Use int instead of LONGEST in tdesc_type sizes.
[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 7.11
5
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6* New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
7 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
8 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
9
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10* Intel MPX bound violation handling.
11
12 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
13 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
14 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
15 signal received and code location.
16
17 For example:
18
19 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
20 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
21 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
22 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
23
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24* New commands
25
26skip -file file
27skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
28skip -function function
29skip -rfunction regular-expression
30 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
31 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
32 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
33
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34maint info line-table REGEXP
35 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
36
1233c0ba 37*** Changes in GDB 7.11
7c79d316 38
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39* GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
40
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41* Per-inferior thread numbers
42
43 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
44 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
45 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
46
47 (gdb) info threads
48 Id Target Id Frame
49 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
50 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
51 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
52 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
53
54 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
55 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
56 are no longer unique between inferiors.
57
58 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
59 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
663f6d42 60 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
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61
62 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
63 IDs.
64
65* Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
66 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
67
68 (gdb) thread 2.1
69 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
70 (gdb)
71
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72* In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
73 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
74 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
75 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
76 threads 2.*".
77
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78* You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
79 all threads.
80
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81* The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
82 the current thread.
83
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84* The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
85 current inferior.
86
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87* GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
88 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
89 example:
90
91 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
92 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
93
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94* Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
95
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96* Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
97
da8c46d2 98* The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
bc504a31 99 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
da8c46d2 100
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101* GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
102 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
103 clients.
104
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105* Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
106 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
107 at the same time.
108
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109* Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
110 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
111 into native code.
112
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113* GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
114
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115* "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
116 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
117 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
118
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119* In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
120 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
121
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122* New commands
123
124maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
125maint show target-non-stop
126 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
127 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
128 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
129
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130maint set bfd-sharing
131maint show bfd-sharing
132 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
133
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134set debug bfd-cache
135show debug bfd-cache
136 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
137
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138set debug fbsd-lwp
139show debug fbsd-lwp
140 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
141
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142set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
143show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
144 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
145
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146set remote thread-events
147show remote thread-events
148 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
149
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150set ada print-signatures on|off
151show ada print-signatures"
152 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
153 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
154
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155set max-value-size
156show max-value-size
157 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
158 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
159 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
160
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161* The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
162 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
163 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
164 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
165 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
166 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
167
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168* The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
169 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
170
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171* The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
172 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
173
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174* Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
175
176 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
177 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
178 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
179 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
180 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
181 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
182
fd2ae5d6 183* Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
d63dd61e 184 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
fd2ae5d6 185
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186* New remote packets
187
188exec stop reason
189 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
190
191exec-events feature in qSupported
192 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
193 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
194 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
195 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
196
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197vCtrlC
198 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
199 non-stop mode.
200
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201thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
202 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
203
204thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
205 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
206
207QThreadEvents
208 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
209 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
210 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
211 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
212 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
213 stop for that same thread.
214
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215N stop reply
216
217 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
218 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
219 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
220
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221QCatchSyscalls:1 [;SYSNO]...
222QCatchSyscalls:0
223 Enable ("QCatchSyscalls:1") or disable ("QCatchSyscalls:0")
224 catching syscalls from the inferior process.
225
226syscall_entry stop reason
227 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
228
229syscall_return stop reason
230 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
231
232QCatchSyscalls:1 in qSupported
233 The qSupported packet may now include QCatchSyscalls:1 in the reply
234 to indicate support for catching syscalls.
235
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236* Extended-remote exec events
237
238 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
239 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
240 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
241
242set remote exec-event-feature-packet
243show remote exec-event-feature-packet
244 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
245
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246 * Thread names in remote protocol
247
248 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
249 thread.
250
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251* Target remote mode fork and exec events
252
253 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
254 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
255 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
256 fork and exec catchpoints.
257
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258* Remote syscall events
259
260 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
261 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
262
263set remote catch-syscall-packet
264show remote catch-syscall-packet
265 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
266
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267* MI changes
268
269 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
270 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
271 left.
272
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273* Python Scripting
274
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275 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
276 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
277 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
278 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
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279 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
280 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
281
7c79d316 282*** Changes in GDB 7.10
df8411da 283
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284* Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
285 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
286 including advance SIMD instructions.
287
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288* Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
289
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290* GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
291 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
292 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
293 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
294 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
295 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
296 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
3b2f13ff 297
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298* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
299 cpu information :
300 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
301
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302* GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
303 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
304 remote serial I/O.
305
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306* The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
307 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
308 and may include things like its command line arguments.
309
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310* The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
311 is now available on all platforms.
312
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313* Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
314 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
315 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
316 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
317 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
318 backward compatibility.
319
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320* The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
321 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
322 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
323 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
324
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325* GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
326 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
327 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
328 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
329 packets" below.
330
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331* The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
332
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333* GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
334
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335* On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
336 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
337 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
338 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
339 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
340 See "New remote packets" below.
341
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342* The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
343 available register groups, including target specific groups.
344
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345* The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
346 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
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347 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
348 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
349 are ignored.
b58c513b 350
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351* Guile Scripting
352
353 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
354
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355* Python Scripting
356
357 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
358 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
359 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
d11916aa 360 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
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361 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
362 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
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363 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
364 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
365 "const" version of the value respectively.
3a8b707a 366
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367* New commands
368
369maint print symbol-cache
370 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
371
372maint print symbol-cache-statistics
373 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
374
375maint flush-symbol-cache
376 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
377
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378record btrace bts
379record bts
380 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
381
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382compile print
383 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
384
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385tui enable
386tui disable
387 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
388
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389show mpx bound
390set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
bc504a31 391 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
29c1c244 392
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393record btrace pt
394record pt
bc504a31 395 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
b20a6524 396
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397maint info btrace
398 Print information about branch tracing internals.
399
400maint btrace packet-history
401 Print the raw branch tracing data.
402
403maint btrace clear-packet-history
404 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
405
406maint btrace clear
407 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
408 anew by the next "record" command.
409
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410* New options
411
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412set debug dwarf-die
413 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
414show debug dwarf-die
415 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
416
417set debug dwarf-read
418 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
419show debug dwarf-read
420 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
421
422maint set dwarf always-disassemble
423 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
424maint show dwarf always-disassemble
425 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
426
427maint set dwarf max-cache-age
428 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
429maint show dwarf max-cache-age
430 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
431
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432set debug dwarf-line
433show debug dwarf-line
434 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
435
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436set max-completions
437show max-completions
438 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
439 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
440 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
441 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
442
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443set history remove-duplicates
444show history remove-duplicates
445 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
446
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447maint set symbol-cache-size
448maint show symbol-cache-size
449 Control the size of the symbol cache.
450
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451set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
452 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
453 BTS format.
454 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
455 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
456
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457set debug linux-namespaces
458show debug linux-namespaces
459 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
460
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461set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
462 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
bc504a31 463 Intel Processor Trace format.
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464 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
465 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
466
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467maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
468 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
469 packet history.
470
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471* The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
472 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
473
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474* Python/Guile scripting
475
476 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
477 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
478
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479* New remote packets
480
481qXfer:btrace-conf:read
482 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
483
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484Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
485 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
486
b20a6524 487Qbtrace:pt
bc504a31 488 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
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489 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
490 qSupported query.
491
492Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
bc504a31 493 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
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494 Trace format.
495
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496swbreak stop reason
497 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
498 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
499 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
500 mode operation.
501
502hwbreak stop reason
503 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
504 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
505
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506vFile:fstat:
507 Return information about files on the remote system.
508
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509qXfer:exec-file:read
510 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
511 create a process running on the remote system.
512
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513vFile:setfs:
514 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
515 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
516 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
517 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
518
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519fork stop reason
520 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
521
522vfork stop reason
523 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
524
525vforkdone stop reason
526 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
527 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
528
529fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
530 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
531 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
532 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
533 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
534 whether these features are enabled.
535
536* Extended-remote fork events
537
538 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
539 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
540 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
541 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
542
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543* The info record command now shows the recording format and the
544 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
545 the btrace record target.
546 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
547
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548* GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
549 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
550
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551* GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
552 targets.
553
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554* Removed command line options
555
556-xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
557
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558* Removed targets and native configurations
559
560HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
561Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
562
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563* New configure options
564
565--with-intel-pt
566 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
bc504a31 567 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
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568
569--with-libipt-prefix=PATH
570 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
571 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
572 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
573
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574*** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
575
576* Python Scripting
577
578 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
579
3b2f13ff 580*** Changes in GDB 7.9
919b9a93 581
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582* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
583
5f3b99cf 584* Python Scripting
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585
586 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
587 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
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588 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
589 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
a0be3e44 590 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
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591 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
592 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
86e4ed39 593 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
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594 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
595 selecting a new file to debug.
02be9a71 596 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
6dddd6a5 597 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
5f3b99cf 598
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599 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
600 inferior.
601
602 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
603 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
604 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
605 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
606
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607* New Python-based convenience functions:
608
609 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
610 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
611 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
612 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
613
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614* GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
615 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
616 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
617 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
618 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
619 interface with this new feature are:
620
621 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
622 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
623
81219e53
DE
624* New commands
625
439250fb
DE
626demangle [-l language] [--] name
627 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
628 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
629 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
630 as "maint demangler-warning".
631
81219e53
DE
632queue-signal signal-name-or-number
633 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
634
f10c5b19
JK
635add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
636 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
637 scripts.
638
f5b95c01
AA
639maint print user-registers
640 List all currently available "user" registers.
641
bb2ec1b3
TT
642compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
643 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
644 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
645
646compile file [-r|-raw] filename
647 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
648 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
649 provided.
650
70509625
PA
651* On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
652 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
653 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
654 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
655 at resume time.
656
657* Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
658 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
659 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
660 switched threads meanwhile.
661
a25a5a45
PA
662* "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
663
664 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
665 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
666 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
667 is now the default mode.
668
cc485e62
DE
669* New options
670
671set debug symbol-lookup
672show debug symbol-lookup
673 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
674
2ddf4301
SM
675* MI changes
676
677 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
678 inferiors that have exited.
679
bb7e3f4d
YQ
680* New targets
681
682MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
683
3831839c
PA
684* Removed targets
685
686Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
687
5ab806de
PA
688Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
689SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
690SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
09dd9a69
PA
691VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
692VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
3831839c 693
6bf6fd09
JB
694* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
695 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
696 its alias "share", instead.
697
919b9a93 698*** Changes in GDB 7.8
e9475ead 699
8d551b02
DE
700* New command line options
701
702-D data-directory
703 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
704
e9475ead
SA
705* GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
706 as specified in ISO C99.
707
a75fef0e
NC
708* The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
709 with or without disassembly.
b7bba001 710
ed3ef339
DE
711* Guile scripting
712
713 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
714 available is determined at configure time.
715 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
716 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
717
718* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
719
720guile [code]
721gu [code]
722 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
723
724guile-repl
725gr
726 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
727
728info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
729 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
730
731* The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
732 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
733
c6044dd1
JB
734* New options
735
770e7fc7
DE
736set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
737show print symbol-loading
738 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
739 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
740 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
741 becomes less useful.
742
ed3ef339
DE
743set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
744show guile print-stack
745 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
746
747set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
748show auto-load guile-scripts
749 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
750
c6044dd1
JB
751maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
752maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
753 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
754 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
755 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
756 usage of this option.
757
6a3cb8e8
PA
758set auto-connect-native-target
759
760 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
761 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
762 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
763
67b5c0c1
MM
764set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
765show record btrace replay-memory-access
766 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
767
329ea579
PA
768maint set target-async (on|off)
769maint show target-async
5784b3ca
JK
770 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
771 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
329ea579 772 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
5784b3ca 773 occurring only in synchronous mode.
329ea579
PA
774
775set mi-async (on|off)
776show mi-async
777 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
778 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
779
780* "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
781 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
782
783* Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
784 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
785 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
786 "set target-async on" command.
787
87ce2a04
DE
788* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
789
790 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
791 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
792 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
793 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
794 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
795
5de9129b
MM
796* The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
797 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
798 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
799
8710b709
MM
800* The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
801 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
802 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
803 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
804 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
805 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
806 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
807
0688d04e
MM
808* The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
809 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
810
066ce621 811* The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
0b722aec
MM
812 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
813 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
066ce621 814
52834460
MM
815* The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
816 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
817 memory or registers.
818
237b092b
AA
819* The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
820
936d2992
PA
821* The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
822 remote. It now works with all targets.
823
930ee1b1
PA
824* All native targets are now consistently called "native".
825 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
826 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
827 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
828 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
829 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
830 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
831 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
832 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
833 target-stack".
834
6a3cb8e8
PA
835* The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
836 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
837 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
838
bc504a31 839* GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
dc304a94 840
bc504a31
PA
841* Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
842 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
dc304a94
JK
843 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
844
969c39fb
MM
845* New remote packets
846
847qXfer:btrace:read's annex
848 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
849 branch trace incrementally.
850
f7bd0f78
SC
851* Python Scripting
852
853 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
854 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
855 available.
0c6e92a5
SC
856 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
857 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
858 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
859 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
860 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
f7bd0f78 861
36c24d95
UW
862* New targets
863PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
864
95060284
JB
865* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
866 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
867 its alias "share", instead.
