RISC-V: Support the ISA-dependent CSR checking.
[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 9
5
6* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
7
8 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
9
10* Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
11 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
12
13* Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
14 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
15 performance for programs with many symbols.
16
17* The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
18 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
19
20* New commands
21
22set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
23show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
24 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to
25 a running process and can determine the name of the executable file
26 the process runs, this new option indicates whether to detect mismatch
27 between the name of the current executable file loaded by GDB
28 and the name of the executable file used to start the process.
29 If 'ask', the default, display a warning and ask the user
30 whether to load the process executable file; if 'warn', just display
31 a warning; if 'off', don't attempt to detect a mismatch.
32
33* New targets
34
35GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
36
37*** Changes in GDB 9
38
39* 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
40
41* New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
42 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
43 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
44 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
45 such as in system-wide init files.
46
47* New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
48 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
49 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
50 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
51 current GDB settings.
52
53* GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
54 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
55 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
56 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
57
58* Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
59 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
60 postfix [PAC].
61
62* Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
63 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
64
65* New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
66 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
67 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
68
69* The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
70 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
71 commands.
72
73* Command names can now use the . character.
74
75* The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
76
77* GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
78 messages.
79
80* GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
81
82* New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
83 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
84
85* GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
86 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
87 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
88
89 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
90
91 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
92 not visible in the current scope.
93
94* In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
95 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
96 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
97 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
98 compiled with support for that language.
99
100* GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
101 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
102 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
103
104* Multi-target debugging support
105
106 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
107 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
108 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
109 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
110 debugging a core dump, etc.
111
112 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
113 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
114 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
115 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
116 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
117 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
118
119* Python API
120
121 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
122 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
123 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
124 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
125 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
126
127 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
128 type was defined in.
129
130 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
131 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
132 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
133 is given.
134
135 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
136 symbols with static linkage.
137
138 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
139 all static symbols with static linkage.
140
141 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
142 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
143
144 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
145 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
146
147* New commands
148
149| [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
150| -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
151pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
152pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
153 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
154 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
155 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
156
157define-prefix COMMAND
158 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
159
160with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
161w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
162 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
163 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
164 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
165 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
166 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
167 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
168 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
169 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
170 of array elements to print.
171
172maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
173 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
174
175set may-call-functions [on|off]
176show may-call-functions
177 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
178 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
179 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
180 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
181 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
182 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
183 in the program.
184
185set print finish [on|off]
186show print finish
187 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
188 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
189 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
190 default is `on'.
191
192set print max-depth
193show print max-depth
194 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
195 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
196 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
197 the old behavior back.
198
199set print raw-values [on|off]
200show print raw-values
201 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
202 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
203 of commands. The default is 'off'.
204
205set logging debugredirect [on|off]
206 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
207 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
208
209set style title foreground COLOR
210set style title background COLOR
211set style title intensity VALUE
212 Control the styling of titles.
213
214set style highlight foreground COLOR
215set style highlight background COLOR
216set style highlight intensity VALUE
217 Control the styling of highlightings.
218
219maint set worker-threads
220maint show worker-threads
221 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
222 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
223 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
224 the names of linker symbols.
225
226set style tui-border foreground COLOR
227set style tui-border background COLOR
228 Control the styling of TUI borders.
229
230set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
231set style tui-active-border background COLOR
232 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
233
234maint set test-settings KIND
235maint show test-settings KIND
236 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
237 infrastructure.
238
239maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
240maint show tui-resize-message
241 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
242 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
243 TUI.
244
245set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
246 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
247show print frame-info
248 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
249 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
250 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
251 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
252
253set tui compact-source
254show tui compact-source
255
256 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
257 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
258 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
259 line numbers from the source.
260
261info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
262 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
263 no REGEXP is given.
264
265info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
266 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
267 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
268 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
269 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
270 matches against the function name.
271
272info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
273 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
274 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
275 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
276 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
277 against the variable name.
278
279set debug remote-packet-max-chars
280show debug remote-packet-max-chars
281 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
282 "set debug remote".
283 The default is 512 bytes.
284
285info connections
286 Lists the target connections currently in use.
287
288* Changed commands
289
290help
291 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
292 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
293 command names.
294
295apropos [-v] REGEXP
296 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
297 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
298 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
299 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
300 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
301
302printf
303eval
304 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
305 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
306 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
307 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
308
309info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
310 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
311 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
312 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
313 parts of the files.
314
315show style
316 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
317 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
318 the user visualize the different styles.
319
320set print frame-arguments
321 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
322 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
323
324set print raw-frame-arguments
325show print raw-frame-arguments
326
327 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
328 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
329 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
330 release.
331
332add-inferior [-no-connection]
333 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
334 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
335 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
336 current inferior. See also "info connections".
337
338info inferior
339 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
340 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
341 "info connections" above.
342
343maint test-options require-delimiter
344maint test-options unknown-is-error
345maint test-options unknown-is-operand
346maint show test-options-completion-result
347 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
348 framework.
349
350focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
351 These commands are now case-sensitive.
352
353* New command options, command completion
354
355 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
356 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
357 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
358 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
359 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
360 number of commands got support for new command options in this
361 release:
362
363 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
364 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
365 set by "set print" subcommands:
366
367 -address [on|off]
368 -array [on|off]
369 -array-indexes [on|off]
370 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
371 -null-stop [on|off]
372 -object [on|off]
373 -pretty [on|off]
374 -raw-values [on|off]
375 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
376 -static-members [on|off]
377 -symbol [on|off]
378 -union [on|off]
379 -vtbl [on|off]
380
381 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
382 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
383 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
384 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
385
386 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
387 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
388 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
389
390 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
391 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
392 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
393 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
394 |location-and-address|short-location
395 -past-main [on|off]
396 -past-entry [on|off]
397
398 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
399 exposed as command options too:
400
401 -full
402 -no-filters
403 -hide
404
405 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
406 support the following options:
407
408 -past-main [on|off]
409 -past-entry [on|off]
410
411 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
412 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
413
414 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
415 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
416 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
417 like for example:
418
419 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
420
421 The above is equivalent to:
422
423 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
424
425 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
426 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
427 variables" and "info functions".
428
429 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
430 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
431 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
432 from the results.
433
434* Completion improvements
435
436 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
437 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
438 abbreviated.
439
440 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
441 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
442 commands.
443
444 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
445 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
446 completes on filenames.
447
448 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
449 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
450
451* In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
452
453 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
454 elements unlimited".
455
456* New MI commands
457
458-complete
459 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
460 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
461 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
462
463-catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
464 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
465 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
466
467-symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
468 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
469 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
470
471-symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
472 modules' command.
