143The Netware NLM debug server.
2144
53e5f3cf 2145*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 2146
e0ecbda1
MK
2147* New native configurations
2148
02a677ac 2149OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
2150OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2151
d64a6579
KB
2152* New targets
2153
2154Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2155
b33a6190
AS
2156* New command line options
2157
2158--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2159--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2160 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2161--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2162 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2163 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2164 with the --command (-x) option.
2165
11dced61
AC
2166* Deprecated commands removed
2167
2168The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2169removed:
2170
2171 Command Replacement
2172 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2173 othernames set arm disassembler
2174 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2175 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2176 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2177 regs info registers
2178
6fe85783
MK
2179* New BSD user-level threads support
2180
2181It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2182library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2183configurations are:
2184
2185FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2186FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2187OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2188
2189Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2190are not yet supported.
2191
5260ca71
MS
2192* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2193(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2194
e84ecc99
AC
2195* REMOVED configurations and files
2196
2197VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 2198Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 2199National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 2200
31e35378
JB
2201* New "set print array-indexes" command
2202
2203After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2204when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2205behavior.
2206
e85e5c83
MK
2207* VAX floating point support
2208
2209GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2210
d91e9901
AS
2211* User-defined command support
2212
2213In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2214to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2215section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2216
f2cb65ca
MC
2217*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2218
f47b1503
AS
2219* New command line option
2220
2221GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2222debugging.
2223
f2cb65ca
MC
2224* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2225
2226GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2227information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2228by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2229proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2230to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 2231
d08c0230
AC
2232* Internationalization
2233
2234When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2235internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2236continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2237
117ea3cf
PH
2238* Ada
2239
2240Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2241implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2242into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2243
d08c0230
AC
2244* New native configurations
2245
2246GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2247
2248* Remote 'p' packet
2249
2250GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2251packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2252
2253* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2254
2255GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2256The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2257features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2258i386 application).
2259
2260GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2261compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2262continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2263configurations:
2264
2265hppa-*-hpux
2266ia64-*-aix
2267mips-*-irix*
2268*-*-lynx
2269mips-*-linux-gnu
2270sds protocol
2271xdr protocol
2272powerpc bdm protocol
2273
2274Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2275made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2276
2277* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2278
2279Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2280been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2281configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2282permanently REMOVED.
2283
2284h8300-*-*
2285mcore-*-*
2286mn10300-*-*
2287ns32k-*-*
2288sh64-*-*
2289v850-*-*
2290
ebb7c577
AC
2291*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2292
2293* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2294
2295When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2296heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2297been fixed.
2298
2299* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2300
2301When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2302fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2303IRIX long double values).
2304
2305* VAX and "next"
2306
2307A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2308command. This problem has been fixed.
2309
860660cb 2310*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 2311
0dea2468
AC
2312* Fix for ``many threads''
2313
2314On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2315rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2316error message:
2317
2318 ptrace: No such process.
2319 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2320
2321This problem has been fixed.
2322
2c07db7a
AC
2323* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2324
2325Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2326GDB to dump core).
2327
c23968a2
JB
2328* New ``start'' command.
2329
2330This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2331
71009278
MK
2332* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2333
2334Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2335live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2336platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2337
2338FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2339FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2340NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2341NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2342NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2343OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2344OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2345OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2346OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2347
3c0b7db2
AC
2348* Signal trampoline code overhauled
2349
2350Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2351These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2352of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2353call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2354signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2355
73cc75f3
AC
2356Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2357features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2358include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 2359
7243600a
BF
2360* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2361
6f606e1c
MK
2362* New native configurations
2363
97dc871c 2364GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 2365OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
2366OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2367OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 2368OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2369NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 2370OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2371
a1b461bf
AC
2372* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2373
2374GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2375The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2376including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2377migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2378compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2379work, was also included.
2380
2381GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2382module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2383
2384h8300-*-*
2385mcore-*-*
2386mn10300-*-*
2387ns32k-*-*
2388sh64-*-*
2389v850-*-*
2390xstormy16-*-*
2391
2392Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2393made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2394
3c7012f5
AC
2395* REMOVED configurations and files
2396
2397Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2398Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2399Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2400Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2401Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2402AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2403Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2404decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2405riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2406sonymips mips-sony-*
2407sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2408
e5fe55f7
AC
2409*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2410
2411* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2412
2413The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2414GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2415command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2416program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2417with GDB".
2418
2419* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2420
2421Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2422libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2423cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2424GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2425shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2426the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2427are created.
