Make buildsym set-up/tear-down more consistent, and document it.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 7.8
5
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6* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
7
5f3b99cf 8* Python Scripting
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9
10 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
11 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
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12 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
13 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
a0be3e44 14 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
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15 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
16 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
86e4ed39 17 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
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18 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
19 selecting a new file to debug.
02be9a71 20 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
6dddd6a5 21 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
5f3b99cf 22
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23 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
24 inferior.
25
26 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
27 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
28 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
29 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
30
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31* New Python-based convenience functions:
32
33 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
34 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
35 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
36 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
37
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38* GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
39 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
40 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
41 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
42 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
43 interface with this new feature are:
44
45 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
46 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
47
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48* New commands
49
50queue-signal signal-name-or-number
51 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
52
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53add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
54 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
55 scripts.
56
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57maint print user-registers
58 List all currently available "user" registers.
59
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60compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
61 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
62 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
63
64compile file [-r|-raw] filename
65 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
66 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
67 provided.
68
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69* On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
70 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
71 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
72 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
73 at resume time.
74
75* Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
76 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
77 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
78 switched threads meanwhile.
79
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80* "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
81
82 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
83 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
84 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
85 is now the default mode.
86
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87* MI changes
88
89 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
90 inferiors that have exited.
91
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92* Removed targets
93
94Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
95
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96Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
97SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
98SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
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99VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
100VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
3831839c 101
919b9a93 102*** Changes in GDB 7.8
e9475ead 103
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104* New command line options
105
106-D data-directory
107 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
108
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109* GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
110 as specified in ISO C99.
111
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112* The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
113 with or without disassembly.
b7bba001 114
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115* Guile scripting
116
117 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
118 available is determined at configure time.
119 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
120 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
121
122* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
123
124guile [code]
125gu [code]
126 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
127
128guile-repl
129gr
130 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
131
132info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
133 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
134
135* The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
136 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
137
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138* New options
139
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140set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
141show print symbol-loading
142 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
143 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
144 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
145 becomes less useful.
146
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147set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
148show guile print-stack
149 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
150
151set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
152show auto-load guile-scripts
153 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
154
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155maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
156maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
157 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
158 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
159 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
160 usage of this option.
161
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162set auto-connect-native-target
163
164 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
165 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
166 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
167
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168set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
169show record btrace replay-memory-access
170 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
171
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172maint set target-async (on|off)
173maint show target-async
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174 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
175 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
329ea579 176 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
5784b3ca 177 occurring only in synchronous mode.
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178
179set mi-async (on|off)
180show mi-async
181 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
182 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
183
184* "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
185 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
186
187* Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
188 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
189 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
190 "set target-async on" command.
191
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192* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
193
194 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
195 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
196 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
197 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
198 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
199
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200* The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
201 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
202 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
203
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204* The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
205 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
206 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
207 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
208 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
209 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
210 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
211
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212* The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
213 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
214
066ce621 215* The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
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216 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
217 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
066ce621 218
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219* The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
220 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
221 memory or registers.
222
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223* The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
224
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225* The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
226 remote. It now works with all targets.
227
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228* All native targets are now consistently called "native".
229 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
230 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
231 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
232 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
233 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
234 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
235 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
236 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
237 target-stack".
238
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239* The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
240 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
241 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
242
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243* GDB now supports access to Intel(R) MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
244
245* Support for Intel(R) AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
246 Support displaying and modifying Intel(R) AVX-512 registers
247 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
248
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249* New remote packets
250
251qXfer:btrace:read's annex
252 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
253 branch trace incrementally.
254
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255* Python Scripting
256
257 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
258 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
259 available.
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260 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
261 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
262 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
263 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
264 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
f7bd0f78 265
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266* New targets
267PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
268
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269* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
270 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
271 its alias "share", instead.
272
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273* The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
274 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
275 instead.
276
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277* MI changes
278
279 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
280 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
281 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
282 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
283 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
284 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
285 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
286 commands and CLI execution commands.
287
b7bba001 288*** Changes in GDB 7.7
2d450646 289
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290* Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
291 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
292 recording has been added.
293
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294* GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
295
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296* GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
297 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
298
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299* New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
300 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
301 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
302 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
303 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
304 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
305 "void".
306
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307* The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
308
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309* The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
310
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311* GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
312 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
313 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
314 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
315
316 (gdb) p $rax
317 $1 = <not saved>
318
319 (gdb) info registers rax
320 rax <not saved>
321
322 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
323 "*value not available*".
324
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325* New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
326 to binaries.
327
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328* Python scripting
329
330 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
f76c27b5 331 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
bc79de95 332 ** Line tables representation has been added.
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333 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
334 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
c0d48811 335 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1e611234 336
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337* New targets
338
339Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
340Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
42059f0e 341Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
a1217d97 342
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343* Removed native configurations
344
345Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
346been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
347
348arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
349i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
350i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
351i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
352m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
353sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
354vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
355
bd712aed 356* New commands:
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357catch rethrow
358 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
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359maint check-psymtabs
360 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
361maint check-symtabs
362 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
363maint expand-symtabs
364 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
b340913d 365
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366show configuration
367 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
368
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369maint set|show per-command
370maint set|show per-command space
371maint set|show per-command time
372maint set|show per-command symtab
373 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
374
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375remove-symbol-file FILENAME
376remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
377 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
378 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
379 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
380
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381info exceptions
382info exceptions REGEXP
383 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
384 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
385 are listed.
386
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387* New options
388
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389set debug symfile off|on
390show debug symfile
391 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
392 symbol tables within those files
393
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394set print raw frame-arguments
395show print raw frame-arguments
396 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
397 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
398
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399set remote trace-status-packet
400show remote trace-status-packet
401 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
402
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403set debug nios2
404show debug nios2
405 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
406
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407set range-stepping
408show range-stepping
409 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
410
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411set startup-with-shell
412show startup-with-shell
413 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
414 directly.
415
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416set code-cache
417show code-cache
418 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
419 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
420
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421* You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
422 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
423 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
424 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
425 "set height 0".
426
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427* The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
428 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
429 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
430
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431* New command-line options
432--configuration
433 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
434
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435* The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
436 buffer in Common Trace Format.
437
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438* Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
439 GDB command gcore.
440
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441* GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
442
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443* The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
444 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
445
446* The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
447 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
448
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449* The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
450 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
451 due to an uncaught signal.
452
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453* MI changes
454
403cb6b1 455 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
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456 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
457 command, which should contain "language-option".
403cb6b1 458
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459 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
460 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
461
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462 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
463 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
464 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
465 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
466 "undefined-command-error-code".
467
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468 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
469 Trace Format now.
470
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471 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
472
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473 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
474 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
475 are displayed.
476
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477 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
478 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
479
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480 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
481 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
482 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
483
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484 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
485 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
486 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
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487 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
488 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
489 "exec-run-start-option".
5713b9b5 490
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491 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
492 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
493
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494 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
495 the new "info exceptions" command.
496
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497* New system-wide configuration scripts
498 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
499 configuration scripts for the following systems:
500 ** ElinOS
501 ** Wind River Linux
502
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503* GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
504 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
505 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
506 below.
507
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508* GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
509 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
510
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511* On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
512 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
513 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
514
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515* New remote packets
516
517vCont;r
518
519 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
520 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
521 involvemement at each single-step.
522
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523qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
524 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
525 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
526 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
527 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
528 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
529 speedup.
530
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531* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
532
533 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
534 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
535
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536 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
537 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
538 trace state variables.
539
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540 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
541 target.
542
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543* New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
544 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
545
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546* GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
547
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548* The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
549 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
550 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
551 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
552
2d450646 553*** Changes in GDB 7.6
80c8d323 554
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555* Target record has been renamed to record-full.
556 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
557 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
558 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
559
560set|show record full insn-number-max
561set|show record full stop-at-limit
562set|show record full memory-query
563
564* A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
565 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
566 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
567 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
568 This new recording method can be enabled using:
569
570record btrace
571
572 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
573 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
574
575* Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
576 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
577 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
578
579record instruction-history prints the execution history at
580 instruction granularity
581
582record function-call-history prints the execution history at
583 function granularity
584
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585* New native configurations
586
51d66578 587ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 588FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
4f4352f7 589x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 590Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 591
249729c4
JB
592* New targets
593
51d66578
MS
594ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
595ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
249729c4 596Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3c095f49 597x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 598Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
249729c4 599
e64e0392
DE
600* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
601 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
602 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
603 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
604 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
605 --data-directory command-line option.
606
07540c15
DE
607* New command line options:
608
609-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
610 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
611
e93a8774
TT
612* Removed command line options
613
614-epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
615 Emacs.
616
53342f27
TT
617* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
618 type formatting.
619
451b7c33
TT
620* 'info proc' now works on some core files.
621
a72c3253
DE
622* Python scripting
623
624 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
625
d7de8e3c
TT
626 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
627
18a9fc12
TT
628 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
629
9a27f2c6
PK
630 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
631
bea883fd
SCR
632 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
633 of architecture in the Python API.
634
635 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
636 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
637
a72c3253
DE
638* New Python-based convenience functions:
639
640 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
641 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
642 ** $_strlen(str)
643 ** $_regex(str, regex)
644
f3c8a52a
JK
645* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
646 given an argument.
647
1605ef26
TT
648* The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
649 default for GCC since November 2000.
650
504b36fd
YQ
651* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
652
f2a8bc8a
YQ
653* The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
654 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
655
23a80689
JB
656* New configure options
657
658--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
659 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
660 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
661 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
662 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
663 options allow the user to override that default.
393fd4c3
YQ
664--with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
665 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
666 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
23a80689 667
d6b28940
TT
668* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
669
ab04a2af
TT
670catch signal
671 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
672 conditions to be attached.
673
d6b28940
TT
674maint info bfds
675 List the BFDs known to GDB.
676
8315665e
YPK
677python-interactive [command]
678pi [command]
679 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
680 and print the result of expressions.
681
682py [command]
683 "py" is a new alias for "python".
684
18a9fc12
TT
685enable type-printer [name]...
686disable type-printer [name]...
687 Enable or disable type printers.
688
aa9259cc
TS
689* Removed commands
690
691 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
692 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
693 instead.
694
53342f27
TT
695* New options
696
697set print type methods (on|off)
698show print type methods
699 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
700 The default is to show them.
701
702set print type typedefs (on|off)
703show print type typedefs
704 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
705 The default is to show them.
706
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JK
707set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
708show filename-display
709 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
710 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
711
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PA
712set trace-buffer-size
713show trace-buffer-size
714 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
715
a46c1e42
PA
716set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
717show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
718 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
719
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PA
720set debug aarch64
721show debug aarch64
722 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
723 The default is off.
724
725set debug coff-pe-read
726show debug coff-pe-read
727 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
728 exported symbols.
729
730set debug mach-o
731show debug mach-o
732 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
733 processing.
734
735set debug notification
736show debug notification
737 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
738
5b9afe8a
YQ
739* MI changes
740
741 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
742 "=cmd-param-changed".