868
7f3c0343
JB
869* The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
870 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
871 instead.
872
329ea579
PA
873* MI changes
874
875 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
876 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
877 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
878 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
879 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
880 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
881 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
882 commands and CLI execution commands.
883
b7bba001 884*** Changes in GDB 7.7
2d450646 885
33a97bbe
OJ
886* Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
887 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
888 recording has been added.
889
08248ca9
SDJ
890* GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
891
73869dc2
DE
892* GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
893 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
894
a280dbd1
SDJ
895* New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
896 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
897 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
898 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
899 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
900 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
901 "void".
902
52e260a3
DE
903* The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
904
9f948660
SDJ
905* The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
906
901461f8
PA
907* GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
908 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
909 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
910 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
911
912 (gdb) p $rax
913 $1 = <not saved>
914
915 (gdb) info registers rax
916 rax <not saved>
917
918 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
919 "*value not available*".
920
caf26be9
SB
921* New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
922 to binaries.
923
1e611234
PM
924* Python scripting
925
926 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
f76c27b5 927 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
bc79de95 928 ** Line tables representation has been added.
a16b0e22
SC
929 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
930 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
c0d48811 931 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1e611234 932
a1217d97
SL
933* New targets
934
935Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
936Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
42059f0e 937Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
a1217d97 938
2659903b
JK
939* Removed native configurations
940
941Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
942been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
943
944arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
945i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
946i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
947i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
948m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
949sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
950vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
951
bd712aed 952* New commands:
b340913d
TT
953catch rethrow
954 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
7d0c9981
DE
955maint check-psymtabs
956 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
957maint check-symtabs
958 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
959maint expand-symtabs
960 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
b340913d 961
dccca75d
EZ
962show configuration
963 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
964
bd712aed
DE
965maint set|show per-command
966maint set|show per-command space
967maint set|show per-command time
968maint set|show per-command symtab
969 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
970
98297bf6
NB
971remove-symbol-file FILENAME
972remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
973 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
974 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
975 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
976
58d06528
JB
977info exceptions
978info exceptions REGEXP
979 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
980 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
981 are listed.
982
bd3eecc3
PA
983* New options
984
8fb8eb5c
DE
985set debug symfile off|on
986show debug symfile
987 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
988 symbol tables within those files
989
e7045703
DE
990set print raw frame-arguments
991show print raw frame-arguments
992 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
993 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
994
bd3eecc3
PA
995set remote trace-status-packet
996show remote trace-status-packet
997 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
998
a1217d97
SL
999set debug nios2
1000show debug nios2
1001 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
1002
c1e36e3e
PA
1003set range-stepping
1004show range-stepping
1005 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
1006
98882a26
PA
1007set startup-with-shell
1008show startup-with-shell
1009 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
1010 directly.
1011
29453a14
YQ
1012set code-cache
1013show code-cache
1014 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
1015 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
1016
1c2e4450
PA
1017* You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
1018 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
1019 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
1020 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
1021 "set height 0".
1022
db0fec5c
DE
1023* The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
1024 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
1025 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
1026
dccca75d
EZ
1027* New command-line options
1028--configuration
1029 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1030
d0353e76
YQ
1031* The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
1032 buffer in Common Trace Format.
1033
b292c783
JK
1034* Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
1035 GDB command gcore.
1036
6e72ca20
TT
1037* GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
1038
b340913d
TT
1039* The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
1040 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
1041
1042* The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
1043 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
1044
0c557179
SDJ
1045* The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
1046 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
1047 due to an uncaught signal.
1048
d0353e76
YQ
1049* MI changes
1050
403cb6b1 1051 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
4e35e808
JB
1052 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
1053 command, which should contain "language-option".
403cb6b1 1054
6b7cbff1
JB
1055 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
1056 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
1057
2ea126fa
JB
1058 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
1059 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
1060 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
1061 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1062 "undefined-command-error-code".
1063
d0353e76
YQ
1064 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
1065 Trace Format now.
1066
c5867ab6
HZ
1067 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
1068
c898adb7
YQ
1069 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
1070 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
1071 are displayed.
1072
dc673c81
YQ
1073 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
1074 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
1075
6211c335
YQ
1076 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
1077 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
1078 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
1079
5713b9b5
JB
1080 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
1081 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
1082 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
72bfa06c
JB
1083 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
1084 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1085 "exec-run-start-option".
5713b9b5 1086
40555925
JB
1087 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
1088 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
1089
58d06528
JB
1090 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
1091 the new "info exceptions" command.
1092
0201faac
JB
1093* New system-wide configuration scripts
1094 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
1095 configuration scripts for the following systems:
1096 ** ElinOS
1097 ** Wind River Linux
1098
c1e36e3e
PA
1099* GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
1100 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
1101 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
1102 below.
1103
28a93511
YQ
1104* GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
1105 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
1106
4ac33720
UW
1107* On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
1108 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
1109 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
1110
c1e36e3e
PA
1111* New remote packets
1112
1113vCont;r
1114
1115 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
1116 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
1117 involvemement at each single-step.
1118
7f91dbec
GB
1119qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
1120 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
1121 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
1122 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
1123 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
1124 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
1125 speedup.
1126
c2d6af84
PA
1127* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1128
1129 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
1130 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
1131
28a93511
YQ
1132 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
1133 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
1134 trace state variables.
1135
7a60ad40
YQ
1136 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
1137 target.
1138
6fbe845e
AB
1139* New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
1140 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
1141
9058cc3a
TG
1142* GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
1143
0d12017b
JB
1144* The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
1145 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
1146 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
1147 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1148
2d450646 1149*** Changes in GDB 7.6
80c8d323 1150
59ea5688
MM
1151* Target record has been renamed to record-full.
1152 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
1153 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
1154 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
1155
1156set|show record full insn-number-max
1157set|show record full stop-at-limit
1158set|show record full memory-query
1159
1160* A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
1161 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
1162 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
1163 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
1164 This new recording method can be enabled using:
1165
1166record btrace
1167
1168 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
1169 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
1170
1171* Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
1172 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
1173 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
1174
1175record instruction-history prints the execution history at
1176 instruction granularity
1177
1178record function-call-history prints the execution history at
1179 function granularity
1180
543bf33d
AT
1181* New native configurations
1182
51d66578 1183ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 1184FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
4f4352f7 1185x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 1186Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 1187
249729c4
JB
1188* New targets
1189
51d66578
MS
1190ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
1191ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
249729c4 1192Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3c095f49 1193x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 1194Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
249729c4 1195
e64e0392
DE
1196* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
1197 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
1198 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
1199 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
1200 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
1201 --data-directory command-line option.
1202
07540c15
DE
1203* New command line options:
1204
1205-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1206 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1207
e93a8774
TT
1208* Removed command line options
1209
1210-epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1211 Emacs.
1212
53342f27
TT
1213* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1214 type formatting.
1215
451b7c33
TT
1216* 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1217
a72c3253
DE
1218* Python scripting
1219
1220 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1221
d7de8e3c
TT
1222 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1223
18a9fc12
TT
1224 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1225
9a27f2c6
PK
1226 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1227
bea883fd
SCR
1228 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1229 of architecture in the Python API.
1230
1231 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1232 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1233
a72c3253
DE
1234* New Python-based convenience functions:
1235
1236 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1237 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1238 ** $_strlen(str)
1239 ** $_regex(str, regex)
1240
f3c8a52a
JK
1241* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
1242 given an argument.
1243
1605ef26
TT
1244* The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
1245 default for GCC since November 2000.
1246
504b36fd
YQ
1247* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
1248
f2a8bc8a
YQ
1249* The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
1250 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
1251
23a80689
JB
1252* New configure options
1253
1254--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
1255 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
1256 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
1257 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
1258 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
1259 options allow the user to override that default.
393fd4c3
YQ
1260--with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
1261 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
1262 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
23a80689 1263
d6b28940
TT
1264* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1265
ab04a2af
TT
1266catch signal
1267 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
1268 conditions to be attached.
1269
d6b28940
TT
1270maint info bfds
1271 List the BFDs known to GDB.
1272
8315665e
YPK
1273python-interactive [command]
1274pi [command]
1275 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
1276 and print the result of expressions.
1277
1278py [command]
1279 "py" is a new alias for "python".
1280
18a9fc12
TT
1281enable type-printer [name]...
1282disable type-printer [name]...
1283 Enable or disable type printers.
1284
aa9259cc
TS
1285* Removed commands
1286
1287 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
1288 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
1289 instead.
1290
53342f27
TT
1291* New options
1292
1293set print type methods (on|off)
1294show print type methods
1295 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
1296 The default is to show them.
1297
1298set print type typedefs (on|off)
1299show print type typedefs
1300 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
1301 The default is to show them.
1302
1b56eb55
JK
1303set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
1304show filename-display
1305 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
1306 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
1307
e9f1758d
PA
1308set trace-buffer-size
1309show trace-buffer-size
1310 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
1311
a46c1e42
PA
1312set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
1313show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
1314 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
1315
be9a8770
PA
1316set debug aarch64
1317show debug aarch64
1318 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
1319 The default is off.
1320
1321set debug coff-pe-read
1322show debug coff-pe-read
1323 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
1324 exported symbols.
1325
1326set debug mach-o
1327show debug mach-o
1328 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
1329 processing.
1330
1331set debug notification
1332show debug notification
1333 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
1334
5b9afe8a
YQ
1335* MI changes
1336
1337 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
1338 "=cmd-param-changed".
201b4506
YQ
1339 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
1340 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
134a2066
YQ
1341 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
1342 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
1343 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
82a90ccf
YQ
1344 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
1345 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
8de0566d
YQ
1346 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
1347 "=memory-changed".
ed8a1c2d 1348 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
ec83d211 1349 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
62747a60
TT
1350 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
1351 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
3fa7bf06
MG
1352 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
1353 library load/unload events.
f2a8bc8a
YQ
1354 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
1355 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
1356 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
f5911ea1
HAQ
1357 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
1358 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
1359 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
ec83d211
JK
1360 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
1361 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
5b9afe8a 1362
608e2dbb
TT
1363* GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
1364 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
1365 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
1366 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
1367
f6f899bf
HAQ
1368* New remote packets
1369
1370QTBuffer:size
1371 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
1372 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1373
10782d74
MM
1374Qbtrace:bts
1375 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
1376 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
1377 qSupported query.
1378
1379Qbtrace:off
1380 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
1381 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1382
1383qXfer:btrace:read
1384 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
1385 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1386
80c8d323 1387*** Changes in GDB 7.5
d6e00af6 1388
1b3371b1
L
1389* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
1390 for more x32 ABI info.
1391
d0e64392
MR
1392* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
1393
4cc0665f
MR
1394* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
1395
85d4a676
SS
1396* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1397 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
1398 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
1399 "info os files" lists file descriptors
1400 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
1401 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
1402 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
1403 "info os msg" lists message queues
1404 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
1405
55aa24fb
SDJ
1406* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
1407 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
1408 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
1409 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
1410 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
1411 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
1412
72508ac0
PO
1413* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
1414 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
1415 record/replay support.
1416
16899756
DE
1417* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
1418
4795f398
DE
1419* Python scripting
1420
7d74f244
DE
1421 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
1422 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
1423
4795f398
DE
1424 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
1425
50897289
TT
1426 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
1427 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
1428
64e7d9dd
TT
1429 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
1430
1431 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
1432 the source at which the symbol was defined.
1433
f0823d2c
TT
1434 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
1435 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
1436 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
1437 symbol's value.
1438
7b282c5a
SCR
1439 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
1440 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
1441
a20ee7a4
SCR
1442 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
1443 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
1444 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
1445
7efc75aa
SCR
1446 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
1447 object associated with a PC value.
1448
ee0bf529
SCR
1449 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
1450 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
1451
a766d390
DE
1452* Go language support.
1453 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
1454 language.
1455
e0f9f062
DE
1456* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
1457 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
1458
217bff3e
JK
1459* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
1460 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
1461
cafec441
TT
1462* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
1463 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
1464 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
1465 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
1466 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
1467 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
1468
4aac40c8
TT
1469* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
1470 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
1471 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
1472 build/libcpp/expr.c.
1473
d99bd577
UW
1474* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
1475 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
1476
53fe1783
GB
1477* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
1478 since December 2007.
1479
e41eec66
JB
1480* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
1481 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
1482 command does. For instance:
1483
1484 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
1485
1486 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
1487 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
1488 created, using the "condition" command.
1489
5808517f
YQ
1490* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
1491 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
1492
481860b3
GB
1493* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
1494
1495* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
1496 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
1497 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
e615022a
DE
1498 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
1499 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
1500 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
1501 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
1502 files with older .gdb_index sections.
481860b3 1503
156942c7
DE
1504 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
1505 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
1506 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
1507 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
1508 the .gdb_index section.
1509
927fbba6
JB
1510* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
1511
20388dd6
YQ
1512* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
1513 target.
1514
f3e0e960
SS
1515* MI changes
1516
1517 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
1518
37ce89eb
SS
1519 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
1520
edcc5120
TT
1521* New commands
1522
e615022a
DE
1523 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1524 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1525 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
1526
edcc5120
TT
1527 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
1528 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
1529
816338b5
SS
1530 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
1531 several hits.