2428
2429Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2430
2431* Fixed ISO-C build problems
2432
2433The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2434non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2435compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2436
2437* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2438
2439Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2440wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2441
2442* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2443
2444The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2445permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2446systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2447
2448* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2449
2450Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2451has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2452
2453* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2454
2455GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2456its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2457panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2458
2459* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2460
2461When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2462by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2463not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2464
faae5abe 2465*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 2466
9175c9a3
MC
2467* Removed --with-mmalloc
2468
2469Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2470conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2471
3cc87ec0
MK
2472* Changes in AMD64 configurations
2473
2474The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2475the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2476and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2477you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2478
f0424ef6
MK
2479* Revised SPARC target
2480
2481The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2482FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
2483support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2484from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2485(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 2486
59659be2
ILT
2487* New C++ demangler
2488
2489GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2490names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2491with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2492programs.
2493
9e08b29b
DJ
2494* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2495
2496GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2497arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2498encountered these.
2499
8dfe8985
DC
2500* C++ nested types and namespaces
2501
2502GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2503improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2504is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2505Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2506namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2507"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2508frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2509if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2510GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2511
cced5e27
MK
2512* New native configurations
2513
2514NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 2515OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 2516OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
2517OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2518OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 2519
b4b4b794
KI
2520* New debugging protocols
2521
2522M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2523
7989c619
AC
2524* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2525
2526The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2527and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2528tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2529
5994185b
AC
2530* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2531
2532Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2533been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2534configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2535permanently REMOVED.
2536
2537Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2538Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2539Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2540Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2541Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2542AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2543Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
2544decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2545riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2546sonymips mips-sony-*
2547sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 2548
0ddabb4c
AC
2549* REMOVED configurations and files
2550
2551SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2552SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
2553Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2554Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2555H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2556HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2557HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2558HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2559PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 2560386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
2561Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2562 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2563 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
2564SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2565SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
2566Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2567Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 2568
c7f1390e
DJ
2569*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2570
1fe43d45
AC
2571* Objective-C
2572
2573Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2574integrated into GDB.
2575
e6beb428
AC
2576* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2577
2578DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2579information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2580By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2581backtraces.
2582
2583The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2584have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2585DWARF 2 CFI support.
2586
2587* Hosted file I/O.
2588
2589GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2590file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2591remote protocol documentation for details.
2592
2593* All targets using the new architecture framework.
2594
2595All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2596architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2597to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2598ppc32 on ppc64).
2599
2600* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2601
2602GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2603per-thread variables.
2604
2605* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2606
2607GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2608GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2609
2610* Separate debug info.
2611
2612GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2613automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2614of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2615system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2616and optional debug files.
2617
2618* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2619
2620DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2621describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2622debugger.
2623
2624GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2625for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2626
2627* Java
2628
2629A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2630Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2631considered "useable".
2632
85f8f974
DJ
2633* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2634
2635The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2636commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2637kernel.
2638
0fac0b41
DJ
2639* GDB supports logging output to a file
2640
2641There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2642used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 2643
6ad8ae5c
DJ
2644* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2645
2646The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2647disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2648command.
2649
e286caf2 2650* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
2651
2652The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2653registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2654
d28f9cdf
DJ
2655* Profiling support
2656
2657A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2658be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2659session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2660"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2661data, for more informative profiling results.
2662
da0f9dcd
AC
2663* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2664
2665The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2666option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 2667"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
2668
2669Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2670removed.
2671
fb9b6b35
JJ
2672Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2673Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2674Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2675 in a subsequent -var-update.
2676
954a4db8
MK
2677* New native configurations.
2678
2679FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2680
6760f9e6
JB
2681* Multi-arched targets.
2682
b4263afa 2683HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 2684Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 2685
1b831c93
AC
2686* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2687
2688Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2689been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2690configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2691permanently REMOVED.
2692
8b0e5691 2693Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 2694Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 2695H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
2696HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2697HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2698HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 2699PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
2700Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2701 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2702 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
2703Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2704Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 2705
5835abe7
NC
2706* REMOVED configurations and files
2707
2708V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
2709Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2710IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2711i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2712i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2713i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2714HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2715 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2716 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2717Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2718Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2719Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2720OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2721I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 2722
a094c6fb
AC
2723* MIPS $fp behavior changed
2724
2725The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2726the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2727context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2728address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2729The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2730
299ffc64 2731*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 2732
46248966
AC
2733* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2734
2735When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2736`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2737in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2738library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2739shared libs like mad''.
2740
b9d14705 2741* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 2742
b9d14705
DJ
2743Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2744the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2745arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2746powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 2747
e0e9281e
JB
2748* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2749
2750GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2751and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2752they expand.