473
474-symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
475 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
476 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
477
478* Other MI changes
479
480 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
481
482 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
483 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
484 the following commands and events:
485
486 - -break-insert
487 - -break-info
488 - =breakpoint-created
489 - =breakpoint-modified
490
491 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
492 this behavior with previous MI versions.
493
494 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
495 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
496 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
497 present.
498
499* Testsuite
500
501 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
502 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
503 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
504 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
505
506* Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
507
508 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
509 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
510
511* Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
512
513 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
514 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
515
516* The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
517 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
518 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
519
520* Removed targets and native configurations
521
522 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
523 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
524 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
525
526* New Simulators
527
528TI PRU pru-*-elf
529
530* Removed targets and native configurations
531
532Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
533 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
534
535*** Changes in GDB 8.3
536
537* GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
538 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
539 HTM registers.
540
541* GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
542 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
543 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
544 and operators.
545
546 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
547 (the C++ plug-in).
548
549* GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
550 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
551 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
552
553* DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
554 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
555
556* Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
557 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
558 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
559 in the GDB user manual.
560
561* GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
562 executed failed.
563
564* The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
565
566* System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
567 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
568 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
569 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
570 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
571 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
572 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
573 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
574 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
575 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
576 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
577 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
578
579* Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
580 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
581 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
582 information.
583
584* Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
585 lucid.
586
587* New commands
588
589set debug compile-cplus-types
590show debug compile-cplus-types
591 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
592 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiliong
593 for other languages.
594
595set debug skip
596show debug skip
597 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
598 displayed.
599
600frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
601 Apply a command to some frames.
602 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
603 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
604
605taas COMMAND
606 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
607 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
608
609faas COMMAND
610 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
611 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
612
613tfaas COMMAND
614 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
615 output).
616 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
617
618maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
619maint show dwarf unwinders
620 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
621
622info proc files
623 Display a list of open files for a process.
624
625* Changed commands
626
627Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
628 These commands all now take a frame specification which
629 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
630 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
631 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
632 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
633 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
634
635target remote FILENAME
636target extended-remote FILENAME
637 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
638 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
639
640info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
641info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
642info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
643info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
644 These commands can now print only the searched entities
645 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
646 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
647 printing headers or informations messages.
648
649info functions
650info types
651info variables
652rbreak
653 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
654 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
655 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
656 the shown entities.
657
658thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
659 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
660 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
661 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
662
663set tui tab-width NCHARS
664show tui tab-width NCHARS
665 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
666
667set style enabled [on|off]
668show style enabled
669 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
670 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
671
672set style sources [on|off]
673show style sources
674 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
675 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
676 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
677
678set style filename foreground COLOR
679set style filename background COLOR
680set style filename intensity VALUE
681 Control the styling of file names.
682
683set style function foreground COLOR
684set style function background COLOR
685set style function intensity VALUE
686 Control the styling of function names.
687
688set style variable foreground COLOR
689set style variable background COLOR
690set style variable intensity VALUE
691 Control the styling of variable names.
692
693set style address foreground COLOR
694set style address background COLOR
695set style address intensity VALUE
696 Control the styling of addresses.
697
698* MI changes
699
700 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
701 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
702 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
703 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
704 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
705
706 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
707 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
708
709* New native configurations
710
711GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
712FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
713
714* New targets
715
716GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
717CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
718CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
719FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
720NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
721GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
722
723* Removed targets
724
725GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
726before Windows XP.
727
728* Python API
729
730 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
731
732 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
733 space associated to that inferior.
734
735 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
736 of objfiles associated to that program space.
737
738 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
739 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
740 the gdb core.
741
742 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
743 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
744 correct and did not work properly.
745
746 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
747 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
748
749* Configure changes
750
751--enable-ubsan
752
753 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
754 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
755 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
756 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
757 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
758
759*** Changes in GDB 8.2
760
761* The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
762 for the MIPS target.
763
764* The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
765 offset to all sections.
766
767* Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
768 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
769 address of individual sections using '-s'.
770
771* The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
772 (address of the text section).
773
774* The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
775 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
776 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
777 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
778 default.
779
780* The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
781 for the rest of the current command.
782
783* The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
784 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
785
786* 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
787 files created on FreeBSD systems.
788
789* C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
790 alignof.
791
792* Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
793 the vector length while the process is running.
794
795* New commands
796
797set debug fbsd-nat
798show debug fbsd-nat
799 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
800
801set|show varsize-limit
802 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
803 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
804 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
805
806set|show record btrace cpu
807 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
808 branch trace decode.
809
810maint check libthread-db
811 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
812 library
813
814maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
815maint show check-libthread-db
816 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
817 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
818 perform such checks.
819
820* Python API
821
822 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
823
824 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
825 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
826
827 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
828
829 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
830 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
831 of convenience variables.
832
833 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
834 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
835 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
836
837* New targets
838
839RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
840
841* Removed targets and native configurations
842
843m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
844SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
845SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
846SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
847
848* Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
849
850 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
851 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
852 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
853 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
854 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
855 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
856 reported.
857
858* Configure changes
859
860--enable-codesign=CERT
861 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
862 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
863 gdb to work properly.
864
865--disable-gdbcli has been removed
866 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
867
868*** Changes in GDB 8.1
869
870* GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
871 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
872 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
873
874* The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
875 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
876
877* New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
878 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
879 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
880 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
881 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
882
883* GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
884 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
885 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
886 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
887
888* GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
889 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
890
891* On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
892 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
893 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
894
895 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
896 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
897 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
898
899 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
900 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
901 environment" command.
902
903* Completion improvements
904
905 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
906 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
907 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
908 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
909 correctly:
910
911 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
912 (gdb) b function(int)
913
914 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
915 C++ anonymous namespaces:
916
917 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
918 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
919 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
920 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
921
922 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
923 completion support, that better understands what you're
924 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
925 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
926 setting a breakpoint.
927
928 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
929
930 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
931
932* New command line options (gcore)
933
934-a
935 Dump all memory mappings.
936
937* Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
938
939 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
940 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
941 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
942
943 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
944
945 A::B::func()
946 B::func()
947
948 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
949 on both symbols.
950
951 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
952 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
953 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
954 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
955 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
956 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
957 a breakpoint from Python.
958
959* Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
960
961 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
962 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
963 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
964
965 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
966
967 function[abi:cxx11](int)
968 ^^^^^^^^^^^
969
970 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
971 no tag, like:
972
973 (gdb) b function(int)
974
975 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
976
977 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
978
979 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
980
981* Python Scripting
982
983 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
984 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
985 description of these.
986
987 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
988 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
989 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
990
991 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
992 manual for a further description of this feature.
993
994
995* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
996
997 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
998 specified initial working directory.
999
1000 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
1001 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
1002
1003 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
1004 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
1005
1006 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
1007 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
1008
1009 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
1010 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
1011 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
1012 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
1013 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
1014
1015 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
1016 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
1017 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
1018
1019* When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
1020 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
1021 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
1022 in the *stopped notification.
