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[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4*** Changes since GDB 7.4
5
6* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
7 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
8 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
9 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
10 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
11 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
12
13* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
14 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
15 record/replay support.
16
17* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
18
19* Python scripting
20
21 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
22 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
23
24 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
25
26 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
27 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
28
29 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
30
31 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
32 the source at which the symbol was defined.
33
34 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
35 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
36 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
37 symbol's value.
38
39 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
40 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
41
42* Go language support.
43 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
44 language.
45
46* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
47 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
48
49* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
50 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
51
52* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
53 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
54 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
55 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
56 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
57 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
58
59* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
60 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
61 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
62 build/libcpp/expr.c.
63
64* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
65 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
66
67* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
68 since December 2007.
69
70* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
71 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
72 command does. For instance:
73
74 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
75
76 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
77 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
78 created, using the "condition" command.
79
80* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
81 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
82
83* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
84
85* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
86 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
87 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
88 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new option
89 --use-deprecated-index-sections will cause GDB to use any older
90 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but
91 the ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost
92 in symbol files with older .gdb_index sections.
93
94* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
95
96* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
97 target.
98
99* New commands
100
101 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
102 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
103
104 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
105 several hits.
106
107 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
108 C++ and Java objects.
109
110 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
111 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
112 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
113 configured with '--with-python'.
114
115 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
116 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
117 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
118 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
119 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
120 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
121 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
122
123 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
124 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
125 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
126 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
127
128* New targets
129
130Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
131HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
132
133* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
134 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
135 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
136 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
137 evaluates to true.
138
139* New options
140
141set breakpoint condition-evaluation
142show breakpoint condition-evaluation
143 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
144 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
145 available mode.
146 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
147 target.
148
149set auto-load off
150 Disable auto-loading globally.
151
152show auto-load
153 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
154
155set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
156show auto-load gdb-scripts
157 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
158
159set auto-load python-scripts on|off
160show auto-load python-scripts
161 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
162
163set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
164show auto-load local-gdbinit
165 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
166
167set auto-load libthread-db on|off
168show auto-load libthread-db
169 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
170
171set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
172show auto-load safe-path
173 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
174 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
175
176set debug auto-load on|off
177show debug auto-load
178 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
179
180* New remote packets
181
182z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
183
184 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
185 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
186 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
187 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
188
189QProgramSignals:
190
191 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
192 program without GDB involvement.
193
194* New command line options
195
196--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
197 before loading inferior.
198--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
199 execute it before loading inferior.
200
201*** Changes in GDB 7.4
202
203* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
204 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
205 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
206 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
207 inferior changes.
208
209* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
210 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
211
212* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
213 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
214 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
215 target hardware watchpoint.
216
217 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
218 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
219 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
220 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
221
222* Python scripting
223
224 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
225 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
226 existing one.
227
228 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
229 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
230 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
231 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
232 now "message", which just prints the error message without
233 the stack trace.
234
235 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
236 Python API.
237
238 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
239 modules library. This module provides functionality for
240 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
241 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
242 corresponding value.
243
244 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
245 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
246 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
247 on GDB start-up.
248
249 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
250 static_block will return the global and static blocks
251 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
252 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
253
254 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
255
256 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
257 "gdb.breakpoints".
258
259 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
260 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
261 available in the CLI.
262
263 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
264 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
265 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
266 "some_type.items()".
267
268 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
269 new object file.
270
271 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
272 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
273 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
274 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
275 any anonymous fields.
276
277* MI changes
278
279 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
280 "solib-event".
281
282 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
283 "=breakpoint-modified".
284
285 ** New command -ada-task-info.
286
287* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
288 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
289 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
290 lives.
291
292 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
293 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
294 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
295 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
296 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
297
298 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
299 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
300
301* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
302 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
303 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
304 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
305 use this option to specify where to find it.
306
307* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
308 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
309 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
310 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
311 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
312 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
313 section in the user manual for more details.
314
315* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
316 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
317 become available after that.
318
319* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
320
321* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
322 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
323 gcc version 4.7.
324
325* New commands
326
327!SHELL COMMAND
328 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
329 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
330
331* Changed commands
332
333watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
334 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
335 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
336
337info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
338 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
339 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
340
341info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
342 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
343 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
344 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
345 name starts with a hyphen.
346
347collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
348 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
349 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
350 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
351 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
352 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
353 number of bytes that will be collected.
354
355tstart [NOTES]
356 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
357 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
358 setting the variable trace-notes.
359
360tstop [NOTES]
361 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
362 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
363 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
364 trace-stop-notes.
365
366* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
367 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
368 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
369 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
370 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
371 is running.
372
373* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
374 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
375 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
376
377* New options
378
379set extended-prompt
380show extended-prompt
381 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
382 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
383 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
384 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
385 prompt is displayed.
386
387set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
388show print entry-values
389 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
390 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
391 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
392
393set debug entry-values
394show debug entry-values
395 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
396 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
397
398set basenames-may-differ
399show basenames-may-differ
400 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
401 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
402 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
403 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
404 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
405 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
406 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
407 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
408
409set trace-user
410show trace-user
411set trace-notes
412show trace-notes
413 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
414 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
415 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
416 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
417
418set trace-stop-notes
419show trace-stop-notes
420 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
421 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
422 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
423 started by someone else.
424
425* New remote packets
426
427QTEnable
428
429 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
430
431QTDisable
432
433 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
434
435QTNotes
436
437 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
438
439qTP
440
441 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
442
443qTMinFTPILen
444
445 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
446 be placed.
447
448* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
449 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
450
451* New targets
452
453Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
454
455* New Simulators
456
457Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
458
459*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
460
461* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
462
463*** Changes in GDB 7.3
464
465* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
466 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
467 matches the given regular expression.
468
469* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
470
471* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
472 dumping the instruction opcodes.
473
474* New command line options
475
476-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
477 This is mostly for testing purposes.
478
479* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
480 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
481
482* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
483 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
484 source path list instead of augmenting it.
485
486* GDB now understands thread names.
487
488 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
489 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
490
491 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
492 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
493
494* OpenCL C
495 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
496 has been integrated into GDB.
497
498* Python scripting
499
500 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
501 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
502 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
503
504 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
505 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
506 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
507 and allows for more dynamic content.
508
509 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
510 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
511 have an is_valid method.
512
513 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
514 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
515 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
516
517 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
518
519 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
520 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
521 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
522 that function like so:
523
524 result = some_value (10,20)
525
526 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
527 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
528 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
529
530 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
531 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
532 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
533 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
534 New function: register_pretty_printer.
535
536 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
537 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
538
539 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
540
541 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
542 selected thread.
543
544 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
545 holds the thread's name.
546
547 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
548 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
549 occurring in the process being debugged.
550 The following events are currently supported:
551 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
552 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
553 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
554
555* C++ Improvements:
556
557 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
558 instantiation. For example, if you have:
559
560 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
561
562 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
563 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
564 was added to GCC 4.5.
565
566 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
567 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
568 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
569 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
570 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
571 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
572
573* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
574 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
575 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
576 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
577 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
578
579* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
580 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
581 execution to a label.
582
583* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
584 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
585 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
586 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
587
588* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
589 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
590 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
591 of scope.
592
593* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
594
595 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
596 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
597 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
598 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
599 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
600 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
601
602 (gdb) info threads
603 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
604
605 While now you see this:
606
607 (gdb) info threads
608 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
609
610 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
611 dumps.
612
613 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
614 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
615 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
616 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
617
618* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
619 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
620 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
621 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
622 section in the user manual for more details.
623
624* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
625
626 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
627 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
628
629 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
630
631* New native configurations
632
633ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
634
635* New targets:
636
637Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
638
639* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
640 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
641 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
642 in the GDB user manual.
643
644* Guile support was removed.
