NEWS: Document 'show configuration'.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
CommitLineData
c906108c
SS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
2d450646
JB
4*** Changes since GDB 7.6
5
bd712aed 6* New commands:
dccca75d
EZ
7show configuration
8 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
9
bd712aed
DE
10maint set|show per-command
11maint set|show per-command space
12maint set|show per-command time
13maint set|show per-command symtab
14 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
15
bd3eecc3
PA
16* New options
17
18set remote trace-status-packet
19show remote trace-status-packet
20 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
21
dccca75d
EZ
22* New command-line options
23--configuration
24 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
25
d0353e76
YQ
26* The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
27 buffer in Common Trace Format.
28
b292c783
JK
29* Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
30 GDB command gcore.
31
d0353e76
YQ
32* MI changes
33
34 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
35 Trace Format now.
36
2d450646 37*** Changes in GDB 7.6
80c8d323 38
59ea5688
MM
39* Target record has been renamed to record-full.
40 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
41 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
42 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
43
44set|show record full insn-number-max
45set|show record full stop-at-limit
46set|show record full memory-query
47
48* A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
49 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
50 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
51 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
52 This new recording method can be enabled using:
53
54record btrace
55
56 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
57 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
58
59* Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
60 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
61 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
62
63record instruction-history prints the execution history at
64 instruction granularity
65
66record function-call-history prints the execution history at
67 function granularity
68
543bf33d
AT
69* New native configurations
70
51d66578 71ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 72FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
4f4352f7 73x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 74Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 75
249729c4
JB
76* New targets
77
51d66578
MS
78ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
79ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
249729c4 80Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3c095f49 81x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 82Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
249729c4 83
e64e0392
DE
84* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
85 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
86 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
87 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
88 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
89 --data-directory command-line option.
90
07540c15
DE
91* New command line options:
92
93-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
94 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
95
e93a8774
TT
96* Removed command line options
97
98-epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
99 Emacs.
100
53342f27
TT
101* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
102 type formatting.
103
451b7c33
TT
104* 'info proc' now works on some core files.
105
a72c3253
DE
106* Python scripting
107
108 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
109
d7de8e3c
TT
110 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
111
18a9fc12
TT
112 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
113
9a27f2c6
PK
114 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
115
bea883fd
SCR
116 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
117 of architecture in the Python API.
118
119 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
120 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
121
a72c3253
DE
122* New Python-based convenience functions:
123
124 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
125 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
126 ** $_strlen(str)
127 ** $_regex(str, regex)
128
f3c8a52a
JK
129* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
130 given an argument.
131
1605ef26
TT
132* The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
133 default for GCC since November 2000.
134
504b36fd
YQ
135* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
136
f2a8bc8a
YQ
137* The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
138 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
139
23a80689
JB
140* New configure options
141
142--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
143 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
144 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
145 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
146 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
147 options allow the user to override that default.
393fd4c3
YQ
148--with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
149 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
150 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
23a80689 151
d6b28940
TT
152* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
153
ab04a2af
TT
154catch signal
155 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
156 conditions to be attached.
157
d6b28940
TT
158maint info bfds
159 List the BFDs known to GDB.
160
8315665e
YPK
161python-interactive [command]
162pi [command]
163 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
164 and print the result of expressions.
165
166py [command]
167 "py" is a new alias for "python".
168
18a9fc12
TT
169enable type-printer [name]...
170disable type-printer [name]...
171 Enable or disable type printers.
172
aa9259cc
TS
173* Removed commands
174
175 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
176 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
177 instead.
178
53342f27
TT
179* New options
180
181set print type methods (on|off)
182show print type methods
183 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
184 The default is to show them.
185
186set print type typedefs (on|off)
187show print type typedefs
188 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
189 The default is to show them.
190
1b56eb55
JK
191set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
192show filename-display
193 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
194 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
195
e9f1758d
PA
196set trace-buffer-size
197show trace-buffer-size
198 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
199
a46c1e42
PA
200set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
201show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
202 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
203
be9a8770
PA
204set debug aarch64
205show debug aarch64
206 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
207 The default is off.
208
209set debug coff-pe-read
210show debug coff-pe-read
211 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
212 exported symbols.
213
214set debug mach-o
215show debug mach-o
216 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
217 processing.
218
219set debug notification
220show debug notification
221 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
222
5b9afe8a
YQ
223* MI changes
224
225 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
226 "=cmd-param-changed".
201b4506
YQ
227 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
228 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
134a2066
YQ
229 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
230 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
231 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
82a90ccf
YQ
232 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
233 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
8de0566d
YQ
234 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
235 "=memory-changed".
ed8a1c2d 236 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
ec83d211 237 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
62747a60
TT
238 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
239 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
3fa7bf06
MG
240 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
241 library load/unload events.
f2a8bc8a
YQ
242 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
243 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
244 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
f5911ea1
HAQ
245 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
246 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
247 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
ec83d211
JK
248 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
249 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
5b9afe8a 250
608e2dbb
TT
251* GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
252 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
253 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
254 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
255
f6f899bf
HAQ
256* New remote packets
257
258QTBuffer:size
259 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
260 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
261
10782d74
MM
262Qbtrace:bts
263 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
264 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
265 qSupported query.
266
267Qbtrace:off
268 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
269 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
270
271qXfer:btrace:read
272 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
273 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
274
80c8d323 275*** Changes in GDB 7.5
d6e00af6 276
1b3371b1
L
277* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
278 for more x32 ABI info.
279
d0e64392
MR
280* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
281
4cc0665f
MR
282* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
283
85d4a676
SS
284* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
285 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
286 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
287 "info os files" lists file descriptors
288 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
289 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
290 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
291 "info os msg" lists message queues
292 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
293
55aa24fb
SDJ
294* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
295 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
296 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
297 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
298 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
299 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
300
72508ac0
PO
301* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
302 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
303 record/replay support.
304
16899756
DE
305* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
306
4795f398
DE
307* Python scripting
308
7d74f244
DE
309 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
310 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
311
4795f398
DE
312 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
313
50897289
TT
314 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
315 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
316
64e7d9dd
TT
317 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
318
319 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
320 the source at which the symbol was defined.
321
f0823d2c
TT
322 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
323 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
324 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
325 symbol's value.
326
7b282c5a
SCR
327 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
328 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
329
a20ee7a4
SCR
330 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
331 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
332 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
333
7efc75aa
SCR
334 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
335 object associated with a PC value.
336
ee0bf529
SCR
337 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
338 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
339
a766d390
DE
340* Go language support.
341 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
342 language.
343
e0f9f062
DE
344* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
345 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
346
217bff3e
JK
347* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
348 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
349
cafec441
TT
350* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
351 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
352 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
353 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
354 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
355 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
356
4aac40c8
TT
357* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
358 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
359 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
360 build/libcpp/expr.c.
361
d99bd577
UW
362* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
363 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
364
53fe1783
GB
365* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
366 since December 2007.
367
e41eec66
JB
368* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
369 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
370 command does. For instance:
371
372 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
373
374 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
375 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
376 created, using the "condition" command.
377
5808517f
YQ
378* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
379 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
380
481860b3
GB
381* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
382
383* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
384 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
385 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
e615022a
DE
386 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
387 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
388 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
389 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
390 files with older .gdb_index sections.
481860b3 391
156942c7
DE
392 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
393 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
394 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
395 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
396 the .gdb_index section.
397
927fbba6
JB
398* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
399
20388dd6
YQ
400* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
401 target.
402
f3e0e960
SS
403* MI changes
404
405 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
406
37ce89eb
SS
407 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
408
edcc5120
TT
409* New commands
410
e615022a
DE
411 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
412 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
413 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
414
edcc5120
TT
415 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
416 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
417
816338b5
SS
418 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
419 several hits.
420
57651221 421 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
c4aeac85
TT
422 C++ and Java objects.
423
06fc020f
SCR
424 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
425 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
426 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
427 configured with '--with-python'.
428
bf88dd68
JK
429 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
430 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
431 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
432 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
433 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
434 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
435 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
436
437 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
438 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
439 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
440 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
441
e7e0cddf
SS
442 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
443 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
444 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
445 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
446
9cb709b6
TT
447 ** "set print symbol"
448 "show print symbol"
449 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
450 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
451 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
452
2d4c29c5
TS
453* Deprecated commands
454
455 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
456 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
457
a58b110a
KB
458* New targets
459
460Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 461HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
a58b110a 462
72895ff6
LM
463* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
464 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
465 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
466 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
467 evaluates to true.
468
469* New options
470
4cc0665f
MR
471set mips compression
472show mips compression
473 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
474 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
475 mips16
476 micromips
477 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
478
72895ff6
LM
479set breakpoint condition-evaluation
480show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 481 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
5b43fab2
JK
482 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
483 available mode.
72895ff6
LM
484 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
485 target.
486
bf88dd68
JK
487set auto-load off
488 Disable auto-loading globally.
489
490show auto-load
491 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
492
493set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
494show auto-load gdb-scripts
495 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
496
497set auto-load python-scripts on|off
498show auto-load python-scripts
499 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
500
501set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
502show auto-load local-gdbinit
503 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
504
505set auto-load libthread-db on|off
506show auto-load libthread-db
507 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
508
7349ff92 509set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
9cc815f5 510show auto-load scripts-directory
7349ff92
JK
511 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
512 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
513 of the directories listed by this option.
514 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
515
bccbefd2
JK
516set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
517show auto-load safe-path
518 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
519 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
520
4dc84fd1
JK
521set debug auto-load on|off
522show debug auto-load
523 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
524
d3ce09f5 525set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
e7e0cddf 526show dprintf-style
d3ce09f5
SS
527 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
528 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
529 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
530 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
e7e0cddf
SS
531
532set dprintf-function <expr>
533show dprintf-function
534set dprintf-channel <expr>
535show dprintf-channel
536 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
537 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
538
d3ce09f5
SS
539set disconnected-dprintf on|off
540show disconnected-dprintf
541 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
542 after GDB disconnects.