1023
1024* Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
1025 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
1026
1027* New remote packets
1028
1029QEnvironmentHexEncoded
1030 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
1031 the inferior when starting it.
1032
1033QEnvironmentUnset
1034 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
1035 before starting the remote inferior.
1036
1037QEnvironmentReset
1038 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
1039 user-set environment variables should be unset).
1040
1041QStartupWithShell
1042 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
1043
1044QSetWorkingDir
1045 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
1046 working directory.
1047
1048* The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
1049 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
1050
1051* The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
1052 filter the tests to be run.
1053
1054* The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
1055 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
1056
1057* New commands
1058
1059set|show cwd
1060 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
1061
1062set|show compile-gcc
1063 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
1064 with the 'compile' commands.
1065
1066set debug separate-debug-file
1067show debug separate-debug-file
1068 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
1069
1070set dump-excluded-mappings
1071show dump-excluded-mappings
1072 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
1073 dumped when generating a core file.
1074
1075maint info selftests
1076 List the registered selftests.
1077
1078starti
1079 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
1080
1081set|show debug or1k
1082 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
1083
1084set|show print type nested-type-limit
1085 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
1086 type printer will show.
1087
1088* TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
1089 `o' for nexti.
1090
1091* Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
1092
1093 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
1094 'int'.
1095
1096 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
1097 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
1098 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
1099 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
1100
1101 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
1102 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
1103 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
1104 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1105 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
1106 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1107
1108 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
1109 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
1110 unless you tell it the variable's type:
1111
1112 (gdb) p var
1113 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
1114 (gdb) p (float) var
1115 $3 = 3.14
1116
1117* New native configurations
1118
1119FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1120FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1121
1122* New targets
1123
1124FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1125FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1126OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
1127
1128* Removed targets and native configurations
1129
1130Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
1131
1132*** Changes in GDB 8.0
1133
1134* GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
1135 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
1136 available in future Intel CPUs.
1137
1138* GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
1139
1140* Python Scripting
1141
1142 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
1143 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
1144
1145* GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
1146 instructions.
1147
1148* Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
1149
1150 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
1151
1152 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
1153 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
1154 removed.
1155
1156* Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
1157
1158 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
1159 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
1160
1161* Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
1162
1163 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
1164 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
1165 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
1166 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
1167 features.
1168
1169* Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
1170
1171 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
1172 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
1173 debugger.
1174
1175* Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
1176
1177* User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
1178 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
1179
1180* The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
1181
1182 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
1183
1184 define mycommand
1185 set $i = 0
1186 while $i < $argc
1187 eval "print $arg%d", $i
1188 set $i = $i + 1
1189 end
1190 end
1191
1192* Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
1193
1194* GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
1195 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
1196
1197* New native configurations
1198
1199FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1200
1201* New targets
1202
1203Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1204FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1205
1206* Removed targets and native configurations
1207
1208Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1209Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1210
1211* New commands
1212
1213flash-erase
1214 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1215
1216maint print arc arc-instruction address
1217 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1218
1219* New options
1220
1221set disassembler-options
1222show disassembler-options
1223 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1224 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1225 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1226 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1227 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
1228
1229* New MI commands
1230
1231-target-flash-erase
1232 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
1233 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1234
1235-file-list-shared-libraries
1236 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
1237 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1238
1239-catch-handlers
1240 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
1241 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
1242
1243*** Changes in GDB 7.12
1244
1245* GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
1246
1247 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
1248 default. One must now explicitly configure with
1249 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
1250 option will be removed in a future release.
1251
1252* GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
1253 GDB connection.
1254
1255* GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
1256 memory backward from the given address. For example:
1257
1258 (gdb) bt
1259 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
1260 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
1261 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
1262 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
1263 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
1264 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
1265 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
1266 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
1267 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
1268
1269* Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
1270 arrays of dynamic types.
1271
1272* The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
1273maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1274maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1275maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1276maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1277maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
1278
1279* GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
1280 descriptions.
1281
1282* New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
1283 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
1284 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
1285
1286* Intel MPX bound violation handling.
1287
1288 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
1289 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
1290 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
1291 signal received and code location.
1292
1293 For example:
1294
1295 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
1296 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
1297 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
1298 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
1299
1300* Rust language support.
1301 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
1302 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
1303 Rust.
1304
1305* Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
1306
1307 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
1308 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
1309 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
1310 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
1311 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
1312 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
1313 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
1314 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
1315 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
1316 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
1317 line.
1318
1319* The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
1320
1321 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
1322 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
1323
1324* New commands
1325
1326skip -file file
1327skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
1328skip -function function
1329skip -rfunction regular-expression
1330 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
1331 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
1332 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
1333
1334maint info line-table REGEXP
1335 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
1336
1337maint selftest
1338 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
1339
1340new-ui INTERP TTY
1341 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
1342 using the TTY file for input/output.
1343
1344* Python Scripting
1345
1346 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
1347 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
1348 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
1349 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
1350 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
1351
1352signal-event EVENTID
1353 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
1354 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
1355 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
1356 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
1357 signalling an event.
1358
1359* Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
1360 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
1361 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
1362
1363* Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
1364 been removed:
1365
1366 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
1367 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
1368 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
1369 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
1370 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
1371 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
1372
1373* Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
1374 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
1375 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
1376 bytecode into native code.
1377
1378* MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
1379 recording. For example:
1380
1381 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
1382
1383* MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
1384
1385 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
1386
1387* New targets
1388
1389Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
1390
1391*** Changes in GDB 7.11
1392
1393* GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
1394
1395* Per-inferior thread numbers
1396
1397 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
1398 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
1399 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
1400
1401 (gdb) info threads
1402 Id Target Id Frame
1403 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
1404 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
1405 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
1406 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
1407
1408 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
1409 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
1410 are no longer unique between inferiors.
1411
1412 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
1413 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
1414 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
1415
1416 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
1417 IDs.
1418
1419* Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
1420 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
1421
1422 (gdb) thread 2.1
1423 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
1424 (gdb)
1425
1426* In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
1427 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
1428 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
1429 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
1430 threads 2.*".
1431
1432* You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
1433 all threads.
1434
1435* The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
1436 the current thread.
1437
1438* The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
1439 current inferior.
1440
1441* GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
1442 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
1443 example:
1444
1445 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
1446 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
1447
1448* Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
1449
1450* Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
1451
1452* The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
1453 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
1454
1455* GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
1456 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
1457 clients.
1458
1459* Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1460 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
1461 at the same time.
1462
1463* Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
1464 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
1465 into native code.