645
646* New features in the GNU simulator
647
648 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
649
650 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
651
652*** Changes in GDB 7.2
653
654* Shared library support for remote targets by default
655
656 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
657 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
658 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
659 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
660 was always disabled for such configurations.
661
662* C++ Improvements:
663
664 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
665
666 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
667 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
668 For example:
669 namespace A
670 {
671 class B { };
672 void foo (B) { }
673 }
674 ...
675 A::B b
676 foo(b)
677 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
678 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
679 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
680
681 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
682
683 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
684 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
685 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
686 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
687 entry.
688 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
689 mentioned flavors of operators.
690
691 ** static const class members
692
693 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
694 class definition has been fixed.
695
696* Windows Thread Information Block access.
697
698 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
699 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
700 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
701 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
702 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
703 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
704
705* Static tracepoints
706
707 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
708 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
709 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
710 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
711 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
712 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
713 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
714 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
715 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
716 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
717 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
718 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
719 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
720 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
721 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
722 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
723 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
724 the "New remote packets" section below.
725
726* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
727
728 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
729 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
730 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
731 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
732
733* Observer mode
734
735 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
736 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
737 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
738 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
739 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
740 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
741 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
742
743* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
744 current thread.
745
746* New remote packets
747
748qGetTIBAddr
749
750 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
751
752qRelocInsn
753
754 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
755 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
756 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
757 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
758 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
759 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
760
761qTfSTM, qTsSTM
762
763 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
764
765qTSTMat
766
767 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
768 program.
769
770qXfer:statictrace:read
771
772 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
773 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
774 to gdb's qSupported query.
775
776QAllow
777
778 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
779
780QTDPsrc
781
782 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
783 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
784
785* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
786 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
787 a directory.
788
789* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
790
791 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
792 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
793 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
794 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
795
796 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
797 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
798 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
799 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
800 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
801 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
802 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
803
804 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
805 for static tracepoints support.
806
807 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
808
809* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
810 it understands register description.
811
812* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
813
814* X86 general purpose registers
815
816 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
817 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
818 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
819 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
820 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
821
822* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
823 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
824 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
825 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
826 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
827 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
828
829* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
830 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
831 in the specified file.
832
833* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
834 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
835 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
836 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
837 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
838 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
839 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
840 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
841 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
842 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
843
844* New commands
845
846eval template, expressions...
847 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
848 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
849
850set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
851show target-file-system-kind
852 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
853 names.
854
855save breakpoints <filename>
856 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
857 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
858 definitions, use the `source' command.
859
860`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
861is now deprecated.
862
863info static-tracepoint-markers
864 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
865
866strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
867 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
868 function, line, address, or marker ID.
869
870set observer on|off
871show observer
872 Enable and disable observer mode.
873
874set may-write-registers on|off
875set may-write-memory on|off
876set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
877set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
878set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
879set may-interrupt on|off
880 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
881 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
882 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
883 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
884 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
885 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
886 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
887
888set record memory-query on|off
889show record memory-query
890 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
891 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
892
893* Changed commands
894
895disassemble
896 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
897
898* Python scripting
899
900** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
901 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
902 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
903 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
904 GDB using Python' in the manual.
905
906** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
907 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
908 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
909 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
910
911** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
912 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
913
914** New exception gdb.GdbError.
915
916** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
917
918** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
919
920** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
921 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
922 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
923
924* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
925there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
926tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
927regular breakpoints.
928
929* New targets
930
931ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
932
933* D language support.
934 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
935 language.
936
937* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
938 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
939 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
940 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
941 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
942
943* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
944 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
945 conditions of the form:
946
947 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
948
949 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
950 interface mentioned above.
951
952*** Changes in GDB 7.1
953
954* C++ Improvements
955
956 ** Namespace Support
957
958 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
959 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
960 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
961 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
962 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
963
964 ** Bug Fixes
965
966 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
967 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
968 qualified name.
969
970 ** Cast Operators
971
972 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
973 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
974
975* New targets
976
977Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
978Renesas RX rx-*-elf
979
980* New Simulators
981
982Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
983Renesas RX rx
984
985* Multi-program debugging.
986
987 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
988 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
989 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
990 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
991 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
992 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
993 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
994 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
995
996* New tracing features
997
998 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
999
1000 ** Trace state variables
1001
1002 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1003 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1004 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1005 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1006 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1007 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1008 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1009 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1010 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1011 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
1012
1013 ** Fast tracepoints
1014
1015 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1016 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1017 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1018 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1019 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1020 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1021 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1022 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1023 the regular trace command.
1024
1025 ** Disconnected tracing
1026
1027 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1028 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1029 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1030 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1031 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1032
1033 ** Trace files
1034
1035 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1036 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1037 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1038 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1039 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1040 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1041 <name>".
1042
1043 ** Circular trace buffer
1044
1045 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1046 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1047 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1048 not be available for all target agents.
1049
1050* Changed commands
1051
1052disassemble
1053 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1054 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1055
1056info variables
1057 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1058 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1059
1060source
1061 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1062 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1063 support.
1064
1065 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1066 "set script-extension" (see below).
1067
1068* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1069
1070record save [<FILENAME>]
1071 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1072 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1073
1074record restore <FILENAME>
1075 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1076 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1077
1078add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1079 Add a new inferior.
1080
1081clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1082 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1083 inferior has loaded.
1084
1085remove-inferior ID
1086 Remove an inferior.
1087
1088maint info program-spaces
1089 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1090
1091set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1092show remote interrupt-sequence
1093 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1094 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1095 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1096 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1097 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1098
1099set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1100show remote interrupt-on-connect
1101 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1102 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1103 Linux kernel.
1104
1105set remotebreak [on | off]
1106show remotebreak
1107Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1108
1109tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1110 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1111
1112info tvariables
1113 List trace state variables and their values.
1114
1115delete tvariable $NAME ...
1116 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1117
1118teval EXPR, ...
1119 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1120 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1121
1122ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1123 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1124
1125* New expression syntax
1126
1127 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1128 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1129
1130* New options
1131
1132set follow-exec-mode new|same
1133show follow-exec-mode
1134 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1135 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1136 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1137
1138set default-collect EXPR, ...
1139show default-collect
1140 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1141 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1142 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1143
1144set disconnected-tracing
1145show disconnected-tracing
1146 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1147 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1148 upon disconnection.
1149
1150set circular-trace-buffer
1151show circular-trace-buffer
1152 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1153 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1154 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1155 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1156
1157set script-extension off|soft|strict
1158show script-extension
1159 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1160 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1161 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1162 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1163 evaluation failed.
1164 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1165
1166set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1167show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1168 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1169 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1170 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1171 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1172 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1173 is on.
1174
1175* Python API Improvements
1176
1177 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1178 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1179 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1180
1181 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1182 `is_base_class' attribute.
1183
1184 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1185
1186 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1187 evaluate an expression.
1188
1189* New remote packets
1190
1191QTDV
1192 Define a trace state variable.
1193
1194qTV
1195 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1196
1197QTDisconnected
1198 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1199
1200QTBuffer:circular
1201 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1202
1203qTfP, qTsP
1204 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1205
1206* Bug fixes
1207
1208Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1209
1210Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1211much more reliable. In particular:
1212 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1213 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1214 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1215 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1216 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1217 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1218 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1219 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1220 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1221 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1222 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1223 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1224 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1225 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1226 non-threaded programs.
1227
1228PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1229This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1230libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1231executable program.
1232
1233*** Changes in GDB 7.0
1234
1235* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1236dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1237them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1238for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1239"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1240
1241* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1242breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1243or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1244the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1245for tracepoint actions.
1246
1247* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1248raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1249modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
1250
1251* Process record and replay
1252
1253 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1254 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1255 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1256 execute commands.
1257
1258* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1259step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1260set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1261reverse execution.
1262
1263* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1264feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
12652.6.28 or later.