2753
dd73b9bb
AC
2754The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2755invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2756
2757The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2758macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2759
e0e9281e
JB
2760Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2761information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2762your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2763information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2764
2250ee0c
CV
2765* Multi-arched targets.
2766
6e3ba3b8
JT
2767DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2768DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 2769NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 2770National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
2771Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2772Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 2773
cd9bfe15 2774* New targets.
e33ce519 2775
456f8b9d
DB
2776Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2777
e33ce519 2778
da8ca43d
JT
2779* New native configurations
2780
2781Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 2782SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 2783MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 2784UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 2785
cd9bfe15
AC
2786* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2787
2788Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2789been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2790configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2791permanently REMOVED.
2792
92eb23c5 2793Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 2794OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 2795IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 2796Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 2797Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 2798Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
2799i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2800i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2801i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
2802HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2803 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2804 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 2805I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 2806
db034ac5
AC
2807* OBSOLETE languages
2808
2809CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2810
cd9bfe15
AC
2811* REMOVED configurations and files
2812
2813AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2814A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2815AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2816AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2817AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2818
2819testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2820
20f01a46
DH
2821* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2822
2823This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2824commands. The default is 1024.
2825
a5941fbf
MK
2826* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2827
2828Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2829
89743e04
MS
2830* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2831
2832These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2833to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2834from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 2835
9fb14e79
JB
2836* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2837
2838The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2839including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2840of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2841
2037aebb
AC
2842*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2843
2844* New targets.
2845
2846Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2847
2848* Bug fixes
2849
2850gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2851mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2852Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2853
2854gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2855dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2856Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2857
2858Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2859Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2860By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2861
2862i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2863avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2864By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2865
37057839 2866*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 2867
1a703748
MS
2868* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2869
2870This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2871really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2872In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2873target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2874This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2875(notably embedded) targets.
2876
cefd4ef5
MS
2877* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2878
55241689
AC
2879This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2880process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2881GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2882hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 2883
352ed7b4
MS
2884* New command line option
2885
2886GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2887
2888* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2889
2890There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2891command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2892a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2893be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2894open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2895issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2896a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2897it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2898GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2899is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2900
fe419ffc
RE
2901* Changes in ARM configurations.
2902
2903Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2904configuration is fully multi-arch.
2905
eb7cedd9
MK
2906* New native configurations
2907
fe419ffc 2908ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 2909x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 2910AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 2911Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 2912
c9f63e6b
CV
2913* New targets
2914
2915Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2916
9b4ff276
AC
2917* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2918
2919Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2920been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2921configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2922permanently REMOVED.
2923
2924AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2925A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2926AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2927AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2928AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2929
b4ceaee6 2930testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 2931
e2caac18
AC
2932* REMOVED configurations and files
2933
2934TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 2935WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
2936PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2937PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2938PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 2939Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
2940Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2941 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 2942SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 2943Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
2944Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2945ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 2946Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 2947
c2a727fa
TT
2948* Changes to command line processing
2949
2950The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2951for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2952
467d8519
TT
2953* Changes to key bindings
2954
2955There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2956
7072a954
AC
2957*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2958
2959Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2960
2961Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2962corrupted.
2963
2964Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2965
2966Numerous documentation fixes.
2967
2968Numerous testsuite fixes.
2969
34f47bc4 2970*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
2971
2972* New native configurations
2973
2974Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2975x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 2976MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
2977MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2978ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 2979s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 2980
bf64bfd6
AC
2981* New targets
2982
def90278 2983Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 2984CRIS cris-axis
55241689 2985UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 2986
17e78a56 2987* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
2988
2989x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 2990Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
2991Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2992 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
2993TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2994WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 2995Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
2996PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2997PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2998PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 2999SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
3000Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3001ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 3002Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 3003
17e78a56
AC
3004stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3005kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3006
7fcca85b
AC
3007Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3008been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3009configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3010permanently REMOVED.
3011
a196c81c 3012* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
3013
3014Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3015Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3016Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3017ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3018Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 3019ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 3020
6d6b80e5 3021* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 3022
6d6b80e5 3023GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
3024sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3025present.
3026
bf64bfd6
AC
3027* Other news:
3028
e23194cb
EZ
3029* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3030
3031* The MI enabled by default.
3032
3033The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3034revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3035engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3036using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3037which is now deprecated.
3038
3039* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3040
3041GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3042main features are supported:
3043
3044 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3045
3046 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3047 extension;
3048
3049 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3050
3051 - a Pascal expression parser.
3052
3053However, some important features are not yet supported.
3054
3055 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3056
3057 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3058
3059 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3060 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3061
3062 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3063
3064 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3065
3066* Changes in completion.