1532
57651221 1533 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
c4aeac85
TT
1534 C++ and Java objects.
1535
06fc020f 1536 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
6ea71545 1537 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
06fc020f
SCR
1538 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
1539 configured with '--with-python'.
1540
bf88dd68
JK
1541 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
1542 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
1543 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
1544 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
1545 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
1546 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
1547 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
1548
1549 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
1550 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
1551 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
1552 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
1553
e7e0cddf
SS
1554 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
1555 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
1556 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
1557 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
1558
9cb709b6
TT
1559 ** "set print symbol"
1560 "show print symbol"
1561 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
1562 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
1563 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
1564
2d4c29c5
TS
1565* Deprecated commands
1566
1567 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
1568 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
1569
a58b110a
KB
1570* New targets
1571
1572Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 1573HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
a58b110a 1574
72895ff6
LM
1575* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
1576 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
1577 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
1578 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
1579 evaluates to true.
1580
1581* New options
1582
4cc0665f
MR
1583set mips compression
1584show mips compression
1585 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
1586 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
1587 mips16
1588 micromips
1589 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
1590
72895ff6
LM
1591set breakpoint condition-evaluation
1592show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 1593 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
5b43fab2
JK
1594 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
1595 available mode.
72895ff6
LM
1596 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
1597 target.
1598
bf88dd68
JK
1599set auto-load off
1600 Disable auto-loading globally.
1601
1602show auto-load
1603 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
1604
1605set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
1606show auto-load gdb-scripts
1607 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
1608
1609set auto-load python-scripts on|off
1610show auto-load python-scripts
1611 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
1612
1613set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
1614show auto-load local-gdbinit
1615 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
1616
1617set auto-load libthread-db on|off
1618show auto-load libthread-db
1619 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
1620
7349ff92 1621set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
9cc815f5 1622show auto-load scripts-directory
7349ff92
JK
1623 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
1624 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
1625 of the directories listed by this option.
1626 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1627
bccbefd2
JK
1628set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1629show auto-load safe-path
1630 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
1631 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1632
4dc84fd1
JK
1633set debug auto-load on|off
1634show debug auto-load
1635 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1636
d3ce09f5 1637set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
e7e0cddf 1638show dprintf-style
d3ce09f5
SS
1639 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1640 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1641 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1642 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
e7e0cddf
SS
1643
1644set dprintf-function <expr>
1645show dprintf-function
1646set dprintf-channel <expr>
1647show dprintf-channel
1648 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1649 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1650
d3ce09f5
SS
1651set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1652show disconnected-dprintf
1653 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1654 after GDB disconnects.
1655
6dea1fbd
JK
1656* New configure options
1657
7349ff92
JK
1658--with-auto-load-dir
1659 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1564a261
JK
1660 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1661 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1662 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1663 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
7349ff92 1664
6dea1fbd
JK
1665--with-auto-load-safe-path
1666 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
7349ff92 1667 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
6dea1fbd
JK
1668
1669--without-auto-load-safe-path
1670 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1671 security feature.
1672
72895ff6
LM
1673* New remote packets
1674
74c48cbb
PA
1675z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1676
72895ff6
LM
1677 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1678 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
1679 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
1680 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
1681
9b224c5e
PA
1682QProgramSignals:
1683
1684 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
1685 program without GDB involvement.
1686
8320cc4f
JK
1687* New command line options
1688
1689--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
1690 before loading inferior.
1691--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
1692 execute it before loading inferior.
1693
8837a20f
JB
1694*** Changes in GDB 7.4
1695
f8eba3c6
TT
1696* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
1697 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1698 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1699 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1700 inferior changes.
1701
1bfeeb0f
JL
1702* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1703 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1704
480a3f21
PW
1705* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1706 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1707 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1708 target hardware watchpoint.
1709
1710 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1711 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1712 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1713 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1714
3a7bf607
PM
1715* Python scripting
1716
32d1c362 1717 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 1718 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
32d1c362
DE
1719 existing one.
1720
3a7bf607 1721 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4795f398
DE
1722 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1723 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1724 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1725 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1726 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 1727
baacfb07 1728 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 1729 Python API.
713389e0 1730
fa3a4f15
PM
1731 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1732 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 1733 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
fa3a4f15
PM
1734 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1735 corresponding value.
1736
5e239b84
PM
1737 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1738 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1739 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1740 on GDB start-up.
1741
9df2fbc4
PM
1742 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1743 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1744 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1745 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1746
457e09f0
DE
1747 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1748
6839b47f
KP
1749 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1750 "gdb.breakpoints".
1751
cc72b2a2
KP
1752 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1753 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1754 available in the CLI.
1755
84ad80e6
PK
1756 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1757 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1758 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1759 "some_type.items()".
1760
20c168b5
KP
1761 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1762 new object file.
1763
03c3051a
PK
1764 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1765 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1766 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1767 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1768 any anonymous fields.
1769
7376e450
TT
1770* MI changes
1771
1772 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1773 "solib-event".
1774
1775 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1776 "=breakpoint-modified".
1777
1778 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1779
98a5dd13
DE
1780* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
1781 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
1782 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
1783 lives.
1784
1785 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
1786 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
1787 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
1788 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
1789 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
1790
1791 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
1792 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
1793
478aac75
DE
1794* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
1795 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
1796 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
1797 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
1798 use this option to specify where to find it.
1799
9c06b0b4
TJB
1800* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1801 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
1802 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
1803 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
1804 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
1805 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1806 section in the user manual for more details.
1807
03f2bd59
JK
1808* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
1809 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
1810 become available after that.
1811
71eba9c2 1812* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 1813
2bda9cc5
JK
1814* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
1815 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
1816 gcc version 4.7.
1817
ed59ded5
DE
1818* New commands
1819
1820!SHELL COMMAND
1821 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
1822 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
1823
9c06b0b4
TJB
1824* Changed commands
1825
1826watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
1827 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
1828 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
1829
dbaefcf7
DE
1830info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
1831 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
1832 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
1833
71eba9c2 1834info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
1835 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
1836 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
1837 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
1838 name starts with a hyphen.
1839
3065dfb6
SS
1840collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
1841 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
1842 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
1843 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
1844 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
1845 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
1846 number of bytes that will be collected.
1847
f196051f
SS
1848tstart [NOTES]
1849 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
1850 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
1851 setting the variable trace-notes.
1852
1853tstop [NOTES]
1854 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
1855 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
1856 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
1857 trace-stop-notes.
1858
d248b706
KY
1859* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
1860 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
1861 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
1862 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
1863 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
1864 is running.
1865
405f8e94
SS
1866* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
1867 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
1868 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
1869
2bda9cc5
JK
1870* New options
1871
45cfd468
DE
1872set debug dwarf2-read
1873show debug dwarf2-read
1874 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
1875 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
1876
1877set debug symtab-create
1878show debug symtab-create
1879 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
1880 creation. The default is off.
1881
baacfb07
PM
1882set extended-prompt
1883show extended-prompt
1884 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
1885 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
1886 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
1887 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
1888 prompt is displayed.
1889
2bda9cc5
JK
1890set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
1891show print entry-values
1892 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
1893 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
1894 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
1895
1896set debug entry-values
1897show debug entry-values
1898 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
1899 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
1900
c011a4f4
DE
1901set basenames-may-differ
1902show basenames-may-differ
1903 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
1904 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
1905 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
1906 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
1907 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
1908 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
1909 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
1910 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
1911
f196051f
SS
1912set trace-user
1913show trace-user
1914set trace-notes
1915show trace-notes
1916 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
1917 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
1918 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
1919 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
1920
1921set trace-stop-notes
1922show trace-stop-notes
1923 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
1924 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
1925 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
1926 started by someone else.
1927
d248b706
KY
1928* New remote packets
1929
1930QTEnable
1931
1932 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1933
1934QTDisable
1935
1936 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1937
f196051f
SS
1938QTNotes
1939
1940 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
1941
1942qTP
1943
1944 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
1945
405f8e94
SS
1946qTMinFTPILen
1947
1948 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
1949 be placed.
1950
1a532630
PP
1951* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
1952 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
1953
11315641
YQ
1954* New targets
1955
1956Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
1957
87326c78
DD
1958* New Simulators
1959
1960Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1961
e8d56f18
JB
1962*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
1963
1964* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
1965
d6e00af6 1966*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 1967
60f98dde
MS
1968* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
1969 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
1970 matches the given regular expression.
1971
eee5b35e
DD
1972* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
1973
b716877b
AB
1974* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
1975 dumping the instruction opcodes.
1976
aae1c79a
DE
1977* New command line options
1978
1979-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
1980 This is mostly for testing purposes.
1981
a86caf66
DE
1982* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
1983 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
1984
99e7ae30
DE
1985* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
1986 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
1987 source path list instead of augmenting it.
1988
4694da01
TT
1989* GDB now understands thread names.
1990
1991 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
1992 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
1993
1994 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
1995 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
1996
f4b8a18d
KW
1997* OpenCL C
1998 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
1999 has been integrated into GDB.
2000
585d1eb8
PM
2001* Python scripting
2002
da5d4055
PM
2003 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
2004 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
2005 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
2006
9a6f1302
PM
2007 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2008 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
2009 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
2010 and allows for more dynamic content.
2011
29703da4
PM
2012 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
2013 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
2014 have an is_valid method.
2015
350c6c65
PM
2016 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2017 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
2018 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
2019
6e6fbe60
DE
2020 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
2021
585d1eb8
PM
2022 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
2023 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
2024 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
2025 that function like so:
2026
2027 result = some_value (10,20)
2028
0e3509db
DE
2029 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
2030 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
2031 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
2032
7b51bc51
DE
2033 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
2034 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
2035 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
2036 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
2037 New function: register_pretty_printer.
2038
2039 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
2040 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
2041
99e7ae30
DE
2042 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
2043
d8e22779
TT
2044 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
2045 selected thread.
2046
4694da01
TT
2047 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
2048 holds the thread's name.
2049
505500db
SW
2050 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
2051 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 2052 occurring in the process being debugged.
c17a9e46
HZ
2053 The following events are currently supported:
2054 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
2055 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
2056 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
2057
def98928
TT
2058* C++ Improvements:
2059
2060 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
2061 instantiation. For example, if you have:
2062
2063 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
2064
2065 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
2066 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
2067 was added to GCC 4.5.
2068
66cb8159
TT
2069 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
2070 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
2071 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
2072 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
2073 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
2074 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
2075
4aac0db7
UW
2076* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
2077 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
2078 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
2079 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
2080 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
2081
283e6a52
TT
2082* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
2083 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
2084 execution to a label.
2085
2086* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
2087 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
2088 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
2089 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
2090
b56df873 2091* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 2092 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
b56df873
TT
2093 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
2094 of scope.
2095
ae53ffa4
PA
2096* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
2097
2098 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
2099 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
2100 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
2101 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
2102 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
2103 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
2104
2105 (gdb) info threads
2106 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
2107
2108 While now you see this:
2109
2110 (gdb) info threads
2111 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
2112
2113 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
2114 dumps.
2115
2116 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
2117 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
2118 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
2119 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
2120
f1310107
TJB
2121* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2122 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
2123 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
2124 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2125 section in the user manual for more details.
2126
248c9dbc
JB
2127* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2128
1aee7009
JB
2129 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
2130 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 2131
eb826dc6
MF
2132 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
2133
44603653
JB
2134* New native configurations
2135
2136ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2137
91021223
MF
2138* New targets:
2139
2140Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
2141
6e1bb179
JB
2142* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
2143 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2144 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2145 in the GDB user manual.
2146
50c97f38
TT
2147* Guile support was removed.
2148
448a92bf
MF
2149* New features in the GNU simulator
2150
2151 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
2152
66ee2731
MF
2153 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
2154
76b8507d 2155*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 2156
ba25b921
PA
2157* Shared library support for remote targets by default
2158
2159 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
2160 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
2161 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
2162 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
2163 was always disabled for such configurations.
2164
4656f5c6
SW
2165* C++ Improvements:
2166
2167 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
2168
2169 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
2170 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
2171 For example:
2172 namespace A
2173 {
2174 class B { };
2175 void foo (B) { }
2176 }
2177 ...
2178 A::B b
2179 foo(b)
2180 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
2181 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
2182 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
2183
2184 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
2185
2186 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
2187 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
2188 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
2189 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
2190 entry.
2191 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
2192 mentioned flavors of operators.
2193
254e6b9e
DE
2194 ** static const class members
2195
2196 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
2197 class definition has been fixed.
2198
711e434b
PM
2199* Windows Thread Information Block access.
2200
2201 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
2202 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2203 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2204 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2205 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2206 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2207
0fb4aa4b
PA
2208* Static tracepoints
2209
2210 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2211 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2212 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2213 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2214 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2215 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2216 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2217 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2218 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2219 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2220 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2221 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2222 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2223 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2224 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2225 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2226 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2227 the "New remote packets" section below.
2228
ca11e899
SS
2229* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2230
2231 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2232 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2233 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2234 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2235
2236* Observer mode
2237
2238 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2239 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
2240 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
2241 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
2242 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
2243 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
2244 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
2245
2246* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
2247 current thread.