1266
1267* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1268target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1269char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1270literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1271U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1272`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1273system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1274the installation instructions for more information.
1275
1276* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1277remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1278with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1279the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1280
1281* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1282and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1283
1284* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1285now complete on file names.
1286
1287* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1288completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1289For instance, consider:
1290
1291 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1292 # struct example variable;
1293 (gdb) p variable.
1294
1295If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1296completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1297
1298* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1299the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1300
1301* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1302operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1303macros.
1304
1305* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
1306the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1307implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1308
1309* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1310registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1311can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1312and simulator targets may also provide them.
1313
1314* New remote packets
1315
1316qSearch:memory:
1317 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1318
1319QStartNoAckMode
1320 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1321 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1322 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1323
1324vKill
1325 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1326 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1327
1328qXfer:osdata:read
1329 Obtains additional operating system information
1330
1331qXfer:siginfo:read
1332qXfer:siginfo:write
1333 Read or write additional signal information.
1334
1335* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1336
1337 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1338 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1339 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1340
1341* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
1342DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
1343
1344* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
1345and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1346`set/show sh calling-convention'.
1347
1348* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1349with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1350
1351* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1352
1353* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1354
1355* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1356which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1357
1358* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
1359list of section offsets.
1360
1361* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1362conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1363have also been fixed.
1364
1365* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
1366From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1367are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
1368
1369* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1370example, given:
1371
1372 template<typename T> class C { };
1373 C<char const *> c;
1374
1375GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1376
1377 ptype C<char const *>
1378 ptype C<char const*>
1379 ptype C<const char *>
1380 ptype C<const char*>
1381
1382* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1383
1384 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1385 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1386
1387 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1388 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1389 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1390
1391 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1392 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1393
1394 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1395 gdbserver.
1396
1397 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1398 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1399
1400 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1401 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1402 as appropriate.
1403
1404* Python scripting
1405
1406 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1407 available is determined at configure time.
1408
1409 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1410
1411* Ada tasking support
1412
1413 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1414 been introduced:
1415
1416 info tasks
1417 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1418 info task N
1419 Print detailed information about task number N.
1420 task
1421 Print the task number of the current task.
1422 task N
1423 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1424
1425* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1426add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1427
1428* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1429
1430 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1431 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1432 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1433 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1434 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1435 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1436 below.
1437
1438* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1439"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1440information.
1441
1442* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1443to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1444architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1445See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1446more information.
1447
1448* Multi-architecture debugging.
1449
1450 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1451 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1452 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1453 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1454 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1455
1456* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1457use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1458Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1459powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1460--enable-targets configure option.
1461
1462* Non-stop mode debugging.
1463
1464 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1465 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1466 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1467 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1468 section in the user manual for more information.
1469
1470 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1471 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1472 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1473 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1474 extensions on linux targets.
1475
1476* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1477
1478catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1479 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1480 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1481 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1482 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1483 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1484 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1485 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1486 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1487
1488find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1489 val1 [, val2, ...]
1490 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1491
1492maint set python print-stack
1493maint show python print-stack
1494 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1495
1496python [CODE]
1497 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1498
1499macro define
1500macro list
1501macro undef
1502 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1503 interactively.
1504
1505info os processes
1506 Show operating system information about processes.
1507
1508info inferiors
1509 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1510
1511inferior NUM
1512 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1513
1514detach inferior NUM
1515 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1516
1517kill inferior NUM
1518 Kill inferior number NUM.
1519
1520* New options
1521
1522set spu stop-on-load
1523show spu stop-on-load
1524 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1525
1526set spu auto-flush-cache
1527show spu auto-flush-cache
1528 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1529 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1530
1531set sh calling-convention
1532show sh calling-convention
1533 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1534
1535set debug timestamp
1536show debug timestamp
1537 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1538
1539set disassemble-next-line
1540show disassemble-next-line
1541 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1542 the debuggee stops.
1543
1544set remote noack-packet
1545show remote noack-packet
1546 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1547 under "New remote packets."
1548
1549set remote query-attached-packet
1550show remote query-attached-packet
1551 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1552
1553set remote read-siginfo-object
1554show remote read-siginfo-object
1555 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1556 packet.
1557
1558set remote write-siginfo-object
1559show remote write-siginfo-object
1560 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1561 packet.
1562
1563set remote reverse-continue
1564show remote reverse-continue
1565 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1566
1567set remote reverse-step
1568show remote reverse-step
1569 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1570
1571set displaced-stepping
1572show displaced-stepping
1573 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1574 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1575 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1576
1577set debug displaced
1578show debug displaced
1579 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1580
1581maint set internal-error
1582maint show internal-error
1583 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1584
1585maint set internal-warning
1586maint show internal-warning
1587 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
1588
1589set exec-wrapper
1590show exec-wrapper
1591unset exec-wrapper
1592 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1593
1594set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1595show multiple-symbols
1596 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1597 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1598 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1599
1600set breakpoint always-inserted
1601show breakpoint always-inserted
1602 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1603 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1604 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1605
1606set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1607show arm fallback-mode
1608set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1609show arm force-mode
1610 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1611 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1612 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1613 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1614
1615set disable-randomization
1616show disable-randomization
1617 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1618 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1619 multiple debugging sessions.
1620
1621set non-stop
1622show non-stop
1623 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1624 a breakpoint.
1625
1626set target-async
1627show target-async
1628 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1629 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1630 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1631 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1632
1633set target-wide-charset
1634show target-wide-charset
1635 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1636 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1637
1638set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1639show tcp auto-retry
1640set tcp connect-timeout
1641show tcp connect-timeout
1642 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1643 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1644 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1645
1646set libthread-db-search-path
1647show libthread-db-search-path
1648 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1649 libthread_db.
1650
1651set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1652show schedule-multiple
1653 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1654 the current process.
1655
1656set stack-cache
1657show stack-cache
1658 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1659 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1660 affecting correctness.
1661
1662set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1663show interactive-mode
1664 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1665 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1666 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1667 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1668 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1669
1670* Removed commands
1671
1672info forks
1673 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1674 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1675 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1676 command.
1677
1678fork NUM
1679 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1680 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1681 alias for the `fork' command.
1682
1683process PID
1684 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1685 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1686 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1687
1688delete fork NUM
1689 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1690 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1691 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1692 fork' command.
1693
1694detach fork NUM
1695 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1696 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1697 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1698 fork' command.
1699
1700* New native configurations
1701
1702x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1703
1704x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1705
1706* New targets
1707
1708Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
1709x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
1710x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
1711S+core 3 score-*-*
1712
1713* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1714 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1715
1716* Removed commands
1717
1718catch load
1719catch unload
1720 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1721
1722*** Changes in GDB 6.8
1723
1724* New native configurations
1725
1726NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
1727Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
1728
1729* New targets
1730
1731NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
1732Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
1733
1734* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1735
1736 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1737 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1738 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1739 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1740
1741* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1742(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1743
1744* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
1745is resolved.
1746
1747* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
1748including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1749and in inlined functions.
1750
1751* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1752accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1753more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1754
1755* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1756
1757* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1758registers on PowerPC targets.
1759
1760* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1761targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1762
1763* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1764commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1765
1766* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1767extended-remote mode.
1768
1769* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
1770The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1771error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1772The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
1773
1774* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1775building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1776target architectures.
1777
1778* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1779Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1780now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1781stored in two consecutive float registers.
1782
1783* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1784breakpoints now.
1785
1786* Improved support for debugging Ada
1787Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1788include:
1789 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1790 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1791 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1792 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1793 of an assignment
1794 - Improved command completion in Ada
1795 - Several bug fixes
1796
1797* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1798process.