1466
1467* GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1468
1469* "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
1470 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
1471 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
1472
1473* In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
1474 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
1475
1476* New commands
1477
1478maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
1479maint show target-non-stop
1480 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
1481 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
1482 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
1483
1484maint set bfd-sharing
1485maint show bfd-sharing
1486 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
1487
1488set debug bfd-cache
1489show debug bfd-cache
1490 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
1491
1492set debug fbsd-lwp
1493show debug fbsd-lwp
1494 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
1495
1496set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1497show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1498 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
1499
1500set remote thread-events
1501show remote thread-events
1502 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
1503
1504set ada print-signatures on|off
1505show ada print-signatures"
1506 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
1507 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
1508
1509set max-value-size
1510show max-value-size
1511 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
1512 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
1513 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
1514
1515* The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1516 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
1517 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
1518 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
1519 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
1520 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
1521
1522* The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1523 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
1524
1525* The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
1526 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
1527
1528* Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
1529
1530 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
1531 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
1532 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
1533 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
1534 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
1535 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
1536
1537* Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
1538 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
1539
1540catch handlers
1541 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
1542
1543* New remote packets
1544
1545exec stop reason
1546 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
1547
1548exec-events feature in qSupported
1549 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
1550 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
1551 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
1552 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
1553
1554vCtrlC
1555 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
1556 non-stop mode.
1557
1558thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
1559 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
1560
1561thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
1562 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
1563
1564QThreadEvents
1565 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
1566 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
1567 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
1568 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
1569 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
1570 stop for that same thread.
1571
1572N stop reply
1573 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
1574 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
1575 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
1576
1577QCatchSyscalls
1578 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
1579 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
1580
1581syscall_entry stop reason
1582 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
1583
1584syscall_return stop reason
1585 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
1586
1587* Extended-remote exec events
1588
1589 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
1590 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1591 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1592
1593set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1594show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1595 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1596
1597 * Thread names in remote protocol
1598
1599 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1600 thread.
1601
1602* Target remote mode fork and exec events
1603
1604 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1605 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1606 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1607 fork and exec catchpoints.
1608
1609* Remote syscall events
1610
1611 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1612 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1613
1614set remote catch-syscall-packet
1615show remote catch-syscall-packet
1616 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
1617
1618* MI changes
1619
1620 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
1621 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
1622 left.
1623
1624* Python Scripting
1625
1626 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
1627 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
1628 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
1629 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
1630 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
1631 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
1632
1633*** Changes in GDB 7.10
1634
1635* Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
1636 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
1637 including advance SIMD instructions.
1638
1639* Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
1640
1641* GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
1642 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
1643 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
1644 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
1645 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
1646 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
1647 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
1648
1649* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1650 cpu information :
1651 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
1652
1653* GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
1654 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
1655 remote serial I/O.
1656
1657* The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
1658 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
1659 and may include things like its command line arguments.
1660
1661* The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
1662 is now available on all platforms.
1663
1664* Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
1665 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
1666 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
1667 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
1668 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
1669 backward compatibility.
1670
1671* The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
1672 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
1673 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
1674 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
1675
1676* GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
1677 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
1678 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
1679 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
1680 packets" below.
1681
1682* The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
1683
1684* GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
1685
1686* On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
1687 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
1688 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
1689 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
1690 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
1691 See "New remote packets" below.
1692
1693* The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
1694 available register groups, including target specific groups.
1695
1696* The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
1697 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
1698 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1699 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1700 are ignored.
1701
1702* Guile Scripting
1703
1704 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1705
1706* Python Scripting
1707
1708 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1709 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1710 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
1711 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
1712 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
1713 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
1714 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
1715 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
1716 "const" version of the value respectively.
1717
1718* New commands
1719
1720maint print symbol-cache
1721 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1722
1723maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1724 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1725
1726maint flush-symbol-cache
1727 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1728
1729record btrace bts
1730record bts
1731 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1732
1733compile print
1734 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1735
1736tui enable
1737tui disable
1738 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1739
1740show mpx bound
1741set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
1742 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
1743
1744record btrace pt
1745record pt
1746 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
1747
1748maint info btrace
1749 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1750
1751maint btrace packet-history
1752 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1753
1754maint btrace clear-packet-history
1755 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1756
1757maint btrace clear
1758 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1759 anew by the next "record" command.
1760
1761* New options
1762
1763set debug dwarf-die
1764 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1765show debug dwarf-die
1766 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1767
1768set debug dwarf-read
1769 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1770show debug dwarf-read
1771 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1772
1773maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1774 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1775maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1776 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1777
1778maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1779 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1780maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1781 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1782
1783set debug dwarf-line
1784show debug dwarf-line
1785 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1786
1787set max-completions
1788show max-completions
1789 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1790 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1791 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1792 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1793
1794set history remove-duplicates
1795show history remove-duplicates
1796 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1797
1798maint set symbol-cache-size
1799maint show symbol-cache-size
1800 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1801
1802set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1803 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1804 BTS format.
1805 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1806 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1807
1808set debug linux-namespaces
1809show debug linux-namespaces
1810 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1811
1812set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1813 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1814 Intel Processor Trace format.
1815 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1816 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1817
1818maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1819 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1820 packet history.
1821
1822* The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1823 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1824
1825* Python/Guile scripting
1826
1827 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1828 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1829
1830* New remote packets
1831
1832qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1833 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1834
1835Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1836 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1837
1838Qbtrace:pt
1839 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1840 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1841 qSupported query.
1842
1843Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1844 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1845 Trace format.
1846
1847swbreak stop reason
1848 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1849 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1850 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1851 mode operation.
1852
1853hwbreak stop reason
1854 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1855 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1856
1857vFile:fstat:
1858 Return information about files on the remote system.
1859
1860qXfer:exec-file:read
1861 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1862 create a process running on the remote system.
1863
1864vFile:setfs:
1865 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1866 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1867 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1868 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1869
1870fork stop reason
1871 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1872
1873vfork stop reason
1874 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1875
1876vforkdone stop reason
1877 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1878 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1879
1880fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1881 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1882 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1883 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1884 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1885 whether these features are enabled.
1886
1887* Extended-remote fork events
1888
1889 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1890 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1891 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1892 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1893
1894* The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1895 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1896 the btrace record target.
1897 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1898
1899* GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1900 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1901
1902* GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1903 targets.
1904
1905* Removed command line options
1906
1907-xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1908
1909* Removed targets and native configurations
1910
1911HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1912Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1913
1914* New configure options
1915
1916--with-intel-pt
1917 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1918 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1919
1920--with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1921 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1922 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1923 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1924
1925*** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1926
1927* Python Scripting
1928
1929 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1930
1931*** Changes in GDB 7.9
1932
1933* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1934
1935* Python Scripting
1936
1937 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1938 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1939 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1940 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1941 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1942 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1943 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1944 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1945 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1946 selecting a new file to debug.
1947 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1948 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1949
1950 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1951 inferior.