2248
711e434b
PM
2249* New remote packets
2250
2251qGetTIBAddr
2252
2253 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
2254
dde08ee1
PA
2255qRelocInsn
2256
2257 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
2258 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
2259 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
2260 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
2261 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
2262 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
2263
0fb4aa4b
PA
2264qTfSTM, qTsSTM
2265
2266 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
2267
2268qTSTMat
2269
2270 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
2271 program.
2272
2273qXfer:statictrace:read
2274
2275 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
2276 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
2277 to gdb's qSupported query.
2278
ca11e899
SS
2279QAllow
2280
2281 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
2282
2283QTDPsrc
2284
2285 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
2286 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
2287
3f7b2faa
DE
2288* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
2289 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
2290 a directory.
2291
d337e9f0
PA
2292* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2293
0fb4aa4b
PA
2294 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
2295 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
2296 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
2297 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
2298
2299 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
2300 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
2301 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
2302 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
2303 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
2304 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
2305 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
2306
2307 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
2308 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 2309
c24d0242
PM
2310 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
2311
c8d5aac9
L
2312* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
2313 it understands register description.
2314
7c953934
TT
2315* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
2316
8685c86f
L
2317* X86 general purpose registers
2318
2319 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
2320 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
2321 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
2322 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
2323 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
2324
95a42b64 2325* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
86b17b60
PA
2326 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
2327 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
2328 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
2329 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
2330 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 2331
8bd10a10
CM
2332* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
2333 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
2334 in the specified file.
2335
ab38a727
PA
2336* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
2337 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
2338 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
2339 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
2340 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
2341 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
2342 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
2343 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
2344 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
2345 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
2346
6149aea9
PA
2347* New commands
2348
f1421989
HZ
2349eval template, expressions...
2350 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
2351 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
2352
ab38a727
PA
2353set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
2354show target-file-system-kind
2355 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
2356 names.
2357
6149aea9
PA
2358save breakpoints <filename>
2359 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
2360 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
2361 definitions, use the `source' command.
2362
2363`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
2364is now deprecated.
2365
0fb4aa4b
PA
2366info static-tracepoint-markers
2367 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
2368
2369strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
2370 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
2371 function, line, address, or marker ID.
2372
ca11e899
SS
2373set observer on|off
2374show observer
2375 Enable and disable observer mode.
2376
2377set may-write-registers on|off
2378set may-write-memory on|off
2379set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
2380set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
2381set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
2382set may-interrupt on|off
2383 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
2384 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
2385 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
2386 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
2387 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
2388 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
2389 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
2390
2391set record memory-query on|off
2392show record memory-query
2393 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
2394 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
2395
53a71c06
CR
2396* Changed commands
2397
2398disassemble
2399 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
2400
f3e9a817
PM
2401* Python scripting
2402
9279c692
JB
2403** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
2404 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
2405 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
2406 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
2407 GDB using Python' in the manual.
2408
adc36818 2409** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
595939de
PM
2410 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
2411 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
2412 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 2413
fa33c3cd 2414** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
2415 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
2416
2417** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
2418
2419** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 2420
967cf477
DE
2421** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
2422
8a1ea21f
DE
2423** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
2424 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
2425 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
2426
a7bdde9e
VP
2427* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
2428there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
2429tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
2430regular breakpoints.
2431
05071a4d
PA
2432* New targets
2433
2434ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
2435
6aecb9c2
JB
2436* D language support.
2437 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
2438 language.
2439
431e49aa
TJB
2440* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
2441 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
2442 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
2443 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
2444 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
2445
2446* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
2447 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
2448 conditions of the form:
2449
2450 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
2451
2452 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
2453 interface mentioned above.
2454
bfbf3774 2455*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 2456
4eef138c
TT
2457* C++ Improvements
2458
2459 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
2460
2461 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
2462 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
2463 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
2464 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
2465 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
2466
4eef138c
TT
2467 ** Bug Fixes
2468
2469 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
2470 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
2471 qualified name.
2472
2473 ** Cast Operators
2474
2475 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
2476 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
2477
2d1c1221
ME
2478* New targets
2479
2480Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 2481Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
2482
2483* New Simulators
2484
2485Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 2486Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 2487
6c95b8df
PA
2488* Multi-program debugging.
2489
2490 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
2491 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
2492 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
2493 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
2494 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
2495 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
2496 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
2497 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
2498
d5551862
SS
2499* New tracing features
2500
2501 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
2502
2503 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
2504
2505 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
2506 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
2507 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
2508 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
2509 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
2510 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
2511 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
2512 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
2513 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
2514 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 2515
d5551862 2516 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
2517
2518 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
2519 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
2520 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
2521 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
2522 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
2523 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
2524 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
2525 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
2526 the regular trace command.
2527
d5551862
SS
2528 ** Disconnected tracing
2529
2530 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
2531 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
2532 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
2533 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
2534 connection is lost unexpectedly.
2535
00bf0b85
SS
2536 ** Trace files
2537
2538 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
2539 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
2540 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
2541 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
2542 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
2543 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
2544 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
2545
2546 ** Circular trace buffer
2547
2548 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
2549 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
2550 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
2551 not be available for all target agents.
2552
21a0512e
PP
2553* Changed commands
2554
2555disassemble
2556 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
2557 the arguments to be comma-separated.
2558
0fe7935b
DJ
2559info variables
2560 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
2561 which only declare a variable are not shown.
2562
fb2e7cb4
JB
2563source
2564 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
2565 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
2566 support.
2567
2568 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
2569 "set script-extension" (see below).
2570
6c95b8df
PA
2571* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2572
399cd161
MS
2573record save [<FILENAME>]
2574 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
2575 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
2576
2577record restore <FILENAME>
2578 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
2579 earlier time, for replay debugging.
2580
6c95b8df
PA
2581add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
2582 Add a new inferior.
2583
2584clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
2585 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
2586 inferior has loaded.
2587
2588remove-inferior ID
2589 Remove an inferior.
2590
2591maint info program-spaces
2592 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
2593
9a7071a8
JB
2594set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
2595show remote interrupt-sequence
2596 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
2597 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
2598 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
2599 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
2600 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
2601
2602set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
2603show remote interrupt-on-connect
2604 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
2605 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
2606 Linux kernel.
2607
2608set remotebreak [on | off]
2609show remotebreak
2610Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
2611
f61e138d
SS
2612tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
2613 Create or modify a trace state variable.
2614
2615info tvariables
2616 List trace state variables and their values.
2617
2618delete tvariable $NAME ...
2619 Delete one or more trace state variables.
2620
6da95a67
SS
2621teval EXPR, ...
2622 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
2623 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
2624
7a697b8d
SS
2625ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
2626 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
2627
b0f02ee9
JK
2628* New expression syntax
2629
2630 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
2631 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
2632
6c95b8df
PA
2633* New options
2634
2635set follow-exec-mode new|same
2636show follow-exec-mode
2637 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2638 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2639 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2640
236f1d4d
SS
2641set default-collect EXPR, ...
2642show default-collect
2643 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2644 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2645 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2646
d5551862
SS
2647set disconnected-tracing
2648show disconnected-tracing
2649 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2650 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2651 upon disconnection.
2652
4daf5ac0
SS
2653set circular-trace-buffer
2654show circular-trace-buffer
2655 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2656 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2657 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2658 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2659
fb2e7cb4
JB
2660set script-extension off|soft|strict
2661show script-extension
2662 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2663 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2664 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2665 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2666 evaluation failed.
2667 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2668
2b71fc8e
JB
2669set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2670show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2671 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2672 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2673 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2674 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2675 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2676 is on.
2677
de2e5182
TT
2678* Python API Improvements
2679
2680 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
2681 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
2682 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
2683
2684 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
2685 `is_base_class' attribute.
2686
2687 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
2688
2689 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
2690 evaluate an expression.
2691
f61e138d
SS
2692* New remote packets
2693
2694QTDV
2695 Define a trace state variable.
2696
2697qTV
2698 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2699
d5551862
SS
2700QTDisconnected
2701 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2702
4daf5ac0
SS
2703QTBuffer:circular
2704 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2705
d5551862
SS
2706qTfP, qTsP
2707 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2708
2d483d34
MS
2709* Bug fixes
2710
2711Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2712
6e0e5977
JB
2713Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2714much more reliable. In particular:
2715 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2716 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2717 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2718 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2719 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2720 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2721 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2722 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2723 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2724 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2725 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2726 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2727 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2728 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2729 non-threaded programs.
2730
93c26624
JK
2731PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2732This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2733libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2734executable program.
2735
abc7453d 2736*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 2737
4efc6507
DE
2738* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2739dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2740them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2741for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2742"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2743
782b2b07
SS
2744* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2745breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2746or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2747the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2748for tracepoint actions.
2749
53a71c06
CR
2750* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2751raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2752modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 2753
e7a8dbfb
HZ
2754* Process record and replay
2755
2756 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2757 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2758 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2759 execute commands.
2760
64644d9b
MS
2761* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2762step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2763set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2764reverse execution.
2765
b9412953
DD
2766* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2767feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
27682.6.28 or later.
2769
6c7a06a3
TT
2770* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2771target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2772char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2773literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2774U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2775`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2776system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2777the installation instructions for more information.
2778
f1838a98
UW
2779* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2780remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
2781with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
2782the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
2783
55333a84
DE
2784* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
2785and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
2786
7f6a6314
PM
2787* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
2788now complete on file names.
2789
65d12d83
TT
2790* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
2791completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
2792For instance, consider:
2793
2794 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
2795 # struct example variable;
2796 (gdb) p variable.
2797
2798If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
2799completions will be "f1" and "f2".
2800
edb3359d
DJ
2801* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
2802the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
2803
2fae03e8
TT
2804* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
2805operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
2806macros.
2807
47a3467a 2808* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
2809the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
2810implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
2811
2812* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
2813registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
2814can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
2815and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 2816
08388c79
DE
2817* New remote packets
2818
2819qSearch:memory:
2820 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2821
a6f3e723
SL
2822QStartNoAckMode
2823 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
2824 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
2825 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
2826
d7713ae0
EZ
2827vKill
2828 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
2829 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
2830
07e059b5
VP
2831qXfer:osdata:read
2832 Obtains additional operating system information
2833
47a3467a
PA
2834qXfer:siginfo:read
2835qXfer:siginfo:write
2836 Read or write additional signal information.
2837
060871df
PA
2838* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
2839
2840 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
2841 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
2842 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
2843
c055b101 2844* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 2845DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
2846
2847* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
2848and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
2849`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 2850
31fffb02
CS
2851* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
2852with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
2853
88d8a8e0
JB
2854* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
2855
7f99b190
JB
2856* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
2857
ccd213ac
DJ
2858* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
2859which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
2860
1fddbabb 2861* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 2862list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 2863
a0ef4274
DJ
2864* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
2865conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
2866have also been fixed.
2867
bfb8797a 2868* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
2869From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
2870are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 2871
71c25dea
TT
2872* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
2873example, given:
2874
2875 template<typename T> class C { };
2876 C<char const *> c;
2877
2878GDB will now correctly handle all of:
2879
2880 ptype C<char const *>
2881 ptype C<char const*>
2882 ptype C<const char *>
2883 ptype C<const char*>
2884
ccd213ac
DJ
2885* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
2886
2887 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
2888 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2889
7ae0e2a2
UW
2890 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
2891 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2892 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
2893
a6f3e723
SL
2894 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
2895 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
2896
da8bd9a3
DJ
2897 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
2898 gdbserver.
2899
d70e31dd
DE
2900 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
2901 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2902
2903 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
2904 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
2905 as appropriate.
2906
d57a3c85
TJB
2907* Python scripting
2908
2909 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
2910 available is determined at configure time.
2911
d8906c6f
TJB
2912 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
2913
aadc346a
JB
2914* Ada tasking support
2915
2916 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
2917 been introduced:
2918
2919 info tasks
2920 Print the list of Ada tasks.
2921 info task N
2922 Print detailed information about task number N.
2923 task
2924 Print the task number of the current task.
2925 task N
2926 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
2927
adb483fe
DJ
2928* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
2929add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
2930
2277426b
PA
2931* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
2932
2933 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
2934 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
2935 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
2936 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
2937 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
2938 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
2939 below.
2940
08d16641
PA
2941* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
2942"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
2943information.
2944
e35359c5
UW
2945* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
2946to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
2947architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
2948See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
2949more information.
2950
85e747d2
UW
2951* Multi-architecture debugging.
2952
2953 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
2954 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
2955 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
2956 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
2957 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
2958
2959* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
2960use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
2961Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
2962powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
2963--enable-targets configure option.
2964
11ade57a
PA
2965* Non-stop mode debugging.
2966
2967 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
2968 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
2969 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
2970 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
2971 section in the user manual for more information.
2972
2973 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
2974 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
2975 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
2976 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
2977 extensions on linux targets.
2978
d7713ae0 2979* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 2980
a96d9b2e
SDJ
2981catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
2982 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
2983 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
2984 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
2985 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
2986 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
2987 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
2988 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
2989 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
2990
08388c79
DE
2991find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
2992 val1 [, val2, ...]
2993 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2994
d57a3c85
TJB
2995maint set python print-stack
2996maint show python print-stack
2997 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
2998
2999python [CODE]
3000 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
3001
d7713ae0
EZ
3002macro define
3003macro list
3004macro undef
3005 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
3006 interactively.