1799
1800* New commands
1801
1802set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1803show print frame-arguments
1804 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1805 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1806
1807remote put
1808remote get
1809remote delete
1810 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1811
1812* New MI commands
1813
1814-target-file-put
1815-target-file-get
1816-target-file-delete
1817 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1818
1819* New remote packets
1820
1821vFile:open:
1822vFile:close:
1823vFile:pread:
1824vFile:pwrite:
1825vFile:unlink:
1826 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
1827
1828vAttach
1829 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1830 mode.
1831
1832vRun
1833 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1834
1835*** Changes in GDB 6.7
1836
1837* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1838bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1839Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1840
1841* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1842symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1843-Bsymbolic linker option.
1844
1845* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1846recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1847is not supported.
1848
1849* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1850frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1851
1852* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
185332-bit or 64-bit register values.
1854
1855* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1856
1857* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1858target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1859a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1860
1861* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1862automatically displayed as character or string data.
1863
1864* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1865arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1866as strings.
1867
1868* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1869for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
1870only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
1871
1872* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1873iWMMXt coprocessor.
1874
1875* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1876ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1877has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1878
1879* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1880
1881* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1882
1883* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1884layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1885segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1886
1887* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1888immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1889
1890* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1891"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1892packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1893where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1894Windows and SymbianOS).
1895
1896* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1897(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
1898
1899* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1900according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
1901
1902* New commands
1903
1904set remoteflow
1905show remoteflow
1906 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1907 when debugging using remote targets.
1908
1909set mem inaccessible-by-default
1910show mem inaccessible-by-default
1911 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1912 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1913 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1914 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1915 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1916
1917set breakpoint auto-hw
1918show breakpoint auto-hw
1919 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1920 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1921 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1922 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1923 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1924 including "next" and "finish".
1925
1926catch exception
1927catch exception unhandled
1928 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1929
1930catch assert
1931 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1932
1933set sysroot
1934show sysroot
1935 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1936 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1937 an alias to "set sysroot".
1938
1939info spu
1940 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1941 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1942 architecture.
1943
1944* New native configurations
1945
1946OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1947
1948set tdesc filename
1949unset tdesc filename
1950show tdesc filename
1951 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1952 not query the target for its built-in description.
1953
1954* New targets
1955
1956OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1957MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1958Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1959
1960* New remote packets
1961
1962QPassSignals:
1963 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1964 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1965
1966qXfer:features:read:
1967 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1968 features.
1969
1970qXfer:spu:read:
1971qXfer:spu:write:
1972 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1973 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1974
1975qXfer:libraries:read:
1976 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1977 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1978 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1979 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1980
1981* Removed targets
1982
1983Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1984
1985alpha*-*-osf1*
1986alpha*-*-osf2*
1987d10v-*-*
1988hppa*-*-hiux*
1989i[34567]86-ncr-*
1990i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1991i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1992i[34567]86-*-netware*
1993i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1994i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1995i[34567]86-*-sco*
1996i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1997i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1998i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1999i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2000i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2001i[34567]86-*-sysv*
2002i[34567]86-*-isc*
2003m68*-cisco*-*
2004m68*-tandem-*
2005mips*-*-pe
2006rs6000-*-lynxos*
2007sh*-*-pe
2008
2009* Other removed features
2010
2011target abug
2012target cpu32bug
2013target est
2014target rom68k
2015
2016 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2017
2018target hms
2019target e7000
2020target sh3
2021target sh3e
2022
2023 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2024 H8/300.
2025
2026target ocd
2027
2028 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2029 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2030 interfaces.
2031
2032DWARF 1 support
2033
2034 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2035 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2036
2037Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2038
2039 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2040 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2041 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2042 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2043
2044MIPS ".pdr" sections
2045
2046 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2047 in debugging information.
2048
2049Scheme support
2050
2051 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2052 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2053
2054set mips stack-arg-size
2055set mips saved-gpreg-size
2056
2057 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2058
2059*** Changes in GDB 6.6
2060
2061* New targets
2062
2063Xtensa xtensa-elf
2064Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
2065
2066* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2067(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2068running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2069
2070* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2071Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2072supported.
2073
2074* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2075broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2076
2077* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2078stub provides the required support.
2079
2080* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2081longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2082
2083* New commands
2084
2085set substitute-path
2086unset substitute-path
2087show substitute-path
2088 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2089 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2090 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2091 between compilation and debugging.
2092
2093set trace-commands
2094show trace-commands
2095 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2096 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2097 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2098
2099* REMOVED features
2100
2101The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2102
2103Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2104an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2105
2106The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2107
2108* New remote packets
2109
2110qSupported:
2111 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2112 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2113 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2114 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2115 target.
2116
2117qXfer:auxv:read:
2118 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2119 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2120
2121qXfer:memory-map:read:
2122 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2123 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2124
2125vFlashErase:
2126vFlashWrite:
2127vFlashDone:
2128 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2129
2130* Removed remote packets
2131
2132qPart:auxv:read:
2133 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2134 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2135
2136*** Changes in GDB 6.5
2137
2138* New targets
2139
2140Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2141
2142Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2143
2144* New commands
2145
2146init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2147 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2148
2149The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2150
2151checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2152
2153restart <n> Return the program state to a
2154 previously saved state.
2155
2156info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2157
2158delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2159
2160set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2161 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2162
2163info forks List forks of the user program that
2164 are available to be debugged.
2165
2166fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2167 forks of the user program that are
2168 available to be debugged.
2169
2170delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2171 that are available to be debugged (and
2172 kill the forked process).
2173
2174detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2175 that are available to be debugged (and
2176 allow the process to continue).
2177
2178* New architecture
2179
2180Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2181
2182* Improved Windows host support
2183
2184GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2185native console support, and remote communications using either
2186network sockets or serial ports.
2187
2188* Improved Modula-2 language support
2189
2190GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2191basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2192pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2193printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2194written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2195GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2196
2197* REMOVED features
2198
2199The ARM rdi-share module.
2200
2201The Netware NLM debug server.
2202
2203*** Changes in GDB 6.4
2204
2205* New native configurations
2206
2207OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
2208OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2209
2210* New targets
2211
2212Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2213
2214* New command line options
2215
2216--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2217--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2218 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2219--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2220 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2221 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2222 with the --command (-x) option.
2223
2224* Deprecated commands removed
2225
2226The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2227removed:
2228
2229 Command Replacement
2230 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2231 othernames set arm disassembler
2232 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2233 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2234 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2235 regs info registers
2236
2237* New BSD user-level threads support
2238
2239It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2240library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2241configurations are:
2242
2243FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2244FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2245OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2246
2247Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2248are not yet supported.
2249
2250* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2251(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2252
2253* REMOVED configurations and files
2254
2255VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
2256Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2257National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
2258
2259* New "set print array-indexes" command
2260
2261After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2262when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2263behavior.
2264
2265* VAX floating point support
2266
2267GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2268
2269* User-defined command support
2270
2271In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2272to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2273section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2274
2275*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2276
2277* New command line option
2278
2279GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2280debugging.
2281
2282* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2283
2284GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2285information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2286by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2287proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2288to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
2289
2290* Internationalization
2291
2292When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2293internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2294continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2295
2296* Ada
2297
2298Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2299implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2300into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2301
2302* New native configurations
2303
2304GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2305
2306* Remote 'p' packet
2307
2308GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2309packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2310
2311* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2312
2313GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2314The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2315features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2316i386 application).
2317
2318GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2319compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2320continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2321configurations:
2322
2323hppa-*-hpux
2324ia64-*-aix
2325mips-*-irix*
2326*-*-lynx
2327mips-*-linux-gnu
2328sds protocol
2329xdr protocol
2330powerpc bdm protocol
2331
2332Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2333made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2334
2335* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2336
2337Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2338been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2339configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2340permanently REMOVED.
2341
2342h8300-*-*
2343mcore-*-*
2344mn10300-*-*
2345ns32k-*-*
2346sh64-*-*
2347v850-*-*
2348
2349*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2350
2351* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2352
2353When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2354heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2355been fixed.