201b4506
YQ
743 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
744 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
134a2066
YQ
745 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
746 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
747 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
82a90ccf
YQ
748 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
749 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
8de0566d
YQ
750 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
751 "=memory-changed".
ed8a1c2d 752 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
ec83d211 753 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
62747a60
TT
754 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
755 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
3fa7bf06
MG
756 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
757 library load/unload events.
f2a8bc8a
YQ
758 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
759 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
760 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
f5911ea1
HAQ
761 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
762 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
763 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
ec83d211
JK
764 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
765 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
5b9afe8a 766
608e2dbb
TT
767* GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
768 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
769 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
770 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
771
f6f899bf
HAQ
772* New remote packets
773
774QTBuffer:size
775 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
776 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
777
10782d74
MM
778Qbtrace:bts
779 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
780 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
781 qSupported query.
782
783Qbtrace:off
784 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
785 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
786
787qXfer:btrace:read
788 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
789 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
790
80c8d323 791*** Changes in GDB 7.5
d6e00af6 792
1b3371b1
L
793* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
794 for more x32 ABI info.
795
d0e64392
MR
796* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
797
4cc0665f
MR
798* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
799
85d4a676
SS
800* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
801 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
802 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
803 "info os files" lists file descriptors
804 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
805 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
806 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
807 "info os msg" lists message queues
808 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
809
55aa24fb
SDJ
810* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
811 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
812 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
813 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
814 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
815 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
816
72508ac0
PO
817* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
818 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
819 record/replay support.
820
16899756
DE
821* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
822
4795f398
DE
823* Python scripting
824
7d74f244
DE
825 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
826 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
827
4795f398
DE
828 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
829
50897289
TT
830 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
831 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
832
64e7d9dd
TT
833 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
834
835 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
836 the source at which the symbol was defined.
837
f0823d2c
TT
838 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
839 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
840 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
841 symbol's value.
842
7b282c5a
SCR
843 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
844 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
845
a20ee7a4
SCR
846 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
847 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
848 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
849
7efc75aa
SCR
850 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
851 object associated with a PC value.
852
ee0bf529
SCR
853 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
854 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
855
a766d390
DE
856* Go language support.
857 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
858 language.
859
e0f9f062
DE
860* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
861 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
862
217bff3e
JK
863* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
864 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
865
cafec441
TT
866* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
867 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
868 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
869 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
870 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
871 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
872
4aac40c8
TT
873* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
874 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
875 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
876 build/libcpp/expr.c.
877
d99bd577
UW
878* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
879 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
880
53fe1783
GB
881* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
882 since December 2007.
883
e41eec66
JB
884* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
885 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
886 command does. For instance:
887
888 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
889
890 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
891 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
892 created, using the "condition" command.
893
5808517f
YQ
894* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
895 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
896
481860b3
GB
897* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
898
899* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
900 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
901 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
e615022a
DE
902 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
903 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
904 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
905 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
906 files with older .gdb_index sections.
481860b3 907
156942c7
DE
908 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
909 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
910 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
911 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
912 the .gdb_index section.
913
927fbba6
JB
914* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
915
20388dd6
YQ
916* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
917 target.
918
f3e0e960
SS
919* MI changes
920
921 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
922
37ce89eb
SS
923 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
924
edcc5120
TT
925* New commands
926
e615022a
DE
927 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
928 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
929 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
930
edcc5120
TT
931 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
932 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
933
816338b5
SS
934 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
935 several hits.
936
57651221 937 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
c4aeac85
TT
938 C++ and Java objects.
939
06fc020f 940 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
6ea71545 941 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
06fc020f
SCR
942 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
943 configured with '--with-python'.
944
bf88dd68
JK
945 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
946 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
947 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
948 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
949 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
950 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
951 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
952
953 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
954 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
955 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
956 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
957
e7e0cddf
SS
958 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
959 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
960 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
961 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
962
9cb709b6
TT
963 ** "set print symbol"
964 "show print symbol"
965 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
966 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
967 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
968
2d4c29c5
TS
969* Deprecated commands
970
971 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
972 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
973
a58b110a
KB
974* New targets
975
976Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 977HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
a58b110a 978
72895ff6
LM
979* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
980 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
981 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
982 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
983 evaluates to true.
984
985* New options
986
4cc0665f
MR
987set mips compression
988show mips compression
989 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
990 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
991 mips16
992 micromips
993 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
994
72895ff6
LM
995set breakpoint condition-evaluation
996show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 997 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
5b43fab2
JK
998 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
999 available mode.
72895ff6
LM
1000 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
1001 target.
1002
bf88dd68
JK
1003set auto-load off
1004 Disable auto-loading globally.
1005
1006show auto-load
1007 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
1008
1009set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
1010show auto-load gdb-scripts
1011 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
1012
1013set auto-load python-scripts on|off
1014show auto-load python-scripts
1015 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
1016
1017set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
1018show auto-load local-gdbinit
1019 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
1020
1021set auto-load libthread-db on|off
1022show auto-load libthread-db
1023 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
1024
7349ff92 1025set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
9cc815f5 1026show auto-load scripts-directory
7349ff92
JK
1027 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
1028 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
1029 of the directories listed by this option.
1030 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1031
bccbefd2
JK
1032set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1033show auto-load safe-path
1034 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
1035 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1036
4dc84fd1
JK
1037set debug auto-load on|off
1038show debug auto-load
1039 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1040
d3ce09f5 1041set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
e7e0cddf 1042show dprintf-style
d3ce09f5
SS
1043 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1044 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1045 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1046 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
e7e0cddf
SS
1047
1048set dprintf-function <expr>
1049show dprintf-function
1050set dprintf-channel <expr>
1051show dprintf-channel
1052 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1053 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1054
d3ce09f5
SS
1055set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1056show disconnected-dprintf
1057 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1058 after GDB disconnects.
1059
6dea1fbd
JK
1060* New configure options
1061
7349ff92
JK
1062--with-auto-load-dir
1063 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1564a261
JK
1064 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1065 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1066 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1067 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
7349ff92 1068
6dea1fbd
JK
1069--with-auto-load-safe-path
1070 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
7349ff92 1071 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
6dea1fbd
JK
1072
1073--without-auto-load-safe-path
1074 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1075 security feature.
1076
72895ff6
LM
1077* New remote packets
1078
74c48cbb
PA
1079z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1080
72895ff6
LM
1081 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1082 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
1083 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
1084 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
1085
9b224c5e
PA
1086QProgramSignals:
1087
1088 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
1089 program without GDB involvement.
1090
8320cc4f
JK
1091* New command line options
1092
1093--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
1094 before loading inferior.
1095--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
1096 execute it before loading inferior.
1097
8837a20f
JB
1098*** Changes in GDB 7.4
1099
f8eba3c6
TT
1100* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
1101 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1102 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1103 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1104 inferior changes.
1105
1bfeeb0f
JL
1106* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1107 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1108
480a3f21
PW
1109* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1110 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1111 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1112 target hardware watchpoint.
1113
1114 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1115 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1116 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1117 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1118
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1119* Python scripting
1120
32d1c362 1121 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 1122 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
32d1c362
DE
1123 existing one.
1124
3a7bf607 1125 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4795f398
DE
1126 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1127 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1128 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1129 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1130 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 1131
baacfb07 1132 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 1133 Python API.
713389e0 1134
fa3a4f15
PM
1135 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1136 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 1137 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
fa3a4f15
PM
1138 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1139 corresponding value.
1140
5e239b84
PM
1141 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1142 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1143 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1144 on GDB start-up.
1145
9df2fbc4
PM
1146 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1147 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1148 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1149 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1150
457e09f0
DE
1151 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1152
6839b47f
KP
1153 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1154 "gdb.breakpoints".
1155
cc72b2a2
KP
1156 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1157 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1158 available in the CLI.
1159
84ad80e6
PK
1160 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1161 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1162 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1163 "some_type.items()".
1164
20c168b5
KP
1165 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1166 new object file.
1167
03c3051a
PK
1168 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1169 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1170 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1171 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1172 any anonymous fields.
1173
7376e450
TT
1174* MI changes
1175
1176 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1177 "solib-event".
1178
1179 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1180 "=breakpoint-modified".
1181
1182 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1183
98a5dd13
DE
1184* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
1185 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
1186 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
1187 lives.
1188
1189 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
1190 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
1191 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
1192 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
1193 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
1194
1195 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
1196 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
1197
478aac75
DE
1198* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
1199 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
1200 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
1201 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
1202 use this option to specify where to find it.
1203
9c06b0b4
TJB
1204* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1205 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
1206 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
1207 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
1208 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
1209 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1210 section in the user manual for more details.
1211
03f2bd59
JK
1212* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
1213 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
1214 become available after that.
1215
71eba9c2 1216* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 1217
2bda9cc5
JK
1218* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
1219 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
1220 gcc version 4.7.
1221
ed59ded5
DE
1222* New commands
1223
1224!SHELL COMMAND
1225 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
1226 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
1227
9c06b0b4
TJB
1228* Changed commands
1229
1230watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
1231 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
1232 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
1233
dbaefcf7
DE
1234info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
1235 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
1236 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
1237
71eba9c2 1238info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
1239 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
1240 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
1241 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
1242 name starts with a hyphen.
1243
3065dfb6
SS
1244collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
1245 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
1246 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
1247 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
1248 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
1249 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
1250 number of bytes that will be collected.
1251
f196051f
SS
1252tstart [NOTES]
1253 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
1254 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
1255 setting the variable trace-notes.
1256
1257tstop [NOTES]
1258 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
1259 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
1260 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
1261 trace-stop-notes.
1262
d248b706
KY
1263* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
1264 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
1265 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
1266 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
1267 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
1268 is running.
1269
405f8e94
SS
1270* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
1271 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
1272 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
1273
2bda9cc5
JK
1274* New options
1275
45cfd468
DE
1276set debug dwarf2-read
1277show debug dwarf2-read
1278 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
1279 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
1280
1281set debug symtab-create
1282show debug symtab-create
1283 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
1284 creation. The default is off.
1285
baacfb07
PM
1286set extended-prompt
1287show extended-prompt
1288 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
1289 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
1290 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
1291 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
1292 prompt is displayed.
1293
2bda9cc5
JK
1294set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
1295show print entry-values
1296 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
1297 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
1298 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
1299
1300set debug entry-values
1301show debug entry-values
1302 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
1303 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
1304
c011a4f4
DE
1305set basenames-may-differ
1306show basenames-may-differ
1307 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
1308 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
1309 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
1310 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
1311 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
1312 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
1313 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
1314 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
1315
f196051f
SS
1316set trace-user
1317show trace-user
1318set trace-notes
1319show trace-notes
1320 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
1321 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
1322 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
1323 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
1324
1325set trace-stop-notes
1326show trace-stop-notes
1327 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
1328 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
1329 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
1330 started by someone else.
1331
d248b706
KY
1332* New remote packets
1333
1334QTEnable
1335
1336 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1337
1338QTDisable
1339
1340 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1341
f196051f
SS
1342QTNotes
1343
1344 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
1345
1346qTP
1347
1348 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
1349
405f8e94
SS
1350qTMinFTPILen
1351
1352 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
1353 be placed.
1354
1a532630
PP
1355* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
1356 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
1357
11315641
YQ
1358* New targets
1359
1360Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
1361
87326c78
DD
1362* New Simulators
1363
1364Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1365
e8d56f18
JB
1366*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
1367
1368* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
1369
d6e00af6 1370*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 1371
60f98dde
MS
1372* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
1373 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
1374 matches the given regular expression.
1375
eee5b35e
DD
1376* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
1377
b716877b
AB
1378* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
1379 dumping the instruction opcodes.