3067
3068Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3069to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3070users expect at the shell prompt.
3071
3072Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3073`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3074program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3075files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3076be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3077considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3078name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3079
3080`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3081
3082* New platform-independent commands:
3083
3084It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3085hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3086documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3087
3088* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3089
d7275149
MK
3090Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3091revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3092many threads as your system allows you to have.
3093
e23194cb
EZ
3094Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3095
d7275149
MK
3096Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3097multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
3098
3099* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
3100
3101Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3102
e23194cb
EZ
3103GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3104debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3105supported.)
3106
3107* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3108
3109Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3110breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3111implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3112put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3113and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3114registers.
3115
3116The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3117debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3118watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3119
3120* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3121
3122New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3123the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3124
3125New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3126display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3127IDT.
3128
3129New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3130from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3131New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3132a given linear address.
3133
3134GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3135program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3136which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3137
3138DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3139
6c56c069
EZ
3140It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3141
e23194cb
EZ
3142* Changes in documentation.
3143
3144All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3145Documentation License.
3146
3147Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3148manual.
3149
3150TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3151
3152Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3153manual.
3154
3155The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3156documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3157hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3158
5d6640b1
AC
3159* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3160
3161The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3162``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3163contents of this file.
3164
1a1d8446
AC
3165* gdba.el deleted
3166
3167GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 3168
9debab2f 3169*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 3170
c63ce875
EZ
3171* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3172
3173Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3174programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3175displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3176greater level of detail.
3177
3178* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3179
3180It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3181bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3182on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3183written.
3184
3185* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3186
3187The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3188necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3189machines ``out of the box''.
3190
3191The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3192possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3193signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3194would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3195interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3196
3197It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3198standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3199even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3200and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3201terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3202
3203The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3204enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3205also works.
3206
3207DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3208GDB.
3209
3210It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3211directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3212times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3213breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3214
ed9a39eb
JM
3215* New native configurations
3216
3217ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 3218PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 3219
7a292a7a
SS
3220* New targets
3221
96baa820 3222Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
3223x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3224PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
3225TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3226
085dd6e6
JM
3227* OBSOLETE configurations
3228
3229Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3230Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 3231Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 3232ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 3233Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 3234
9debab2f
AC
3235Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3236but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3237these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3238be permanently REMOVED.
3239
5330533d
SS
3240* Gould support removed
3241
3242Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3243
bc9e5bbf
AC
3244* New features for SVR4
3245
3246On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3247without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3248load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3249
3250* Many C++ enhancements
3251
3252C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3253in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3254
adf40b2e
JM
3255* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3256
3257A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3258sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3259with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3260``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3261
3262 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3263 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3264
43e526b9
JM
3265* MIPS 64 remote protocol
3266
3267A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3268expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3269instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3270
3271The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3272added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3273
96baa820
JM
3274* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3275
3276The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3277``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3278include ``set remote P-packet''.
3279
11cf8741
JM
3280* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3281
3282The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3283accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3284``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3285
7876dd43
DB
3286* ``apropos'' command added.
3287
3288The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3289documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3290try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3291
bc9e5bbf
AC
3292* New MI interface
3293
3294A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3295interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
3296process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3297"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3298enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
3299
3300 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3301
c906108c
SS
3302*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3303
3304* New native configurations
3305
3306HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3307HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 3308M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
3309
3310* New targets
3311
3312Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3313Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3314Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3315
3316* OBSOLETE configurations
3317
3318Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3319
3320Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3321but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3322these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3323be permanently REMOVED.
3324
3325* ANSI/ISO C
3326
3327As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3328buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3329containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3330use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3331available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3332configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3333information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3334already.
3335
3336* Readline 2.2
3337
3338GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3339
3340* set extension-language
3341
3342You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3343languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3344you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3345 set extension-language .c c++
3346The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3347and their associated languages.
3348
3349* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3350
3351When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3352you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3353PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3354
3355 set processor NAME
3356
3357sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3358following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3359
3360 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3361 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3362 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3363 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3364 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3365 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3366 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3367 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3368 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3369 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3370 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3371
3372At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3373special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3374registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3375only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3376
3377* HP-UX support
3378
3379Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3380more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3381library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3382support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3383for xdb and dbx commands.
3384
3385* Catchpoints
3386
3387HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3388generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3389to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3390
3391This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3392argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3393output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3394
3395* Debugging across forks
3396
3397On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3398in the inferior.
3399
3400* TUI
3401
3402HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3403it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3404configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3405
3406* GDB remote protocol additions
3407
3408A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3409Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3410fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3411allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3412
3413For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3414full 64-bit address. The command
3415
3416 set remoteaddresssize 32
3417
3418can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3419the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3420will be discarded.