2356
2357* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2358
2359When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2360fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2361IRIX long double values).
2362
2363* VAX and "next"
2364
2365A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2366command. This problem has been fixed.
2367
2368*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
2369
2370* Fix for ``many threads''
2371
2372On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2373rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2374error message:
2375
2376 ptrace: No such process.
2377 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2378
2379This problem has been fixed.
2380
2381* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2382
2383Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2384GDB to dump core).
2385
2386* New ``start'' command.
2387
2388This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2389
2390* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2391
2392Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2393live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2394platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2395
2396FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2397FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2398NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2399NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2400NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2401OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2402OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2403OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2404OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2405
2406* Signal trampoline code overhauled
2407
2408Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2409These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2410of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2411call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2412signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2413
2414Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2415features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2416include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
2417
2418* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2419
2420* New native configurations
2421
2422GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
2423OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
2424OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2425OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
2426OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
2427NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
2428OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
2429
2430* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2431
2432GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2433The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2434including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2435migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2436compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2437work, was also included.
2438
2439GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2440module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2441
2442h8300-*-*
2443mcore-*-*
2444mn10300-*-*
2445ns32k-*-*
2446sh64-*-*
2447v850-*-*
2448xstormy16-*-*
2449
2450Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2451made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2452
2453* REMOVED configurations and files
2454
2455Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2456Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2457Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2458Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2459Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2460AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2461Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2462decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2463riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2464sonymips mips-sony-*
2465sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2466
2467*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2468
2469* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2470
2471The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2472GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2473command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2474program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2475with GDB".
2476
2477* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2478
2479Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2480libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2481cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2482GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2483shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2484the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2485are created.
2486
2487Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2488
2489* Fixed ISO-C build problems
2490
2491The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2492non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2493compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2494
2495* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2496
2497Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2498wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2499
2500* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2501
2502The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2503permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2504systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2505
2506* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2507
2508Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2509has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2510
2511* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2512
2513GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2514its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2515panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2516
2517* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2518
2519When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2520by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2521not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2522
2523*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
2524
2525* Removed --with-mmalloc
2526
2527Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2528conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2529
2530* Changes in AMD64 configurations
2531
2532The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2533the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2534and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2535you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2536
2537* Revised SPARC target
2538
2539The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2540FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
2541support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2542from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2543(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
2544
2545* New C++ demangler
2546
2547GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2548names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2549with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2550programs.
2551
2552* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2553
2554GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2555arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2556encountered these.
2557
2558* C++ nested types and namespaces
2559
2560GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2561improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2562is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2563Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2564namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2565"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2566frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2567if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2568GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2569
2570* New native configurations
2571
2572NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
2573OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2574OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
2575OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2576OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
2577
2578* New debugging protocols
2579
2580M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2581
2582* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2583
2584The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2585and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2586tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2587
2588* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2589
2590Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2591been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2592configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2593permanently REMOVED.
2594
2595Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2596Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2597Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2598Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2599Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2600AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2601Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2602decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2603riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2604sonymips mips-sony-*
2605sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2606
2607* REMOVED configurations and files
2608
2609SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2610SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2611Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2612Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2613H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2614HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2615HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2616HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2617PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2618386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
2619Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2620 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2621 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2622SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2623SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
2624Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2625Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2626
2627*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2628
2629* Objective-C
2630
2631Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2632integrated into GDB.
2633
2634* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2635
2636DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2637information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2638By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2639backtraces.
2640
2641The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2642have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2643DWARF 2 CFI support.
2644
2645* Hosted file I/O.
2646
2647GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2648file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2649remote protocol documentation for details.
2650
2651* All targets using the new architecture framework.
2652
2653All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2654architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2655to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2656ppc32 on ppc64).
2657
2658* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2659
2660GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2661per-thread variables.
2662
2663* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2664
2665GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2666GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2667
2668* Separate debug info.
2669
2670GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2671automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2672of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2673system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2674and optional debug files.
2675
2676* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2677
2678DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2679describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2680debugger.
2681
2682GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2683for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2684
2685* Java
2686
2687A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2688Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2689considered "useable".
2690
2691* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2692
2693The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2694commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2695kernel.
2696
2697* GDB supports logging output to a file
2698
2699There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2700used to capture GDB's output to a file.
2701
2702* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2703
2704The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2705disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2706command.
2707
2708* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
2709
2710The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2711registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2712
2713* Profiling support
2714
2715A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2716be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2717session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2718"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2719data, for more informative profiling results.
2720
2721* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2722
2723The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2724option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
2725"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
2726
2727Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2728removed.
2729
2730Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2731Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2732Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2733 in a subsequent -var-update.
2734
2735* New native configurations.
2736
2737FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2738
2739* Multi-arched targets.
2740
2741HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
2742Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2743
2744* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2745
2746Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2747been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2748configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2749permanently REMOVED.
2750
2751Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2752Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2753H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2754HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2755HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2756HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2757PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2758Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2759 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2760 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2761Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2762Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2763
2764* REMOVED configurations and files
2765
2766V850EA ISA
2767Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2768IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2769i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2770i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2771i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2772HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2773 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2774 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2775Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2776Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2777Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2778OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2779I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2780
2781* MIPS $fp behavior changed
2782
2783The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2784the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2785context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2786address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2787The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2788
2789*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
2790
2791* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2792
2793When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2794`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2795in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2796library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2797shared libs like mad''.
2798
2799* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
2800
2801Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2802the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2803arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2804powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
2805
2806* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2807
2808GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2809and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2810they expand.
2811
2812The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2813invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2814
2815The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2816macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2817
2818Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2819information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2820your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2821information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2822
2823* Multi-arched targets.
2824
2825DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2826DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2827NEC V850 v850-*-*
2828National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
2829Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2830Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2831
2832* New targets.
2833
2834Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2835
2836
2837* New native configurations
2838
2839Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
2840SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
2841MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
2842UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
2843
2844* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2845
2846Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2847been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2848configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2849permanently REMOVED.
2850
2851Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2852OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2853IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2854Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2855Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2856Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2857i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2858i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2859i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2860HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2861 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2862 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2863I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2864
2865* OBSOLETE languages
2866
2867CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2868
2869* REMOVED configurations and files
2870
2871AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2872A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2873AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2874AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2875AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2876
2877testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2878
2879* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2880
2881This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2882commands. The default is 1024.
2883
2884* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2885
2886Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2887
2888* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2889
2890These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2891to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2892from a file into memory (restore).
2893
2894* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2895
2896The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2897including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2898of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2899
2900*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2901
2902* New targets.
2903
2904Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2905
2906* Bug fixes
2907
2908gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2909mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2910Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2911
2912gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2913dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2914Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2915
2916Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2917Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2918By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2919
2920i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2921avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2922By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2923
2924*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
2925
2926* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2927
2928This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2929really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2930In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2931target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2932This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2933(notably embedded) targets.
2934
2935* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2936
2937This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2938process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2939GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2940hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2941
2942* New command line option
2943
2944GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2945
2946* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2947
2948There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2949command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2950a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2951be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2952open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2953issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2954a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2955it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2956GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2957is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2958
2959* Changes in ARM configurations.
2960
2961Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2962configuration is fully multi-arch.
2963
2964* New native configurations
2965
2966ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2967x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2968AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2969Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2970
2971* New targets
2972
2973Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2974
2975* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2976
2977Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2978been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2979configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2980permanently REMOVED.
2981
2982AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2983A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2984AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2985AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2986AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2987
2988testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2989
2990* REMOVED configurations and files
2991
2992TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2993WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2994PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2995PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2996PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2997Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2998Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2999 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3000SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3001Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3002Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3003ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3004Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
3005
3006* Changes to command line processing
3007
3008The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3009for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3010
3011* Changes to key bindings
3012
3013There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3014
3015*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3016
3017Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3018
3019Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3020corrupted.