543
6dea1fbd
JK
544* New configure options
545
7349ff92
JK
546--with-auto-load-dir
547 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1564a261
JK
548 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
549 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
550 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
551 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
7349ff92 552
6dea1fbd
JK
553--with-auto-load-safe-path
554 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
7349ff92 555 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
6dea1fbd
JK
556
557--without-auto-load-safe-path
558 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
559 security feature.
560
72895ff6
LM
561* New remote packets
562
74c48cbb
PA
563z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
564
72895ff6
LM
565 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
566 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
567 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
568 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
569
9b224c5e
PA
570QProgramSignals:
571
572 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
573 program without GDB involvement.
574
8320cc4f
JK
575* New command line options
576
577--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
578 before loading inferior.
579--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
580 execute it before loading inferior.
581
8837a20f
JB
582*** Changes in GDB 7.4
583
f8eba3c6
TT
584* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
585 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
586 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
587 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
588 inferior changes.
589
1bfeeb0f
JL
590* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
591 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
592
480a3f21
PW
593* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
594 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
595 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
596 target hardware watchpoint.
597
598 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
599 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
600 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
601 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
602
3a7bf607
PM
603* Python scripting
604
32d1c362 605 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 606 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
32d1c362
DE
607 existing one.
608
3a7bf607 609 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4795f398
DE
610 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
611 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
612 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
613 now "message", which just prints the error message without
614 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 615
baacfb07 616 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 617 Python API.
713389e0 618
fa3a4f15
PM
619 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
620 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 621 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
fa3a4f15
PM
622 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
623 corresponding value.
624
5e239b84
PM
625 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
626 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
627 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
628 on GDB start-up.
629
9df2fbc4
PM
630 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
631 static_block will return the global and static blocks
632 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
633 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
634
457e09f0
DE
635 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
636
6839b47f
KP
637 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
638 "gdb.breakpoints".
639
cc72b2a2
KP
640 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
641 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
642 available in the CLI.
643
84ad80e6
PK
644 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
645 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
646 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
647 "some_type.items()".
648
20c168b5
KP
649 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
650 new object file.
651
03c3051a
PK
652 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
653 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
654 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
655 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
656 any anonymous fields.
657
7376e450
TT
658* MI changes
659
660 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
661 "solib-event".
662
663 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
664 "=breakpoint-modified".
665
666 ** New command -ada-task-info.
667
98a5dd13
DE
668* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
669 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
670 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
671 lives.
672
673 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
674 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
675 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
676 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
677 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
678
679 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
680 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
681
478aac75
DE
682* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
683 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
684 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
685 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
686 use this option to specify where to find it.
687
9c06b0b4
TJB
688* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
689 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
690 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
691 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
692 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
693 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
694 section in the user manual for more details.
695
03f2bd59
JK
696* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
697 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
698 become available after that.
699
71eba9c2 700* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 701
2bda9cc5
JK
702* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
703 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
704 gcc version 4.7.
705
ed59ded5
DE
706* New commands
707
708!SHELL COMMAND
709 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
710 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
711
9c06b0b4
TJB
712* Changed commands
713
714watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
715 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
716 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
717
dbaefcf7
DE
718info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
719 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
720 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
721
71eba9c2 722info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
723 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
724 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
725 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
726 name starts with a hyphen.
727
3065dfb6
SS
728collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
729 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
730 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
731 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
732 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
733 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
734 number of bytes that will be collected.
735
f196051f
SS
736tstart [NOTES]
737 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
738 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
739 setting the variable trace-notes.
740
741tstop [NOTES]
742 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
743 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
744 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
745 trace-stop-notes.
746
d248b706
KY
747* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
748 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
749 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
750 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
751 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
752 is running.
753
405f8e94
SS
754* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
755 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
756 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
757
2bda9cc5
JK
758* New options
759
45cfd468
DE
760set debug dwarf2-read
761show debug dwarf2-read
762 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
763 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
764
765set debug symtab-create
766show debug symtab-create
767 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
768 creation. The default is off.
769
baacfb07
PM
770set extended-prompt
771show extended-prompt
772 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
773 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
774 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
775 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
776 prompt is displayed.
777
2bda9cc5
JK
778set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
779show print entry-values
780 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
781 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
782 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
783
784set debug entry-values
785show debug entry-values
786 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
787 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
788
c011a4f4
DE
789set basenames-may-differ
790show basenames-may-differ
791 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
792 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
793 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
794 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
795 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
796 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
797 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
798 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
799
f196051f
SS
800set trace-user
801show trace-user
802set trace-notes
803show trace-notes
804 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
805 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
806 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
807 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
808
809set trace-stop-notes
810show trace-stop-notes
811 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
812 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
813 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
814 started by someone else.
815
d248b706
KY
816* New remote packets
817
818QTEnable
819
820 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
821
822QTDisable
823
824 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
825
f196051f
SS
826QTNotes
827
828 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
829
830qTP
831
832 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
833
405f8e94
SS
834qTMinFTPILen
835
836 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
837 be placed.
838
1a532630
PP
839* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
840 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
841
11315641
YQ
842* New targets
843
844Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
845
87326c78
DD
846* New Simulators
847
848Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
849
e8d56f18
JB
850*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
851
852* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
853
d6e00af6 854*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 855
60f98dde
MS
856* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
857 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
858 matches the given regular expression.
859
eee5b35e
DD
860* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
861
b716877b
AB
862* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
863 dumping the instruction opcodes.
864
aae1c79a
DE
865* New command line options
866
867-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
868 This is mostly for testing purposes.
869
a86caf66
DE
870* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
871 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
872
99e7ae30
DE
873* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
874 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
875 source path list instead of augmenting it.
876
4694da01
TT
877* GDB now understands thread names.
878
879 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
880 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
881
882 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
883 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
884
f4b8a18d
KW
885* OpenCL C
886 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
887 has been integrated into GDB.
888
585d1eb8
PM
889* Python scripting
890
da5d4055
PM
891 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
892 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
893 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
894
9a6f1302
PM
895 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
896 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
897 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
898 and allows for more dynamic content.
899
29703da4
PM
900 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
901 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
902 have an is_valid method.
903
350c6c65
PM
904 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
905 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
906 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
907
6e6fbe60
DE
908 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
909
585d1eb8
PM
910 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
911 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
912 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
913 that function like so:
914
915 result = some_value (10,20)
916
0e3509db
DE
917 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
918 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
919 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
920
7b51bc51
DE
921 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
922 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
923 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
924 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
925 New function: register_pretty_printer.
926
927 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
928 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
929
99e7ae30
DE
930 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
931
d8e22779
TT
932 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
933 selected thread.
934
4694da01
TT
935 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
936 holds the thread's name.
937
505500db
SW
938 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
939 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 940 occurring in the process being debugged.
c17a9e46
HZ
941 The following events are currently supported:
942 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
943 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
944 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
945
def98928
TT
946* C++ Improvements:
947
948 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
949 instantiation. For example, if you have:
950
951 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
952
953 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
954 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
955 was added to GCC 4.5.
956
66cb8159
TT
957 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
958 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
959 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
960 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
961 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
962 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
963
4aac0db7
UW
964* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
965 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
966 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
967 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
968 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
969
283e6a52
TT
970* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
971 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
972 execution to a label.
973
974* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
975 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
976 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
977 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
978
b56df873 979* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 980 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
b56df873
TT
981 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
982 of scope.
983
ae53ffa4
PA
984* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
985
986 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
987 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
988 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
989 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
990 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
991 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
992
993 (gdb) info threads
994 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
995
996 While now you see this:
997
998 (gdb) info threads
999 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1000
1001 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1002 dumps.
1003
1004 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1005 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1006 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1007 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1008
f1310107
TJB
1009* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1010 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1011 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1012 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1013 section in the user manual for more details.
1014
248c9dbc
JB
1015* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1016
1aee7009
JB
1017 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1018 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 1019
eb826dc6
MF
1020 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1021
44603653
JB
1022* New native configurations
1023
1024ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1025
91021223
MF
1026* New targets:
1027
1028Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1029
6e1bb179
JB
1030* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1031 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1032 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1033 in the GDB user manual.
1034
50c97f38
TT
1035* Guile support was removed.
1036
448a92bf
MF
1037* New features in the GNU simulator
1038
1039 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1040
66ee2731
MF
1041 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1042
76b8507d 1043*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 1044
ba25b921
PA
1045* Shared library support for remote targets by default
1046
1047 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1048 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1049 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1050 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1051 was always disabled for such configurations.
1052
4656f5c6
SW
1053* C++ Improvements:
1054
1055 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1056
1057 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1058 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1059 For example:
1060 namespace A
1061 {
1062 class B { };
1063 void foo (B) { }
1064 }
1065 ...
1066 A::B b
1067 foo(b)
1068 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1069 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1070 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1071
1072 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1073
1074 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1075 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1076 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1077 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1078 entry.
1079 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1080 mentioned flavors of operators.
1081
254e6b9e
DE
1082 ** static const class members
1083
1084 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1085 class definition has been fixed.
1086
711e434b
PM
1087* Windows Thread Information Block access.
1088
1089 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1090 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
1091 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
1092 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
1093 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
1094 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
1095
0fb4aa4b
PA
1096* Static tracepoints
1097
1098 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
1099 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
1100 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
1101 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
1102 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
1103 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
1104 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
1105 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
1106 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
1107 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
1108 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
1109 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
1110 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
1111 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1112 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1113 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1114 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1115 the "New remote packets" section below.
1116
ca11e899
SS
1117* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1118
1119 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1120 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1121 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1122 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1123
1124* Observer mode
1125
1126 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1127 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1128 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1129 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1130 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1131 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1132 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1133
1134* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1135 current thread.
1136
711e434b
PM
1137* New remote packets
1138
1139qGetTIBAddr
1140
1141 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1142
dde08ee1
PA
1143qRelocInsn
1144
1145 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1146 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1147 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1148 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1149 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1150 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1151
0fb4aa4b
PA
1152qTfSTM, qTsSTM
1153
1154 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1155
1156qTSTMat
1157
1158 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1159 program.
1160
1161qXfer:statictrace:read
1162
1163 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1164 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1165 to gdb's qSupported query.
1166
ca11e899
SS
1167QAllow
1168
1169 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1170
1171QTDPsrc
1172
1173 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1174 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1175
3f7b2faa
DE
1176* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1177 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1178 a directory.