3007
3008info os processes
3009 Show operating system information about processes.
3010
2277426b
PA
3011info inferiors
3012 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
3013
3014inferior NUM
3015 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
3016
3017detach inferior NUM
3018 Detach from inferior number NUM.
3019
3020kill inferior NUM
3021 Kill inferior number NUM.
3022
d7713ae0
EZ
3023* New options
3024
3285f3fe
UW
3025set spu stop-on-load
3026show spu stop-on-load
3027 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3028
ff1a52c6
UW
3029set spu auto-flush-cache
3030show spu auto-flush-cache
3031 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
3032 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3033
d7713ae0
EZ
3034set sh calling-convention
3035show sh calling-convention
3036 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
3037
e0a3ce09 3038set debug timestamp
75feb17d 3039show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
3040 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
3041
3042set disassemble-next-line
3043show disassemble-next-line
3044 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
3045 the debuggee stops.
3046
3047set remote noack-packet
3048show remote noack-packet
3049 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
3050 under "New remote packets."
3051
3052set remote query-attached-packet
3053show remote query-attached-packet
3054 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
3055
3056set remote read-siginfo-object
3057show remote read-siginfo-object
3058 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
3059 packet.
3060
3061set remote write-siginfo-object
3062show remote write-siginfo-object
3063 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
3064 packet.
3065
40ab02ce
MS
3066set remote reverse-continue
3067show remote reverse-continue
3068 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
3069
3070set remote reverse-step
3071show remote reverse-step
3072 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
3073
d7713ae0
EZ
3074set displaced-stepping
3075show displaced-stepping
3076 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
3077 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
3078 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
3079
3080set debug displaced
3081show debug displaced
3082 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
3083
3084maint set internal-error
3085maint show internal-error
3086 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
3087
3088maint set internal-warning
3089maint show internal-warning
3090 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 3091
ccd213ac
DJ
3092set exec-wrapper
3093show exec-wrapper
3094unset exec-wrapper
3095 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 3096
aad4b048
JB
3097set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
3098show multiple-symbols
3099 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
3100 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
3101 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
3102
74960c60
VP
3103set breakpoint always-inserted
3104show breakpoint always-inserted
3105 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
3106 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
3107 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
3108
0428b8f5
DJ
3109set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3110show arm fallback-mode
3111set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3112show arm force-mode
3113 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
3114 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
3115 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
3116 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
3117
10568435
JK
3118set disable-randomization
3119show disable-randomization
3120 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
3121 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
3122 multiple debugging sessions.
3123
d7713ae0
EZ
3124set non-stop
3125show non-stop
3126 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
3127 a breakpoint.
3128
b3eb342c 3129set target-async
d7713ae0 3130show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
3131 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
3132 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
3133 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
3134 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
3135
6c7a06a3
TT
3136set target-wide-charset
3137show target-wide-charset
3138 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
3139 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
3140
84603566
SL
3141set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
3142show tcp auto-retry
3143set tcp connect-timeout
3144show tcp connect-timeout
3145 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
3146 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
3147 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
3148
17a37d48
PP
3149set libthread-db-search-path
3150show libthread-db-search-path
3151 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
3152 libthread_db.
3153
d4db2f36
PA
3154set schedule-multiple (on|off)
3155show schedule-multiple
3156 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
3157 the current process.
3158
4e5d721f
DE
3159set stack-cache
3160show stack-cache
3161 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
3162 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
3163 affecting correctness.
3164
910c5da8
JB
3165set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
3166show interactive-mode
3167 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
3168 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
3169 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
3170 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
3171 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
3172
2277426b
PA
3173* Removed commands
3174
3175info forks
3176 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
3177 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
3178 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
3179 command.
3180
3181fork NUM
3182 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
3183 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
3184 alias for the `fork' command.
3185
3186process PID
3187 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
3188 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
3189 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
3190
3191delete fork NUM
3192 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
3193 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
3194 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
3195 fork' command.
3196
3197detach fork NUM
3198 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
3199 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
3200 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
3201 fork' command.
3202
a80b95ba
TG
3203* New native configurations
3204
3205x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3206
b8bfd3ed
JB
3207x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3208
75a2d5e7
TT
3209* New targets
3210
c28c63d8 3211Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 3212x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 3213x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 3214S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 3215
6de3146c
PA
3216* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3217 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3218
d5cbbe6e
JB
3219* Removed commands
3220
3221catch load
3222catch unload
3223 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3224
75feb17d 3225*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 3226
af5ca30d
NH
3227* New native configurations
3228
3229NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 3230Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
3231
3232* New targets
3233
3234NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 3235Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 3236
7a404eba
PA
3237* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3238
3239 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
3240 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
3241 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
3242 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
3243
430ebac9
PA
3244* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
3245(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
3246
fe6fbf8b 3247* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 3248is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
3249
3250* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
3251including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
3252and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 3253
10665d76
JB
3254* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
3255accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
3256more than one contiguous range of addresses.
3257
7cc46491
DJ
3258* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
3259
d71340b8
DJ
3260* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
3261registers on PowerPC targets.
3262
523c4513
DJ
3263* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
3264targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
3265
a6b151f1
DJ
3266* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
3267commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
3268
2d717e4f
DJ
3269* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
3270extended-remote mode.
3271
24a836bd 3272* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
3273The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
3274error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
3275The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 3276
d0c678e6
UW
3277* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
3278building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
3279target architectures.
3280
d64a946d
TJB
3281* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
3282Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
3283now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
3284stored in two consecutive float registers.
3285
ee163bf5
VP
3286* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
3287breakpoints now.
3288
b93b6ca7 3289* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
3290Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
3291include:
b93b6ca7
JB
3292 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
3293 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
3294 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
3295 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
3296 of an assignment
3297 - Improved command completion in Ada
3298 - Several bug fixes
3299
d001be7a
DJ
3300* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
3301process.
3302
a6b151f1
DJ
3303* New commands
3304
6d53d0af
JB
3305set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
3306show print frame-arguments
3307 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
3308 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
3309
a6b151f1
DJ
3310remote put
3311remote get
3312remote delete
3313 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3314
3315* New MI commands
3316
3317-target-file-put
3318-target-file-get
3319-target-file-delete
3320 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3321
3322* New remote packets
3323
3324vFile:open:
3325vFile:close:
3326vFile:pread:
3327vFile:pwrite:
3328vFile:unlink:
3329 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 3330
2d717e4f
DJ
3331vAttach
3332 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
3333 mode.
3334
3335vRun
3336 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
3337
8d5f9c6f 3338*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 3339
19d378fc
MS
3340* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
3341bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
3342Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
3343
3a40aaa0
UW
3344* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
3345symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
3346-Bsymbolic linker option.
3347
a6ec25f2
BW
3348* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
3349recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
3350is not supported.
3351
6dd09645
JB
3352* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
3353frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
3354
c9bb8148
DJ
3355* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
335632-bit or 64-bit register values.
3357
0d5de010
DJ
3358* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
3359
23181151
DJ
3360* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
3361target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
3362a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
3363
ea37ba09
DJ
3364* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
3365automatically displayed as character or string data.
3366
3367* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
3368arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
3369as strings.
e1f48ead 3370
123dc839
DJ
3371* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
3372for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 3373only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 3374
05a4558a
DJ
3375* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
3376iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 3377
7c963485
PA
3378* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
3379ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
3380has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
3381
b18be20d
DJ
3382* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
3383
0ca420ce
UW
3384* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
3385
31d99776
DJ
3386* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
3387layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
3388segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
3389
a4642986
MR
3390* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
3391immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
3392
cfa9d6d9
DJ
3393* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
3394"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
3395packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
3396where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
3397Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
3398
3399* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
3400(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
3401
3402* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
3403according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 3404
c9bb8148
DJ
3405* New commands
3406
23776285
MR
3407set remoteflow
3408show remoteflow
3409 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
3410 when debugging using remote targets.
3411
c9bb8148
DJ
3412set mem inaccessible-by-default
3413show mem inaccessible-by-default
3414 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3415 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3416 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
3417 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
3418 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
3419
3420set breakpoint auto-hw
3421show breakpoint auto-hw
3422 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3423 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3424 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
3425 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
3426 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
3427 including "next" and "finish".
3428
0e420bd8
JB
3429catch exception
3430catch exception unhandled
3431 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
3432
3433catch assert
3434 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
3435
f822c95b
DJ
3436set sysroot
3437show sysroot
3438 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
3439 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
3440 an alias to "set sysroot".
3441
83cc5c53
UW
3442info spu
3443 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
3444 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
3445 architecture.
3446
bd372731
MK
3447* New native configurations
3448
3449OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
3450
23181151
DJ
3451set tdesc filename
3452unset tdesc filename
3453show tdesc filename
3454 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
3455 not query the target for its built-in description.
3456
c9bb8148
DJ
3457* New targets
3458
54fe9172 3459OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 3460MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 3461Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 3462
6dd09645
JB
3463* New remote packets
3464
3465QPassSignals:
3466 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
3467 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
3468
23181151
DJ
3469qXfer:features:read:
3470 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
3471 features.
6dd09645 3472
83cc5c53
UW
3473qXfer:spu:read:
3474qXfer:spu:write:
3475 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
3476 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
3477
cfa9d6d9
DJ
3478qXfer:libraries:read:
3479 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
3480 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
3481 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
3482 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
3483
483367ee
DJ
3484* Removed targets
3485
3486Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
3487
d08950c4
UW
3488alpha*-*-osf1*
3489alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 3490d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
3491hppa*-*-hiux*
3492i[34567]86-ncr-*
3493i[34567]86-*-dgux*
3494i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
3495i[34567]86-*-netware*
3496i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
3497i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
3498i[34567]86-*-sco*
3499i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
3500i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
3501i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
3502i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
3503i[34567]86-*-unixware*
3504i[34567]86-*-sysv*
3505i[34567]86-*-isc*
3506m68*-cisco*-*
3507m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 3508mips*-*-pe
483367ee 3509rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 3510sh*-*-pe
483367ee 3511
7ce59000
DJ
3512* Other removed features
3513
3514target abug
3515target cpu32bug
3516target est
3517target rom68k
3518
3519 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
3520
ea35711c
DJ
3521target hms
3522target e7000
3523target sh3
3524target sh3e
3525
3526 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
3527 H8/300.
3528
3529target ocd
3530
3531 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
3532 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
3533 interfaces.
3534
7ce59000
DJ
3535DWARF 1 support
3536
3537 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
3538 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
3539
54d61198
DJ
3540Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
3541
3542 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
3543 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
3544 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
3545 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
3546
ea35711c
DJ
3547MIPS ".pdr" sections
3548
3549 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
3550 in debugging information.
3551
3552Scheme support
3553
3554 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
3555 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
3556
1a69e1e4
DJ
3557set mips stack-arg-size
3558set mips saved-gpreg-size
3559
3560 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
3561
6dd09645 3562*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 3563
ca3bf3bd
DJ
3564* New targets
3565
3566Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 3567Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 3568
6aec2e11
DJ
3569* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
3570(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
3571running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
3572
3573* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
3574Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
3575supported.
3576
17218d91
DJ
3577* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
3578broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
3579
9ebce043
DJ
3580* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
3581stub provides the required support.
3582
7d3d3ece
DJ
3583* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
3584longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
3585
4f8253f3
JB
3586* New commands
3587
3588set substitute-path
3589unset substitute-path
3590show substitute-path
3591 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
3592 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
3593 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
3594 between compilation and debugging.
3595
9fa66fd7
AS
3596set trace-commands
3597show trace-commands
3598 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
3599 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
3600 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
3601
1f5befc1
DJ
3602* REMOVED features
3603
3604The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
3605
2ec3381a
DJ
3606Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
3607an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
3608
3d00d119
DJ
3609The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
3610
be2a5f71
DJ
3611* New remote packets
3612
3613qSupported:
3614 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
3615 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
3616 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
3617 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
3618 target.
3619
0876f84a
DJ
3620qXfer:auxv:read:
3621 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
3622 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
3623
9ebce043
DJ
3624qXfer:memory-map:read:
3625 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
3626 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
3627
3628vFlashErase:
3629vFlashWrite:
3630vFlashDone:
3631 Erase and program a flash memory device.
3632
0876f84a
DJ
3633* Removed remote packets
3634
3635qPart:auxv:read:
3636 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3637 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3638
e374b601 3639*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 3640
96309189
MS
3641* New targets
3642
3643Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3644
3645Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3646
53e5f3cf
AS
3647* New commands
3648
3649init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3650 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3651
ac264b3b
MS
3652The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3653
3654checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3655
3656restart <n> Return the program state to a
3657 previously saved state.
3658
3659info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3660
3661delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3662
3663set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3664 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3665
3666info forks List forks of the user program that
3667 are available to be debugged.
3668
3669fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3670 forks of the user program that are
3671 available to be debugged.
3672
3673delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3674 that are available to be debugged (and
3675 kill the forked process).
3676
3677detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3678 that are available to be debugged (and
3679 allow the process to continue).
3680
3950dc3f
NS
3681* New architecture
3682
3683Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
3684
0ea3f30e
DJ
3685* Improved Windows host support
3686
3687GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
3688native console support, and remote communications using either
3689network sockets or serial ports.