3421
3422In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3423command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3424
3425 maint packet heythere
3426
3427sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3428disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3429time.
3430
3431The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3432target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3433downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3434
3435* Tracing can collect general expressions
3436
3437You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3438further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3439doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3440
3441* mask-address variable for Mips
3442
3443For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3444a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3445of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3446
3447* Higher serial baud rates
3448
3449GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3450230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3451to achieve all of these rates.)
3452
3453* i960 simulator
3454
3455The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3456builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3457
3458
3459*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3460
3461* New native configurations
3462
3463Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3464Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3465Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3466PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3467PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3468Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3469Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3470
3471* New targets
3472
3473Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3474Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3475Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3476Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3477MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3478MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3479MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3480Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3481Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3482Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3483NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3484
3485* New debugging protocols
3486
3487ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3488M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3489DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3490PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3491PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3492Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3493
3494* DWARF 2
3495
3496All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3497format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3498information.
3499
3500* Java frontend
3501
3502GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3503only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3504
3505* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3506
3507For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3508loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3509locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3510
3511* Live range splitting
3512
3513GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3514range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3515more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3516
3517* Hurd support
3518
3519GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3520updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3521
3522* ARM Thumb support
3523
3524GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3525instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3526instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3527accordingly.
3528
3529* MIPS16 support
3530
3531GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3532instruction set.
3533
3534* Overlay support
3535
3536GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3537linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3538will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3539control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3540additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3541in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3542
3543* info symbol
3544
3545The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3546the symbol at the specified address.
3547
3548* Trace support
3549
3550The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3551asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3552extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3553includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3554file tracepoint.c for more details.
3555
3556* MIPS simulator
3557
3558Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3559by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3560of most MIPS variants.
3561
3562* Sparc simulator
3563
3564Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3565by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3566Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3567
3568* set architecture
3569
3570For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3571basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3572architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3573the possible architectures.
3574
3575*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3576
3577* New native configurations
3578
3579Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3580M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3581PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3582PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3583PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3584RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3585
3586* New targets
3587
3588ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3589I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3590MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3591MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3592PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3593Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
3594Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3595
3596* PowerPC simulator
3597
3598The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3599contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3600PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3601basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3602performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3603
3604* Solaris 2.5
3605
3606GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3607
3608* Windows 95/NT native
3609
3610GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3611To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3612which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3613Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3614ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3615
3616* dont-repeat command
3617
3618If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3619command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3620useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3621extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3622
3623* Send break instead of ^C
3624
3625The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3626rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3627GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3628
3629* Remote protocol timeout
3630
3631The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3632that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3633to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3634
3635* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3636
3637By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3638loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3639stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3640when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3641in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3642
3643Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3644/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3645automatically on hpux10.
3646
3647* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3648
3649Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3650
3651* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3652
3653When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3654may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3655the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3656every character. The default value is 1050.
3657
3658* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3659
3660If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3661a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3662replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3663details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3664remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3665to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3666
3667* Speedups for remote debugging
3668
3669GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3670the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3671and more efficient S-record downloading.
3672
3673* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3674
3675GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3676Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3677
3678*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3679
3680* Psymtabs for XCOFF
3681
3682The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3683can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3684
3685* Remote targets use caching
3686
3687Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3688remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3689it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3690debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3691off' turns the the data cache off.
3692
3693* Remote targets may have threads
3694
3695The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3696in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3697gdb/remote.c for details.
3698
3699* NetROM support
3700
3701If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3702support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3703acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3704write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3705support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3706another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3707sequence is something like
3708
3709 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3710 load <prog>
3711 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3712
3713* Macintosh host
3714
3715GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3716may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3717it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3718available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3719device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3720directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3721scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3722mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3723
3724* Autoconf
3725
3726GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3727but does simplify configuration and building.
3728
3729* hpux10
3730
3731GDB now supports hpux10.
3732
3733*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3734
3735* New native configurations
3736
3737x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3738x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3739NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3740Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3741
3742* New targets
3743
3744A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3745HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3746CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3747PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3748WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3749
3750* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3751
3752GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3753possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3754filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3755the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3756if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3757
3758* Arguments to user-defined commands
3759
3760User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3761Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3762trivial example:
3763define adder
3764 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3765
3766To execute the command use:
3767adder 1 2 3
3768
3769Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3770Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3771use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3772
3773* New `if' and `while' commands
3774
3775This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3776commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3777expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3778execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3779terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3780`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3781if the expression is zero.