1179
d337e9f0
PA
1180* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1181
0fb4aa4b
PA
1182 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1183 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1184 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1185 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1186
1187 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1188 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1189 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1190 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1191 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1192 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1193 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1194
1195 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1196 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 1197
c24d0242
PM
1198 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1199
c8d5aac9
L
1200* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1201 it understands register description.
1202
7c953934
TT
1203* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1204
8685c86f
L
1205* X86 general purpose registers
1206
1207 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1208 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1209 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1210 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1211 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1212
95a42b64 1213* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
86b17b60
PA
1214 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1215 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1216 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1217 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1218 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 1219
8bd10a10
CM
1220* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1221 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1222 in the specified file.
1223
ab38a727
PA
1224* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1225 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1226 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1227 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1228 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1229 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1230 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1231 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1232 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1233 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1234
6149aea9
PA
1235* New commands
1236
f1421989
HZ
1237eval template, expressions...
1238 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1239 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1240
ab38a727
PA
1241set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1242show target-file-system-kind
1243 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1244 names.
1245
6149aea9
PA
1246save breakpoints <filename>
1247 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1248 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1249 definitions, use the `source' command.
1250
1251`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1252is now deprecated.
1253
0fb4aa4b
PA
1254info static-tracepoint-markers
1255 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1256
1257strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1258 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1259 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1260
ca11e899
SS
1261set observer on|off
1262show observer
1263 Enable and disable observer mode.
1264
1265set may-write-registers on|off
1266set may-write-memory on|off
1267set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1268set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1269set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1270set may-interrupt on|off
1271 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1272 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1273 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1274 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1275 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1276 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1277 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1278
1279set record memory-query on|off
1280show record memory-query
1281 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1282 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1283
53a71c06
CR
1284* Changed commands
1285
1286disassemble
1287 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1288
f3e9a817
PM
1289* Python scripting
1290
9279c692
JB
1291** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1292 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1293 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1294 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1295 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1296
adc36818 1297** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
595939de
PM
1298 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1299 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1300 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 1301
fa33c3cd 1302** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
1303 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1304
1305** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
1306
1307** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 1308
967cf477
DE
1309** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1310
8a1ea21f
DE
1311** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1312 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1313 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1314
a7bdde9e
VP
1315* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1316there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1317tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1318regular breakpoints.
1319
05071a4d
PA
1320* New targets
1321
1322ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1323
6aecb9c2
JB
1324* D language support.
1325 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1326 language.
1327
431e49aa
TJB
1328* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1329 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1330 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1331 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1332 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1333
1334* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1335 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1336 conditions of the form:
1337
1338 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1339
1340 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1341 interface mentioned above.
1342
bfbf3774 1343*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 1344
4eef138c
TT
1345* C++ Improvements
1346
1347 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
1348
1349 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1350 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1351 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1352 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1353 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1354
4eef138c
TT
1355 ** Bug Fixes
1356
1357 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1358 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1359 qualified name.
1360
1361 ** Cast Operators
1362
1363 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1364 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1365
2d1c1221
ME
1366* New targets
1367
1368Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 1369Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
1370
1371* New Simulators
1372
1373Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 1374Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 1375
6c95b8df
PA
1376* Multi-program debugging.
1377
1378 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1379 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1380 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1381 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1382 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1383 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1384 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1385 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1386
d5551862
SS
1387* New tracing features
1388
1389 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1390
1391 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
1392
1393 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1394 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1395 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1396 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1397 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1398 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1399 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1400 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1401 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1402 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 1403
d5551862 1404 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
1405
1406 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1407 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1408 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1409 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1410 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1411 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1412 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1413 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1414 the regular trace command.
1415
d5551862
SS
1416 ** Disconnected tracing
1417
1418 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1419 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1420 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1421 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1422 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1423
00bf0b85
SS
1424 ** Trace files
1425
1426 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1427 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1428 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1429 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1430 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1431 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1432 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
1433
1434 ** Circular trace buffer
1435
1436 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1437 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1438 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1439 not be available for all target agents.
1440
21a0512e
PP
1441* Changed commands
1442
1443disassemble
1444 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1445 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1446
0fe7935b
DJ
1447info variables
1448 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1449 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1450
fb2e7cb4
JB
1451source
1452 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1453 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1454 support.
1455
1456 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1457 "set script-extension" (see below).
1458
6c95b8df
PA
1459* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1460
399cd161
MS
1461record save [<FILENAME>]
1462 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1463 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1464
1465record restore <FILENAME>
1466 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1467 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1468
6c95b8df
PA
1469add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1470 Add a new inferior.
1471
1472clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1473 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1474 inferior has loaded.
1475
1476remove-inferior ID
1477 Remove an inferior.
1478
1479maint info program-spaces
1480 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1481
9a7071a8
JB
1482set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1483show remote interrupt-sequence
1484 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1485 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1486 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1487 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1488 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1489
1490set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1491show remote interrupt-on-connect
1492 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1493 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1494 Linux kernel.
1495
1496set remotebreak [on | off]
1497show remotebreak
1498Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1499
f61e138d
SS
1500tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1501 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1502
1503info tvariables
1504 List trace state variables and their values.
1505
1506delete tvariable $NAME ...
1507 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1508
6da95a67
SS
1509teval EXPR, ...
1510 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1511 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1512
7a697b8d
SS
1513ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1514 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1515
b0f02ee9
JK
1516* New expression syntax
1517
1518 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1519 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1520
6c95b8df
PA
1521* New options
1522
1523set follow-exec-mode new|same
1524show follow-exec-mode
1525 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1526 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1527 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1528
236f1d4d
SS
1529set default-collect EXPR, ...
1530show default-collect
1531 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1532 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1533 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1534
d5551862
SS
1535set disconnected-tracing
1536show disconnected-tracing
1537 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1538 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1539 upon disconnection.
1540
4daf5ac0
SS
1541set circular-trace-buffer
1542show circular-trace-buffer
1543 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1544 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1545 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1546 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1547
fb2e7cb4
JB
1548set script-extension off|soft|strict
1549show script-extension
1550 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1551 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1552 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1553 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1554 evaluation failed.
1555 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1556
2b71fc8e
JB
1557set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1558show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1559 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1560 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1561 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1562 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1563 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1564 is on.
1565
de2e5182
TT
1566* Python API Improvements
1567
1568 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1569 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1570 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1571
1572 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1573 `is_base_class' attribute.
1574
1575 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1576
1577 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1578 evaluate an expression.
1579
f61e138d
SS
1580* New remote packets
1581
1582QTDV
1583 Define a trace state variable.
1584
1585qTV
1586 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1587
d5551862
SS
1588QTDisconnected
1589 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1590
4daf5ac0
SS
1591QTBuffer:circular
1592 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1593
d5551862
SS
1594qTfP, qTsP
1595 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1596
2d483d34
MS
1597* Bug fixes
1598
1599Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1600
6e0e5977
JB
1601Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1602much more reliable. In particular:
1603 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1604 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1605 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1606 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1607 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1608 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1609 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1610 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1611 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1612 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1613 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1614 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1615 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1616 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1617 non-threaded programs.
1618
93c26624
JK
1619PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1620This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1621libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1622executable program.
1623
abc7453d 1624*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 1625
4efc6507
DE
1626* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1627dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1628them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1629for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1630"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1631
782b2b07
SS
1632* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1633breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1634or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1635the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1636for tracepoint actions.
1637
53a71c06
CR
1638* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1639raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1640modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 1641
e7a8dbfb
HZ
1642* Process record and replay
1643
1644 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1645 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1646 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1647 execute commands.
1648
64644d9b
MS
1649* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1650step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1651set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1652reverse execution.
1653
b9412953
DD
1654* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1655feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
16562.6.28 or later.
1657
6c7a06a3
TT
1658* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1659target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1660char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1661literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1662U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1663`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1664system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1665the installation instructions for more information.
1666
f1838a98
UW
1667* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1668remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1669with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1670the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1671
55333a84
DE
1672* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1673and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1674
7f6a6314
PM
1675* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1676now complete on file names.
1677
65d12d83
TT
1678* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1679completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1680For instance, consider:
1681
1682 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1683 # struct example variable;
1684 (gdb) p variable.
1685
1686If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1687completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1688
edb3359d
DJ
1689* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1690the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1691
2fae03e8
TT
1692* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1693operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1694macros.
1695
47a3467a 1696* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
1697the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1698implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1699
1700* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1701registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1702can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1703and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 1704
08388c79
DE
1705* New remote packets
1706
1707qSearch:memory:
1708 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1709
a6f3e723
SL
1710QStartNoAckMode
1711 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1712 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1713 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1714
d7713ae0
EZ
1715vKill
1716 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1717 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1718
07e059b5
VP
1719qXfer:osdata:read
1720 Obtains additional operating system information
1721
47a3467a
PA
1722qXfer:siginfo:read
1723qXfer:siginfo:write
1724 Read or write additional signal information.
1725
060871df
PA
1726* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1727
1728 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1729 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1730 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1731
c055b101 1732* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 1733DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
1734
1735* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
1736and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1737`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 1738
31fffb02
CS
1739* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1740with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1741
88d8a8e0
JB
1742* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1743
7f99b190
JB
1744* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1745
ccd213ac
DJ
1746* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1747which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1748
1fddbabb 1749* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 1750list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 1751
a0ef4274
DJ
1752* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1753conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1754have also been fixed.
1755
bfb8797a 1756* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
1757From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1758are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 1759
71c25dea
TT
1760* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1761example, given:
1762
1763 template<typename T> class C { };
1764 C<char const *> c;
1765
1766GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1767
1768 ptype C<char const *>
1769 ptype C<char const*>
1770 ptype C<const char *>
1771 ptype C<const char*>
1772
ccd213ac
DJ
1773* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1774
1775 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1776 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1777
7ae0e2a2
UW
1778 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1779 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1780 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1781
a6f3e723
SL
1782 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1783 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1784
da8bd9a3
DJ
1785 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1786 gdbserver.
1787
d70e31dd
DE
1788 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1789 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1790
1791 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1792 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1793 as appropriate.