3690
f79daebb
GM
3691* Improved Modula-2 language support
3692
3693GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
3694basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
3695pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
3696printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
3697written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3698GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3699
acab6ab2
MM
3700* REMOVED features
3701
3702The ARM rdi-share module.
3703
f4267320
DJ
3704The Netware NLM debug server.
3705
53e5f3cf 3706*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 3707
e0ecbda1
MK
3708* New native configurations
3709
02a677ac 3710OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
3711OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3712
d64a6579
KB
3713* New targets
3714
3715Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3716
b33a6190
AS
3717* New command line options
3718
3719--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3720--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3721 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3722--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3723 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3724 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3725 with the --command (-x) option.
3726
11dced61
AC
3727* Deprecated commands removed
3728
3729The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3730removed:
3731
3732 Command Replacement
3733 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3734 othernames set arm disassembler
3735 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3736 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3737 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3738 regs info registers
3739
6fe85783
MK
3740* New BSD user-level threads support
3741
3742It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3743library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3744configurations are:
3745
3746FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3747FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3748OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3749
3750Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3751are not yet supported.
3752
5260ca71
MS
3753* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3754(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3755
e84ecc99
AC
3756* REMOVED configurations and files
3757
3758VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 3759Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 3760National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 3761
31e35378
JB
3762* New "set print array-indexes" command
3763
3764After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3765when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3766behavior.
3767
e85e5c83
MK
3768* VAX floating point support
3769
3770GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3771
d91e9901
AS
3772* User-defined command support
3773
3774In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3775to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3776section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3777
f2cb65ca
MC
3778*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3779
f47b1503
AS
3780* New command line option
3781
3782GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
3783debugging.
3784
f2cb65ca
MC
3785* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
3786
3787GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
3788information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
3789by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
3790proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
3791to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 3792
d08c0230
AC
3793* Internationalization
3794
3795When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
3796internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
3797continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
3798
117ea3cf
PH
3799* Ada
3800
3801Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
3802implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
3803into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
3804
d08c0230
AC
3805* New native configurations
3806
3807GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
3808
3809* Remote 'p' packet
3810
3811GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
3812packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
3813
3814* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
3815
3816GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3817The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
3818features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
3819i386 application).
3820
3821GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
3822compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
3823continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
3824configurations:
3825
3826hppa-*-hpux
3827ia64-*-aix
3828mips-*-irix*
3829*-*-lynx
3830mips-*-linux-gnu
3831sds protocol
3832xdr protocol
3833powerpc bdm protocol
3834
3835Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3836made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
3837
3838* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3839
3840Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3841been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3842configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3843permanently REMOVED.
3844
3845h8300-*-*
3846mcore-*-*
3847mn10300-*-*
3848ns32k-*-*
3849sh64-*-*
3850v850-*-*
3851
ebb7c577
AC
3852*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
3853
3854* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
3855
3856When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
3857heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
3858been fixed.
3859
3860* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
3861
3862When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
3863fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
3864IRIX long double values).
3865
3866* VAX and "next"
3867
3868A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
3869command. This problem has been fixed.
3870
860660cb 3871*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 3872
0dea2468
AC
3873* Fix for ``many threads''
3874
3875On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
3876rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
3877error message:
3878
3879 ptrace: No such process.
3880 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
3881
3882This problem has been fixed.
3883
2c07db7a
AC
3884* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
3885
3886Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
3887GDB to dump core).
3888
c23968a2
JB
3889* New ``start'' command.
3890
3891This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
3892
71009278
MK
3893* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
3894
3895Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
3896live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
3897platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
3898
3899FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3900FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
3901NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
3902NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
3903NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
3904OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3905OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
3906OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
3907OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3908
3c0b7db2
AC
3909* Signal trampoline code overhauled
3910
3911Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
3912These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
3913of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
3914call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
3915signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
3916
73cc75f3
AC
3917Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
3918features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
3919include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 3920
7243600a
BF
3921* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
3922
6f606e1c
MK
3923* New native configurations
3924
97dc871c 3925GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 3926OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
3927OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
3928OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 3929OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 3930NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 3931OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 3932
a1b461bf
AC
3933* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
3934
3935GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3936The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
3937including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
3938migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
3939compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
3940work, was also included.
3941
3942GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
3943module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
3944
3945h8300-*-*
3946mcore-*-*
3947mn10300-*-*
3948ns32k-*-*
3949sh64-*-*
3950v850-*-*
3951xstormy16-*-*
3952
3953Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3954made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
3955
3c7012f5
AC
3956* REMOVED configurations and files
3957
3958Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3959Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3960Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3961Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3962Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3963AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3964Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3965decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3966riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3967sonymips mips-sony-*
3968sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3969
e5fe55f7
AC
3970*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
3971
3972* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
3973
3974The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
3975GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
3976command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
3977program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
3978with GDB".
3979
3980* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
3981
3982Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
3983libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
3984cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
3985GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
3986shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
3987the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
3988are created.
3989
3990Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
3991
3992* Fixed ISO-C build problems
3993
3994The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
3995non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
3996compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
3997
3998* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
3999
4000Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
4001wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
4002
4003* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
4004
4005The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
4006permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
4007systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
4008
4009* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
4010
4011Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
4012has been updated to use constant array sizes.
4013
4014* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
4015
4016GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
4017its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
4018panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
4019
4020* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
4021
4022When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
4023by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
4024not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
4025
faae5abe 4026*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 4027
9175c9a3
MC
4028* Removed --with-mmalloc
4029
4030Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
4031conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
4032
3cc87ec0
MK
4033* Changes in AMD64 configurations
4034
4035The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
4036the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
4037and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
4038you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
4039
f0424ef6
MK
4040* Revised SPARC target
4041
4042The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
4043FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
4044support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
4045from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
4046(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 4047
59659be2
ILT
4048* New C++ demangler
4049
4050GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
4051names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
4052with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
4053programs.
4054
9e08b29b
DJ
4055* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4056
4057GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
4058arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
4059encountered these.
4060
8dfe8985
DC
4061* C++ nested types and namespaces
4062
4063GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
4064improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
4065is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
4066Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
4067namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
4068"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
4069frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
4070if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
4071GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
4072
cced5e27
MK
4073* New native configurations
4074
4075NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 4076OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 4077OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
4078OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4079OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 4080
b4b4b794
KI
4081* New debugging protocols
4082
4083M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
4084
7989c619
AC
4085* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
4086
4087The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
4088and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
4089tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
4090
5994185b
AC
4091* OBSOLETE configurations and files
4092
4093Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4094been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4095configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4096permanently REMOVED.
4097
4098Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4099Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4100Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4101Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4102Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4103AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4104Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
4105decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4106riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4107sonymips mips-sony-*
4108sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 4109
0ddabb4c
AC
4110* REMOVED configurations and files
4111
4112SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4113SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
4114Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4115Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4116H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4117HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4118HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4119HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4120PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 4121386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
4122Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4123 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4124 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
4125SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
4126SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
4127Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4128Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 4129
c7f1390e
DJ
4130*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
4131
1fe43d45
AC
4132* Objective-C
4133
4134Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
4135integrated into GDB.
4136
e6beb428
AC
4137* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
4138
4139DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
4140information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
4141By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
4142backtraces.
4143
4144The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
4145have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
4146DWARF 2 CFI support.
4147
4148* Hosted file I/O.
4149
4150GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
4151file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
4152remote protocol documentation for details.
4153
4154* All targets using the new architecture framework.
4155
4156All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
4157architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
4158to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
4159ppc32 on ppc64).
4160
4161* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
4162
4163GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
4164per-thread variables.
4165
4166* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
4167
4168GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
4169GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
4170
4171* Separate debug info.
4172
4173GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
4174automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
4175of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
4176system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
4177and optional debug files.
4178
4179* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4180
4181DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
4182describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
4183debugger.
4184
4185GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
4186for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
4187
4188* Java
4189
4190A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
4191Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
4192considered "useable".
4193
85f8f974
DJ
4194* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
4195
4196The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
4197commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
4198kernel.
4199
0fac0b41
DJ
4200* GDB supports logging output to a file
4201
4202There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4203used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 4204
6ad8ae5c
DJ
4205* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4206
4207The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4208disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4209command.
4210
e286caf2 4211* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
4212
4213The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4214registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4215
d28f9cdf
DJ
4216* Profiling support
4217
4218A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4219be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4220session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4221"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4222data, for more informative profiling results.
4223
da0f9dcd
AC
4224* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4225
4226The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4227option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 4228"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
4229
4230Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4231removed.
4232
fb9b6b35
JJ
4233Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4234Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4235Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4236 in a subsequent -var-update.
4237
954a4db8
MK
4238* New native configurations.
4239
4240FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4241
6760f9e6
JB
4242* Multi-arched targets.
4243
b4263afa 4244HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 4245Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 4246
1b831c93
AC
4247* OBSOLETE configurations and files
4248
4249Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4250been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4251configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4252permanently REMOVED.
4253
8b0e5691 4254Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 4255Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 4256H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
4257HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4258HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4259HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 4260PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
4261Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4262 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4263 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
4264Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4265Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 4266
5835abe7
NC
4267* REMOVED configurations and files
4268
4269V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
4270Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4271IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4272i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4273i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4274i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4275HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4276 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4277 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4278Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4279Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4280Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4281OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4282I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 4283
a094c6fb
AC
4284* MIPS $fp behavior changed
4285
4286The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
4287the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
4288context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
4289address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
4290The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
4291
299ffc64 4292*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 4293
46248966
AC
4294* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
4295
4296When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
4297`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
4298in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
4299library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
4300shared libs like mad''.
4301
b9d14705 4302* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 4303
b9d14705
DJ
4304Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
4305the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
4306arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
4307powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 4308
e0e9281e
JB
4309* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
4310
4311GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
4312and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
4313they expand.
4314
dd73b9bb
AC
4315The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
4316invocations in expression, and shows the result.
4317
4318The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
4319macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
4320
e0e9281e
JB
4321Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
4322information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
4323your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
4324information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
4325
2250ee0c
CV
4326* Multi-arched targets.
4327
6e3ba3b8
JT
4328DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
4329DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 4330NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 4331National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
4332Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
4333Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 4334
cd9bfe15 4335* New targets.
e33ce519 4336
456f8b9d
DB
4337Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
4338
e33ce519 4339
da8ca43d
JT
4340* New native configurations
4341
4342Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 4343SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 4344MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 4345UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 4346
cd9bfe15
AC
4347* OBSOLETE configurations and files
4348
4349Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4350been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4351configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4352permanently REMOVED.
4353
92eb23c5 4354Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 4355OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 4356IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 4357Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 4358Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 4359Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
4360i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4361i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4362i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
4363HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4364 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4365 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 4366I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 4367
db034ac5
AC
4368* OBSOLETE languages
4369
4370CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
4371
cd9bfe15
AC
4372* REMOVED configurations and files
4373
4374AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4375A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4376AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4377AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4378AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4379
4380testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4381
20f01a46
DH
4382* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
4383
4384This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
4385commands. The default is 1024.
4386
a5941fbf
MK
4387* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
4388
4389Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
4390
89743e04
MS
4391* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
4392
4393These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
4394to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
4395from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 4396
9fb14e79
JB
4397* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
4398
4399The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
4400including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
4401of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
4402
2037aebb
AC
4403*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
4404
4405* New targets.
4406
4407Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
4408
4409* Bug fixes
4410
4411gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
4412mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
4413Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
4414
4415gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
4416dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
4417Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
4418
4419Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
4420Surprisingly enough, it works now.
4421By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
4422
4423i386 hardware watchpoint support:
4424avoid misses on second run for some targets.
4425By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
4426
37057839 4427*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 4428
1a703748
MS
4429* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
4430
4431This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
4432really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
4433In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
4434target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
4435This can be a significant performance improvement on some
4436(notably embedded) targets.
4437
cefd4ef5
MS
4438* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
4439
55241689
AC
4440This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
4441process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
4442GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
4443hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 4444
352ed7b4
MS
4445* New command line option
4446
4447GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
4448
4449* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4450
4451There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
4452command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
4453a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
4454be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
4455open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
4456issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
4457a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
4458it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
4459GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
4460is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
4461
fe419ffc
RE
4462* Changes in ARM configurations.
4463
4464Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
4465configuration is fully multi-arch.
4466
eb7cedd9
MK
4467* New native configurations
4468
fe419ffc 4469ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 4470x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 4471AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 4472Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 4473
c9f63e6b
CV
4474* New targets
4475
4476Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
4477
9b4ff276
AC
4478* OBSOLETE configurations and files
4479
4480Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4481been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4482configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4483permanently REMOVED.
4484
4485AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4486A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4487AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4488AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4489AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4490
b4ceaee6 4491testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 4492
e2caac18
AC
4493* REMOVED configurations and files
4494
4495TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 4496WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
4497PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4498PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4499PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 4500Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
4501Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4502 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 4503SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 4504Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
4505Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4506ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 4507Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 4508
c2a727fa
TT
4509* Changes to command line processing
4510
4511The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
4512for the inferior from gdb's command line.
4513
467d8519
TT
4514* Changes to key bindings
4515
4516There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
4517
7072a954
AC
4518*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
4519
4520Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
4521
4522Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
4523corrupted.