1380
aae1c79a
DE
1381* New command line options
1382
1383-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
1384 This is mostly for testing purposes.
1385
a86caf66
DE
1386* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
1387 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
1388
99e7ae30
DE
1389* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
1390 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
1391 source path list instead of augmenting it.
1392
4694da01
TT
1393* GDB now understands thread names.
1394
1395 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
1396 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
1397
1398 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
1399 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
1400
f4b8a18d
KW
1401* OpenCL C
1402 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
1403 has been integrated into GDB.
1404
585d1eb8
PM
1405* Python scripting
1406
da5d4055
PM
1407 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
1408 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
1409 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
1410
9a6f1302
PM
1411 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1412 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
1413 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
1414 and allows for more dynamic content.
1415
29703da4
PM
1416 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
1417 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
1418 have an is_valid method.
1419
350c6c65
PM
1420 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1421 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
1422 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
1423
6e6fbe60
DE
1424 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
1425
585d1eb8
PM
1426 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
1427 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
1428 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
1429 that function like so:
1430
1431 result = some_value (10,20)
1432
0e3509db
DE
1433 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
1434 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
1435 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
1436
7b51bc51
DE
1437 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
1438 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
1439 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
1440 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
1441 New function: register_pretty_printer.
1442
1443 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
1444 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
1445
99e7ae30
DE
1446 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
1447
d8e22779
TT
1448 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
1449 selected thread.
1450
4694da01
TT
1451 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
1452 holds the thread's name.
1453
505500db
SW
1454 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
1455 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 1456 occurring in the process being debugged.
c17a9e46
HZ
1457 The following events are currently supported:
1458 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
1459 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
1460 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
1461
def98928
TT
1462* C++ Improvements:
1463
1464 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
1465 instantiation. For example, if you have:
1466
1467 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
1468
1469 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
1470 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
1471 was added to GCC 4.5.
1472
66cb8159
TT
1473 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
1474 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
1475 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
1476 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
1477 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
1478 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
1479
4aac0db7
UW
1480* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
1481 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
1482 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
1483 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
1484 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
1485
283e6a52
TT
1486* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
1487 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
1488 execution to a label.
1489
1490* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
1491 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
1492 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
1493 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
1494
b56df873 1495* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 1496 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
b56df873
TT
1497 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
1498 of scope.
1499
ae53ffa4
PA
1500* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
1501
1502 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
1503 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
1504 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
1505 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
1506 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
1507 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
1508
1509 (gdb) info threads
1510 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1511
1512 While now you see this:
1513
1514 (gdb) info threads
1515 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1516
1517 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1518 dumps.
1519
1520 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1521 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1522 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1523 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1524
f1310107
TJB
1525* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1526 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1527 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1528 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1529 section in the user manual for more details.
1530
248c9dbc
JB
1531* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1532
1aee7009
JB
1533 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1534 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 1535
eb826dc6
MF
1536 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1537
44603653
JB
1538* New native configurations
1539
1540ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1541
91021223
MF
1542* New targets:
1543
1544Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1545
6e1bb179
JB
1546* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1547 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1548 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1549 in the GDB user manual.
1550
50c97f38
TT
1551* Guile support was removed.
1552
448a92bf
MF
1553* New features in the GNU simulator
1554
1555 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1556
66ee2731
MF
1557 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1558
76b8507d 1559*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 1560
ba25b921
PA
1561* Shared library support for remote targets by default
1562
1563 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1564 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1565 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1566 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1567 was always disabled for such configurations.
1568
4656f5c6
SW
1569* C++ Improvements:
1570
1571 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1572
1573 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1574 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1575 For example:
1576 namespace A
1577 {
1578 class B { };
1579 void foo (B) { }
1580 }
1581 ...
1582 A::B b
1583 foo(b)
1584 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1585 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1586 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1587
1588 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1589
1590 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1591 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1592 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1593 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1594 entry.
1595 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1596 mentioned flavors of operators.
1597
254e6b9e
DE
1598 ** static const class members
1599
1600 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1601 class definition has been fixed.
1602
711e434b
PM
1603* Windows Thread Information Block access.
1604
1605 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1606 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
1607 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
1608 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
1609 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
1610 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
1611
0fb4aa4b
PA
1612* Static tracepoints
1613
1614 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
1615 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
1616 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
1617 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
1618 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
1619 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
1620 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
1621 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
1622 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
1623 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
1624 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
1625 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
1626 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
1627 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1628 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1629 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1630 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1631 the "New remote packets" section below.
1632
ca11e899
SS
1633* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1634
1635 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1636 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1637 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1638 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1639
1640* Observer mode
1641
1642 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1643 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1644 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1645 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1646 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1647 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1648 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1649
1650* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1651 current thread.
1652
711e434b
PM
1653* New remote packets
1654
1655qGetTIBAddr
1656
1657 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1658
dde08ee1
PA
1659qRelocInsn
1660
1661 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1662 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1663 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1664 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1665 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1666 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1667
0fb4aa4b
PA
1668qTfSTM, qTsSTM
1669
1670 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1671
1672qTSTMat
1673
1674 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1675 program.
1676
1677qXfer:statictrace:read
1678
1679 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1680 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1681 to gdb's qSupported query.
1682
ca11e899
SS
1683QAllow
1684
1685 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1686
1687QTDPsrc
1688
1689 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1690 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1691
3f7b2faa
DE
1692* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1693 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1694 a directory.
1695
d337e9f0
PA
1696* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1697
0fb4aa4b
PA
1698 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1699 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1700 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1701 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1702
1703 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1704 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1705 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1706 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1707 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1708 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1709 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1710
1711 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1712 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 1713
c24d0242
PM
1714 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1715
c8d5aac9
L
1716* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1717 it understands register description.
1718
7c953934
TT
1719* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1720
8685c86f
L
1721* X86 general purpose registers
1722
1723 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1724 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1725 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1726 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1727 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1728
95a42b64 1729* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
86b17b60
PA
1730 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1731 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1732 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1733 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1734 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 1735
8bd10a10
CM
1736* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1737 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1738 in the specified file.
1739
ab38a727
PA
1740* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1741 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1742 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1743 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1744 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1745 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1746 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1747 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1748 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1749 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1750
6149aea9
PA
1751* New commands
1752
f1421989
HZ
1753eval template, expressions...
1754 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1755 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1756
ab38a727
PA
1757set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1758show target-file-system-kind
1759 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1760 names.
1761
6149aea9
PA
1762save breakpoints <filename>
1763 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1764 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1765 definitions, use the `source' command.
1766
1767`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1768is now deprecated.
1769
0fb4aa4b
PA
1770info static-tracepoint-markers
1771 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1772
1773strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1774 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1775 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1776
ca11e899
SS
1777set observer on|off
1778show observer
1779 Enable and disable observer mode.
1780
1781set may-write-registers on|off
1782set may-write-memory on|off
1783set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1784set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1785set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1786set may-interrupt on|off
1787 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1788 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1789 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1790 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1791 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1792 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1793 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1794
1795set record memory-query on|off
1796show record memory-query
1797 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1798 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1799
53a71c06
CR
1800* Changed commands
1801
1802disassemble
1803 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1804
f3e9a817
PM
1805* Python scripting
1806
9279c692
JB
1807** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1808 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1809 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1810 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1811 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1812
adc36818 1813** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
595939de
PM
1814 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1815 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1816 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 1817
fa33c3cd 1818** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
1819 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1820
1821** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
1822
1823** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 1824
967cf477
DE
1825** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1826
8a1ea21f
DE
1827** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1828 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1829 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1830
a7bdde9e
VP
1831* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1832there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1833tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1834regular breakpoints.
1835
05071a4d
PA
1836* New targets
1837
1838ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1839
6aecb9c2
JB
1840* D language support.
1841 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1842 language.
1843
431e49aa
TJB
1844* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1845 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1846 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1847 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1848 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1849
1850* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1851 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1852 conditions of the form:
1853
1854 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1855
1856 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1857 interface mentioned above.
1858
bfbf3774 1859*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 1860
4eef138c
TT
1861* C++ Improvements
1862
1863 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
1864
1865 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1866 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1867 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1868 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1869 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1870
4eef138c
TT
1871 ** Bug Fixes
1872
1873 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1874 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1875 qualified name.
1876
1877 ** Cast Operators
1878
1879 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1880 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1881
2d1c1221
ME
1882* New targets
1883
1884Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 1885Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
1886
1887* New Simulators
1888
1889Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 1890Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 1891
6c95b8df
PA
1892* Multi-program debugging.
1893
1894 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1895 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1896 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1897 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1898 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1899 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1900 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1901 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1902
d5551862
SS
1903* New tracing features
1904
1905 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1906
1907 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
1908
1909 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1910 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1911 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1912 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1913 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1914 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1915 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1916 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1917 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1918 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 1919
d5551862 1920 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
1921
1922 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1923 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1924 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1925 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1926 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1927 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1928 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1929 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1930 the regular trace command.
1931
d5551862
SS
1932 ** Disconnected tracing
1933
1934 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1935 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1936 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1937 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1938 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1939
00bf0b85
SS
1940 ** Trace files
1941
1942 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1943 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1944 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1945 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1946 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1947 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1948 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
1949
1950 ** Circular trace buffer
1951
1952 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1953 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1954 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1955 not be available for all target agents.
1956
21a0512e
PP
1957* Changed commands
1958
1959disassemble
1960 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1961 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1962
0fe7935b
DJ
1963info variables
1964 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1965 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1966
fb2e7cb4
JB
1967source
1968 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1969 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1970 support.
1971
1972 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1973 "set script-extension" (see below).
1974
6c95b8df
PA
1975* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1976
399cd161
MS
1977record save [<FILENAME>]
1978 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1979 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1980
1981record restore <FILENAME>
1982 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1983 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1984
6c95b8df
PA
1985add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1986 Add a new inferior.
1987
1988clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1989 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1990 inferior has loaded.
1991
1992remove-inferior ID
1993 Remove an inferior.
1994
1995maint info program-spaces
1996 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1997
9a7071a8
JB
1998set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1999show remote interrupt-sequence
2000 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
2001 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
2002 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
2003 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
2004 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
2005
2006set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
2007show remote interrupt-on-connect
2008 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
2009 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
2010 Linux kernel.
2011
2012set remotebreak [on | off]
2013show remotebreak
2014Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
2015
f61e138d
SS
2016tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
2017 Create or modify a trace state variable.
2018
2019info tvariables
2020 List trace state variables and their values.
2021
2022delete tvariable $NAME ...
2023 Delete one or more trace state variables.
2024
6da95a67
SS
2025teval EXPR, ...
2026 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
2027 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
2028
7a697b8d
SS
2029ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
2030 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
2031
b0f02ee9
JK
2032* New expression syntax
2033
2034 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
2035 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
2036
6c95b8df
PA
2037* New options
2038
2039set follow-exec-mode new|same
2040show follow-exec-mode
2041 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2042 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2043 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2044
236f1d4d
SS
2045set default-collect EXPR, ...
2046show default-collect
2047 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2048 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2049 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2050
d5551862
SS
2051set disconnected-tracing
2052show disconnected-tracing
2053 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2054 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2055 upon disconnection.
2056
4daf5ac0
SS
2057set circular-trace-buffer
2058show circular-trace-buffer
2059 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2060 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2061 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2062 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2063
fb2e7cb4
JB
2064set script-extension off|soft|strict
2065show script-extension
2066 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2067 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2068 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2069 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2070 evaluation failed.