1952
1953 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1954 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1955 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1956 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1957
1958* New Python-based convenience functions:
1959
1960 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1961 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1962 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1963 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1964
1965* GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1966 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1967 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1968 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1969 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1970 interface with this new feature are:
1971
1972 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1973 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1974
1975* New commands
1976
1977demangle [-l language] [--] name
1978 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1979 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1980 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1981 as "maint demangler-warning".
1982
1983queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1984 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1985
1986add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1987 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1988 scripts.
1989
1990maint print user-registers
1991 List all currently available "user" registers.
1992
1993compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1994 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1995 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1996
1997compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1998 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1999 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
2000 provided.
2001
2002* On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
2003 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
2004 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
2005 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
2006 at resume time.
2007
2008* Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
2009 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
2010 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
2011 switched threads meanwhile.
2012
2013* "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
2014
2015 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
2016 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
2017 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
2018 is now the default mode.
2019
2020* New options
2021
2022set debug symbol-lookup
2023show debug symbol-lookup
2024 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
2025
2026* MI changes
2027
2028 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
2029 inferiors that have exited.
2030
2031* New targets
2032
2033MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
2034
2035* Removed targets
2036
2037Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2038
2039Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
2040SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
2041SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
2042VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
2043VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
2044
2045* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2046 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2047 its alias "share", instead.
2048
2049*** Changes in GDB 7.8
2050
2051* New command line options
2052
2053-D data-directory
2054 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
2055
2056* GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
2057 as specified in ISO C99.
2058
2059* The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
2060 with or without disassembly.
2061
2062* Guile scripting
2063
2064 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
2065 available is determined at configure time.
2066 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
2067 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
2068
2069* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2070
2071guile [code]
2072gu [code]
2073 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
2074
2075guile-repl
2076gr
2077 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
2078
2079info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
2080 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
2081
2082* The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
2083 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
2084
2085* New options
2086
2087set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
2088show print symbol-loading
2089 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
2090 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
2091 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
2092 becomes less useful.
2093
2094set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
2095show guile print-stack
2096 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
2097
2098set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
2099show auto-load guile-scripts
2100 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
2101
2102maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
2103maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
2104 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
2105 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
2106 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
2107 usage of this option.
2108
2109set auto-connect-native-target
2110
2111 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
2112 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
2113 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
2114
2115set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
2116show record btrace replay-memory-access
2117 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
2118
2119maint set target-async (on|off)
2120maint show target-async
2121 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
2122 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
2123 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
2124 occurring only in synchronous mode.
2125
2126set mi-async (on|off)
2127show mi-async
2128 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
2129 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
2130
2131* "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
2132 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
2133
2134* Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
2135 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
2136 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
2137 "set target-async on" command.
2138
2139* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2140
2141 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
2142 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
2143 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
2144 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
2145 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
2146
2147* The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
2148 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
2149 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
2150
2151* The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
2152 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
2153 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
2154 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
2155 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
2156 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
2157 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
2158
2159* The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
2160 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
2161
2162* The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
2163 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
2164 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
2165
2166* The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
2167 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
2168 memory or registers.
2169
2170* The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
2171
2172* The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
2173 remote. It now works with all targets.
2174
2175* All native targets are now consistently called "native".
2176 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
2177 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
2178 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
2179 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
2180 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
2181 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
2182 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
2183 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
2184 target-stack".
2185
2186* The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
2187 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
2188 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
2189
2190* GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
2191
2192* Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
2193 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
2194 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
2195
2196* New remote packets
2197
2198qXfer:btrace:read's annex
2199 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2200 branch trace incrementally.
2201
2202* Python Scripting
2203
2204 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2205 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2206 available.
2207 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2208 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2209 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2210 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2211 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2212
2213* New targets
2214PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2215
2216* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2217 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2218 its alias "share", instead.
2219
2220* The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2221 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2222 instead.
2223
2224* MI changes
2225
2226 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2227 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2228 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2229 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2230 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2231 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
2232 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
2233 commands and CLI execution commands.
2234
2235*** Changes in GDB 7.7
2236
2237* Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
2238 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
2239 recording has been added.
2240
2241* GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2242
2243* GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
2244 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
2245
2246* New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
2247 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
2248 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
2249 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
2250 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
2251 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
2252 "void".
2253
2254* The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
2255
2256* The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
2257
2258* GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
2259 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
2260 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
2261 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
2262
2263 (gdb) p $rax
2264 $1 = <not saved>
2265
2266 (gdb) info registers rax
2267 rax <not saved>
2268
2269 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
2270 "*value not available*".
2271
2272* New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
2273 to binaries.
2274
2275* Python scripting
2276
2277 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
2278 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
2279 ** Line tables representation has been added.
2280 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
2281 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
2282 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
2283
2284* New targets
2285
2286Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
2287Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
2288Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
2289
2290* Removed native configurations
2291
2292Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
2293been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
2294
2295arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2296i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2297i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
2298i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
2299m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2300sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2301vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2302
2303* New commands:
2304catch rethrow
2305 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
2306maint check-psymtabs
2307 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
2308maint check-symtabs
2309 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
2310maint expand-symtabs
2311 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
2312
2313show configuration
2314 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2315
2316maint set|show per-command
2317maint set|show per-command space
2318maint set|show per-command time
2319maint set|show per-command symtab
2320 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
2321
2322remove-symbol-file FILENAME
2323remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
2324 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
2325 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
2326 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
2327
2328info exceptions
2329info exceptions REGEXP
2330 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
2331 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
2332 are listed.
2333
2334* New options
2335
2336set debug symfile off|on
2337show debug symfile
2338 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
2339 symbol tables within those files
2340
2341set print raw frame-arguments
2342show print raw frame-arguments
2343 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
2344 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
2345
2346set remote trace-status-packet
2347show remote trace-status-packet
2348 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
2349
2350set debug nios2
2351show debug nios2
2352 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
2353
2354set range-stepping
2355show range-stepping
2356 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
2357
2358set startup-with-shell
2359show startup-with-shell
2360 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
2361 directly.
2362
2363set code-cache
2364show code-cache
2365 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
2366 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
2367
2368* You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
2369 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
2370 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
2371 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
2372 "set height 0".
2373
2374* The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
2375 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
2376 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
2377
2378* New command-line options
2379--configuration
2380 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2381
2382* The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
2383 buffer in Common Trace Format.
2384
2385* Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
2386 GDB command gcore.
2387
2388* GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
2389
2390* The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
2391 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
2392
2393* The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
2394 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
2395
2396* The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
2397 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
2398 due to an uncaught signal.
2399
2400* MI changes
2401
2402 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
2403 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
2404 command, which should contain "language-option".
2405
2406 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
2407 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
2408
2409 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
2410 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
2411 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
2412 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2413 "undefined-command-error-code".