1794
d57a3c85
TJB
1795* Python scripting
1796
1797 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1798 available is determined at configure time.
1799
d8906c6f
TJB
1800 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1801
aadc346a
JB
1802* Ada tasking support
1803
1804 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1805 been introduced:
1806
1807 info tasks
1808 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1809 info task N
1810 Print detailed information about task number N.
1811 task
1812 Print the task number of the current task.
1813 task N
1814 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1815
adb483fe
DJ
1816* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1817add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1818
2277426b
PA
1819* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1820
1821 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1822 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1823 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1824 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1825 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1826 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1827 below.
1828
08d16641
PA
1829* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1830"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1831information.
1832
e35359c5
UW
1833* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1834to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1835architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1836See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1837more information.
1838
85e747d2
UW
1839* Multi-architecture debugging.
1840
1841 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1842 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1843 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1844 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1845 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1846
1847* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1848use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1849Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1850powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1851--enable-targets configure option.
1852
11ade57a
PA
1853* Non-stop mode debugging.
1854
1855 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1856 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1857 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1858 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1859 section in the user manual for more information.
1860
1861 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1862 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1863 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1864 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1865 extensions on linux targets.
1866
d7713ae0 1867* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 1868
a96d9b2e
SDJ
1869catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1870 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1871 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1872 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1873 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1874 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1875 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1876 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1877 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1878
08388c79
DE
1879find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1880 val1 [, val2, ...]
1881 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1882
d57a3c85
TJB
1883maint set python print-stack
1884maint show python print-stack
1885 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1886
1887python [CODE]
1888 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1889
d7713ae0
EZ
1890macro define
1891macro list
1892macro undef
1893 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1894 interactively.
1895
1896info os processes
1897 Show operating system information about processes.
1898
2277426b
PA
1899info inferiors
1900 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1901
1902inferior NUM
1903 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1904
1905detach inferior NUM
1906 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1907
1908kill inferior NUM
1909 Kill inferior number NUM.
1910
d7713ae0
EZ
1911* New options
1912
3285f3fe
UW
1913set spu stop-on-load
1914show spu stop-on-load
1915 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1916
ff1a52c6
UW
1917set spu auto-flush-cache
1918show spu auto-flush-cache
1919 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1920 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1921
d7713ae0
EZ
1922set sh calling-convention
1923show sh calling-convention
1924 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1925
e0a3ce09 1926set debug timestamp
75feb17d 1927show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
1928 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1929
1930set disassemble-next-line
1931show disassemble-next-line
1932 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1933 the debuggee stops.
1934
1935set remote noack-packet
1936show remote noack-packet
1937 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1938 under "New remote packets."
1939
1940set remote query-attached-packet
1941show remote query-attached-packet
1942 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1943
1944set remote read-siginfo-object
1945show remote read-siginfo-object
1946 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1947 packet.
1948
1949set remote write-siginfo-object
1950show remote write-siginfo-object
1951 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1952 packet.
1953
40ab02ce
MS
1954set remote reverse-continue
1955show remote reverse-continue
1956 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1957
1958set remote reverse-step
1959show remote reverse-step
1960 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1961
d7713ae0
EZ
1962set displaced-stepping
1963show displaced-stepping
1964 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1965 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1966 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1967
1968set debug displaced
1969show debug displaced
1970 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1971
1972maint set internal-error
1973maint show internal-error
1974 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1975
1976maint set internal-warning
1977maint show internal-warning
1978 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 1979
ccd213ac
DJ
1980set exec-wrapper
1981show exec-wrapper
1982unset exec-wrapper
1983 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 1984
aad4b048
JB
1985set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1986show multiple-symbols
1987 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1988 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1989 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1990
74960c60
VP
1991set breakpoint always-inserted
1992show breakpoint always-inserted
1993 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1994 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1995 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1996
0428b8f5
DJ
1997set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1998show arm fallback-mode
1999set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2000show arm force-mode
2001 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2002 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2003 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2004 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2005
10568435
JK
2006set disable-randomization
2007show disable-randomization
2008 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2009 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2010 multiple debugging sessions.
2011
d7713ae0
EZ
2012set non-stop
2013show non-stop
2014 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2015 a breakpoint.
2016
b3eb342c 2017set target-async
d7713ae0 2018show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
2019 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2020 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2021 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2022 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2023
6c7a06a3
TT
2024set target-wide-charset
2025show target-wide-charset
2026 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2027 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2028
84603566
SL
2029set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2030show tcp auto-retry
2031set tcp connect-timeout
2032show tcp connect-timeout
2033 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2034 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2035 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2036
17a37d48
PP
2037set libthread-db-search-path
2038show libthread-db-search-path
2039 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2040 libthread_db.
2041
d4db2f36
PA
2042set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2043show schedule-multiple
2044 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2045 the current process.
2046
4e5d721f
DE
2047set stack-cache
2048show stack-cache
2049 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2050 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2051 affecting correctness.
2052
910c5da8
JB
2053set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2054show interactive-mode
2055 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2056 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2057 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2058 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2059 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2060
2277426b
PA
2061* Removed commands
2062
2063info forks
2064 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2065 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2066 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2067 command.
2068
2069fork NUM
2070 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2071 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2072 alias for the `fork' command.
2073
2074process PID
2075 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2076 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2077 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2078
2079delete fork NUM
2080 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2081 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2082 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2083 fork' command.
2084
2085detach fork NUM
2086 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2087 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2088 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2089 fork' command.
2090
a80b95ba
TG
2091* New native configurations
2092
2093x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
2094
b8bfd3ed
JB
2095x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
2096
75a2d5e7
TT
2097* New targets
2098
c28c63d8 2099Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 2100x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 2101x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 2102S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 2103
6de3146c
PA
2104* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
2105 (mingw32ce) debugging.
2106
d5cbbe6e
JB
2107* Removed commands
2108
2109catch load
2110catch unload
2111 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2112
75feb17d 2113*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 2114
af5ca30d
NH
2115* New native configurations
2116
2117NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 2118Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
2119
2120* New targets
2121
2122NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 2123Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 2124
7a404eba
PA
2125* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2126
2127 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2128 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2129 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2130 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2131
430ebac9
PA
2132* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2133(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2134
fe6fbf8b 2135* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 2136is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
2137
2138* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
2139including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2140and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 2141
10665d76
JB
2142* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2143accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2144more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2145
7cc46491
DJ
2146* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2147
d71340b8
DJ
2148* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2149registers on PowerPC targets.
2150
523c4513
DJ
2151* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2152targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2153
a6b151f1
DJ
2154* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2155commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2156
2d717e4f
DJ
2157* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2158extended-remote mode.
2159
24a836bd 2160* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
2161The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2162error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2163The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 2164
d0c678e6
UW
2165* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2166building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2167target architectures.
2168
d64a946d
TJB
2169* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2170Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2171now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2172stored in two consecutive float registers.
2173
ee163bf5
VP
2174* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2175breakpoints now.
2176
b93b6ca7 2177* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
2178Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2179include:
b93b6ca7
JB
2180 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2181 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2182 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2183 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2184 of an assignment
2185 - Improved command completion in Ada
2186 - Several bug fixes
2187
d001be7a
DJ
2188* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2189process.
2190
a6b151f1
DJ
2191* New commands
2192
6d53d0af
JB
2193set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2194show print frame-arguments
2195 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2196 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2197
a6b151f1
DJ
2198remote put
2199remote get
2200remote delete
2201 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2202
2203* New MI commands
2204
2205-target-file-put
2206-target-file-get
2207-target-file-delete
2208 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2209
2210* New remote packets
2211
2212vFile:open:
2213vFile:close:
2214vFile:pread:
2215vFile:pwrite:
2216vFile:unlink:
2217 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 2218
2d717e4f
DJ
2219vAttach
2220 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2221 mode.
2222
2223vRun
2224 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2225
8d5f9c6f 2226*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 2227
19d378fc
MS
2228* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2229bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2230Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2231
3a40aaa0
UW
2232* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2233symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2234-Bsymbolic linker option.
2235
a6ec25f2
BW
2236* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2237recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2238is not supported.
2239
6dd09645
JB
2240* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2241frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2242
c9bb8148
DJ
2243* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
224432-bit or 64-bit register values.
2245
0d5de010
DJ
2246* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2247
23181151
DJ
2248* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2249target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2250a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2251
ea37ba09
DJ
2252* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2253automatically displayed as character or string data.
2254
2255* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2256arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2257as strings.
e1f48ead 2258
123dc839
DJ
2259* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2260for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 2261only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 2262
05a4558a
DJ
2263* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2264iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 2265
7c963485
PA
2266* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2267ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2268has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2269
b18be20d
DJ
2270* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2271
0ca420ce
UW
2272* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2273
31d99776
DJ
2274* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2275layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2276segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2277
a4642986
MR
2278* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2279immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2280
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2281* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2282"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2283packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2284where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2285Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
2286
2287* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2288(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
2289
2290* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2291according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 2292
c9bb8148
DJ
2293* New commands
2294
23776285
MR
2295set remoteflow
2296show remoteflow
2297 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2298 when debugging using remote targets.
2299
c9bb8148
DJ
2300set mem inaccessible-by-default
2301show mem inaccessible-by-default
2302 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2303 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2304 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2305 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2306 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2307
2308set breakpoint auto-hw
2309show breakpoint auto-hw
2310 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2311 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2312 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2313 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2314 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2315 including "next" and "finish".
2316
0e420bd8
JB
2317catch exception
2318catch exception unhandled
2319 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2320
2321catch assert
2322 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2323
f822c95b
DJ
2324set sysroot
2325show sysroot
2326 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2327 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2328 an alias to "set sysroot".
2329
83cc5c53
UW
2330info spu
2331 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2332 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2333 architecture.
2334
bd372731
MK
2335* New native configurations
2336
2337OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2338
23181151
DJ
2339set tdesc filename
2340unset tdesc filename
2341show tdesc filename
2342 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2343 not query the target for its built-in description.