2071 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2072
2b71fc8e
JB
2073set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2074show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2075 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2076 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2077 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2078 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2079 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2080 is on.
2081
de2e5182
TT
2082* Python API Improvements
2083
2084 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
2085 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
2086 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
2087
2088 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
2089 `is_base_class' attribute.
2090
2091 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
2092
2093 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
2094 evaluate an expression.
2095
f61e138d
SS
2096* New remote packets
2097
2098QTDV
2099 Define a trace state variable.
2100
2101qTV
2102 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2103
d5551862
SS
2104QTDisconnected
2105 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2106
4daf5ac0
SS
2107QTBuffer:circular
2108 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2109
d5551862
SS
2110qTfP, qTsP
2111 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2112
2d483d34
MS
2113* Bug fixes
2114
2115Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2116
6e0e5977
JB
2117Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2118much more reliable. In particular:
2119 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2120 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2121 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2122 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2123 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2124 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2125 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2126 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2127 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2128 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2129 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2130 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2131 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2132 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2133 non-threaded programs.
2134
93c26624
JK
2135PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2136This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2137libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2138executable program.
2139
abc7453d 2140*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 2141
4efc6507
DE
2142* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2143dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2144them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2145for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2146"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2147
782b2b07
SS
2148* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2149breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2150or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2151the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2152for tracepoint actions.
2153
53a71c06
CR
2154* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2155raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2156modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 2157
e7a8dbfb
HZ
2158* Process record and replay
2159
2160 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2161 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2162 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2163 execute commands.
2164
64644d9b
MS
2165* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2166step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2167set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2168reverse execution.
2169
b9412953
DD
2170* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2171feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
21722.6.28 or later.
2173
6c7a06a3
TT
2174* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2175target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2176char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2177literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2178U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2179`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2180system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2181the installation instructions for more information.
2182
f1838a98
UW
2183* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2184remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
2185with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
2186the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
2187
55333a84
DE
2188* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
2189and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
2190
7f6a6314
PM
2191* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
2192now complete on file names.
2193
65d12d83
TT
2194* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
2195completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
2196For instance, consider:
2197
2198 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
2199 # struct example variable;
2200 (gdb) p variable.
2201
2202If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
2203completions will be "f1" and "f2".
2204
edb3359d
DJ
2205* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
2206the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
2207
2fae03e8
TT
2208* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
2209operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
2210macros.
2211
47a3467a 2212* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
2213the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
2214implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
2215
2216* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
2217registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
2218can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
2219and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 2220
08388c79
DE
2221* New remote packets
2222
2223qSearch:memory:
2224 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2225
a6f3e723
SL
2226QStartNoAckMode
2227 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
2228 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
2229 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
2230
d7713ae0
EZ
2231vKill
2232 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
2233 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
2234
07e059b5
VP
2235qXfer:osdata:read
2236 Obtains additional operating system information
2237
47a3467a
PA
2238qXfer:siginfo:read
2239qXfer:siginfo:write
2240 Read or write additional signal information.
2241
060871df
PA
2242* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
2243
2244 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
2245 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
2246 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
2247
c055b101 2248* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 2249DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
2250
2251* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
2252and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
2253`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 2254
31fffb02
CS
2255* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
2256with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
2257
88d8a8e0
JB
2258* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
2259
7f99b190
JB
2260* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
2261
ccd213ac
DJ
2262* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
2263which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
2264
1fddbabb 2265* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 2266list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 2267
a0ef4274
DJ
2268* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
2269conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
2270have also been fixed.
2271
bfb8797a 2272* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
2273From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
2274are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 2275
71c25dea
TT
2276* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
2277example, given:
2278
2279 template<typename T> class C { };
2280 C<char const *> c;
2281
2282GDB will now correctly handle all of:
2283
2284 ptype C<char const *>
2285 ptype C<char const*>
2286 ptype C<const char *>
2287 ptype C<const char*>
2288
ccd213ac
DJ
2289* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
2290
2291 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
2292 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2293
7ae0e2a2
UW
2294 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
2295 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2296 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
2297
a6f3e723
SL
2298 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
2299 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
2300
da8bd9a3
DJ
2301 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
2302 gdbserver.
2303
d70e31dd
DE
2304 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
2305 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2306
2307 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
2308 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
2309 as appropriate.
2310
d57a3c85
TJB
2311* Python scripting
2312
2313 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
2314 available is determined at configure time.
2315
d8906c6f
TJB
2316 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
2317
aadc346a
JB
2318* Ada tasking support
2319
2320 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
2321 been introduced:
2322
2323 info tasks
2324 Print the list of Ada tasks.
2325 info task N
2326 Print detailed information about task number N.
2327 task
2328 Print the task number of the current task.
2329 task N
2330 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
2331
adb483fe
DJ
2332* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
2333add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
2334
2277426b
PA
2335* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
2336
2337 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
2338 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
2339 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
2340 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
2341 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
2342 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
2343 below.
2344
08d16641
PA
2345* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
2346"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
2347information.
2348
e35359c5
UW
2349* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
2350to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
2351architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
2352See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
2353more information.
2354
85e747d2
UW
2355* Multi-architecture debugging.
2356
2357 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
2358 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
2359 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
2360 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
2361 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
2362
2363* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
2364use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
2365Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
2366powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
2367--enable-targets configure option.
2368
11ade57a
PA
2369* Non-stop mode debugging.
2370
2371 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
2372 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
2373 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
2374 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
2375 section in the user manual for more information.
2376
2377 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
2378 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
2379 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
2380 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
2381 extensions on linux targets.
2382
d7713ae0 2383* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 2384
a96d9b2e
SDJ
2385catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
2386 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
2387 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
2388 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
2389 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
2390 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
2391 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
2392 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
2393 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
2394
08388c79
DE
2395find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
2396 val1 [, val2, ...]
2397 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2398
d57a3c85
TJB
2399maint set python print-stack
2400maint show python print-stack
2401 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
2402
2403python [CODE]
2404 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
2405
d7713ae0
EZ
2406macro define
2407macro list
2408macro undef
2409 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
2410 interactively.
2411
2412info os processes
2413 Show operating system information about processes.
2414
2277426b
PA
2415info inferiors
2416 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
2417
2418inferior NUM
2419 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
2420
2421detach inferior NUM
2422 Detach from inferior number NUM.
2423
2424kill inferior NUM
2425 Kill inferior number NUM.
2426
d7713ae0
EZ
2427* New options
2428
3285f3fe
UW
2429set spu stop-on-load
2430show spu stop-on-load
2431 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2432
ff1a52c6
UW
2433set spu auto-flush-cache
2434show spu auto-flush-cache
2435 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
2436 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2437
d7713ae0
EZ
2438set sh calling-convention
2439show sh calling-convention
2440 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
2441
e0a3ce09 2442set debug timestamp
75feb17d 2443show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
2444 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
2445
2446set disassemble-next-line
2447show disassemble-next-line
2448 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
2449 the debuggee stops.
2450
2451set remote noack-packet
2452show remote noack-packet
2453 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
2454 under "New remote packets."
2455
2456set remote query-attached-packet
2457show remote query-attached-packet
2458 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
2459
2460set remote read-siginfo-object
2461show remote read-siginfo-object
2462 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
2463 packet.
2464
2465set remote write-siginfo-object
2466show remote write-siginfo-object
2467 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
2468 packet.
2469
40ab02ce
MS
2470set remote reverse-continue
2471show remote reverse-continue
2472 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
2473
2474set remote reverse-step
2475show remote reverse-step
2476 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
2477
d7713ae0
EZ
2478set displaced-stepping
2479show displaced-stepping
2480 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
2481 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
2482 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
2483
2484set debug displaced
2485show debug displaced
2486 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
2487
2488maint set internal-error
2489maint show internal-error
2490 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
2491
2492maint set internal-warning
2493maint show internal-warning
2494 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 2495
ccd213ac
DJ
2496set exec-wrapper
2497show exec-wrapper
2498unset exec-wrapper
2499 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 2500
aad4b048
JB
2501set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
2502show multiple-symbols
2503 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
2504 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
2505 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
2506
74960c60
VP
2507set breakpoint always-inserted
2508show breakpoint always-inserted
2509 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
2510 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2511 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2512
0428b8f5
DJ
2513set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2514show arm fallback-mode
2515set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2516show arm force-mode
2517 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2518 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2519 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2520 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2521
10568435
JK
2522set disable-randomization
2523show disable-randomization
2524 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2525 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2526 multiple debugging sessions.
2527
d7713ae0
EZ
2528set non-stop
2529show non-stop
2530 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2531 a breakpoint.
2532
b3eb342c 2533set target-async
d7713ae0 2534show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
2535 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2536 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2537 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2538 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2539
6c7a06a3
TT
2540set target-wide-charset
2541show target-wide-charset
2542 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2543 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2544
84603566
SL
2545set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2546show tcp auto-retry
2547set tcp connect-timeout
2548show tcp connect-timeout
2549 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2550 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2551 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2552
17a37d48
PP
2553set libthread-db-search-path
2554show libthread-db-search-path
2555 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2556 libthread_db.
2557
d4db2f36
PA
2558set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2559show schedule-multiple
2560 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2561 the current process.
2562
4e5d721f
DE
2563set stack-cache
2564show stack-cache
2565 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2566 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2567 affecting correctness.
2568
910c5da8
JB
2569set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2570show interactive-mode
2571 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2572 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2573 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2574 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2575 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2576
2277426b
PA
2577* Removed commands
2578
2579info forks
2580 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2581 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2582 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2583 command.
2584
2585fork NUM
2586 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2587 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2588 alias for the `fork' command.
2589
2590process PID
2591 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2592 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2593 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2594
2595delete fork NUM
2596 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2597 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2598 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2599 fork' command.
2600
2601detach fork NUM
2602 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2603 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2604 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2605 fork' command.
2606
a80b95ba
TG
2607* New native configurations
2608
2609x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
2610
b8bfd3ed
JB
2611x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
2612
75a2d5e7
TT
2613* New targets
2614
c28c63d8 2615Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 2616x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 2617x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 2618S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 2619
6de3146c
PA
2620* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
2621 (mingw32ce) debugging.
2622
d5cbbe6e
JB
2623* Removed commands
2624
2625catch load
2626catch unload
2627 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2628
75feb17d 2629*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 2630
af5ca30d
NH
2631* New native configurations
2632
2633NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 2634Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
2635
2636* New targets
2637
2638NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 2639Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 2640
7a404eba
PA
2641* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2642
2643 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2644 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2645 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2646 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2647
430ebac9
PA
2648* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2649(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2650
fe6fbf8b 2651* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 2652is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
2653
2654* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
2655including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2656and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 2657
10665d76
JB
2658* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2659accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2660more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2661
7cc46491
DJ
2662* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2663
d71340b8
DJ
2664* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2665registers on PowerPC targets.
2666
523c4513
DJ
2667* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2668targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2669
a6b151f1
DJ
2670* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2671commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2672
2d717e4f
DJ
2673* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2674extended-remote mode.
2675
24a836bd 2676* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
2677The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2678error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2679The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 2680
d0c678e6
UW
2681* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2682building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2683target architectures.
2684
d64a946d
TJB
2685* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2686Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2687now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2688stored in two consecutive float registers.