3021
3022Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3023
3024Numerous documentation fixes.
3025
3026Numerous testsuite fixes.
3027
3028*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
3029
3030* New native configurations
3031
3032Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3033x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
3034MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
3035MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3036ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
3037s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
3038
3039* New targets
3040
3041Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
3042CRIS cris-axis
3043UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
3044
3045* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3046
3047x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
3048Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3049Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3050 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3051TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3052WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3053Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3054PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3055PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3056PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3057SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3058Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3059ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3060Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
3061
3062stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3063kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3064
3065Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3066been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3067configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3068permanently REMOVED.
3069
3070* REMOVED configurations and files
3071
3072Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3073Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3074Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3075ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3076Tahoe tahoe-*-*
3077ser-ocd.c *-*-*
3078
3079* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
3080
3081GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
3082sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3083present.
3084
3085* Other news:
3086
3087* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3088
3089* The MI enabled by default.
3090
3091The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3092revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3093engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3094using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3095which is now deprecated.
3096
3097* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3098
3099GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3100main features are supported:
3101
3102 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3103
3104 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3105 extension;
3106
3107 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3108
3109 - a Pascal expression parser.
3110
3111However, some important features are not yet supported.
3112
3113 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3114
3115 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3116
3117 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3118 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3119
3120 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3121
3122 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3123
3124* Changes in completion.
3125
3126Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3127to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3128users expect at the shell prompt.
3129
3130Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3131`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3132program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3133files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3134be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3135considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3136name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3137
3138`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3139
3140* New platform-independent commands:
3141
3142It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3143hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3144documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3145
3146* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3147
3148Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3149revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3150many threads as your system allows you to have.
3151
3152Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3153
3154Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3155multi-threaded programs though.
3156
3157* Changes in MIPS configurations.
3158
3159Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3160
3161GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3162debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3163supported.)
3164
3165* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3166
3167Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3168breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3169implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3170put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3171and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3172registers.
3173
3174The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3175debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3176watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3177
3178* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3179
3180New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3181the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3182
3183New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3184display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3185IDT.
3186
3187New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3188from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3189New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3190a given linear address.
3191
3192GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3193program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3194which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3195
3196DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3197
3198It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3199
3200* Changes in documentation.
3201
3202All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3203Documentation License.
3204
3205Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3206manual.
3207
3208TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3209
3210Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3211manual.
3212
3213The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3214documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3215hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3216
3217* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3218
3219The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3220``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3221contents of this file.
3222
3223* gdba.el deleted
3224
3225GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
3226
3227*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
3228
3229* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3230
3231Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3232programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3233displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3234greater level of detail.
3235
3236* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3237
3238It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3239bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3240on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3241written.
3242
3243* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3244
3245The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3246necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3247machines ``out of the box''.
3248
3249The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3250possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3251signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3252would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3253interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3254
3255It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3256standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3257even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3258and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3259terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3260
3261The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3262enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3263also works.
3264
3265DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3266GDB.
3267
3268It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3269directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3270times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3271breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3272
3273* New native configurations
3274
3275ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
3276PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3277
3278* New targets
3279
3280Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
3281x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3282PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
3283TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3284
3285* OBSOLETE configurations
3286
3287Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3288Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3289Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3290ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3291Tahoe tahoe-*-*
3292
3293Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3294but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3295these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3296be permanently REMOVED.
3297
3298* Gould support removed
3299
3300Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3301
3302* New features for SVR4
3303
3304On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3305without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3306load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3307
3308* Many C++ enhancements
3309
3310C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3311in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3312
3313* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3314
3315A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3316sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3317with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3318``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3319
3320 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3321 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3322
3323* MIPS 64 remote protocol
3324
3325A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3326expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3327instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3328
3329The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3330added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3331
3332* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3333
3334The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3335``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3336include ``set remote P-packet''.
3337
3338* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3339
3340The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3341accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3342``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3343
3344* ``apropos'' command added.
3345
3346The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3347documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3348try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3349
3350* New MI interface
3351
3352A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3353interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
3354process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3355"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3356enabled by configuring with:
3357
3358 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3359
3360*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3361
3362* New native configurations
3363
3364HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3365HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
3366M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
3367
3368* New targets
3369
3370Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3371Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3372Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3373
3374* OBSOLETE configurations
3375
3376Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3377
3378Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3379but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3380these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3381be permanently REMOVED.
3382
3383* ANSI/ISO C
3384
3385As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3386buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3387containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3388use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3389available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3390configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3391information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3392already.
3393
3394* Readline 2.2
3395
3396GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3397
3398* set extension-language
3399
3400You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3401languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3402you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3403 set extension-language .c c++
3404The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3405and their associated languages.
3406
3407* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3408
3409When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3410you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3411PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3412
3413 set processor NAME
3414
3415sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3416following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3417
3418 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3419 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3420 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3421 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3422 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3423 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3424 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3425 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3426 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3427 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3428 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3429
3430At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3431special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3432registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3433only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3434
3435* HP-UX support
3436
3437Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3438more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3439library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3440support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3441for xdb and dbx commands.
3442
3443* Catchpoints
3444
3445HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3446generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3447to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3448
3449This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3450argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3451output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3452
3453* Debugging across forks
3454
3455On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3456in the inferior.
3457
3458* TUI
3459
3460HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3461it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3462configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3463
3464* GDB remote protocol additions
3465
3466A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3467Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3468fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3469allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3470
3471For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3472full 64-bit address. The command
3473
3474 set remoteaddresssize 32
3475
3476can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3477the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3478will be discarded.
3479
3480In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3481command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3482
3483 maint packet heythere
3484
3485sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3486disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3487time.
3488
3489The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3490target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3491downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3492
3493* Tracing can collect general expressions
3494
3495You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3496further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3497doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3498
3499* mask-address variable for Mips
3500
3501For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3502a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3503of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3504
3505* Higher serial baud rates
3506
3507GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3508230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3509to achieve all of these rates.)
3510
3511* i960 simulator
3512
3513The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3514builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3515
3516
3517*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3518
3519* New native configurations
3520
3521Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3522Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3523Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3524PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3525PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3526Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3527Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3528
3529* New targets
3530
3531Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3532Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3533Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3534Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3535MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3536MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3537MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3538Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3539Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3540Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3541NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3542
3543* New debugging protocols
3544
3545ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3546M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3547DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3548PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3549PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3550Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3551
3552* DWARF 2
3553
3554All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3555format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3556information.
3557
3558* Java frontend
3559
3560GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3561only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3562
3563* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3564
3565For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3566loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3567locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3568
3569* Live range splitting
3570
3571GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3572range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3573more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3574
3575* Hurd support
3576
3577GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3578updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3579
3580* ARM Thumb support
3581
3582GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3583instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3584instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3585accordingly.
3586
3587* MIPS16 support
3588
3589GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3590instruction set.
3591
3592* Overlay support
3593
3594GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3595linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3596will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3597control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3598additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3599in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3600
3601* info symbol
3602
3603The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3604the symbol at the specified address.
3605
3606* Trace support
3607
3608The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3609asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3610extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3611includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3612file tracepoint.c for more details.
3613
3614* MIPS simulator
3615
3616Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3617by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3618of most MIPS variants.
3619
3620* Sparc simulator
3621
3622Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3623by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3624Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3625
3626* set architecture
3627
3628For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3629basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3630architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3631the possible architectures.
3632
3633*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3634
3635* New native configurations
3636
3637Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3638M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3639PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3640PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3641PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3642RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3643
3644* New targets
3645
3646ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3647I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3648MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3649MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3650PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3651Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
3652Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3653
3654* PowerPC simulator
3655
3656The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3657contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3658PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3659basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3660performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3661
3662* Solaris 2.5
3663
3664GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3665
3666* Windows 95/NT native
3667
3668GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3669To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3670which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3671Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3672ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3673
3674* dont-repeat command
3675
3676If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3677command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3678useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3679extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3680
3681* Send break instead of ^C
3682
3683The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3684rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3685GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3686
3687* Remote protocol timeout
3688
3689The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3690that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3691to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3692
3693* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3694
3695By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3696loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3697stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3698when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3699in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3700
3701Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3702/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3703automatically on hpux10.