2414
2415 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
2416 Trace Format now.
2417
2418 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
2419
2420 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
2421 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
2422 are displayed.
2423
2424 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
2425 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
2426
2427 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
2428 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
2429 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
2430
2431 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
2432 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
2433 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
2434 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
2435 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2436 "exec-run-start-option".
2437
2438 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
2439 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
2440
2441 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
2442 the new "info exceptions" command.
2443
2444* New system-wide configuration scripts
2445 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
2446 configuration scripts for the following systems:
2447 ** ElinOS
2448 ** Wind River Linux
2449
2450* GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
2451 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
2452 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
2453 below.
2454
2455* GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
2456 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
2457
2458* On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
2459 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
2460 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
2461
2462* New remote packets
2463
2464vCont;r
2465
2466 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
2467 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
2468 involvemement at each single-step.
2469
2470qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
2471 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
2472 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
2473 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
2474 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
2475 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
2476 speedup.
2477
2478* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2479
2480 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
2481 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
2482
2483 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
2484 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
2485 trace state variables.
2486
2487 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
2488 target.
2489
2490* New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
2491 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
2492
2493* GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
2494
2495* The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
2496 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
2497 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
2498 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2499
2500*** Changes in GDB 7.6
2501
2502* Target record has been renamed to record-full.
2503 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
2504 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
2505 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
2506
2507set|show record full insn-number-max
2508set|show record full stop-at-limit
2509set|show record full memory-query
2510
2511* A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
2512 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
2513 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
2514 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
2515 This new recording method can be enabled using:
2516
2517record btrace
2518
2519 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
2520 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
2521
2522* Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
2523 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
2524 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
2525
2526record instruction-history prints the execution history at
2527 instruction granularity
2528
2529record function-call-history prints the execution history at
2530 function granularity
2531
2532* New native configurations
2533
2534ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
2535FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
2536x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2537Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
2538
2539* New targets
2540
2541ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
2542ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
2543Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
2544x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2545Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
2546
2547* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
2548 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
2549 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
2550 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
2551 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
2552 --data-directory command-line option.
2553
2554* New command line options:
2555
2556-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
2557 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
2558
2559* Removed command line options
2560
2561-epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
2562 Emacs.
2563
2564* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
2565 type formatting.
2566
2567* 'info proc' now works on some core files.
2568
2569* Python scripting
2570
2571 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
2572
2573 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
2574
2575 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
2576
2577 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
2578
2579 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
2580 of architecture in the Python API.
2581
2582 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
2583 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
2584
2585* New Python-based convenience functions:
2586
2587 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
2588 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
2589 ** $_strlen(str)
2590 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2591
2592* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2593 given an argument.
2594
2595* The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2596 default for GCC since November 2000.
2597
2598* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2599
2600* The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2601 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2602
2603* New configure options
2604
2605--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2606 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2607 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2608 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2609 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2610 options allow the user to override that default.
2611--with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2612 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2613 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2614
2615* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2616
2617catch signal
2618 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
2619 conditions to be attached.
2620
2621maint info bfds
2622 List the BFDs known to GDB.
2623
2624python-interactive [command]
2625pi [command]
2626 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
2627 and print the result of expressions.
2628
2629py [command]
2630 "py" is a new alias for "python".
2631
2632enable type-printer [name]...
2633disable type-printer [name]...
2634 Enable or disable type printers.
2635
2636* Removed commands
2637
2638 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
2639 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
2640 instead.
2641
2642* New options
2643
2644set print type methods (on|off)
2645show print type methods
2646 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
2647 The default is to show them.
2648
2649set print type typedefs (on|off)
2650show print type typedefs
2651 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
2652 The default is to show them.
2653
2654set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
2655show filename-display
2656 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
2657 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
2658
2659set trace-buffer-size
2660show trace-buffer-size
2661 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
2662
2663set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
2664show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
2665 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
2666
2667set debug aarch64
2668show debug aarch64
2669 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
2670 The default is off.
2671
2672set debug coff-pe-read
2673show debug coff-pe-read
2674 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
2675 exported symbols.
2676
2677set debug mach-o
2678show debug mach-o
2679 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
2680 processing.
2681
2682set debug notification
2683show debug notification
2684 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
2685
2686* MI changes
2687
2688 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
2689 "=cmd-param-changed".
2690 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
2691 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
2692 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
2693 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
2694 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
2695 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
2696 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
2697 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
2698 "=memory-changed".
2699 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
2700 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
2701 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2702 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
2703 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2704 library load/unload events.
2705 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2706 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2707 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
2708 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2709 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2710 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
2711 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2712 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
2713
2714* GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
2715 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
2716 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
2717 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
2718
2719* New remote packets
2720
2721QTBuffer:size
2722 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2723 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2724
2725Qbtrace:bts
2726 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2727 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2728 qSupported query.
2729
2730Qbtrace:off
2731 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2732 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2733
2734qXfer:btrace:read
2735 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2736 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2737
2738*** Changes in GDB 7.5
2739
2740* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2741 for more x32 ABI info.
2742
2743* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2744
2745* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2746
2747* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2748 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2749 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2750 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2751 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2752 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2753 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2754 "info os msg" lists message queues
2755 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2756
2757* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2758 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2759 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2760 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2761 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2762 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2763
2764* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2765 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2766 record/replay support.
2767
2768* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2769
2770* Python scripting
2771
2772 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2773 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
2774
2775 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2776
2777 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2778 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2779
2780 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2781
2782 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2783 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2784
2785 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2786 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2787 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2788 symbol's value.
2789
2790 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2791 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2792
2793 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2794 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2795 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2796
2797 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2798 object associated with a PC value.
2799
2800 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2801 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2802
2803* Go language support.
2804 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2805 language.
2806
2807* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2808 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2809
2810* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2811 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2812
2813* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2814 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2815 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2816 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2817 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2818 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
2819
2820* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2821 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2822 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2823 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2824
2825* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2826 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2827
2828* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2829 since December 2007.
2830
2831* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2832 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2833 command does. For instance:
2834
2835 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2836
2837 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2838 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2839 created, using the "condition" command.
2840
2841* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2842 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2843
2844* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2845
2846* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2847 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2848 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2849 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2850 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2851 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2852 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2853 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2854
2855 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2856 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2857 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2858 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2859 the .gdb_index section.
2860
2861* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2862
2863* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2864 target.
2865
2866* MI changes
2867
2868 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2869
2870 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2871
2872* New commands
2873
2874 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2875 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2876 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2877
2878 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2879 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2880
2881 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2882 several hits.
2883
2884 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2885 C++ and Java objects.
2886
2887 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2888 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2889 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2890 configured with '--with-python'.