2344
c9bb8148
DJ
2345* New targets
2346
54fe9172 2347OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 2348MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 2349Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 2350
6dd09645
JB
2351* New remote packets
2352
2353QPassSignals:
2354 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2355 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2356
23181151
DJ
2357qXfer:features:read:
2358 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2359 features.
6dd09645 2360
83cc5c53
UW
2361qXfer:spu:read:
2362qXfer:spu:write:
2363 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2364 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2365
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2366qXfer:libraries:read:
2367 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2368 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2369 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2370 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2371
483367ee
DJ
2372* Removed targets
2373
2374Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2375
d08950c4
UW
2376alpha*-*-osf1*
2377alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 2378d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
2379hppa*-*-hiux*
2380i[34567]86-ncr-*
2381i[34567]86-*-dgux*
2382i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2383i[34567]86-*-netware*
2384i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2385i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2386i[34567]86-*-sco*
2387i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2388i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
2389i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
2390i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2391i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2392i[34567]86-*-sysv*
2393i[34567]86-*-isc*
2394m68*-cisco*-*
2395m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 2396mips*-*-pe
483367ee 2397rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 2398sh*-*-pe
483367ee 2399
7ce59000
DJ
2400* Other removed features
2401
2402target abug
2403target cpu32bug
2404target est
2405target rom68k
2406
2407 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2408
ea35711c
DJ
2409target hms
2410target e7000
2411target sh3
2412target sh3e
2413
2414 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2415 H8/300.
2416
2417target ocd
2418
2419 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2420 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2421 interfaces.
2422
7ce59000
DJ
2423DWARF 1 support
2424
2425 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2426 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2427
54d61198
DJ
2428Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2429
2430 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2431 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2432 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2433 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2434
ea35711c
DJ
2435MIPS ".pdr" sections
2436
2437 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2438 in debugging information.
2439
2440Scheme support
2441
2442 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2443 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2444
1a69e1e4
DJ
2445set mips stack-arg-size
2446set mips saved-gpreg-size
2447
2448 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2449
6dd09645 2450*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 2451
ca3bf3bd
DJ
2452* New targets
2453
2454Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 2455Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 2456
6aec2e11
DJ
2457* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2458(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2459running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2460
2461* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2462Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2463supported.
2464
17218d91
DJ
2465* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2466broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2467
9ebce043
DJ
2468* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2469stub provides the required support.
2470
7d3d3ece
DJ
2471* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2472longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2473
4f8253f3
JB
2474* New commands
2475
2476set substitute-path
2477unset substitute-path
2478show substitute-path
2479 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2480 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2481 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2482 between compilation and debugging.
2483
9fa66fd7
AS
2484set trace-commands
2485show trace-commands
2486 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2487 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2488 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2489
1f5befc1
DJ
2490* REMOVED features
2491
2492The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2493
2ec3381a
DJ
2494Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2495an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2496
3d00d119
DJ
2497The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2498
be2a5f71
DJ
2499* New remote packets
2500
2501qSupported:
2502 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2503 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2504 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2505 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2506 target.
2507
0876f84a
DJ
2508qXfer:auxv:read:
2509 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2510 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2511
9ebce043
DJ
2512qXfer:memory-map:read:
2513 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2514 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2515
2516vFlashErase:
2517vFlashWrite:
2518vFlashDone:
2519 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2520
0876f84a
DJ
2521* Removed remote packets
2522
2523qPart:auxv:read:
2524 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2525 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2526
e374b601 2527*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 2528
96309189
MS
2529* New targets
2530
2531Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2532
2533Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2534
53e5f3cf
AS
2535* New commands
2536
2537init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2538 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2539
ac264b3b
MS
2540The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2541
2542checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2543
2544restart <n> Return the program state to a
2545 previously saved state.
2546
2547info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2548
2549delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2550
2551set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2552 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2553
2554info forks List forks of the user program that
2555 are available to be debugged.
2556
2557fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2558 forks of the user program that are
2559 available to be debugged.
2560
2561delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2562 that are available to be debugged (and
2563 kill the forked process).
2564
2565detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2566 that are available to be debugged (and
2567 allow the process to continue).
2568
3950dc3f
NS
2569* New architecture
2570
2571Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2572
0ea3f30e
DJ
2573* Improved Windows host support
2574
2575GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2576native console support, and remote communications using either
2577network sockets or serial ports.
2578
f79daebb
GM
2579* Improved Modula-2 language support
2580
2581GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2582basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2583pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2584printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2585written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2586GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2587
acab6ab2
MM
2588* REMOVED features
2589
2590The ARM rdi-share module.
2591
f4267320
DJ
2592The Netware NLM debug server.
2593
53e5f3cf 2594*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 2595
e0ecbda1
MK
2596* New native configurations
2597
02a677ac 2598OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
2599OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2600
d64a6579
KB
2601* New targets
2602
2603Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2604
b33a6190
AS
2605* New command line options
2606
2607--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2608--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2609 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2610--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2611 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2612 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2613 with the --command (-x) option.
2614
11dced61
AC
2615* Deprecated commands removed
2616
2617The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2618removed:
2619
2620 Command Replacement
2621 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2622 othernames set arm disassembler
2623 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2624 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2625 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2626 regs info registers
2627
6fe85783
MK
2628* New BSD user-level threads support
2629
2630It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2631library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2632configurations are:
2633
2634FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2635FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2636OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2637
2638Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2639are not yet supported.
2640
5260ca71
MS
2641* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2642(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2643
e84ecc99
AC
2644* REMOVED configurations and files
2645
2646VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 2647Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 2648National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 2649
31e35378
JB
2650* New "set print array-indexes" command
2651
2652After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2653when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2654behavior.
2655
e85e5c83
MK
2656* VAX floating point support
2657
2658GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2659
d91e9901
AS
2660* User-defined command support
2661
2662In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2663to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2664section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2665
f2cb65ca
MC
2666*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2667
f47b1503
AS
2668* New command line option
2669
2670GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2671debugging.
2672
f2cb65ca
MC
2673* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2674
2675GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2676information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2677by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2678proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2679to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 2680
d08c0230
AC
2681* Internationalization
2682
2683When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2684internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2685continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2686
117ea3cf
PH
2687* Ada
2688
2689Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2690implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2691into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2692
d08c0230
AC
2693* New native configurations
2694
2695GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2696
2697* Remote 'p' packet
2698
2699GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2700packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2701
2702* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2703
2704GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2705The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2706features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2707i386 application).
2708
2709GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2710compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2711continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2712configurations:
2713
2714hppa-*-hpux
2715ia64-*-aix
2716mips-*-irix*
2717*-*-lynx
2718mips-*-linux-gnu
2719sds protocol
2720xdr protocol
2721powerpc bdm protocol
2722
2723Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2724made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2725
2726* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2727
2728Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2729been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2730configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2731permanently REMOVED.
2732
2733h8300-*-*
2734mcore-*-*
2735mn10300-*-*
2736ns32k-*-*
2737sh64-*-*
2738v850-*-*
2739
ebb7c577
AC
2740*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2741
2742* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2743
2744When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2745heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2746been fixed.
2747
2748* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2749
2750When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2751fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2752IRIX long double values).
2753
2754* VAX and "next"
2755
2756A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2757command. This problem has been fixed.
2758
860660cb 2759*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 2760
0dea2468
AC
2761* Fix for ``many threads''
2762
2763On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2764rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2765error message:
2766
2767 ptrace: No such process.
2768 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2769
2770This problem has been fixed.
2771
2c07db7a
AC
2772* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2773
2774Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2775GDB to dump core).
2776
c23968a2
JB
2777* New ``start'' command.
2778
2779This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2780
71009278
MK
2781* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2782
2783Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2784live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2785platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2786
2787FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2788FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2789NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2790NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2791NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2792OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2793OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2794OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2795OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2796
3c0b7db2
AC
2797* Signal trampoline code overhauled
2798
2799Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2800These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2801of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2802call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2803signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2804
73cc75f3
AC
2805Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2806features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2807include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 2808
7243600a
BF
2809* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2810
6f606e1c
MK
2811* New native configurations
2812
97dc871c 2813GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 2814OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
2815OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2816OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 2817OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2818NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 2819OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2820
a1b461bf
AC
2821* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2822
2823GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2824The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2825including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2826migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2827compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2828work, was also included.
2829
2830GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2831module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2832
2833h8300-*-*
2834mcore-*-*
2835mn10300-*-*
2836ns32k-*-*
2837sh64-*-*
2838v850-*-*
2839xstormy16-*-*
2840
2841Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2842made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2843
3c7012f5
AC
2844* REMOVED configurations and files
2845
2846Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2847Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2848Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2849Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2850Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2851AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2852Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2853decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2854riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2855sonymips mips-sony-*
2856sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2857
e5fe55f7
AC
2858*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2859
2860* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2861
2862The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2863GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2864command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2865program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2866with GDB".
2867
2868* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2869
2870Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2871libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2872cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2873GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2874shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2875the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2876are created.
2877
2878Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2879
2880* Fixed ISO-C build problems
2881
2882The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2883non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2884compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2885
2886* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2887
2888Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2889wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2890
2891* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2892
2893The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2894permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2895systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2896
2897* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2898
2899Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2900has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2901
2902* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2903
2904GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2905its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2906panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2907
2908* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2909
2910When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2911by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2912not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2913
faae5abe 2914*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 2915
9175c9a3
MC
2916* Removed --with-mmalloc
2917
2918Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2919conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2920
3cc87ec0
MK
2921* Changes in AMD64 configurations
2922
2923The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2924the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2925and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2926you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2927
f0424ef6
MK
2928* Revised SPARC target
2929
2930The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2931FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
2932support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2933from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2934(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 2935
59659be2
ILT
2936* New C++ demangler
2937
2938GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2939names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2940with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2941programs.
2942
9e08b29b
DJ
2943* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2944
2945GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2946arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2947encountered these.
2948
8dfe8985
DC
2949* C++ nested types and namespaces
2950
2951GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2952improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2953is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2954Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2955namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2956"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2957frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2958if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2959GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2960
cced5e27
MK
2961* New native configurations
2962
2963NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 2964OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 2965OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
2966OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2967OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 2968
b4b4b794
KI
2969* New debugging protocols
2970
2971M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2972
7989c619
AC
2973* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2974
2975The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2976and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2977tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2978
5994185b
AC
2979* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2980
2981Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2982been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2983configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2984permanently REMOVED.