4524
4525Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
4526
4527Numerous documentation fixes.
4528
4529Numerous testsuite fixes.
4530
34f47bc4 4531*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
4532
4533* New native configurations
4534
4535Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
4536x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 4537MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
4538MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4539ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 4540s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 4541
bf64bfd6
AC
4542* New targets
4543
def90278 4544Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 4545CRIS cris-axis
55241689 4546UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 4547
17e78a56 4548* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
4549
4550x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 4551Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
4552Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4553 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
4554TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4555WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 4556Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
4557PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4558PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4559PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 4560SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
4561Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4562ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 4563Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 4564
17e78a56
AC
4565stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
4566kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
4567
7fcca85b
AC
4568Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4569been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4570configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4571permanently REMOVED.
4572
a196c81c 4573* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
4574
4575Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4576Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4577Pyramid pyramid-*-*
4578ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4579Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 4580ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 4581
6d6b80e5 4582* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 4583
6d6b80e5 4584GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
4585sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
4586present.
4587
bf64bfd6
AC
4588* Other news:
4589
e23194cb
EZ
4590* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
4591
4592* The MI enabled by default.
4593
4594The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
4595revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
4596engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
4597using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
4598which is now deprecated.
4599
4600* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
4601
4602GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
4603main features are supported:
4604
4605 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
4606
4607 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
4608 extension;
4609
4610 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
4611
4612 - a Pascal expression parser.
4613
4614However, some important features are not yet supported.
4615
4616 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
4617
4618 - there are some problems with boolean types;
4619
4620 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
4621 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
4622
4623 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
4624
4625 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
4626
4627* Changes in completion.
4628
4629Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
4630to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
4631users expect at the shell prompt.
4632
4633Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
4634`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
4635program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4636files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4637be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4638considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4639name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4640
4641`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4642
4643* New platform-independent commands:
4644
4645It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4646hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4647documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4648
4649* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4650
d7275149
MK
4651Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4652revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4653many threads as your system allows you to have.
4654
e23194cb
EZ
4655Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4656
d7275149
MK
4657Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4658multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
4659
4660* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
4661
4662Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4663
e23194cb
EZ
4664GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4665debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4666supported.)
4667
4668* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4669
4670Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4671breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4672implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4673put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4674and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4675registers.
4676
4677The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4678debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
4679watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
4680
4681* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
4682
4683New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
4684the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
4685
4686New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
4687display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
4688IDT.
4689
4690New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
4691from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
4692New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
4693a given linear address.
4694
4695GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
4696program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
4697which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4698
4699DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4700
6c56c069
EZ
4701It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4702
e23194cb
EZ
4703* Changes in documentation.
4704
4705All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4706Documentation License.
4707
4708Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4709manual.
4710
4711TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4712
4713Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4714manual.
4715
4716The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4717documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4718hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4719
5d6640b1
AC
4720* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4721
4722The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4723``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4724contents of this file.
4725
1a1d8446
AC
4726* gdba.el deleted
4727
4728GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 4729
9debab2f 4730*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 4731
c63ce875
EZ
4732* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4733
4734Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4735programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4736displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4737greater level of detail.
4738
4739* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4740
4741It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4742bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4743on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4744written.
4745
4746* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4747
4748The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4749necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4750machines ``out of the box''.
4751
4752The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4753possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4754signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4755would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4756interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4757
4758It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4759standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4760even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4761and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4762terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4763
4764The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4765enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4766also works.
4767
4768DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4769GDB.
4770
4771It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4772directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4773times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4774breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4775
ed9a39eb
JM
4776* New native configurations
4777
4778ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 4779PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 4780
7a292a7a
SS
4781* New targets
4782
96baa820 4783Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
4784x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
4785PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
4786TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4787
085dd6e6
JM
4788* OBSOLETE configurations
4789
4790Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4791Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 4792Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 4793ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 4794Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 4795
9debab2f
AC
4796Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4797but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4798these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4799be permanently REMOVED.
4800
5330533d
SS
4801* Gould support removed
4802
4803Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
4804
bc9e5bbf
AC
4805* New features for SVR4
4806
4807On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
4808without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
4809load symbols from the running process's executable file.
4810
4811* Many C++ enhancements
4812
4813C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
4814in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
4815
adf40b2e
JM
4816* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
4817
4818A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
4819sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
4820with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
4821``|<program> <args>'' vis:
4822
4823 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
4824 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
4825
43e526b9
JM
4826* MIPS 64 remote protocol
4827
4828A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
4829expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
4830instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
4831
4832The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
4833added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4834
96baa820
JM
4835* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
4836
4837The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
4838``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
4839include ``set remote P-packet''.
4840
11cf8741
JM
4841* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
4842
4843The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
4844accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
4845``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
4846
7876dd43
DB
4847* ``apropos'' command added.
4848
4849The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
4850documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
4851try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
4852
bc9e5bbf
AC
4853* New MI interface
4854
4855A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
4856interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
4857process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
4858"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
4859enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
4860
4861 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
4862
c906108c
SS
4863*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
4864
4865* New native configurations
4866
4867HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
4868HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 4869M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
4870
4871* New targets
4872
4873Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4874Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
4875Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4876
4877* OBSOLETE configurations
4878
4879Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
4880
4881Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4882but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4883these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4884be permanently REMOVED.
4885
4886* ANSI/ISO C
4887
4888As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
4889buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
4890containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
4891use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
4892available. If this is not true, please report the affected
4893configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
4894information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
4895already.
4896
4897* Readline 2.2
4898
4899GDB now uses readline 2.2.
4900
4901* set extension-language
4902
4903You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
4904languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
4905you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
4906 set extension-language .c c++
4907The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
4908and their associated languages.
4909
4910* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
4911
4912When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
4913you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
4914PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
4915
4916 set processor NAME
4917
4918sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
4919following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
4920
4921 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
4922 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
4923 403 IBM PowerPC 403
4924 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
4925 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
4926 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
4927 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
4928 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
4929 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
4930 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
4931 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
4932
4933At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
4934special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
4935registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
4936only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
4937
4938* HP-UX support
4939
4940Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
4941more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
4942library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
4943support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
4944for xdb and dbx commands.
4945
4946* Catchpoints
4947
4948HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
4949generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
4950to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
4951
4952This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
4953argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
4954output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
4955
4956* Debugging across forks
4957
4958On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
4959in the inferior.
4960
4961* TUI
4962
4963HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
4964it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
4965configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
4966
4967* GDB remote protocol additions
4968
4969A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
4970Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
4971fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
4972allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
4973
4974For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
4975full 64-bit address. The command
4976
4977 set remoteaddresssize 32
4978
4979can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
4980the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
4981will be discarded.
4982
4983In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
4984command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
4985
4986 maint packet heythere
4987
4988sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
4989disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
4990time.
4991
4992The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
4993target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
4994downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
4995
4996* Tracing can collect general expressions
4997
4998You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
4999further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
5000doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
5001
5002* mask-address variable for Mips
5003
5004For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
5005a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
5006of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
5007
5008* Higher serial baud rates
5009
5010GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
5011230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
5012to achieve all of these rates.)
5013
5014* i960 simulator
5015
5016The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
5017builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
5018
5019
5020*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
5021
5022* New native configurations
5023
5024Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
5025Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
5026Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5027PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5028PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5029Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
5030Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
5031
5032* New targets
5033
5034Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5035Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
5036Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5037Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
5038MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
5039MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
5040MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
5041Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
5042Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5043Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5044NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
5045
5046* New debugging protocols
5047
5048ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
5049M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
5050DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
5051PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5052PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5053Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5054
5055* DWARF 2
5056
5057All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
5058format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
5059information.
5060
5061* Java frontend
5062
5063GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
5064only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
5065
5066* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
5067
5068For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
5069loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
5070locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
5071
5072* Live range splitting
5073
5074GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
5075range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
5076more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
5077
5078* Hurd support
5079
5080GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
5081updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
5082
5083* ARM Thumb support
5084
5085GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
5086instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
5087instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
5088accordingly.
5089
5090* MIPS16 support
5091
5092GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
5093instruction set.
5094
5095* Overlay support
5096
5097GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
5098linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
5099will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
5100control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
5101additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
5102in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
5103
5104* info symbol
5105
5106The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
5107the symbol at the specified address.
5108
5109* Trace support
5110
5111The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
5112asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
5113extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
5114includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
5115file tracepoint.c for more details.
5116
5117* MIPS simulator
5118
5119Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
5120by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
5121of most MIPS variants.
5122
5123* Sparc simulator
5124
5125Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
5126by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
5127Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
5128
5129* set architecture
5130
5131For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
5132basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
5133architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
5134the possible architectures.
5135
5136*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
5137
5138* New native configurations
5139
5140Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
5141M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
5142PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
5143PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
5144PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5145RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
5146
5147* New targets
5148
5149ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
5150I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5151MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
5152MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
5153PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
5154Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
5155Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5156
5157* PowerPC simulator
5158
5159The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
5160contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
5161PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
5162basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
5163performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
5164
5165* Solaris 2.5
5166
5167GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
5168
5169* Windows 95/NT native
5170
5171GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
5172To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
5173which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
5174Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
5175ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
5176
5177* dont-repeat command
5178
5179If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
5180command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
5181useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
5182extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
5183
5184* Send break instead of ^C
5185
5186The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
5187rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
5188GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
5189
5190* Remote protocol timeout
5191
5192The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
5193that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
5194to read from the target. The default value is 2.
5195
5196* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
5197
5198By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
5199loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
5200stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
5201when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
5202in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5203
5204Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5205/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5206automatically on hpux10.
5207
5208* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5209
5210Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5211
5212* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5213
5214When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5215may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5216the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5217every character. The default value is 1050.
5218
5219* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5220
5221If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5222a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5223replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5224details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5225remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5226to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5227
5228* Speedups for remote debugging
5229
5230GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5231the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5232and more efficient S-record downloading.
5233
5234* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5235
5236GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5237Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5238
5239*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
5240
5241* Psymtabs for XCOFF
5242
5243The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
5244can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
5245
5246* Remote targets use caching
5247
5248Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
5249remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
5250it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
5251debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
5252off' turns the the data cache off.
5253
5254* Remote targets may have threads
5255
5256The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
5257in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
5258gdb/remote.c for details.
5259
5260* NetROM support
5261
5262If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
5263support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
5264acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
5265write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
5266support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
5267another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
5268sequence is something like
5269
5270 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
5271 load <prog>
5272 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
5273
5274* Macintosh host
5275
5276GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
5277may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
5278it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
5279available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
5280device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
5281directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
5282scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
5283mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
5284
5285* Autoconf
5286
5287GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
5288but does simplify configuration and building.
5289
5290* hpux10
5291
5292GDB now supports hpux10.
5293
5294*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
5295
5296* New native configurations
5297
5298x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
5299x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
5300NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
5301Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
5302
5303* New targets
5304
5305A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5306HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
5307CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
5308PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
5309WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5310
5311* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
5312
5313GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
5314possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
5315filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
5316the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
5317if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
5318
5319* Arguments to user-defined commands
5320
5321User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
5322Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
5323trivial example:
5324define adder
5325 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
5326
5327To execute the command use:
5328adder 1 2 3
5329
5330Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
5331Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
5332use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
5333
5334* New `if' and `while' commands
5335
5336This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
5337commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
5338expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
5339execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
5340terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
5341`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
5342if the expression is zero.
5343
5344* Fortran source language mode
5345
5346GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
5347Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
5348variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
5349with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
5350Fortran compilers.
5351
5352* Better HPUX support
5353
5354Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
5355running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
5356processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
5357for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
5358that behavior do the following before running the program:
5359
5360 adb -w a.out
5361 __dld_flags?W 0x5
5362 control-d
5363
5364This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
5365To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
5366
5367 adb -w a.out
5368 __dld_flags?W 0x4
5369 control-d
5370
5371You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
5372the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
5373external linkage.
5374
5375GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
5376HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
5377
5378* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
5379
5380You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
5381commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
5382current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
5383"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
5384associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
5385configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
5386
5387* New DOS host serial code
5388
5389This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
5390no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
5391a PC's serial port.
5392
5393*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
5394
5395* New "complete" command
5396
5397This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
5398were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
5399
5400* Trailing space optional in prompt
5401
5402"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
5403allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
5404
5405* Breakpoint hit counts
5406
5407"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
5408has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
5409can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
5410to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
5411less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
5412that breakpoint.
5413
5414* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
5415
5416"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
5417an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
5418arrays actually contain only short strings.
5419
5420* Shared library breakpoints
5421
5422In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
5423breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
5424
5425* Hardware watchpoints
5426
5427There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
5428targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
5429
55241689 5430Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
5431
5432* Annotations
5433
5434Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
5435and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
5436
5437* Improved Irix 5 support
5438
5439GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
5440
5441* Improved HPPA support
5442
5443GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
5444
5445* New native configurations
5446
5447Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
5448HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5449Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
5450RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
5451
5452* New targets
5453
5454OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5455MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
5456Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
5457
5458* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
5459
5460There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
5461This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
5462
5463* Fixes
5464
5465As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
5466and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
5467
5468*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
5469
5470* Irix 5 is now supported
5471
5472* HPPA support
5473
5474GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
5475to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
5476GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
5477of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
5478can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
5479
5480
5481*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
5482
5483* User visible changes:
5484
5485* Remote Debugging
5486
5487The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
5488target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
5489debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
5490integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
5491debugging info for the mips target).