3782
3783* Fortran source language mode
3784
3785GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3786Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3787variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3788with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3789Fortran compilers.
3790
3791* Better HPUX support
3792
3793Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3794running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3795processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3796for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3797that behavior do the following before running the program:
3798
3799 adb -w a.out
3800 __dld_flags?W 0x5
3801 control-d
3802
3803This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3804To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3805
3806 adb -w a.out
3807 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3808 control-d
3809
3810You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3811the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3812external linkage.
3813
3814GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3815HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3816
3817* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3818
3819You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3820commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3821current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3822"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3823associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3824configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3825
3826* New DOS host serial code
3827
3828This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3829no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3830a PC's serial port.
3831
3832*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3833
3834* New "complete" command
3835
3836This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3837were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3838
3839* Trailing space optional in prompt
3840
3841"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3842allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3843
3844* Breakpoint hit counts
3845
3846"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3847has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3848can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3849to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3850less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3851that breakpoint.
3852
3853* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3854
3855"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3856an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3857arrays actually contain only short strings.
3858
3859* Shared library breakpoints
3860
3861In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3862breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3863
3864* Hardware watchpoints
3865
3866There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3867targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3868
55241689 3869Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
3870
3871* Annotations
3872
3873Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3874and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3875
3876* Improved Irix 5 support
3877
3878GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3879
3880* Improved HPPA support
3881
3882GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3883
3884* New native configurations
3885
3886Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3887HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3888Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3889RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3890
3891* New targets
3892
3893OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3894MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3895Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3896
3897* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3898
3899There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3900This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3901
3902* Fixes
3903
3904As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3905and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3906
3907*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3908
3909* Irix 5 is now supported
3910
3911* HPPA support
3912
3913GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3914to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3915GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3916of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3917can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3918
3919
3920*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3921
3922* User visible changes:
3923
3924* Remote Debugging
3925
3926The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3927target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3928debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3929integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3930debugging info for the mips target).
3931
3932* DEC Alpha native support
3933
3934GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3935debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3936work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3937Alpha-specific notes.
3938
3939* Preliminary thread implementation
3940
3941GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3942
3943* LynxOS native and target support for 386
3944
3945This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3946to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3947for details).
3948
3949* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3950
3951This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3952mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3953call methods, ...etc.
3954
3955*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3956
3957 * User visible changes:
3958
3959Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3960supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3961other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3962somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3963
3964Filename completion now works.
3965
3966When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3967arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3968addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3969
3970All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3971vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3972should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3973your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3974to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3975
3976 * DEC alpha support
3977
3978This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3979cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3980
3981
3982*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3983
3984 * Testsuite
3985
3986This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3987The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3988via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3989
3990 * C++ demangling
3991
3992'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3993emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3994Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3995disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3996use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3997
3998 * Simulators
3999
4000GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4001So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4002Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4003
4004 * New targets supported
4005
4006H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4007H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4008SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4009Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4010IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4011
4012Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4013version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4014GO32 memory extender.
4015
4016 * New remote protocols
4017
4018MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4019
4020 * New source languages supported
4021
4022This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4023used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4024into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4025
4026
4027*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4028
4029 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4030
4031GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4032version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4033University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4034compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4035format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4036(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4037
4038Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4039
4040 * Faster and better demangling
4041
4042We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4043demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4044character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4045only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4046This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4047increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4048symbol lookups.
4049
4050`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4051from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4052compiler does not actually implement.
4053
4054 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4055
4056In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4057inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4058recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4059very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4060The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4061circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4062fix.
4063
4064The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4065release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4066
4067 * Improved configure script
4068
4069The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4070you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4071host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4072done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4073
4074We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4075version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4076`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4077The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4078only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4079We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4080
4081 * Documentation improvements
4082
4083There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4084produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4085before submitting changes.
4086
4087The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4088M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4089`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4090you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4091a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4092
4093*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4094We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4095been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4096or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4097`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4098around this problem.
4099
4100 * New features
4101
4102GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4103the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4104`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4105the target program.
4106
4107The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4108how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4109
4110 * New native hosts supported
4111
4112HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4113386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4114
4115 * New targets supported
4116
4117AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4118
4119 * New file formats supported
4120
4121BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4122HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4123
4124 * Major bug fixes
4125
4126Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4127
4128We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4129printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4130
4131We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4132for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4133release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4134
4135You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4136will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4137
4138We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4139for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4140especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4141libraries.
4142
4143The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4144information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4145command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4146any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4147when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4148
4149 * Internal improvements
4150
4151GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4152debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4153
4154GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4155Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4156symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4157contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4158shared code that handles any of them.