2985
2986Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2987Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2988Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2989Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2990Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2991AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2992Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
2993decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2994riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2995sonymips mips-sony-*
2996sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 2997
0ddabb4c
AC
2998* REMOVED configurations and files
2999
3000SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3001SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
3002Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3003Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3004H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3005HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3006HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3007HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3008PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 3009386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
3010Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3011 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3012 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
3013SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3014SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
3015Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3016Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 3017
c7f1390e
DJ
3018*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3019
1fe43d45
AC
3020* Objective-C
3021
3022Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3023integrated into GDB.
3024
e6beb428
AC
3025* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3026
3027DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3028information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3029By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3030backtraces.
3031
3032The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3033have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3034DWARF 2 CFI support.
3035
3036* Hosted file I/O.
3037
3038GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3039file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3040remote protocol documentation for details.
3041
3042* All targets using the new architecture framework.
3043
3044All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3045architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3046to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3047ppc32 on ppc64).
3048
3049* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3050
3051GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3052per-thread variables.
3053
3054* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3055
3056GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3057GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3058
3059* Separate debug info.
3060
3061GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3062automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3063of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3064system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3065and optional debug files.
3066
3067* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3068
3069DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3070describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3071debugger.
3072
3073GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3074for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3075
3076* Java
3077
3078A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3079Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3080considered "useable".
3081
85f8f974
DJ
3082* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3083
3084The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3085commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3086kernel.
3087
0fac0b41
DJ
3088* GDB supports logging output to a file
3089
3090There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
3091used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 3092
6ad8ae5c
DJ
3093* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
3094
3095The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
3096disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
3097command.
3098
e286caf2 3099* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
3100
3101The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
3102registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
3103
d28f9cdf
DJ
3104* Profiling support
3105
3106A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
3107be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
3108session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
3109"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
3110data, for more informative profiling results.
3111
da0f9dcd
AC
3112* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3113
3114The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3115option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 3116"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
3117
3118Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3119removed.
3120
fb9b6b35
JJ
3121Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3122Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3123Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3124 in a subsequent -var-update.
3125
954a4db8
MK
3126* New native configurations.
3127
3128FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3129
6760f9e6
JB
3130* Multi-arched targets.
3131
b4263afa 3132HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 3133Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 3134
1b831c93
AC
3135* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3136
3137Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3138been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3139configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3140permanently REMOVED.
3141
8b0e5691 3142Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 3143Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 3144H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
3145HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3146HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3147HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 3148PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
3149Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3150 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3151 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
3152Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3153Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 3154
5835abe7
NC
3155* REMOVED configurations and files
3156
3157V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
3158Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3159IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3160i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3161i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3162i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3163HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3164 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3165 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3166Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3167Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3168Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3169OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3170I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 3171
a094c6fb
AC
3172* MIPS $fp behavior changed
3173
3174The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3175the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3176context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3177address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3178The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3179
299ffc64 3180*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 3181
46248966
AC
3182* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3183
3184When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3185`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3186in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3187library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3188shared libs like mad''.
3189
b9d14705 3190* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 3191
b9d14705
DJ
3192Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3193the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3194arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3195powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 3196
e0e9281e
JB
3197* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3198
3199GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3200and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3201they expand.
3202
dd73b9bb
AC
3203The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3204invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3205
3206The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3207macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3208
e0e9281e
JB
3209Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3210information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3211your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3212information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3213
2250ee0c
CV
3214* Multi-arched targets.
3215
6e3ba3b8
JT
3216DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3217DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 3218NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 3219National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
3220Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3221Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 3222
cd9bfe15 3223* New targets.
e33ce519 3224
456f8b9d
DB
3225Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3226
e33ce519 3227
da8ca43d
JT
3228* New native configurations
3229
3230Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 3231SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 3232MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 3233UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 3234
cd9bfe15
AC
3235* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3236
3237Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3238been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3239configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3240permanently REMOVED.
3241
92eb23c5 3242Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 3243OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 3244IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 3245Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 3246Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 3247Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
3248i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3249i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3250i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
3251HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3252 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3253 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 3254I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 3255
db034ac5
AC
3256* OBSOLETE languages
3257
3258CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3259
cd9bfe15
AC
3260* REMOVED configurations and files
3261
3262AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3263A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3264AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3265AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3266AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3267
3268testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3269
20f01a46
DH
3270* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3271
3272This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3273commands. The default is 1024.
3274
a5941fbf
MK
3275* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3276
3277Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3278
89743e04
MS
3279* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3280
3281These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3282to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3283from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 3284
9fb14e79
JB
3285* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3286
3287The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3288including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3289of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3290
2037aebb
AC
3291*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3292
3293* New targets.
3294
3295Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
3296
3297* Bug fixes
3298
3299gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3300mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3301Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3302
3303gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3304dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3305Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3306
3307Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3308Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3309By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3310
3311i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3312avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3313By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3314
37057839 3315*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 3316
1a703748
MS
3317* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3318
3319This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3320really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3321In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3322target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3323This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3324(notably embedded) targets.
3325
cefd4ef5
MS
3326* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3327
55241689
AC
3328This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3329process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3330GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3331hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 3332
352ed7b4
MS
3333* New command line option
3334
3335GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3336
3337* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3338
3339There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3340command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3341a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3342be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3343open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3344issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3345a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3346it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3347GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3348is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3349
fe419ffc
RE
3350* Changes in ARM configurations.
3351
3352Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3353configuration is fully multi-arch.
3354
eb7cedd9
MK
3355* New native configurations
3356
fe419ffc 3357ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 3358x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 3359AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 3360Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 3361
c9f63e6b
CV
3362* New targets
3363
3364Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3365
9b4ff276
AC
3366* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3367
3368Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3369been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3370configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3371permanently REMOVED.
3372
3373AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3374A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3375AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3376AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3377AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3378
b4ceaee6 3379testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 3380
e2caac18
AC
3381* REMOVED configurations and files
3382
3383TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 3384WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
3385PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3386PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3387PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 3388Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
3389Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3390 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 3391SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 3392Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
3393Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3394ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 3395Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 3396
c2a727fa
TT
3397* Changes to command line processing
3398
3399The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3400for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3401
467d8519
TT
3402* Changes to key bindings
3403
3404There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3405
7072a954
AC
3406*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3407
3408Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3409
3410Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3411corrupted.
3412
3413Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3414
3415Numerous documentation fixes.
3416
3417Numerous testsuite fixes.
3418
34f47bc4 3419*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
3420
3421* New native configurations
3422
3423Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3424x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 3425MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
3426MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3427ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 3428s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 3429
bf64bfd6
AC
3430* New targets
3431
def90278 3432Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 3433CRIS cris-axis
55241689 3434UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 3435
17e78a56 3436* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
3437
3438x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 3439Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
3440Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3441 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
3442TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3443WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 3444Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
3445PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3446PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3447PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 3448SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
3449Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3450ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 3451Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 3452
17e78a56
AC
3453stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3454kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3455
7fcca85b
AC
3456Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3457been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3458configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3459permanently REMOVED.
3460
a196c81c 3461* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
3462
3463Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3464Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3465Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3466ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3467Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 3468ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 3469
6d6b80e5 3470* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 3471
6d6b80e5 3472GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
3473sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3474present.
3475
bf64bfd6
AC
3476* Other news:
3477
e23194cb
EZ
3478* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3479
3480* The MI enabled by default.
3481
3482The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3483revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3484engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3485using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3486which is now deprecated.
3487
3488* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3489
3490GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3491main features are supported:
3492
3493 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3494
3495 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3496 extension;
3497
3498 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3499
3500 - a Pascal expression parser.
3501
3502However, some important features are not yet supported.
3503
3504 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3505
3506 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3507
3508 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3509 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3510
3511 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3512
3513 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3514
3515* Changes in completion.
3516
3517Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3518to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3519users expect at the shell prompt.
3520
3521Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3522`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3523program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3524files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3525be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3526considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3527name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3528
3529`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3530
3531* New platform-independent commands:
3532
3533It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3534hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3535documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3536
3537* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3538
d7275149
MK
3539Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3540revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3541many threads as your system allows you to have.
3542
e23194cb
EZ
3543Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3544
d7275149
MK
3545Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3546multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
3547
3548* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
3549
3550Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3551
e23194cb
EZ
3552GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3553debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3554supported.)
3555
3556* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3557
3558Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3559breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3560implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3561put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3562and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3563registers.
3564
3565The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3566debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3567watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3568
3569* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3570
3571New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3572the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3573
3574New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3575display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3576IDT.
3577
3578New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3579from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3580New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3581a given linear address.
3582
3583GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3584program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3585which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3586
3587DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3588
6c56c069
EZ
3589It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3590
e23194cb
EZ
3591* Changes in documentation.
3592
3593All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3594Documentation License.
3595
3596Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3597manual.
3598
3599TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3600
3601Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3602manual.
3603
3604The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3605documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3606hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3607
5d6640b1
AC
3608* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3609
3610The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3611``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3612contents of this file.
3613
1a1d8446
AC
3614* gdba.el deleted
3615
3616GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 3617
9debab2f 3618*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 3619
c63ce875
EZ
3620* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3621
3622Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3623programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3624displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3625greater level of detail.
3626
3627* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3628
3629It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3630bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3631on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3632written.
3633
3634* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3635
3636The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3637necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3638machines ``out of the box''.
3639
3640The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3641possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3642signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3643would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3644interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3645
3646It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3647standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3648even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3649and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3650terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3651
3652The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3653enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3654also works.
3655
3656DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3657GDB.
3658
3659It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3660directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3661times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3662breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3663
ed9a39eb
JM
3664* New native configurations
3665
3666ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 3667PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 3668
7a292a7a
SS
3669* New targets
3670
96baa820 3671Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
3672x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3673PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
3674TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3675
085dd6e6
JM
3676* OBSOLETE configurations
3677
3678Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3679Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 3680Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 3681ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 3682Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 3683
9debab2f
AC
3684Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3685but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3686these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3687be permanently REMOVED.