3704
3705* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3706
3707Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3708
3709* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3710
3711When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3712may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3713the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3714every character. The default value is 1050.
3715
3716* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3717
3718If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3719a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3720replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3721details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3722remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3723to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3724
3725* Speedups for remote debugging
3726
3727GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3728the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3729and more efficient S-record downloading.
3730
3731* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3732
3733GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3734Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3735
3736*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3737
3738* Psymtabs for XCOFF
3739
3740The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3741can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3742
3743* Remote targets use caching
3744
3745Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3746remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3747it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3748debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3749off' turns the the data cache off.
3750
3751* Remote targets may have threads
3752
3753The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3754in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3755gdb/remote.c for details.
3756
3757* NetROM support
3758
3759If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3760support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3761acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3762write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3763support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3764another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3765sequence is something like
3766
3767 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3768 load <prog>
3769 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3770
3771* Macintosh host
3772
3773GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3774may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3775it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3776available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3777device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3778directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3779scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3780mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3781
3782* Autoconf
3783
3784GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3785but does simplify configuration and building.
3786
3787* hpux10
3788
3789GDB now supports hpux10.
3790
3791*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3792
3793* New native configurations
3794
3795x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3796x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3797NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3798Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3799
3800* New targets
3801
3802A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3803HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3804CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3805PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3806WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3807
3808* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3809
3810GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3811possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3812filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3813the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3814if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3815
3816* Arguments to user-defined commands
3817
3818User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3819Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3820trivial example:
3821define adder
3822 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3823
3824To execute the command use:
3825adder 1 2 3
3826
3827Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3828Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3829use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3830
3831* New `if' and `while' commands
3832
3833This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3834commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3835expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3836execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3837terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3838`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3839if the expression is zero.
3840
3841* Fortran source language mode
3842
3843GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3844Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3845variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3846with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3847Fortran compilers.
3848
3849* Better HPUX support
3850
3851Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3852running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3853processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3854for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3855that behavior do the following before running the program:
3856
3857 adb -w a.out
3858 __dld_flags?W 0x5
3859 control-d
3860
3861This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3862To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3863
3864 adb -w a.out
3865 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3866 control-d
3867
3868You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3869the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3870external linkage.
3871
3872GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3873HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3874
3875* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3876
3877You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3878commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3879current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3880"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3881associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3882configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3883
3884* New DOS host serial code
3885
3886This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3887no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3888a PC's serial port.
3889
3890*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3891
3892* New "complete" command
3893
3894This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3895were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3896
3897* Trailing space optional in prompt
3898
3899"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3900allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3901
3902* Breakpoint hit counts
3903
3904"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3905has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3906can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3907to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3908less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3909that breakpoint.
3910
3911* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3912
3913"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3914an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3915arrays actually contain only short strings.
3916
3917* Shared library breakpoints
3918
3919In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3920breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3921
3922* Hardware watchpoints
3923
3924There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3925targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3926
3927Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
3928
3929* Annotations
3930
3931Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3932and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3933
3934* Improved Irix 5 support
3935
3936GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3937
3938* Improved HPPA support
3939
3940GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3941
3942* New native configurations
3943
3944Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3945HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3946Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3947RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3948
3949* New targets
3950
3951OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3952MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3953Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3954
3955* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3956
3957There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3958This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3959
3960* Fixes
3961
3962As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3963and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3964
3965*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3966
3967* Irix 5 is now supported
3968
3969* HPPA support
3970
3971GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3972to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3973GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3974of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3975can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3976
3977
3978*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3979
3980* User visible changes:
3981
3982* Remote Debugging
3983
3984The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3985target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3986debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3987integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3988debugging info for the mips target).
3989
3990* DEC Alpha native support
3991
3992GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3993debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3994work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3995Alpha-specific notes.
3996
3997* Preliminary thread implementation
3998
3999GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4000
4001* LynxOS native and target support for 386
4002
4003This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4004to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4005for details).
4006
4007* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4008
4009This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4010mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4011call methods, ...etc.
4012
4013*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4014
4015 * User visible changes:
4016
4017Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4018supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4019other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4020somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4021
4022Filename completion now works.
4023
4024When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4025arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4026addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4027
4028All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4029vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4030should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4031your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4032to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4033
4034 * DEC alpha support
4035
4036This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4037cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4038
4039
4040*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4041
4042 * Testsuite
4043
4044This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4045The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4046via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4047
4048 * C++ demangling
4049
4050'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4051emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4052Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4053disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4054use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4055
4056 * Simulators
4057
4058GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4059So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4060Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4061
4062 * New targets supported
4063
4064H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4065H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4066SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4067Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4068IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4069
4070Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4071version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4072GO32 memory extender.
4073
4074 * New remote protocols
4075
4076MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4077
4078 * New source languages supported
4079
4080This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4081used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4082into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4083
4084
4085*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4086
4087 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4088
4089GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4090version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4091University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4092compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4093format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4094(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4095
4096Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4097
4098 * Faster and better demangling
4099
4100We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4101demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4102character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4103only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4104This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4105increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4106symbol lookups.
4107
4108`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4109from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4110compiler does not actually implement.
4111
4112 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4113
4114In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4115inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4116recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4117very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4118The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4119circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4120fix.
4121
4122The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4123release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4124
4125 * Improved configure script
4126
4127The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4128you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4129host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4130done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4131
4132We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4133version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4134`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4135The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4136only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4137We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4138
4139 * Documentation improvements
4140
4141There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4142produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4143before submitting changes.
4144
4145The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4146M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4147`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4148you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4149a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4150
4151*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4152We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4153been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4154or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4155`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4156around this problem.
4157
4158 * New features
4159
4160GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4161the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4162`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4163the target program.
4164
4165The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4166how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4167
4168 * New native hosts supported
4169
4170HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4171386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4172
4173 * New targets supported
4174
4175AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4176
4177 * New file formats supported
4178
4179BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4180HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4181
4182 * Major bug fixes
4183
4184Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4185
4186We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4187printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4188
4189We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4190for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4191release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4192
4193You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4194will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4195
4196We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4197for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4198especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4199libraries.
4200
4201The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4202information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4203command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4204any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4205when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4206
4207 * Internal improvements
4208
4209GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4210debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4211
4212GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4213Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4214symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4215contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4216shared code that handles any of them.
4217
4218 * New command line options
4219
4220We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4221
4222 * Mmalloc licensing
4223
4224The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4225General Public License.
4226
4227*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4228
4229 * Host/native/target split
4230
4231GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4232hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4233target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4234local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4235ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4236
4237The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4238GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4239is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4240code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4241any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4242built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4243handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4244
4245GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4246It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4247plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4248
4249 * New hosts supported
4250
4251HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4252386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4253386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4254
4255 * New targets supported
4256
4257Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
425868030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4259
4260 * New native hosts supported
4261
4262386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4263 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4264386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4265
4266 * New file formats supported
4267
4268BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4269supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4270format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4271
4272 * New commands
4273
4274`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4275`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4276These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4277
4278`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4279
4280You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4281scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4282prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4283executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4284
4285 * C++ improvements
4286
4287We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4288info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4289symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4290
4291Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4292
4293 * Major bug fixes
4294
4295The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4296fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4297by the compiler.