4159
4160 * New command line options
4161
4162We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4163
4164 * Mmalloc licensing
4165
4166The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4167General Public License.
4168
4169*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4170
4171 * Host/native/target split
4172
4173GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4174hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4175target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4176local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4177ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4178
4179The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4180GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4181is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4182code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4183any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4184built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4185handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4186
4187GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4188It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4189plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4190
4191 * New hosts supported
4192
4193HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4194386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4195386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4196
4197 * New targets supported
4198
4199Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
420068030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4201
4202 * New native hosts supported
4203
4204386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4205 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4206386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4207
4208 * New file formats supported
4209
4210BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4211supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4212format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4213
4214 * New commands
4215
4216`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4217`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4218These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4219
4220`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4221
4222You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4223scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4224prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4225executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4226
4227 * C++ improvements
4228
4229We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4230info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4231symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4232
4233Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4234
4235 * Major bug fixes
4236
4237The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4238fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4239by the compiler.
4240
4241We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4242support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4243
4244John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4245slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4246that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4247purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4248the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4249mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4250
4251Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4252about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4253completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4254we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4255
4256 * AMD 29k support
4257
4258A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4259specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4260calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4261usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4262in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4263
4264We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4265Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4266of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4267resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4268
4269 * Remote interfaces
4270
4271We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4272with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4273message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4274This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4275needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4276breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4277each instruction being stepped through.
4278
4279The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4280registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4281
4282There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4283find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4284Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4285processor with a serial port.
4286
4287 * Configuration
4288
4289Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4290`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4291supported, and what files each one uses.
4292
4293 * Library changes
4294
4295There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4296disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4297Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4298disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4299
4300The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4301Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4302can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4303grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4304
4305 * Documentation
4306
4307The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4308reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4309as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4310encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4311system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4312bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4313
4314And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4315
4316
4317*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4318
4319 * Better support for C++ function names
4320
4321GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4322names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4323(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4324single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4325Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4326
4327GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4328the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4329You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4330lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4331for the list of formats.
4332
4333 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4334
4335Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4336C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4337directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4338can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4339usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4340about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4341this problem.)
4342
4343 * New 'maintenance' command
4344
4345All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4346the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4347can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4348
4349 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4350 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4351 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4352 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4353 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4354 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4355
4356The following commands are new:
4357
4358 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4359 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4360 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4361
4362 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4363
4364We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4365(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4366be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4367read after argv processing.
4368
4369 * New hosts supported
4370
4371Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4372
55241689 4373GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
4374
4375We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4376is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4377for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4378masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4379fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4380It costs extra.
4381
4382 * New targets supported
4383
4384Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4385
4386 * More smarts about finding #include files
4387
4388GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4389all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4390greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4391especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4392the one that contains your sources.
4393
4394We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4395breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4396try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4397
4398 * Interesting infernals change
4399
4400GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4401section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4402target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4403stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4404
4405 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4406
4407There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4408 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4409 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4410
4411See the ChangeLog for details.
4412
4413*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4414
4415 * New machines supported (host and target)
4416
4417IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4418
4419SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4420
4421 * New malloc package
4422
4423GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4424Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4425capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4426This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4427pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4428more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4429
4430 * info proc
4431
4432The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4433'help info proc' for details.
4434
4435 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4436
4437The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4438Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4439possible.
4440
4441 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4442
4443Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4444support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4445conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4446environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4447that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4448in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4449
4450 * Cross byte order fixes
4451
4452Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4453targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4454
4455 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4456
4457If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4458system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4459`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4460program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4461called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4462Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4463and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4464the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4465option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4466starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4467
4468You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4469the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4470information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4471slower, but makes future operations faster.
4472
4473The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4474build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4475A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4476use is:
4477
4478 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4479
4480The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4481It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4482shared across multiple host platforms.
4483
4484 * longjmp() handling
4485
4486GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4487siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4488all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4489platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4490
4491 * Solaris 2.0
4492
4493Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4494this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4495reading symbols.
4496
4497 * Bug fixes
4498
4499As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4500People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4501crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4502
4503*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4504
4505 * New machines supported (host and target)
4506
4507SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4508 (except core files)
4509BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4510Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4511
4512 * New machines supported (target)
4513
4514AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4515
4516 * C++ support
4517
4518GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4519The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4520per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4521
4522GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4523`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4524extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4525good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4526will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4527released.
4528
4529 * New features for SVR4
4530
4531GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4532shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4533only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4534
4535The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4536on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4537it prints the address mappings of the process.