2689
ee163bf5
VP
2690* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2691breakpoints now.
2692
b93b6ca7 2693* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
2694Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2695include:
b93b6ca7
JB
2696 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2697 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2698 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2699 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2700 of an assignment
2701 - Improved command completion in Ada
2702 - Several bug fixes
2703
d001be7a
DJ
2704* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2705process.
2706
a6b151f1
DJ
2707* New commands
2708
6d53d0af
JB
2709set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2710show print frame-arguments
2711 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2712 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2713
a6b151f1
DJ
2714remote put
2715remote get
2716remote delete
2717 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2718
2719* New MI commands
2720
2721-target-file-put
2722-target-file-get
2723-target-file-delete
2724 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2725
2726* New remote packets
2727
2728vFile:open:
2729vFile:close:
2730vFile:pread:
2731vFile:pwrite:
2732vFile:unlink:
2733 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 2734
2d717e4f
DJ
2735vAttach
2736 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2737 mode.
2738
2739vRun
2740 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2741
8d5f9c6f 2742*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 2743
19d378fc
MS
2744* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2745bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2746Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2747
3a40aaa0
UW
2748* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2749symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2750-Bsymbolic linker option.
2751
a6ec25f2
BW
2752* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2753recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2754is not supported.
2755
6dd09645
JB
2756* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2757frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2758
c9bb8148
DJ
2759* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
276032-bit or 64-bit register values.
2761
0d5de010
DJ
2762* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2763
23181151
DJ
2764* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2765target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2766a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2767
ea37ba09
DJ
2768* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2769automatically displayed as character or string data.
2770
2771* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2772arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2773as strings.
e1f48ead 2774
123dc839
DJ
2775* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2776for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 2777only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 2778
05a4558a
DJ
2779* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2780iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 2781
7c963485
PA
2782* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2783ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2784has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2785
b18be20d
DJ
2786* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2787
0ca420ce
UW
2788* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2789
31d99776
DJ
2790* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2791layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2792segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2793
a4642986
MR
2794* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2795immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2796
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2797* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2798"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2799packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2800where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2801Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
2802
2803* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2804(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
2805
2806* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2807according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 2808
c9bb8148
DJ
2809* New commands
2810
23776285
MR
2811set remoteflow
2812show remoteflow
2813 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2814 when debugging using remote targets.
2815
c9bb8148
DJ
2816set mem inaccessible-by-default
2817show mem inaccessible-by-default
2818 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2819 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2820 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2821 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2822 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2823
2824set breakpoint auto-hw
2825show breakpoint auto-hw
2826 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2827 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2828 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2829 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2830 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2831 including "next" and "finish".
2832
0e420bd8
JB
2833catch exception
2834catch exception unhandled
2835 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2836
2837catch assert
2838 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2839
f822c95b
DJ
2840set sysroot
2841show sysroot
2842 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2843 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2844 an alias to "set sysroot".
2845
83cc5c53
UW
2846info spu
2847 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2848 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2849 architecture.
2850
bd372731
MK
2851* New native configurations
2852
2853OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2854
23181151
DJ
2855set tdesc filename
2856unset tdesc filename
2857show tdesc filename
2858 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2859 not query the target for its built-in description.
2860
c9bb8148
DJ
2861* New targets
2862
54fe9172 2863OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 2864MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 2865Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 2866
6dd09645
JB
2867* New remote packets
2868
2869QPassSignals:
2870 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2871 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2872
23181151
DJ
2873qXfer:features:read:
2874 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2875 features.
6dd09645 2876
83cc5c53
UW
2877qXfer:spu:read:
2878qXfer:spu:write:
2879 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2880 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2881
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2882qXfer:libraries:read:
2883 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2884 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2885 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2886 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2887
483367ee
DJ
2888* Removed targets
2889
2890Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2891
d08950c4
UW
2892alpha*-*-osf1*
2893alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 2894d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
2895hppa*-*-hiux*
2896i[34567]86-ncr-*
2897i[34567]86-*-dgux*
2898i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2899i[34567]86-*-netware*
2900i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2901i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2902i[34567]86-*-sco*
2903i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2904i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
2905i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
2906i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2907i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2908i[34567]86-*-sysv*
2909i[34567]86-*-isc*
2910m68*-cisco*-*
2911m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 2912mips*-*-pe
483367ee 2913rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 2914sh*-*-pe
483367ee 2915
7ce59000
DJ
2916* Other removed features
2917
2918target abug
2919target cpu32bug
2920target est
2921target rom68k
2922
2923 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2924
ea35711c
DJ
2925target hms
2926target e7000
2927target sh3
2928target sh3e
2929
2930 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2931 H8/300.
2932
2933target ocd
2934
2935 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2936 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2937 interfaces.
2938
7ce59000
DJ
2939DWARF 1 support
2940
2941 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2942 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2943
54d61198
DJ
2944Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2945
2946 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2947 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2948 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2949 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2950
ea35711c
DJ
2951MIPS ".pdr" sections
2952
2953 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2954 in debugging information.
2955
2956Scheme support
2957
2958 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2959 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2960
1a69e1e4
DJ
2961set mips stack-arg-size
2962set mips saved-gpreg-size
2963
2964 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2965
6dd09645 2966*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 2967
ca3bf3bd
DJ
2968* New targets
2969
2970Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 2971Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 2972
6aec2e11
DJ
2973* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2974(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2975running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2976
2977* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2978Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2979supported.
2980
17218d91
DJ
2981* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2982broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2983
9ebce043
DJ
2984* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2985stub provides the required support.
2986
7d3d3ece
DJ
2987* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2988longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2989
4f8253f3
JB
2990* New commands
2991
2992set substitute-path
2993unset substitute-path
2994show substitute-path
2995 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2996 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2997 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2998 between compilation and debugging.
2999
9fa66fd7
AS
3000set trace-commands
3001show trace-commands
3002 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
3003 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
3004 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
3005
1f5befc1
DJ
3006* REMOVED features
3007
3008The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
3009
2ec3381a
DJ
3010Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
3011an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
3012
3d00d119
DJ
3013The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
3014
be2a5f71
DJ
3015* New remote packets
3016
3017qSupported:
3018 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
3019 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
3020 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
3021 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
3022 target.
3023
0876f84a
DJ
3024qXfer:auxv:read:
3025 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
3026 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
3027
9ebce043
DJ
3028qXfer:memory-map:read:
3029 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
3030 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
3031
3032vFlashErase:
3033vFlashWrite:
3034vFlashDone:
3035 Erase and program a flash memory device.
3036
0876f84a
DJ
3037* Removed remote packets
3038
3039qPart:auxv:read:
3040 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3041 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3042
e374b601 3043*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 3044
96309189
MS
3045* New targets
3046
3047Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3048
3049Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3050
53e5f3cf
AS
3051* New commands
3052
3053init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3054 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3055
ac264b3b
MS
3056The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3057
3058checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3059
3060restart <n> Return the program state to a
3061 previously saved state.
3062
3063info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3064
3065delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3066
3067set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3068 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3069
3070info forks List forks of the user program that
3071 are available to be debugged.
3072
3073fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3074 forks of the user program that are
3075 available to be debugged.
3076
3077delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3078 that are available to be debugged (and
3079 kill the forked process).
3080
3081detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3082 that are available to be debugged (and
3083 allow the process to continue).
3084
3950dc3f
NS
3085* New architecture
3086
3087Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
3088
0ea3f30e
DJ
3089* Improved Windows host support
3090
3091GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
3092native console support, and remote communications using either
3093network sockets or serial ports.
3094
f79daebb
GM
3095* Improved Modula-2 language support
3096
3097GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
3098basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
3099pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
3100printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
3101written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3102GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3103
acab6ab2
MM
3104* REMOVED features
3105
3106The ARM rdi-share module.
3107
f4267320
DJ
3108The Netware NLM debug server.
3109
53e5f3cf 3110*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 3111
e0ecbda1
MK
3112* New native configurations
3113
02a677ac 3114OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
3115OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3116
d64a6579
KB
3117* New targets
3118
3119Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3120
b33a6190
AS
3121* New command line options
3122
3123--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3124--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3125 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3126--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3127 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3128 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3129 with the --command (-x) option.
3130
11dced61
AC
3131* Deprecated commands removed
3132
3133The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3134removed:
3135
3136 Command Replacement
3137 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3138 othernames set arm disassembler
3139 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3140 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3141 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3142 regs info registers
3143
6fe85783
MK
3144* New BSD user-level threads support
3145
3146It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3147library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3148configurations are:
3149
3150FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3151FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3152OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3153
3154Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3155are not yet supported.
3156
5260ca71
MS
3157* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3158(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3159
e84ecc99
AC
3160* REMOVED configurations and files
3161
3162VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 3163Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 3164National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 3165
31e35378
JB
3166* New "set print array-indexes" command
3167
3168After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3169when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3170behavior.
3171
e85e5c83
MK
3172* VAX floating point support
3173
3174GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3175
d91e9901
AS
3176* User-defined command support
3177
3178In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3179to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3180section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3181
f2cb65ca
MC
3182*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3183
f47b1503
AS
3184* New command line option
3185
3186GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
3187debugging.
3188
f2cb65ca
MC
3189* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
3190
3191GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
3192information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
3193by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
3194proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
3195to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 3196
d08c0230
AC
3197* Internationalization
3198
3199When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
3200internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
3201continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
3202
117ea3cf
PH
3203* Ada
3204
3205Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
3206implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
3207into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
3208
d08c0230
AC
3209* New native configurations
3210
3211GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
3212
3213* Remote 'p' packet
3214
3215GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
3216packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
3217
3218* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
3219
3220GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3221The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
3222features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
3223i386 application).
3224
3225GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
3226compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
3227continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
3228configurations:
3229
3230hppa-*-hpux
3231ia64-*-aix
3232mips-*-irix*
3233*-*-lynx
3234mips-*-linux-gnu
3235sds protocol
3236xdr protocol
3237powerpc bdm protocol
3238
3239Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3240made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
3241
3242* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3243
3244Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3245been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3246configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3247permanently REMOVED.
3248
3249h8300-*-*
3250mcore-*-*
3251mn10300-*-*
3252ns32k-*-*
3253sh64-*-*
3254v850-*-*
3255
ebb7c577
AC
3256*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
3257
3258* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
3259
3260When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
3261heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
3262been fixed.
3263
3264* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
3265
3266When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
3267fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
3268IRIX long double values).
3269
3270* VAX and "next"
3271
3272A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
3273command. This problem has been fixed.
3274
860660cb 3275*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 3276
0dea2468
AC
3277* Fix for ``many threads''
3278
3279On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
3280rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
3281error message:
3282
3283 ptrace: No such process.
3284 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
3285
3286This problem has been fixed.
3287
2c07db7a
AC
3288* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
3289
3290Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
3291GDB to dump core).
3292
c23968a2
JB
3293* New ``start'' command.
3294
3295This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
3296
71009278
MK
3297* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
3298
3299Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
3300live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
3301platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
3302
3303FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3304FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
3305NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
3306NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
3307NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
3308OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3309OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
3310OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
3311OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3312
3c0b7db2
AC
3313* Signal trampoline code overhauled
3314
3315Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
3316These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
3317of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
3318call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
3319signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
3320
73cc75f3
AC
3321Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
3322features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
3323include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 3324
7243600a
BF
3325* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
3326
6f606e1c
MK
3327* New native configurations
3328
97dc871c 3329GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 3330OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
3331OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
3332OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 3333OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 3334NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 3335OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 3336
a1b461bf
AC
3337* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
3338
3339GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3340The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
3341including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
3342migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
3343compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
3344work, was also included.