3688
5330533d
SS
3689* Gould support removed
3690
3691Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3692
bc9e5bbf
AC
3693* New features for SVR4
3694
3695On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3696without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3697load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3698
3699* Many C++ enhancements
3700
3701C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3702in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3703
adf40b2e
JM
3704* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3705
3706A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3707sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3708with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3709``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3710
3711 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3712 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3713
43e526b9
JM
3714* MIPS 64 remote protocol
3715
3716A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3717expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3718instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3719
3720The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3721added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3722
96baa820
JM
3723* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3724
3725The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3726``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3727include ``set remote P-packet''.
3728
11cf8741
JM
3729* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3730
3731The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3732accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3733``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3734
7876dd43
DB
3735* ``apropos'' command added.
3736
3737The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3738documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3739try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3740
bc9e5bbf
AC
3741* New MI interface
3742
3743A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3744interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
3745process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3746"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3747enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
3748
3749 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3750
c906108c
SS
3751*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3752
3753* New native configurations
3754
3755HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3756HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 3757M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
3758
3759* New targets
3760
3761Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3762Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3763Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3764
3765* OBSOLETE configurations
3766
3767Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3768
3769Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3770but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3771these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3772be permanently REMOVED.
3773
3774* ANSI/ISO C
3775
3776As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3777buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3778containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3779use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3780available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3781configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3782information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3783already.
3784
3785* Readline 2.2
3786
3787GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3788
3789* set extension-language
3790
3791You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3792languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3793you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3794 set extension-language .c c++
3795The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3796and their associated languages.
3797
3798* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3799
3800When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3801you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3802PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3803
3804 set processor NAME
3805
3806sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3807following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3808
3809 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3810 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3811 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3812 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3813 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3814 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3815 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3816 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3817 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3818 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3819 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3820
3821At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3822special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3823registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3824only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3825
3826* HP-UX support
3827
3828Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3829more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3830library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3831support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3832for xdb and dbx commands.
3833
3834* Catchpoints
3835
3836HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3837generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3838to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3839
3840This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3841argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3842output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3843
3844* Debugging across forks
3845
3846On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3847in the inferior.
3848
3849* TUI
3850
3851HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3852it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3853configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3854
3855* GDB remote protocol additions
3856
3857A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3858Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3859fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3860allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3861
3862For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3863full 64-bit address. The command
3864
3865 set remoteaddresssize 32
3866
3867can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3868the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3869will be discarded.
3870
3871In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3872command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3873
3874 maint packet heythere
3875
3876sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3877disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3878time.
3879
3880The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3881target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3882downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3883
3884* Tracing can collect general expressions
3885
3886You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3887further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3888doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3889
3890* mask-address variable for Mips
3891
3892For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3893a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3894of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3895
3896* Higher serial baud rates
3897
3898GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3899230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3900to achieve all of these rates.)
3901
3902* i960 simulator
3903
3904The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3905builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3906
3907
3908*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3909
3910* New native configurations
3911
3912Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3913Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3914Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3915PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3916PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3917Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3918Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3919
3920* New targets
3921
3922Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3923Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3924Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3925Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3926MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3927MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3928MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3929Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3930Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3931Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3932NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3933
3934* New debugging protocols
3935
3936ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3937M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3938DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3939PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3940PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3941Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3942
3943* DWARF 2
3944
3945All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3946format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3947information.
3948
3949* Java frontend
3950
3951GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3952only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3953
3954* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3955
3956For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3957loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3958locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3959
3960* Live range splitting
3961
3962GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3963range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3964more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3965
3966* Hurd support
3967
3968GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3969updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3970
3971* ARM Thumb support
3972
3973GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3974instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3975instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3976accordingly.
3977
3978* MIPS16 support
3979
3980GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3981instruction set.
3982
3983* Overlay support
3984
3985GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3986linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3987will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3988control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3989additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3990in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3991
3992* info symbol
3993
3994The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3995the symbol at the specified address.
3996
3997* Trace support
3998
3999The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4000asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4001extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4002includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4003file tracepoint.c for more details.
4004
4005* MIPS simulator
4006
4007Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4008by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4009of most MIPS variants.
4010
4011* Sparc simulator
4012
4013Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4014by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4015Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4016
4017* set architecture
4018
4019For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4020basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4021architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4022the possible architectures.
4023
4024*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4025
4026* New native configurations
4027
4028Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4029M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4030PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4031PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4032PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4033RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4034
4035* New targets
4036
4037ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4038I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4039MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4040MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4041PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4042Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
4043Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4044
4045* PowerPC simulator
4046
4047The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4048contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4049PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4050basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4051performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4052
4053* Solaris 2.5
4054
4055GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4056
4057* Windows 95/NT native
4058
4059GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4060To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4061which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4062Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4063ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4064
4065* dont-repeat command
4066
4067If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4068command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4069useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4070extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4071
4072* Send break instead of ^C
4073
4074The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4075rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4076GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4077
4078* Remote protocol timeout
4079
4080The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4081that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4082to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4083
4084* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4085
4086By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4087loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4088stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4089when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4090in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
4091
4092Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
4093/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
4094automatically on hpux10.
4095
4096* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
4097
4098Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
4099
4100* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
4101
4102When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
4103may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
4104the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
4105every character. The default value is 1050.
4106
4107* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
4108
4109If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
4110a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
4111replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4112details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4113remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4114to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4115
4116* Speedups for remote debugging
4117
4118GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4119the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4120and more efficient S-record downloading.
4121
4122* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4123
4124GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4125Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4126
4127*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4128
4129* Psymtabs for XCOFF
4130
4131The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4132can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4133
4134* Remote targets use caching
4135
4136Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4137remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4138it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4139debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4140off' turns the the data cache off.
4141
4142* Remote targets may have threads
4143
4144The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4145in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4146gdb/remote.c for details.
4147
4148* NetROM support
4149
4150If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4151support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4152acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4153write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4154support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4155another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4156sequence is something like
4157
4158 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4159 load <prog>
4160 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4161
4162* Macintosh host
4163
4164GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4165may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4166it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4167available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4168device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4169directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4170scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4171mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4172
4173* Autoconf
4174
4175GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4176but does simplify configuration and building.
4177
4178* hpux10
4179
4180GDB now supports hpux10.
4181
4182*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4183
4184* New native configurations
4185
4186x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4187x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4188NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4189Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4190
4191* New targets
4192
4193A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4194HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4195CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4196PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4197WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4198
4199* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4200
4201GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4202possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4203filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4204the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4205if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4206
4207* Arguments to user-defined commands
4208
4209User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4210Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4211trivial example:
4212define adder
4213 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4214
4215To execute the command use:
4216adder 1 2 3
4217
4218Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4219Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4220use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4221
4222* New `if' and `while' commands
4223
4224This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4225commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4226expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4227execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4228terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4229`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4230if the expression is zero.
4231
4232* Fortran source language mode
4233
4234GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4235Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4236variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4237with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4238Fortran compilers.
4239
4240* Better HPUX support
4241
4242Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4243running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4244processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4245for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4246that behavior do the following before running the program:
4247
4248 adb -w a.out
4249 __dld_flags?W 0x5
4250 control-d
4251
4252This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4253To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4254
4255 adb -w a.out
4256 __dld_flags?W 0x4
4257 control-d
4258
4259You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4260the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4261external linkage.
4262
4263GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4264HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4265
4266* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4267
4268You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4269commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4270current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4271"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4272associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4273configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4274
4275* New DOS host serial code
4276
4277This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4278no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4279a PC's serial port.
4280
4281*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4282
4283* New "complete" command
4284
4285This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4286were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4287
4288* Trailing space optional in prompt
4289
4290"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4291allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4292
4293* Breakpoint hit counts
4294
4295"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4296has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4297can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4298to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4299less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4300that breakpoint.
4301
4302* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4303
4304"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4305an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4306arrays actually contain only short strings.
4307
4308* Shared library breakpoints
4309
4310In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4311breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4312
4313* Hardware watchpoints
4314
4315There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4316targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4317
55241689 4318Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
4319
4320* Annotations
4321
4322Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4323and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4324
4325* Improved Irix 5 support
4326
4327GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4328
4329* Improved HPPA support
4330
4331GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4332
4333* New native configurations
4334
4335Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4336HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4337Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4338RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4339
4340* New targets
4341
4342OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4343MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4344Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
4345
4346* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4347
4348There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4349This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4350
4351* Fixes
4352
4353As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4354and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4355
4356*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4357
4358* Irix 5 is now supported
4359
4360* HPPA support
4361
4362GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4363to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4364GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4365of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4366can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4367
4368
4369*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4370
4371* User visible changes:
4372
4373* Remote Debugging
4374
4375The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4376target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4377debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4378integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4379debugging info for the mips target).
4380
4381* DEC Alpha native support
4382
4383GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4384debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4385work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4386Alpha-specific notes.
4387
4388* Preliminary thread implementation
4389
4390GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4391
4392* LynxOS native and target support for 386
4393
4394This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4395to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4396for details).
4397
4398* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4399
4400This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4401mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4402call methods, ...etc.
4403
4404*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4405
4406 * User visible changes:
4407
4408Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4409supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4410other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4411somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4412
4413Filename completion now works.
4414
4415When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4416arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4417addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4418
4419All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4420vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4421should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4422your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4423to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4424
4425 * DEC alpha support
4426
4427This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4428cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4429
4430
4431*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4432
4433 * Testsuite
4434
4435This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4436The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4437via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4438
4439 * C++ demangling
4440
4441'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4442emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4443Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4444disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4445use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4446
4447 * Simulators
4448
4449GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4450So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4451Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4452
4453 * New targets supported
4454
4455H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4456H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4457SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4458Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4459IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4460
4461Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4462version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4463GO32 memory extender.
4464
4465 * New remote protocols
4466
4467MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4468
4469 * New source languages supported
4470
4471This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4472used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4473into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4474
4475
4476*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4477
4478 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4479
4480GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4481version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4482University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4483compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4484format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4485(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4486
4487Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4488
4489 * Faster and better demangling
4490
4491We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4492demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4493character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4494only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4495This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4496increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4497symbol lookups.
4498
4499`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4500from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4501compiler does not actually implement.
4502
4503 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4504
4505In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4506inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4507recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4508very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4509The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4510circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4511fix.