2891
2892 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2893 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2894 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2895 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2896 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2897 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2898 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2899
2900 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2901 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2902 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2903 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2904
2905 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2906 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2907 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2908 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2909
2910 ** "set print symbol"
2911 "show print symbol"
2912 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2913 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2914 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2915
2916* Deprecated commands
2917
2918 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2919 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2920
2921* New targets
2922
2923Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2924HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2925
2926* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2927 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2928 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2929 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2930 evaluates to true.
2931
2932* New options
2933
2934set mips compression
2935show mips compression
2936 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2937 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2938 mips16
2939 micromips
2940 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2941
2942set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2943show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2944 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2945 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2946 available mode.
2947 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2948 target.
2949
2950set auto-load off
2951 Disable auto-loading globally.
2952
2953show auto-load
2954 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2955
2956set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2957show auto-load gdb-scripts
2958 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2959
2960set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2961show auto-load python-scripts
2962 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2963
2964set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2965show auto-load local-gdbinit
2966 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2967
2968set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2969show auto-load libthread-db
2970 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2971
2972set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2973show auto-load scripts-directory
2974 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2975 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2976 of the directories listed by this option.
2977 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2978
2979set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2980show auto-load safe-path
2981 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2982 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2983
2984set debug auto-load on|off
2985show debug auto-load
2986 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2987
2988set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
2989show dprintf-style
2990 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2991 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2992 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2993 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
2994
2995set dprintf-function <expr>
2996show dprintf-function
2997set dprintf-channel <expr>
2998show dprintf-channel
2999 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
3000 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
3001
3002set disconnected-dprintf on|off
3003show disconnected-dprintf
3004 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
3005 after GDB disconnects.
3006
3007* New configure options
3008
3009--with-auto-load-dir
3010 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
3011 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
3012 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
3013 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
3014 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
3015
3016--with-auto-load-safe-path
3017 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
3018 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
3019
3020--without-auto-load-safe-path
3021 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
3022 security feature.
3023
3024* New remote packets
3025
3026z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
3027
3028 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
3029 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
3030 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
3031 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
3032
3033QProgramSignals:
3034
3035 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
3036 program without GDB involvement.
3037
3038* New command line options
3039
3040--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
3041 before loading inferior.
3042--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
3043 execute it before loading inferior.
3044
3045*** Changes in GDB 7.4
3046
3047* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
3048 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
3049 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
3050 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
3051 inferior changes.
3052
3053* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
3054 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
3055
3056* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
3057 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
3058 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
3059 target hardware watchpoint.
3060
3061 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
3062 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
3063 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
3064 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
3065
3066* Python scripting
3067
3068 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
3069 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
3070 existing one.
3071
3072 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
3073 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
3074 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
3075 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
3076 now "message", which just prints the error message without
3077 the stack trace.
3078
3079 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3080 Python API.
3081
3082 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
3083 modules library. This module provides functionality for
3084 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
3085 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
3086 corresponding value.
3087
3088 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
3089 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
3090 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
3091 on GDB start-up.
3092
3093 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
3094 static_block will return the global and static blocks
3095 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
3096 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
3097
3098 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
3099
3100 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
3101 "gdb.breakpoints".
3102
3103 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
3104 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
3105 available in the CLI.
3106
3107 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
3108 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
3109 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
3110 "some_type.items()".
3111
3112 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
3113 new object file.
3114
3115 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
3116 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
3117 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
3118 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
3119 any anonymous fields.
3120
3121* MI changes
3122
3123 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
3124 "solib-event".
3125
3126 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
3127 "=breakpoint-modified".
3128
3129 ** New command -ada-task-info.
3130
3131* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
3132 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
3133 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
3134 lives.
3135
3136 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
3137 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
3138 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
3139 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
3140 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
3141
3142 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
3143 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
3144
3145* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
3146 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
3147 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
3148 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
3149 use this option to specify where to find it.
3150
3151* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3152 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
3153 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
3154 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
3155 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
3156 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3157 section in the user manual for more details.
3158
3159* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
3160 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
3161 become available after that.
3162
3163* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
3164
3165* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
3166 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
3167 gcc version 4.7.
3168
3169* New commands
3170
3171!SHELL COMMAND
3172 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
3173 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
3174
3175* Changed commands
3176
3177watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
3178 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
3179 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
3180
3181info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
3182 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
3183 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
3184
3185info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
3186 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
3187 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
3188 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
3189 name starts with a hyphen.
3190
3191collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
3192 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
3193 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
3194 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
3195 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
3196 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
3197 number of bytes that will be collected.
3198
3199tstart [NOTES]
3200 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3201 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3202 setting the variable trace-notes.
3203
3204tstop [NOTES]
3205 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3206 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3207 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3208 trace-stop-notes.
3209
3210* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3211 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3212 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3213 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3214 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3215 is running.
3216
3217* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3218 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3219 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3220
3221* New options
3222
3223set debug dwarf2-read
3224show debug dwarf2-read
3225 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3226 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3227
3228set debug symtab-create
3229show debug symtab-create
3230 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3231 creation. The default is off.
3232
3233set extended-prompt
3234show extended-prompt
3235 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
3236 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
3237 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
3238 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
3239 prompt is displayed.
3240
3241set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
3242show print entry-values
3243 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
3244 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
3245 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
3246
3247set debug entry-values
3248show debug entry-values
3249 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
3250 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
3251
3252set basenames-may-differ
3253show basenames-may-differ
3254 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
3255 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
3256 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
3257 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
3258 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
3259 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
3260 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
3261 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
3262
3263set trace-user
3264show trace-user
3265set trace-notes
3266show trace-notes
3267 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
3268 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
3269 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
3270 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
3271
3272set trace-stop-notes
3273show trace-stop-notes
3274 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
3275 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
3276 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
3277 started by someone else.
3278
3279* New remote packets
3280
3281QTEnable
3282
3283 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3284
3285QTDisable
3286
3287 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3288
3289QTNotes
3290
3291 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
3292
3293qTP
3294
3295 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
3296
3297qTMinFTPILen
3298
3299 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
3300 be placed.
3301
3302* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
3303 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
3304
3305* New targets
3306
3307Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
3308
3309* New Simulators
3310
3311Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3312
3313*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
3314
3315* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
3316
3317*** Changes in GDB 7.3
3318
3319* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
3320 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
3321 matches the given regular expression.
3322
3323* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
3324
3325* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
3326 dumping the instruction opcodes.
3327
3328* New command line options
3329
3330-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
3331 This is mostly for testing purposes.
3332
3333* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
3334 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
3335
3336* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
3337 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
3338 source path list instead of augmenting it.
3339
3340* GDB now understands thread names.
3341
3342 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
3343 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
3344
3345 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
3346 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
3347
3348* OpenCL C
3349 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
3350 has been integrated into GDB.