5492
5493* DEC Alpha native support
5494
5495GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
5496debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
5497work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
5498Alpha-specific notes.
5499
5500* Preliminary thread implementation
5501
5502GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
5503
5504* LynxOS native and target support for 386
5505
5506This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
5507to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
5508for details).
5509
5510* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
5511
5512This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
5513mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
5514call methods, ...etc.
5515
5516*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
5517
5518 * User visible changes:
5519
5520Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
5521supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
5522other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
5523somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
5524
5525Filename completion now works.
5526
5527When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
5528arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
5529addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
5530
5531All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
5532vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
5533should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
5534your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
5535to be on the far side of a thin network line.
5536
5537 * DEC alpha support
5538
5539This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
5540cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
5541
5542
5543*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
5544
5545 * Testsuite
5546
5547This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
5548The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
5549via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
5550
5551 * C++ demangling
5552
5553'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
5554emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
5555Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
5556disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
5557use gdb with AT&T cfront.
5558
5559 * Simulators
5560
5561GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
5562So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
5563Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
5564
5565 * New targets supported
5566
5567H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5568H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5569SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
5570Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5571IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
5572
5573Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
5574version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
5575GO32 memory extender.
5576
5577 * New remote protocols
5578
5579MIPS remote debugging protocol.
5580
5581 * New source languages supported
5582
5583This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
5584used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
5585into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
5586
5587
5588*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
5589
5590 * HP Precision Architecture supported
5591
5592GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
5593version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
5594University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
5595compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
5596format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
5597(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
5598
5599Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
5600
5601 * Faster and better demangling
5602
5603We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
5604demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
5605character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
5606only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
5607This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
5608increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
5609symbol lookups.
5610
5611`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
5612from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
5613compiler does not actually implement.
5614
5615 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
5616
5617In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
5618inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
5619recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
5620very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
5621The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
5622circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
5623fix.
5624
5625The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
5626release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
5627
5628 * Improved configure script
5629
5630The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
5631you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
5632host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
5633done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
5634
5635We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5636version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5637`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5638The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5639only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5640We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5641
5642 * Documentation improvements
5643
5644There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5645produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5646before submitting changes.
5647
5648The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5649M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5650`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5651you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5652a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5653
5654*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5655We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5656been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5657or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5658`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5659around this problem.
5660
5661 * New features
5662
5663GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5664the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5665`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5666the target program.
5667
5668The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5669how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5670
5671 * New native hosts supported
5672
5673HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5674386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5675
5676 * New targets supported
5677
5678AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
5679
5680 * New file formats supported
5681
5682BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
5683HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
5684
5685 * Major bug fixes
5686
5687Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
5688
5689We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
5690printf_filtered("%s") problems.
5691
5692We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
5693for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
5694release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
5695
5696You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
5697will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5698
5699We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5700for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5701especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5702libraries.
5703
5704The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5705information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5706command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5707any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5708when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5709
5710 * Internal improvements
5711
5712GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5713debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5714
5715GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5716Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5717symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5718contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5719shared code that handles any of them.
5720
5721 * New command line options
5722
5723We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5724
5725 * Mmalloc licensing
5726
5727The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5728General Public License.
5729
5730*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5731
5732 * Host/native/target split
5733
5734GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5735hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5736target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5737local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5738ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5739
5740The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5741GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5742is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5743code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5744any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5745built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5746handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5747
5748GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5749It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5750plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5751
5752 * New hosts supported
5753
5754HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5755386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5756386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5757
5758 * New targets supported
5759
5760Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
576168030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5762
5763 * New native hosts supported
5764
5765386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5766 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5767386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5768
5769 * New file formats supported
5770
5771BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5772supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5773format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5774
5775 * New commands
5776
5777`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5778`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5779These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5780
5781`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5782
5783You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
5784scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
5785prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
5786executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
5787
5788 * C++ improvements
5789
5790We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
5791info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
5792symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
5793
5794Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5795
5796 * Major bug fixes
5797
5798The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
5799fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
5800by the compiler.
5801
5802We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
5803support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
5804
5805John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
5806slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
5807that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
5808purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
5809the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
5810mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
5811
5812Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
5813about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
5814completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
5815we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
5816
5817 * AMD 29k support
5818
5819A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
5820specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
5821calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
5822usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
5823in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
5824
5825We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
5826Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
5827of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
5828resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
5829
5830 * Remote interfaces
5831
5832We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
5833with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
5834message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
5835This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
5836needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
5837breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
5838each instruction being stepped through.
5839
5840The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
5841registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
5842
5843There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
5844find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
5845Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
5846processor with a serial port.
5847
5848 * Configuration
5849
5850Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
5851`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
5852supported, and what files each one uses.
5853
5854 * Library changes
5855
5856There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
5857disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
5858Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
5859disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
5860
5861The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
5862Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
5863can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
5864grants all the rights from the General Public License.
5865
5866 * Documentation
5867
5868The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
5869reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
5870as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
5871encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
5872system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
5873bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
5874
5875And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
5876
5877
5878*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
5879
5880 * Better support for C++ function names
5881
5882GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
5883names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
5884(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
5885single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
5886Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
5887
5888GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
5889the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
5890You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
5891lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
5892for the list of formats.
5893
5894 * G++ symbol mangling problem
5895
5896Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
5897C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
5898directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
5899can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
5900usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
5901about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
5902this problem.)
5903
5904 * New 'maintenance' command
5905
5906All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
5907the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
5908can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
5909
5910 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
5911 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
5912 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
5913 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
5914 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
5915 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
5916
5917The following commands are new:
5918
5919 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
5920 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
5921 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
5922
5923 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
5924
5925We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
5926(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
5927be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
5928read after argv processing.
5929
5930 * New hosts supported
5931
5932Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
5933
55241689 5934GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
5935
5936We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
5937is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
5938for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
5939masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
5940fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
5941It costs extra.
5942
5943 * New targets supported
5944
5945Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5946
5947 * More smarts about finding #include files
5948
5949GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
5950all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
5951greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
5952especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
5953the one that contains your sources.
5954
5955We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
5956breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
5957try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
5958
5959 * Interesting infernals change
5960
5961GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
5962section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
5963target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
5964stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
5965
5966 * Bug fixes (of course!)
5967
5968There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
5969 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
5970 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
5971
5972See the ChangeLog for details.
5973
5974*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
5975
5976 * New machines supported (host and target)
5977
5978IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
5979
5980SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5981
5982 * New malloc package
5983
5984GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
5985Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
5986capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
5987This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
5988pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
5989more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
5990
5991 * info proc
5992
5993The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
5994'help info proc' for details.
5995
5996 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
5997
5998The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
5999Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
6000possible.
6001
6002 * File name changes for MS-DOS
6003
6004Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
6005support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
6006conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
6007environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
6008that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
6009in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
6010
6011 * Cross byte order fixes
6012
6013Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
6014targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
6015
6016 * New -mapped and -readnow options
6017
6018If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
6019system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
6020`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
6021program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
6022called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
6023Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
6024and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
6025the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
6026option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
6027starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
6028
6029You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
6030the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
6031information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
6032slower, but makes future operations faster.
6033
6034The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
6035build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
6036A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
6037use is:
6038
6039 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
6040
6041The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
6042It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
6043shared across multiple host platforms.
6044
6045 * longjmp() handling
6046
6047GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
6048siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
6049all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
6050platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
6051
6052 * Solaris 2.0
6053
6054Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
6055this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
6056reading symbols.
6057
6058 * Bug fixes
6059
6060As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
6061People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
6062crashes and trashed symbol tables.
6063
6064*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
6065
6066 * New machines supported (host and target)
6067
6068SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6069 (except core files)
6070BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
6071Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
6072
6073 * New machines supported (target)
6074
6075AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6076
6077 * C++ support
6078
6079GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
6080The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
6081per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
6082
6083GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
6084`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
6085extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
6086good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
6087will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
6088released.
6089
6090 * New features for SVR4
6091
6092GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
6093shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
6094only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
6095
6096The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
6097on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
6098it prints the address mappings of the process.
6099
6100If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
6101bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
6102
6103 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
6104
6105Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
6106now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
6107skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
6108make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
6109same code linked statically.
6110
6111 * New Getopt
6112
6113GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
6114version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
6115continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
6116Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
6117added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
6118future by other options that begin with the same letter.
6119
6120 * Bugs fixed
6121
6122The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6123Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6124See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6125
6126
6127*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
6128
6129 * New machines supported (host and target)
6130
6131Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
6132NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
6133Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6134
6135 * Almost SCO Unix support
6136
6137We had hoped to support:
6138SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6139(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
6140that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
6141about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
6142
6143 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
6144
6145GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
6146debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
6147is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
6148send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
6149reqired (if any).
6150
6151 * New Readline
6152
6153GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
6154is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
6155required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
6156
6157 * Bugs fixed
6158
6159The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6160Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6161See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6162
6163 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
6164
6165GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
6166supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
6167symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
6168
6169Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
6170mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
6171debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
6172mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
6173version 2.
6174
6175Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
6176really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
6177line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
6178variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
6179situation somewhat.
6180
6181When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
6182However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
6183methods.
6184
6185We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
6186DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
6187encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
6188
6189
6190*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
6191
6192 * Improved configuration
6193
6194Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
6195Porting BFD is simpler.
6196
6197 * Stepping improved
6198
6199The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
6200of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
6201in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
6202function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6203
6204 * Bug fixing
6205
6206Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6207
6208 * New host supported (not target)
6209
6210Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6211
6212
6213*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6214
6215 * Multiple source language support
6216
6217GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6218It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6219and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6220language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6221You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6222`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6223
6224 * GDB and Modula-2
6225
6226GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6227currently under development at the State University of New York at
6228Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6229continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6230
6231Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6232debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6233symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6234
6235There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6236in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
6237
6238 * set write on/off
6239
6240GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
6241a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
6242the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
6243by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
6244effect immediately.
6245
6246 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
6247
6248When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
6249shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
6250The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
6251examining core files.
6252
6253 * set listsize
6254
6255You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
6256The default is 10.
6257
6258 * New machines supported (host and target)
6259
6260SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6261Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
6262Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
6263
6264 * New hosts supported (not targets)
6265
6266IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
6267
6268 * New targets supported (not hosts)
6269
6270AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6271AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6272Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
6273
6274 * New remote interfaces
6275
6276AMD 29000 Adapt
6277AMD 29000 Minimon
6278
6279
6280*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
6281
6282 * New Facilities
6283
6284Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
6285
6286Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
6287target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
6288is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
6289remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
6290remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
6291also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
6292using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
6293stub on the target system.
6294
6295New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
6296
6297GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
6298library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
6299object file types such as a.out and coff.
6300
6301There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
6302refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
6303
6304
6305 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
6306
6307All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
6308by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
6309
6310For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
6311``Show prompt'' produces the response:
6312Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
6313
6314What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
6315print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
6316will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
6317all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
6318
6319confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
6320 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
6321 it is already running. Default is ON.
6322
6323editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
6324 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
6325 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
6326 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
6327 Default is ON.
6328
6329history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
6330 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
6331 or the value of the environment variable
6332 GDBHISTFILE.
6333
6334history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
6335 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
6336 HISTSIZE.
6337
6338history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
6339 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
6340 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
6341
6342history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
6343 history expansion will be performed on
6344 command line input. The default is OFF.
6345
6346radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
6347 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
6348 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
6349
6350height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
6351 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
6352 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6353 variable TERM.
6354
6355width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
6356 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
6357 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6358 variable TERM.
6359
6360Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
6361``set width'' instead.
6362
6363print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
6364 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
6365 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
6366 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
6367
6368print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
6369 is OFF.
6370
6371print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
6372 "raw" form if off.
6373
6374print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
6375 like instructions.
6376
6377print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
6378
6379
6380 * Support for Epoch Environment.
6381
6382The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
6383new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
6384are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
6385window.
6386
6387
6388 * Support for Shared Libraries
6389
6390GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
6391Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
6392before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
6393happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
6394At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
6395from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
6396shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
6397It can be abbreviated ``share''.
6398
6399sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
6400 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
6401 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
6402
6403info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
6404
6405
6406 * Watchpoints
6407
6408A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
6409expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
6410tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
6411quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
6412problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
6413more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
6414
6415watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
6416
6417info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
6418
6419delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6420disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6421enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6422
6423
6424 * C++ multiple inheritance
6425
6426When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
6427for C++ programs.
6428
6429 * C++ exception handling
6430
6431Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
6432ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
6433the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
6434handler's context).
6435
6436catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
6437 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
6438 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
6439
6440info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
6441 current stack frame.
6442
6443
6444 * Minor command changes
6445
6446The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
6447command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
6448is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
6449
6450The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
6451at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
6452frames without printing.
6453
6454 * New directory command
6455
6456'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
6457The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
6458about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
6459with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
6460find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
6461
6462 * Configuring GDB for compilation
6463
6464For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
6465for more details.
6466
6467GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
6468two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
6469Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
6470where the program that you are debugging will run.
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