3345
3346GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
3347module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
3348
3349h8300-*-*
3350mcore-*-*
3351mn10300-*-*
3352ns32k-*-*
3353sh64-*-*
3354v850-*-*
3355xstormy16-*-*
3356
3357Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3358made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
3359
3c7012f5
AC
3360* REMOVED configurations and files
3361
3362Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3363Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3364Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3365Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3366Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3367AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3368Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3369decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3370riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3371sonymips mips-sony-*
3372sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3373
e5fe55f7
AC
3374*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
3375
3376* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
3377
3378The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
3379GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
3380command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
3381program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
3382with GDB".
3383
3384* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
3385
3386Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
3387libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
3388cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
3389GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
3390shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
3391the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
3392are created.
3393
3394Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
3395
3396* Fixed ISO-C build problems
3397
3398The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
3399non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
3400compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
3401
3402* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
3403
3404Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
3405wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
3406
3407* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
3408
3409The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
3410permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
3411systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
3412
3413* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
3414
3415Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
3416has been updated to use constant array sizes.
3417
3418* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
3419
3420GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
3421its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
3422panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
3423
3424* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
3425
3426When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
3427by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
3428not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
3429
faae5abe 3430*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 3431
9175c9a3
MC
3432* Removed --with-mmalloc
3433
3434Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
3435conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
3436
3cc87ec0
MK
3437* Changes in AMD64 configurations
3438
3439The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
3440the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
3441and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
3442you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
3443
f0424ef6
MK
3444* Revised SPARC target
3445
3446The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
3447FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
3448support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
3449from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
3450(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 3451
59659be2
ILT
3452* New C++ demangler
3453
3454GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
3455names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
3456with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
3457programs.
3458
9e08b29b
DJ
3459* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3460
3461GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
3462arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
3463encountered these.
3464
8dfe8985
DC
3465* C++ nested types and namespaces
3466
3467GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
3468improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
3469is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
3470Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
3471namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
3472"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
3473frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
3474if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
3475GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
3476
cced5e27
MK
3477* New native configurations
3478
3479NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 3480OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 3481OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
3482OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3483OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 3484
b4b4b794
KI
3485* New debugging protocols
3486
3487M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
3488
7989c619
AC
3489* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
3490
3491The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
3492and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
3493tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
3494
5994185b
AC
3495* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3496
3497Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3498been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3499configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3500permanently REMOVED.
3501
3502Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3503Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3504Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3505Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3506Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3507AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3508Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
3509decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3510riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3511sonymips mips-sony-*
3512sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 3513
0ddabb4c
AC
3514* REMOVED configurations and files
3515
3516SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3517SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
3518Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3519Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3520H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3521HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3522HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3523HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3524PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 3525386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
3526Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3527 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3528 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
3529SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3530SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
3531Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3532Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 3533
c7f1390e
DJ
3534*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3535
1fe43d45
AC
3536* Objective-C
3537
3538Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3539integrated into GDB.
3540
e6beb428
AC
3541* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3542
3543DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3544information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3545By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3546backtraces.
3547
3548The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3549have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3550DWARF 2 CFI support.
3551
3552* Hosted file I/O.
3553
3554GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3555file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3556remote protocol documentation for details.
3557
3558* All targets using the new architecture framework.
3559
3560All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3561architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3562to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3563ppc32 on ppc64).
3564
3565* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3566
3567GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3568per-thread variables.
3569
3570* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3571
3572GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3573GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3574
3575* Separate debug info.
3576
3577GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3578automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3579of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3580system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3581and optional debug files.
3582
3583* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3584
3585DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3586describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3587debugger.
3588
3589GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3590for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3591
3592* Java
3593
3594A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3595Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3596considered "useable".
3597
85f8f974
DJ
3598* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3599
3600The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3601commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3602kernel.
3603
0fac0b41
DJ
3604* GDB supports logging output to a file
3605
3606There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
3607used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 3608
6ad8ae5c
DJ
3609* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
3610
3611The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
3612disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
3613command.
3614
e286caf2 3615* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
3616
3617The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
3618registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
3619
d28f9cdf
DJ
3620* Profiling support
3621
3622A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
3623be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
3624session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
3625"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
3626data, for more informative profiling results.
3627
da0f9dcd
AC
3628* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3629
3630The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3631option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 3632"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
3633
3634Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3635removed.
3636
fb9b6b35
JJ
3637Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3638Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3639Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3640 in a subsequent -var-update.
3641
954a4db8
MK
3642* New native configurations.
3643
3644FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3645
6760f9e6
JB
3646* Multi-arched targets.
3647
b4263afa 3648HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 3649Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 3650
1b831c93
AC
3651* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3652
3653Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3654been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3655configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3656permanently REMOVED.
3657
8b0e5691 3658Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 3659Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 3660H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
3661HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3662HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3663HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 3664PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
3665Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3666 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3667 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
3668Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3669Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 3670
5835abe7
NC
3671* REMOVED configurations and files
3672
3673V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
3674Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3675IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3676i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3677i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3678i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3679HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3680 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3681 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3682Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3683Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3684Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3685OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3686I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 3687
a094c6fb
AC
3688* MIPS $fp behavior changed
3689
3690The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3691the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3692context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3693address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3694The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3695
299ffc64 3696*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 3697
46248966
AC
3698* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3699
3700When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3701`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3702in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3703library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3704shared libs like mad''.
3705
b9d14705 3706* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 3707
b9d14705
DJ
3708Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3709the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3710arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3711powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 3712
e0e9281e
JB
3713* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3714
3715GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3716and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3717they expand.
3718
dd73b9bb
AC
3719The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3720invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3721
3722The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3723macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3724
e0e9281e
JB
3725Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3726information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3727your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3728information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3729
2250ee0c
CV
3730* Multi-arched targets.
3731
6e3ba3b8
JT
3732DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3733DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 3734NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 3735National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
3736Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3737Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 3738
cd9bfe15 3739* New targets.
e33ce519 3740
456f8b9d
DB
3741Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3742
e33ce519 3743
da8ca43d
JT
3744* New native configurations
3745
3746Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 3747SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 3748MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 3749UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 3750
cd9bfe15
AC
3751* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3752
3753Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3754been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3755configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3756permanently REMOVED.
3757
92eb23c5 3758Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 3759OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 3760IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 3761Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 3762Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 3763Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
3764i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3765i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3766i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
3767HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3768 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3769 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 3770I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 3771
db034ac5
AC
3772* OBSOLETE languages
3773
3774CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3775
cd9bfe15
AC
3776* REMOVED configurations and files
3777
3778AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3779A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3780AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3781AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3782AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3783
3784testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3785
20f01a46
DH
3786* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3787
3788This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3789commands. The default is 1024.
3790
a5941fbf
MK
3791* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3792
3793Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3794
89743e04
MS
3795* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3796
3797These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3798to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3799from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 3800
9fb14e79
JB
3801* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3802
3803The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3804including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3805of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3806
2037aebb
AC
3807*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3808
3809* New targets.
3810
3811Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
3812
3813* Bug fixes
3814
3815gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3816mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3817Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3818
3819gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3820dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3821Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3822
3823Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3824Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3825By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3826
3827i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3828avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3829By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3830
37057839 3831*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 3832
1a703748
MS
3833* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3834
3835This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3836really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3837In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3838target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3839This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3840(notably embedded) targets.
3841
cefd4ef5
MS
3842* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3843
55241689
AC
3844This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3845process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3846GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3847hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 3848
352ed7b4
MS
3849* New command line option
3850
3851GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3852
3853* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3854
3855There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3856command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3857a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3858be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3859open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3860issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3861a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3862it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3863GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3864is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3865
fe419ffc
RE
3866* Changes in ARM configurations.
3867
3868Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3869configuration is fully multi-arch.
3870
eb7cedd9
MK
3871* New native configurations
3872
fe419ffc 3873ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 3874x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 3875AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 3876Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 3877
c9f63e6b
CV
3878* New targets
3879
3880Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3881
9b4ff276
AC
3882* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3883
3884Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3885been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3886configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3887permanently REMOVED.
3888
3889AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3890A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3891AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3892AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3893AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3894
b4ceaee6 3895testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 3896
e2caac18
AC
3897* REMOVED configurations and files
3898
3899TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 3900WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
3901PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3902PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3903PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 3904Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
3905Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3906 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 3907SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 3908Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
3909Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3910ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 3911Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 3912
c2a727fa
TT
3913* Changes to command line processing
3914
3915The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3916for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3917
467d8519
TT
3918* Changes to key bindings
3919
3920There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3921
7072a954
AC
3922*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3923
3924Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3925
3926Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3927corrupted.
3928
3929Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3930
3931Numerous documentation fixes.
3932
3933Numerous testsuite fixes.
3934
34f47bc4 3935*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
3936
3937* New native configurations
3938
3939Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3940x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 3941MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
3942MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3943ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 3944s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 3945
bf64bfd6
AC
3946* New targets
3947
def90278 3948Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 3949CRIS cris-axis
55241689 3950UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 3951
17e78a56 3952* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
3953
3954x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 3955Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
3956Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3957 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
3958TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3959WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 3960Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
3961PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3962PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3963PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 3964SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
3965Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3966ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 3967Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 3968
17e78a56
AC
3969stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3970kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3971
7fcca85b
AC
3972Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3973been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3974configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3975permanently REMOVED.
3976
a196c81c 3977* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
3978
3979Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3980Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3981Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3982ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3983Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 3984ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 3985
6d6b80e5 3986* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 3987
6d6b80e5 3988GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
3989sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3990present.
3991
bf64bfd6
AC
3992* Other news:
3993
e23194cb
EZ
3994* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3995
3996* The MI enabled by default.
3997
3998The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3999revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
4000engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
4001using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
4002which is now deprecated.
4003
4004* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
4005
4006GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
4007main features are supported:
4008
4009 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
4010
4011 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
4012 extension;
4013
4014 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
4015
4016 - a Pascal expression parser.
4017
4018However, some important features are not yet supported.
4019
4020 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
4021
4022 - there are some problems with boolean types;
4023
4024 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
4025 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
4026
4027 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
4028
4029 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
4030
4031* Changes in completion.
4032
4033Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
4034to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
4035users expect at the shell prompt.
4036
4037Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
4038`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
4039program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4040files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4041be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4042considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4043name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4044
4045`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4046
4047* New platform-independent commands:
4048
4049It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4050hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4051documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4052
4053* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4054
d7275149
MK
4055Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4056revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4057many threads as your system allows you to have.
4058
e23194cb
EZ
4059Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4060
d7275149
MK
4061Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4062multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
4063
4064* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
4065
4066Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4067
e23194cb
EZ
4068GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4069debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4070supported.)
4071
4072* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4073
4074Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4075breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4076implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4077put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4078and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4079registers.
4080
4081The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4082debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
4083watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
4084
4085* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
4086
4087New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
4088the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
4089
4090New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
4091display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
4092IDT.
4093
4094New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
4095from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
4096New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
4097a given linear address.
4098
4099GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
4100program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
4101which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4102
4103DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4104
6c56c069
EZ
4105It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4106
e23194cb
EZ
4107* Changes in documentation.
4108
4109All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4110Documentation License.
4111
4112Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4113manual.