4512
4513The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4514release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4515
4516 * Improved configure script
4517
4518The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4519you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4520host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4521done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4522
4523We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4524version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4525`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4526The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4527only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4528We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4529
4530 * Documentation improvements
4531
4532There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4533produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4534before submitting changes.
4535
4536The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4537M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4538`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4539you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4540a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4541
4542*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4543We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4544been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4545or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4546`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4547around this problem.
4548
4549 * New features
4550
4551GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4552the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4553`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4554the target program.
4555
4556The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4557how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4558
4559 * New native hosts supported
4560
4561HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4562386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4563
4564 * New targets supported
4565
4566AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4567
4568 * New file formats supported
4569
4570BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4571HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4572
4573 * Major bug fixes
4574
4575Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4576
4577We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4578printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4579
4580We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4581for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4582release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4583
4584You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4585will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4586
4587We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4588for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4589especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4590libraries.
4591
4592The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4593information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4594command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4595any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4596when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4597
4598 * Internal improvements
4599
4600GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4601debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4602
4603GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4604Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4605symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4606contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4607shared code that handles any of them.
4608
4609 * New command line options
4610
4611We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4612
4613 * Mmalloc licensing
4614
4615The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4616General Public License.
4617
4618*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4619
4620 * Host/native/target split
4621
4622GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4623hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4624target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4625local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4626ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4627
4628The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4629GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4630is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4631code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4632any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4633built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4634handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4635
4636GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4637It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4638plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4639
4640 * New hosts supported
4641
4642HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4643386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4644386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4645
4646 * New targets supported
4647
4648Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
464968030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4650
4651 * New native hosts supported
4652
4653386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4654 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4655386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4656
4657 * New file formats supported
4658
4659BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4660supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4661format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4662
4663 * New commands
4664
4665`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4666`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4667These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4668
4669`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4670
4671You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4672scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4673prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4674executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4675
4676 * C++ improvements
4677
4678We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4679info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4680symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4681
4682Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4683
4684 * Major bug fixes
4685
4686The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4687fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4688by the compiler.
4689
4690We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4691support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4692
4693John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4694slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4695that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4696purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4697the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4698mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4699
4700Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4701about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4702completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4703we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4704
4705 * AMD 29k support
4706
4707A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4708specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4709calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4710usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4711in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4712
4713We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4714Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4715of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4716resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4717
4718 * Remote interfaces
4719
4720We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4721with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4722message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4723This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4724needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4725breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4726each instruction being stepped through.
4727
4728The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4729registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4730
4731There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4732find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4733Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4734processor with a serial port.
4735
4736 * Configuration
4737
4738Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4739`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4740supported, and what files each one uses.
4741
4742 * Library changes
4743
4744There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4745disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4746Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4747disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4748
4749The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4750Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4751can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4752grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4753
4754 * Documentation
4755
4756The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4757reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4758as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4759encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4760system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4761bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4762
4763And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4764
4765
4766*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4767
4768 * Better support for C++ function names
4769
4770GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4771names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4772(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4773single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4774Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4775
4776GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4777the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4778You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4779lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4780for the list of formats.
4781
4782 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4783
4784Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4785C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4786directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4787can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4788usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4789about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4790this problem.)
4791
4792 * New 'maintenance' command
4793
4794All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4795the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4796can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4797
4798 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4799 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4800 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4801 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4802 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4803 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4804
4805The following commands are new:
4806
4807 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4808 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4809 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4810
4811 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4812
4813We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4814(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4815be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4816read after argv processing.
4817
4818 * New hosts supported
4819
4820Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4821
55241689 4822GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
4823
4824We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4825is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4826for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4827masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4828fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4829It costs extra.
4830
4831 * New targets supported
4832
4833Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4834
4835 * More smarts about finding #include files
4836
4837GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4838all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4839greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4840especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4841the one that contains your sources.
4842
4843We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4844breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4845try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4846
4847 * Interesting infernals change
4848
4849GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4850section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4851target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4852stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4853
4854 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4855
4856There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4857 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4858 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4859
4860See the ChangeLog for details.
4861
4862*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4863
4864 * New machines supported (host and target)
4865
4866IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4867
4868SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4869
4870 * New malloc package
4871
4872GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4873Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4874capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4875This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4876pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4877more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4878
4879 * info proc
4880
4881The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4882'help info proc' for details.
4883
4884 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4885
4886The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4887Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4888possible.
4889
4890 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4891
4892Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4893support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4894conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4895environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4896that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4897in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4898
4899 * Cross byte order fixes
4900
4901Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4902targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4903
4904 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4905
4906If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4907system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4908`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4909program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4910called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4911Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4912and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4913the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4914option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4915starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4916
4917You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4918the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4919information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4920slower, but makes future operations faster.
4921
4922The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4923build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4924A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4925use is:
4926
4927 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4928
4929The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4930It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4931shared across multiple host platforms.
4932
4933 * longjmp() handling
4934
4935GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4936siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4937all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4938platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4939
4940 * Solaris 2.0
4941
4942Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4943this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4944reading symbols.
4945
4946 * Bug fixes
4947
4948As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4949People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4950crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4951
4952*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4953
4954 * New machines supported (host and target)
4955
4956SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4957 (except core files)
4958BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4959Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4960
4961 * New machines supported (target)
4962
4963AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4964
4965 * C++ support
4966
4967GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4968The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4969per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4970
4971GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4972`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4973extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4974good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4975will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4976released.
4977
4978 * New features for SVR4
4979
4980GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4981shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4982only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4983
4984The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4985on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4986it prints the address mappings of the process.
4987
4988If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4989bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4990
4991 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4992
4993Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4994now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4995skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4996make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4997same code linked statically.
4998
4999 * New Getopt
5000
5001GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5002version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5003continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5004Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5005added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5006future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5007
5008 * Bugs fixed
5009
5010The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5011Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5012See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5013
5014
5015*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5016
5017 * New machines supported (host and target)
5018
5019Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5020NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5021Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5022
5023 * Almost SCO Unix support
5024
5025We had hoped to support:
5026SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5027(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5028that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5029about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5030
5031 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5032
5033GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5034debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5035is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5036send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5037reqired (if any).
5038
5039 * New Readline
5040
5041GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5042is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5043required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5044
5045 * Bugs fixed
5046
5047The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5048Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5049See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5050
5051 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5052
5053GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5054supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5055symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5056
5057Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5058mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5059debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5060mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5061version 2.
5062
5063Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5064really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5065line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5066variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5067situation somewhat.
5068
5069When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5070However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5071methods.
5072
5073We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5074DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5075encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5076
5077
5078*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5079
5080 * Improved configuration
5081
5082Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5083Porting BFD is simpler.
5084
5085 * Stepping improved
5086
5087The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5088of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5089in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5090function that has debugging information is called within the line.
5091
5092 * Bug fixing
5093
5094Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
5095
5096 * New host supported (not target)
5097
5098Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
5099
5100
5101*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
5102
5103 * Multiple source language support
5104
5105GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
5106It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
5107and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
5108language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
5109You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
5110`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
5111
5112 * GDB and Modula-2
5113
5114GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5115currently under development at the State University of New York at
5116Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5117continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5118
5119Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5120debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5121symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5122
5123There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5124in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5125
5126 * set write on/off
5127
5128GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5129a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5130the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5131by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5132effect immediately.
5133
5134 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5135
5136When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5137shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5138The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5139examining core files.
5140
5141 * set listsize
5142
5143You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5144The default is 10.
5145
5146 * New machines supported (host and target)
5147
5148SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5149Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5150Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5151
5152 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5153
5154IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5155
5156 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5157
5158AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5159AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5160Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5161
5162 * New remote interfaces
5163
5164AMD 29000 Adapt
5165AMD 29000 Minimon
5166
5167
5168*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5169
5170 * New Facilities
5171
5172Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5173
5174Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5175target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5176is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5177remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5178remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5179also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5180using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5181stub on the target system.
5182
5183New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5184
5185GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5186library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5187object file types such as a.out and coff.
5188
5189There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5190refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5191
5192
5193 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5194
5195All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5196by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5197
5198For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5199``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5200Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5201
5202What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5203print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5204will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5205all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5206
5207confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5208 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5209 it is already running. Default is ON.
5210
5211editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5212 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5213 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5214 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5215 Default is ON.
5216
5217history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5218 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5219 or the value of the environment variable
5220 GDBHISTFILE.
5221
5222history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5223 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5224 HISTSIZE.
5225
5226history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5227 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5228 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5229
5230history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5231 history expansion will be performed on
5232 command line input. The default is OFF.
5233
5234radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5235 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5236 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5237
5238height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5239 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5240 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5241 variable TERM.
5242
5243width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5244 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5245 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5246 variable TERM.
5247
5248Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5249``set width'' instead.
5250
5251print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5252 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5253 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5254 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5255
5256print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5257 is OFF.
5258
5259print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5260 "raw" form if off.
5261
5262print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5263 like instructions.
5264
5265print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5266
5267
5268 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5269
5270The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5271new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5272are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5273window.
5274
5275
5276 * Support for Shared Libraries
5277
5278GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5279Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5280before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5281happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5282At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5283from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5284shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5285It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5286
5287sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5288 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5289 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5290
5291info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5292
5293
5294 * Watchpoints
5295
5296A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5297expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5298tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5299quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5300problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5301more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5302
5303watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5304
5305info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5306
5307delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5308disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5309enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5310
5311
5312 * C++ multiple inheritance
5313
5314When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5315for C++ programs.
5316
5317 * C++ exception handling
5318
5319Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5320ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5321the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5322handler's context).
5323
5324catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5325 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5326 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5327
5328info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5329 current stack frame.
5330
5331
5332 * Minor command changes
5333
5334The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5335command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5336is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5337
5338The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5339at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5340frames without printing.
5341
5342 * New directory command
5343
5344'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5345The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5346about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5347with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5348find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5349
5350 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5351
5352For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5353for more details.
5354
5355GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5356two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5357Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5358where the program that you are debugging will run.
This page took 1.053682 seconds and 4 git commands to generate.