4538
4539If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4540bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4541
4542 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4543
4544Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4545now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4546skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4547make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4548same code linked statically.
4549
4550 * New Getopt
4551
4552GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4553version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4554continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4555Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4556added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4557future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4558
4559 * Bugs fixed
4560
4561The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4562Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4563See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4564
4565
4566*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4567
4568 * New machines supported (host and target)
4569
4570Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4571NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4572Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4573
4574 * Almost SCO Unix support
4575
4576We had hoped to support:
4577SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4578(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4579that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4580about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4581
4582 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4583
4584GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4585debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4586is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4587send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4588reqired (if any).
4589
4590 * New Readline
4591
4592GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4593is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4594required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4595
4596 * Bugs fixed
4597
4598The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4599Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4600See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4601
4602 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4603
4604GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4605supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4606symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4607
4608Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4609mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4610debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4611mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4612version 2.
4613
4614Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4615really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4616line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4617variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4618situation somewhat.
4619
4620When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4621However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4622methods.
4623
4624We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4625DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4626encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4627
4628
4629*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4630
4631 * Improved configuration
4632
4633Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4634Porting BFD is simpler.
4635
4636 * Stepping improved
4637
4638The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4639of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4640in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4641function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4642
4643 * Bug fixing
4644
4645Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4646
4647 * New host supported (not target)
4648
4649Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4650
4651
4652*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4653
4654 * Multiple source language support
4655
4656GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4657It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4658and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4659language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4660You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4661`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4662
4663 * GDB and Modula-2
4664
4665GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4666currently under development at the State University of New York at
4667Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4668continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4669
4670Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4671debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4672symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4673
4674There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4675in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4676
4677 * set write on/off
4678
4679GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4680a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4681the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4682by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4683effect immediately.
4684
4685 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4686
4687When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4688shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4689The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4690examining core files.
4691
4692 * set listsize
4693
4694You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4695The default is 10.
4696
4697 * New machines supported (host and target)
4698
4699SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4700Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4701Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4702
4703 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4704
4705IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4706
4707 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4708
4709AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4710AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4711Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4712
4713 * New remote interfaces
4714
4715AMD 29000 Adapt
4716AMD 29000 Minimon
4717
4718
4719*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4720
4721 * New Facilities
4722
4723Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4724
4725Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4726target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4727is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4728remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4729remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4730also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4731using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4732stub on the target system.
4733
4734New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4735
4736GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4737library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4738object file types such as a.out and coff.
4739
4740There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4741refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4742
4743
4744 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4745
4746All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4747by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4748
4749For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4750``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4751Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4752
4753What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4754print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4755will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4756all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4757
4758confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4759 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4760 it is already running. Default is ON.
4761
4762editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4763 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4764 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4765 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4766 Default is ON.
4767
4768history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4769 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4770 or the value of the environment variable
4771 GDBHISTFILE.
4772
4773history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4774 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4775 HISTSIZE.
4776
4777history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4778 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4779 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4780
4781history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4782 history expansion will be performed on
4783 command line input. The default is OFF.
4784
4785radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4786 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4787 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4788
4789height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4790 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4791 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4792 variable TERM.
4793
4794width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4795 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4796 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4797 variable TERM.
4798
4799Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4800``set width'' instead.
4801
4802print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4803 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4804 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4805 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4806
4807print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4808 is OFF.
4809
4810print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4811 "raw" form if off.
4812
4813print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4814 like instructions.
4815
4816print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4817
4818
4819 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4820
4821The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4822new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4823are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4824window.
4825
4826
4827 * Support for Shared Libraries
4828
4829GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4830Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4831before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4832happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4833At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4834from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4835shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4836It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4837
4838sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4839 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4840 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4841
4842info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4843
4844
4845 * Watchpoints
4846
4847A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4848expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4849tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4850quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4851problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4852more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4853
4854watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4855
4856info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4857
4858delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4859disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4860enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4861
4862
4863 * C++ multiple inheritance
4864
4865When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4866for C++ programs.
4867
4868 * C++ exception handling
4869
4870Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4871ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4872the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4873handler's context).
4874
4875catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4876 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4877 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4878
4879info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4880 current stack frame.
4881
4882
4883 * Minor command changes
4884
4885The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4886command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4887is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4888
4889The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4890at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4891frames without printing.
4892
4893 * New directory command
4894
4895'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4896The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4897about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4898with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4899find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4900
4901 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4902
4903For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4904for more details.
4905
4906GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4907two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4908Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4909where the program that you are debugging will run.
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