4298
4299We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4300support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4301
4302John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4303slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4304that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4305purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4306the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4307mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4308
4309Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4310about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4311completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4312we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4313
4314 * AMD 29k support
4315
4316A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4317specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4318calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4319usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4320in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4321
4322We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4323Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4324of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4325resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4326
4327 * Remote interfaces
4328
4329We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4330with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4331message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4332This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4333needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4334breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4335each instruction being stepped through.
4336
4337The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4338registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4339
4340There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4341find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4342Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4343processor with a serial port.
4344
4345 * Configuration
4346
4347Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4348`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4349supported, and what files each one uses.
4350
4351 * Library changes
4352
4353There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4354disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4355Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4356disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4357
4358The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4359Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4360can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4361grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4362
4363 * Documentation
4364
4365The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4366reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4367as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4368encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4369system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4370bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4371
4372And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4373
4374
4375*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4376
4377 * Better support for C++ function names
4378
4379GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4380names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4381(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4382single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4383Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4384
4385GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4386the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4387You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4388lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4389for the list of formats.
4390
4391 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4392
4393Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4394C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4395directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4396can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4397usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4398about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4399this problem.)
4400
4401 * New 'maintenance' command
4402
4403All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4404the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4405can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4406
4407 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4408 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4409 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4410 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4411 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4412 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4413
4414The following commands are new:
4415
4416 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4417 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4418 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4419
4420 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4421
4422We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4423(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4424be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4425read after argv processing.
4426
4427 * New hosts supported
4428
4429Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4430
4431GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
4432
4433We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4434is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4435for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4436masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4437fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4438It costs extra.
4439
4440 * New targets supported
4441
4442Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4443
4444 * More smarts about finding #include files
4445
4446GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4447all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4448greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4449especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4450the one that contains your sources.
4451
4452We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4453breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4454try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4455
4456 * Interesting infernals change
4457
4458GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4459section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4460target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4461stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4462
4463 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4464
4465There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4466 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4467 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4468
4469See the ChangeLog for details.
4470
4471*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4472
4473 * New machines supported (host and target)
4474
4475IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4476
4477SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4478
4479 * New malloc package
4480
4481GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4482Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4483capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4484This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4485pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4486more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4487
4488 * info proc
4489
4490The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4491'help info proc' for details.
4492
4493 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4494
4495The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4496Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4497possible.
4498
4499 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4500
4501Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4502support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4503conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4504environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4505that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4506in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4507
4508 * Cross byte order fixes
4509
4510Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4511targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4512
4513 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4514
4515If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4516system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4517`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4518program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4519called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4520Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4521and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4522the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4523option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4524starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4525
4526You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4527the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4528information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4529slower, but makes future operations faster.
4530
4531The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4532build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4533A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4534use is:
4535
4536 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4537
4538The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4539It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4540shared across multiple host platforms.
4541
4542 * longjmp() handling
4543
4544GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4545siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4546all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4547platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4548
4549 * Solaris 2.0
4550
4551Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4552this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4553reading symbols.
4554
4555 * Bug fixes
4556
4557As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4558People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4559crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4560
4561*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4562
4563 * New machines supported (host and target)
4564
4565SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4566 (except core files)
4567BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4568Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4569
4570 * New machines supported (target)
4571
4572AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4573
4574 * C++ support
4575
4576GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4577The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4578per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4579
4580GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4581`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4582extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4583good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4584will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4585released.
4586
4587 * New features for SVR4
4588
4589GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4590shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4591only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4592
4593The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4594on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4595it prints the address mappings of the process.
4596
4597If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4598bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4599
4600 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4601
4602Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4603now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4604skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4605make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4606same code linked statically.
4607
4608 * New Getopt
4609
4610GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4611version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4612continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4613Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4614added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4615future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4616
4617 * Bugs fixed
4618
4619The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4620Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4621See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4622
4623
4624*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4625
4626 * New machines supported (host and target)
4627
4628Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4629NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4630Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4631
4632 * Almost SCO Unix support
4633
4634We had hoped to support:
4635SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4636(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4637that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4638about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4639
4640 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4641
4642GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4643debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4644is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4645send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4646reqired (if any).
4647
4648 * New Readline
4649
4650GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4651is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4652required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4653
4654 * Bugs fixed
4655
4656The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4657Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4658See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4659
4660 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4661
4662GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4663supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4664symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4665
4666Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4667mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4668debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4669mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4670version 2.
4671
4672Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4673really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4674line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4675variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4676situation somewhat.
4677
4678When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4679However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4680methods.
4681
4682We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4683DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4684encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4685
4686
4687*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4688
4689 * Improved configuration
4690
4691Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4692Porting BFD is simpler.
4693
4694 * Stepping improved
4695
4696The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4697of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4698in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4699function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4700
4701 * Bug fixing
4702
4703Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4704
4705 * New host supported (not target)
4706
4707Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4708
4709
4710*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4711
4712 * Multiple source language support
4713
4714GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4715It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4716and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4717language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4718You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4719`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4720
4721 * GDB and Modula-2
4722
4723GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4724currently under development at the State University of New York at
4725Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4726continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4727
4728Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4729debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4730symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4731
4732There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4733in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4734
4735 * set write on/off
4736
4737GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4738a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4739the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4740by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4741effect immediately.
4742
4743 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4744
4745When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4746shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4747The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4748examining core files.
4749
4750 * set listsize
4751
4752You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4753The default is 10.
4754
4755 * New machines supported (host and target)
4756
4757SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4758Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4759Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4760
4761 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4762
4763IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4764
4765 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4766
4767AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4768AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4769Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4770
4771 * New remote interfaces
4772
4773AMD 29000 Adapt
4774AMD 29000 Minimon
4775
4776
4777*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4778
4779 * New Facilities
4780
4781Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4782
4783Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4784target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4785is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4786remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4787remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4788also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4789using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4790stub on the target system.
4791
4792New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4793
4794GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4795library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4796object file types such as a.out and coff.
4797
4798There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4799refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4800
4801
4802 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4803
4804All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4805by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4806
4807For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4808``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4809Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4810
4811What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4812print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4813will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4814all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4815
4816confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4817 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4818 it is already running. Default is ON.
4819
4820editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4821 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4822 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4823 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4824 Default is ON.
4825
4826history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4827 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4828 or the value of the environment variable
4829 GDBHISTFILE.
4830
4831history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4832 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4833 HISTSIZE.
4834
4835history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4836 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4837 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4838
4839history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4840 history expansion will be performed on
4841 command line input. The default is OFF.
4842
4843radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4844 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4845 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4846
4847height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4848 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4849 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4850 variable TERM.
4851
4852width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4853 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4854 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4855 variable TERM.
4856
4857Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4858``set width'' instead.
4859
4860print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4861 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4862 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4863 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4864
4865print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4866 is OFF.
4867
4868print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4869 "raw" form if off.
4870
4871print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4872 like instructions.
4873
4874print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4875
4876
4877 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4878
4879The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4880new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4881are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4882window.
4883
4884
4885 * Support for Shared Libraries
4886
4887GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4888Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4889before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4890happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4891At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4892from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4893shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4894It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4895
4896sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4897 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4898 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4899
4900info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4901
4902
4903 * Watchpoints
4904
4905A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4906expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4907tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4908quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4909problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4910more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4911
4912watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4913
4914info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4915
4916delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4917disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4918enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4919
4920
4921 * C++ multiple inheritance
4922
4923When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4924for C++ programs.
4925
4926 * C++ exception handling
4927
4928Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4929ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4930the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4931handler's context).
4932
4933catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4934 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4935 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4936
4937info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4938 current stack frame.
4939
4940
4941 * Minor command changes
4942
4943The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4944command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4945is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4946
4947The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4948at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4949frames without printing.
4950
4951 * New directory command
4952
4953'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4954The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4955about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4956with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4957find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4958
4959 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4960
4961For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4962for more details.
4963
4964GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4965two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4966Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4967where the program that you are debugging will run.
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