4114
4115TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4116
4117Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4118manual.
4119
4120The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4121documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4122hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4123
5d6640b1
AC
4124* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4125
4126The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4127``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4128contents of this file.
4129
1a1d8446
AC
4130* gdba.el deleted
4131
4132GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 4133
9debab2f 4134*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 4135
c63ce875
EZ
4136* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4137
4138Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4139programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4140displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4141greater level of detail.
4142
4143* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4144
4145It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4146bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4147on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4148written.
4149
4150* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4151
4152The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4153necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4154machines ``out of the box''.
4155
4156The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4157possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4158signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4159would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4160interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4161
4162It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4163standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4164even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4165and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4166terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4167
4168The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4169enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4170also works.
4171
4172DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4173GDB.
4174
4175It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4176directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4177times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4178breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4179
ed9a39eb
JM
4180* New native configurations
4181
4182ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 4183PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 4184
7a292a7a
SS
4185* New targets
4186
96baa820 4187Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
4188x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
4189PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
4190TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4191
085dd6e6
JM
4192* OBSOLETE configurations
4193
4194Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4195Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 4196Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 4197ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 4198Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 4199
9debab2f
AC
4200Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4201but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4202these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4203be permanently REMOVED.
4204
5330533d
SS
4205* Gould support removed
4206
4207Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
4208
bc9e5bbf
AC
4209* New features for SVR4
4210
4211On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
4212without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
4213load symbols from the running process's executable file.
4214
4215* Many C++ enhancements
4216
4217C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
4218in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
4219
adf40b2e
JM
4220* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
4221
4222A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
4223sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
4224with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
4225``|<program> <args>'' vis:
4226
4227 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
4228 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
4229
43e526b9
JM
4230* MIPS 64 remote protocol
4231
4232A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
4233expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
4234instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
4235
4236The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
4237added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4238
96baa820
JM
4239* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
4240
4241The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
4242``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
4243include ``set remote P-packet''.
4244
11cf8741
JM
4245* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
4246
4247The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
4248accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
4249``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
4250
7876dd43
DB
4251* ``apropos'' command added.
4252
4253The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
4254documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
4255try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
4256
bc9e5bbf
AC
4257* New MI interface
4258
4259A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
4260interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
4261process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
4262"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
4263enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
4264
4265 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
4266
c906108c
SS
4267*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
4268
4269* New native configurations
4270
4271HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
4272HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 4273M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
4274
4275* New targets
4276
4277Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4278Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
4279Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4280
4281* OBSOLETE configurations
4282
4283Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
4284
4285Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4286but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4287these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4288be permanently REMOVED.
4289
4290* ANSI/ISO C
4291
4292As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
4293buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
4294containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
4295use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
4296available. If this is not true, please report the affected
4297configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
4298information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
4299already.
4300
4301* Readline 2.2
4302
4303GDB now uses readline 2.2.
4304
4305* set extension-language
4306
4307You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
4308languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
4309you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
4310 set extension-language .c c++
4311The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
4312and their associated languages.
4313
4314* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
4315
4316When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
4317you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
4318PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
4319
4320 set processor NAME
4321
4322sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
4323following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
4324
4325 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
4326 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
4327 403 IBM PowerPC 403
4328 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
4329 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
4330 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
4331 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
4332 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
4333 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
4334 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
4335 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
4336
4337At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
4338special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
4339registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
4340only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
4341
4342* HP-UX support
4343
4344Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
4345more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
4346library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
4347support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
4348for xdb and dbx commands.
4349
4350* Catchpoints
4351
4352HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
4353generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
4354to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
4355
4356This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
4357argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
4358output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
4359
4360* Debugging across forks
4361
4362On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
4363in the inferior.
4364
4365* TUI
4366
4367HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
4368it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
4369configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
4370
4371* GDB remote protocol additions
4372
4373A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
4374Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
4375fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
4376allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
4377
4378For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
4379full 64-bit address. The command
4380
4381 set remoteaddresssize 32
4382
4383can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
4384the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
4385will be discarded.
4386
4387In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
4388command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
4389
4390 maint packet heythere
4391
4392sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
4393disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
4394time.
4395
4396The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
4397target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
4398downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
4399
4400* Tracing can collect general expressions
4401
4402You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
4403further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
4404doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
4405
4406* mask-address variable for Mips
4407
4408For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
4409a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
4410of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
4411
4412* Higher serial baud rates
4413
4414GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
4415230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
4416to achieve all of these rates.)
4417
4418* i960 simulator
4419
4420The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
4421builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
4422
4423
4424*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
4425
4426* New native configurations
4427
4428Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
4429Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
4430Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4431PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4432PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4433Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
4434Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
4435
4436* New targets
4437
4438Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4439Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
4440Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4441Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
4442MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
4443MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
4444MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
4445Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
4446Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4447Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4448NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
4449
4450* New debugging protocols
4451
4452ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4453M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
4454DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
4455PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4456PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4457Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4458
4459* DWARF 2
4460
4461All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
4462format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
4463information.
4464
4465* Java frontend
4466
4467GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
4468only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
4469
4470* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
4471
4472For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
4473loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
4474locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
4475
4476* Live range splitting
4477
4478GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
4479range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
4480more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
4481
4482* Hurd support
4483
4484GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
4485updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
4486
4487* ARM Thumb support
4488
4489GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
4490instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
4491instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
4492accordingly.
4493
4494* MIPS16 support
4495
4496GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
4497instruction set.
4498
4499* Overlay support
4500
4501GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
4502linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
4503will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
4504control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
4505additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
4506in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
4507
4508* info symbol
4509
4510The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4511the symbol at the specified address.
4512
4513* Trace support
4514
4515The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4516asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4517extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4518includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4519file tracepoint.c for more details.
4520
4521* MIPS simulator
4522
4523Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4524by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4525of most MIPS variants.
4526
4527* Sparc simulator
4528
4529Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4530by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4531Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4532
4533* set architecture
4534
4535For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4536basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4537architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4538the possible architectures.
4539
4540*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4541
4542* New native configurations
4543
4544Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4545M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4546PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4547PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4548PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4549RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4550
4551* New targets
4552
4553ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4554I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4555MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4556MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4557PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4558Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
4559Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4560
4561* PowerPC simulator
4562
4563The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4564contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4565PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4566basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4567performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4568
4569* Solaris 2.5
4570
4571GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4572
4573* Windows 95/NT native
4574
4575GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4576To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4577which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4578Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4579ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4580
4581* dont-repeat command
4582
4583If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4584command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4585useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4586extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4587
4588* Send break instead of ^C
4589
4590The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4591rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4592GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4593
4594* Remote protocol timeout
4595
4596The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4597that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4598to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4599
4600* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4601
4602By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4603loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4604stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4605when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4606in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
4607
4608Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
4609/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
4610automatically on hpux10.
4611
4612* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
4613
4614Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
4615
4616* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
4617
4618When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
4619may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
4620the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
4621every character. The default value is 1050.
4622
4623* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
4624
4625If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
4626a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
4627replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4628details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4629remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4630to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4631
4632* Speedups for remote debugging
4633
4634GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4635the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4636and more efficient S-record downloading.
4637
4638* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4639
4640GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4641Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4642
4643*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4644
4645* Psymtabs for XCOFF
4646
4647The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4648can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4649
4650* Remote targets use caching
4651
4652Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4653remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4654it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4655debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4656off' turns the the data cache off.
4657
4658* Remote targets may have threads
4659
4660The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4661in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4662gdb/remote.c for details.
4663
4664* NetROM support
4665
4666If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4667support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4668acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4669write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4670support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4671another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4672sequence is something like
4673
4674 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4675 load <prog>
4676 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4677
4678* Macintosh host
4679
4680GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4681may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4682it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4683available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4684device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4685directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4686scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4687mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4688
4689* Autoconf
4690
4691GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4692but does simplify configuration and building.
4693
4694* hpux10
4695
4696GDB now supports hpux10.
4697
4698*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4699
4700* New native configurations
4701
4702x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4703x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4704NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4705Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4706
4707* New targets
4708
4709A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4710HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4711CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4712PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4713WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4714
4715* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4716
4717GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4718possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4719filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4720the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4721if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4722
4723* Arguments to user-defined commands
4724
4725User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4726Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4727trivial example:
4728define adder
4729 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4730
4731To execute the command use:
4732adder 1 2 3
4733
4734Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4735Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4736use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4737
4738* New `if' and `while' commands
4739
4740This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4741commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4742expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4743execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4744terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4745`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4746if the expression is zero.
4747
4748* Fortran source language mode
4749
4750GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4751Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4752variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4753with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4754Fortran compilers.
4755
4756* Better HPUX support
4757
4758Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4759running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4760processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4761for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4762that behavior do the following before running the program:
4763
4764 adb -w a.out
4765 __dld_flags?W 0x5
4766 control-d
4767
4768This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4769To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4770
4771 adb -w a.out
4772 __dld_flags?W 0x4
4773 control-d
4774
4775You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4776the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4777external linkage.
4778
4779GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4780HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4781
4782* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4783
4784You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4785commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4786current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4787"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4788associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4789configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4790
4791* New DOS host serial code
4792
4793This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4794no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4795a PC's serial port.
4796
4797*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4798
4799* New "complete" command
4800
4801This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4802were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4803
4804* Trailing space optional in prompt
4805
4806"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4807allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4808
4809* Breakpoint hit counts
4810
4811"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4812has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4813can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4814to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4815less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4816that breakpoint.
4817
4818* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4819
4820"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4821an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4822arrays actually contain only short strings.
4823
4824* Shared library breakpoints
4825
4826In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4827breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4828
4829* Hardware watchpoints
4830
4831There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4832targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4833
55241689 4834Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
4835
4836* Annotations
4837
4838Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4839and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4840
4841* Improved Irix 5 support
4842
4843GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4844
4845* Improved HPPA support
4846
4847GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4848
4849* New native configurations
4850
4851Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4852HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4853Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4854RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4855
4856* New targets
4857
4858OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4859MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4860Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
4861
4862* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4863
4864There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4865This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4866
4867* Fixes
4868
4869As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4870and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4871
4872*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4873
4874* Irix 5 is now supported
4875
4876* HPPA support
4877
4878GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4879to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4880GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4881of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4882can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4883
4884
4885*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4886
4887* User visible changes:
4888
4889* Remote Debugging
4890
4891The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4892target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4893debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4894integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4895debugging info for the mips target).
4896
4897* DEC Alpha native support
4898
4899GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4900debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4901work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4902Alpha-specific notes.
4903
4904* Preliminary thread implementation
4905
4906GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4907
4908* LynxOS native and target support for 386
4909
4910This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4911to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4912for details).
4913
4914* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4915
4916This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4917mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4918call methods, ...etc.
4919
4920*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4921
4922 * User visible changes:
4923
4924Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4925supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4926other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4927somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4928
4929Filename completion now works.
4930
4931When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4932arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4933addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4934
4935All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4936vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4937should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4938your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4939to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4940
4941 * DEC alpha support
4942
4943This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4944cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4945
4946
4947*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4948
4949 * Testsuite
4950
4951This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4952The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4953via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4954
4955 * C++ demangling
4956
4957'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4958emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4959Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4960disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4961use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4962
4963 * Simulators
4964
4965GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4966So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4967Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4968
4969 * New targets supported
4970
4971H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4972H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4973SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4974Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4975IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4976
4977Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4978version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4979GO32 memory extender.
4980
4981 * New remote protocols
4982
4983MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4984
4985 * New source languages supported
4986
4987This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4988used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4989into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4990
4991
4992*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4993
4994 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4995
4996GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4997version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4998University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4999compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
5000format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
5001(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
5002
5003Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
5004
5005 * Faster and better demangling
5006
5007We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
5008demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
5009character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
5010only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
5011This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
5012increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
5013symbol lookups.
5014
5015`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
5016from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
5017compiler does not actually implement.
5018
5019 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
5020
5021In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
5022inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
5023recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
5024very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
5025The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
5026circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
5027fix.
5028
5029The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
5030release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
5031
5032 * Improved configure script
5033
5034The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
5035you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
5036host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
5037done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
5038
5039We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5040version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5041`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5042The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5043only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5044We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5045
5046 * Documentation improvements
5047
5048There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5049produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5050before submitting changes.
5051
5052The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5053M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5054`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5055you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5056a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5057
5058*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5059We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5060been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5061or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5062`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5063around this problem.
5064
5065 * New features
5066
5067GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5068the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5069`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5070the target program.
5071
5072The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5073how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5074
5075 * New native hosts supported
5076
5077HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5078386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5079
5080 * New targets supported
5081
5082AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
5083
5084 * New file formats supported
5085
5086BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
5087HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
5088
5089 * Major bug fixes
5090
5091Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
5092
5093We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
5094printf_filtered("%s") problems.
5095
5096We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
5097for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
5098release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
5099
5100You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
5101will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5102
5103We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5104for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5105especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5106libraries.
5107
5108The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5109information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5110command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5111any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5112when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5113
5114 * Internal improvements
5115
5116GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5117debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5118
5119GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5120Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5121symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5122contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5123shared code that handles any of them.
5124
5125 * New command line options
5126
5127We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5128
5129 * Mmalloc licensing
5130
5131The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5132General Public License.
5133
5134*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5135
5136 * Host/native/target split
5137
5138GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5139hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5140target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5141local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5142ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5143
5144The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5145GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5146is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5147code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5148any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5149built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5150handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5151
5152GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5153It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5154plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5155
5156 * New hosts supported
5157
5158HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5159386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5160386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5161
5162 * New targets supported
5163
5164Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
516568030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5166
5167 * New native hosts supported
5168
5169386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5170 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5171386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5172
5173 * New file formats supported
5174
5175BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5176supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5177format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5178
5179 * New commands
5180
5181`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5182`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5183These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5184
5185`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5186
5187You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
5188scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
5189prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
5190executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
5191
5192 * C++ improvements
5193
5194We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
5195info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
5196symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
5197
5198Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5199
5200 * Major bug fixes
5201
5202The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
5203fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
5204by the compiler.
5205
5206We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
5207support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
5208
5209John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
5210slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
5211that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
5212purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
5213the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
5214mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
5215
5216Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
5217about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
5218completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
5219we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
5220
5221 * AMD 29k support
5222
5223A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
5224specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
5225calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
5226usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
5227in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
5228
5229We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
5230Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
5231of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
5232resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
5233
5234 * Remote interfaces
5235
5236We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
5237with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
5238message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
5239This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
5240needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
5241breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
5242each instruction being stepped through.
5243
5244The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
5245registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
5246
5247There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
5248find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
5249Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
5250processor with a serial port.
5251
5252 * Configuration
5253
5254Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
5255`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
5256supported, and what files each one uses.
5257
5258 * Library changes
5259
5260There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
5261disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
5262Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
5263disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
5264
5265The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
5266Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
5267can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
5268grants all the rights from the General Public License.
5269
5270 * Documentation
5271
5272The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
5273reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
5274as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
5275encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
5276system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
5277bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
5278
5279And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
5280
5281
5282*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
5283
5284 * Better support for C++ function names
5285
5286GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
5287names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
5288(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
5289single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
5290Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
5291
5292GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
5293the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
5294You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
5295lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
5296for the list of formats.
5297
5298 * G++ symbol mangling problem
5299
5300Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
5301C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
5302directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
5303can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
5304usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
5305about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
5306this problem.)
5307
5308 * New 'maintenance' command
5309
5310All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
5311the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
5312can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
5313
5314 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
5315 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
5316 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
5317 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
5318 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
5319 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
5320
5321The following commands are new:
5322
5323 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
5324 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
5325 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
5326
5327 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
5328
5329We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
5330(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
5331be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
5332read after argv processing.
5333
5334 * New hosts supported
5335
5336Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
5337
55241689 5338GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
5339
5340We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
5341is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
5342for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
5343masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
5344fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
5345It costs extra.
5346
5347 * New targets supported
5348
5349Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5350
5351 * More smarts about finding #include files
5352
5353GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
5354all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
5355greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
5356especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
5357the one that contains your sources.
5358
5359We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
5360breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
5361try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
5362
5363 * Interesting infernals change
5364
5365GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
5366section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
5367target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
5368stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
5369
5370 * Bug fixes (of course!)
5371
5372There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
5373 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
5374 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
5375
5376See the ChangeLog for details.
5377
5378*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
5379
5380 * New machines supported (host and target)
5381
5382IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
5383
5384SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5385
5386 * New malloc package
5387
5388GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
5389Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
5390capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
5391This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
5392pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
5393more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
5394
5395 * info proc
5396
5397The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
5398'help info proc' for details.
5399
5400 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
5401
5402The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
5403Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
5404possible.
5405
5406 * File name changes for MS-DOS
5407
5408Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
5409support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
5410conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
5411environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
5412that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
5413in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
5414
5415 * Cross byte order fixes
5416
5417Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
5418targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
5419
5420 * New -mapped and -readnow options
5421
5422If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
5423system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
5424`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
5425program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
5426called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
5427Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
5428and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
5429the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
5430option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
5431starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
5432
5433You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
5434the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
5435information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
5436slower, but makes future operations faster.
5437
5438The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
5439build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
5440A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
5441use is:
5442
5443 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
5444
5445The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
5446It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
5447shared across multiple host platforms.
5448
5449 * longjmp() handling
5450
5451GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
5452siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
5453all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
5454platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
5455
5456 * Solaris 2.0
5457
5458Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
5459this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
5460reading symbols.
5461
5462 * Bug fixes
5463
5464As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
5465People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
5466crashes and trashed symbol tables.
5467
5468*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
5469
5470 * New machines supported (host and target)
5471
5472SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5473 (except core files)
5474BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
5475Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
5476
5477 * New machines supported (target)
5478
5479AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5480
5481 * C++ support
5482
5483GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
5484The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
5485per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
5486
5487GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
5488`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
5489extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
5490good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
5491will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
5492released.
5493
5494 * New features for SVR4
5495
5496GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
5497shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
5498only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
5499
5500The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
5501on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
5502it prints the address mappings of the process.
5503
5504If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
5505bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
5506
5507 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
5508
5509Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
5510now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5511skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5512make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5513same code linked statically.
5514
5515 * New Getopt
5516
5517GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5518version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5519continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5520Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5521added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5522future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5523
5524 * Bugs fixed
5525
5526The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5527Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5528See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5529
5530
5531*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5532
5533 * New machines supported (host and target)
5534
5535Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5536NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5537Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5538
5539 * Almost SCO Unix support
5540
5541We had hoped to support:
5542SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5543(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5544that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5545about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5546
5547 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5548
5549GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5550debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5551is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5552send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5553reqired (if any).
5554
5555 * New Readline
5556
5557GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5558is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5559required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5560
5561 * Bugs fixed
5562
5563The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5564Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5565See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5566
5567 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5568
5569GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5570supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5571symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5572
5573Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5574mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5575debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5576mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5577version 2.
5578
5579Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5580really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5581line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5582variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5583situation somewhat.
5584
5585When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5586However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5587methods.
5588
5589We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5590DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5591encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5592
5593
5594*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5595
5596 * Improved configuration
5597
5598Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5599Porting BFD is simpler.
5600
5601 * Stepping improved
5602
5603The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5604of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5605in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5606function that has debugging information is called within the line.
5607
5608 * Bug fixing
5609
5610Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
5611
5612 * New host supported (not target)
5613
5614Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
5615
5616
5617*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
5618
5619 * Multiple source language support
5620
5621GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
5622It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
5623and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
5624language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
5625You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
5626`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
5627
5628 * GDB and Modula-2
5629
5630GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5631currently under development at the State University of New York at
5632Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5633continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5634
5635Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5636debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5637symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5638
5639There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5640in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5641
5642 * set write on/off
5643
5644GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5645a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5646the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5647by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5648effect immediately.
5649
5650 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5651
5652When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5653shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5654The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5655examining core files.
5656
5657 * set listsize
5658
5659You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5660The default is 10.
5661
5662 * New machines supported (host and target)
5663
5664SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5665Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5666Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5667
5668 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5669
5670IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5671
5672 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5673
5674AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5675AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5676Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5677
5678 * New remote interfaces
5679
5680AMD 29000 Adapt
5681AMD 29000 Minimon
5682
5683
5684*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5685
5686 * New Facilities
5687
5688Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5689
5690Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5691target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5692is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5693remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5694remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5695also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5696using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5697stub on the target system.
5698
5699New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5700
5701GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5702library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5703object file types such as a.out and coff.
5704
5705There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5706refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5707
5708
5709 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5710
5711All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5712by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5713
5714For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5715``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5716Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5717
5718What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5719print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5720will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5721all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5722
5723confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5724 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5725 it is already running. Default is ON.
5726
5727editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5728 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5729 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5730 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5731 Default is ON.
5732
5733history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5734 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5735 or the value of the environment variable
5736 GDBHISTFILE.
5737
5738history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5739 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5740 HISTSIZE.
5741
5742history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5743 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5744 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5745
5746history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5747 history expansion will be performed on
5748 command line input. The default is OFF.
5749
5750radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5751 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5752 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5753
5754height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5755 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5756 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5757 variable TERM.
5758
5759width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5760 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5761 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5762 variable TERM.
5763
5764Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5765``set width'' instead.
5766
5767print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5768 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5769 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5770 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5771
5772print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5773 is OFF.
5774
5775print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5776 "raw" form if off.
5777
5778print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5779 like instructions.
5780
5781print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5782
5783
5784 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5785
5786The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5787new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5788are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5789window.
5790
5791
5792 * Support for Shared Libraries
5793
5794GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5795Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5796before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5797happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5798At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5799from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5800shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5801It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5802
5803sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5804 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5805 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5806
5807info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5808
5809
5810 * Watchpoints
5811
5812A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5813expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5814tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5815quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5816problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5817more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5818
5819watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5820
5821info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5822
5823delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5824disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5825enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5826
5827
5828 * C++ multiple inheritance
5829
5830When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5831for C++ programs.
5832
5833 * C++ exception handling
5834
5835Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5836ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5837the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5838handler's context).
5839
5840catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5841 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5842 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5843
5844info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5845 current stack frame.
5846
5847
5848 * Minor command changes
5849
5850The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5851command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5852is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5853
5854The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5855at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5856frames without printing.
5857
5858 * New directory command
5859
5860'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5861The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5862about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5863with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5864find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5865
5866 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5867
5868For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5869for more details.
5870
5871GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5872two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5873Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5874where the program that you are debugging will run.
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