3351
3352* Python scripting
3353
3354 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
3355 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
3356 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
3357
3358 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3359 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
3360 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
3361 and allows for more dynamic content.
3362
3363 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
3364 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
3365 have an is_valid method.
3366
3367 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3368 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
3369 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
3370
3371 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
3372
3373 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
3374 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
3375 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
3376 that function like so:
3377
3378 result = some_value (10,20)
3379
3380 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
3381 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
3382 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
3383
3384 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
3385 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
3386 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
3387 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
3388 New function: register_pretty_printer.
3389
3390 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
3391 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
3392
3393 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
3394
3395 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
3396 selected thread.
3397
3398 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
3399 holds the thread's name.
3400
3401 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
3402 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
3403 occurring in the process being debugged.
3404 The following events are currently supported:
3405 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
3406 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
3407 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
3408
3409* C++ Improvements:
3410
3411 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
3412 instantiation. For example, if you have:
3413
3414 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
3415
3416 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
3417 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
3418 was added to GCC 4.5.
3419
3420 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
3421 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
3422 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
3423 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
3424 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
3425 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
3426
3427* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
3428 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
3429 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
3430 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
3431 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
3432
3433* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
3434 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
3435 execution to a label.
3436
3437* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
3438 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
3439 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
3440 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
3441
3442* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
3443 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
3444 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
3445 of scope.
3446
3447* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
3448
3449 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
3450 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
3451 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
3452 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
3453 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
3454 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
3455
3456 (gdb) info threads
3457 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
3458
3459 While now you see this:
3460
3461 (gdb) info threads
3462 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
3463
3464 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
3465 dumps.
3466
3467 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
3468 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
3469 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
3470 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
3471
3472* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3473 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
3474 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
3475 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3476 section in the user manual for more details.
3477
3478* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3479
3480 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
3481 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
3482
3483 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
3484
3485* New native configurations
3486
3487ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3488
3489* New targets:
3490
3491Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
3492
3493* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
3494 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
3495 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
3496 in the GDB user manual.
3497
3498* Guile support was removed.
3499
3500* New features in the GNU simulator
3501
3502 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
3503
3504 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
3505
3506*** Changes in GDB 7.2
3507
3508* Shared library support for remote targets by default
3509
3510 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
3511 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
3512 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
3513 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
3514 was always disabled for such configurations.
3515
3516* C++ Improvements:
3517
3518 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
3519
3520 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
3521 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
3522 For example:
3523 namespace A
3524 {
3525 class B { };
3526 void foo (B) { }
3527 }
3528 ...
3529 A::B b
3530 foo(b)
3531 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
3532 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
3533 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
3534
3535 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
3536
3537 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
3538 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
3539 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
3540 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
3541 entry.
3542 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
3543 mentioned flavors of operators.
3544
3545 ** static const class members
3546
3547 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
3548 class definition has been fixed.
3549
3550* Windows Thread Information Block access.
3551
3552 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
3553 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
3554 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
3555 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
3556 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
3557 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
3558
3559* Static tracepoints
3560
3561 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
3562 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
3563 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
3564 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
3565 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
3566 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
3567 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
3568 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
3569 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
3570 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
3571 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
3572 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
3573 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
3574 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
3575 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
3576 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
3577 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
3578 the "New remote packets" section below.
3579
3580* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
3581
3582 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
3583 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
3584 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
3585 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
3586
3587* Observer mode
3588
3589 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
3590 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3591 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3592 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3593 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3594 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3595 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3596
3597* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3598 current thread.
3599
3600* New remote packets
3601
3602qGetTIBAddr
3603
3604 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3605
3606qRelocInsn
3607
3608 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3609 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3610 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3611 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3612 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3613 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3614
3615qTfSTM, qTsSTM
3616
3617 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
3618
3619qTSTMat
3620
3621 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
3622 program.
3623
3624qXfer:statictrace:read
3625
3626 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
3627 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
3628 to gdb's qSupported query.
3629
3630QAllow
3631
3632 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
3633
3634QTDPsrc
3635
3636 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
3637 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
3638
3639* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
3640 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
3641 a directory.
3642
3643* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3644
3645 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
3646 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
3647 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
3648 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
3649
3650 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
3651 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
3652 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
3653 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
3654 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
3655 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
3656 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
3657
3658 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
3659 for static tracepoints support.
3660
3661 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
3662
3663* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
3664 it understands register description.
3665
3666* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
3667
3668* X86 general purpose registers
3669
3670 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
3671 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
3672 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
3673 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
3674 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
3675
3676* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
3677 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
3678 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
3679 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
3680 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
3681 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
3682
3683* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
3684 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
3685 in the specified file.
3686
3687* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
3688 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
3689 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
3690 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
3691 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
3692 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
3693 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
3694 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
3695 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
3696 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
3697
3698* New commands
3699
3700eval template, expressions...
3701 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3702 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3703
3704set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3705show target-file-system-kind
3706 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3707 names.
3708
3709save breakpoints <filename>
3710 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3711 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3712 definitions, use the `source' command.
3713
3714`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
3715is now deprecated.
3716
3717info static-tracepoint-markers
3718 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
3719
3720strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3721 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3722 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3723
3724set observer on|off
3725show observer
3726 Enable and disable observer mode.
3727
3728set may-write-registers on|off
3729set may-write-memory on|off
3730set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3731set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3732set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3733set may-interrupt on|off
3734 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3735 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3736 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3737 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3738 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3739 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3740 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3741
3742set record memory-query on|off
3743show record memory-query
3744 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3745 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3746
3747* Changed commands
3748
3749disassemble
3750 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3751
3752* Python scripting
3753
3754** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3755 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3756 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3757 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3758 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3759
3760** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3761 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3762 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3763 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3764
3765** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3766 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3767
3768** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3769
3770** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3771
3772** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3773
3774** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3775 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3776 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3777
3778* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3779there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3780tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3781regular breakpoints.
3782
3783* New targets
3784
3785ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3786
3787* D language support.
3788 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3789 language.
3790
3791* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3792 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3793 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3794 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3795 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3796
3797* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3798 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3799 conditions of the form:
3800
3801 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3802
3803 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3804 interface mentioned above.
3805
3806*** Changes in GDB 7.1
3807
3808* C++ Improvements
3809
3810 ** Namespace Support
3811
3812 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3813 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3814 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3815 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3816 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3817
3818 ** Bug Fixes
3819
3820 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3821 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3822 qualified name.
3823
3824 ** Cast Operators
3825
3826 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3827 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3828
3829* New targets
3830
3831Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3832Renesas RX rx-*-elf
3833
3834* New Simulators
3835
3836Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3837Renesas RX rx
3838
3839* Multi-program debugging.
3840
3841 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3842 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3843 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3844 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3845 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3846 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3847 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3848 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3849
3850* New tracing features
3851
3852 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3853
3854 ** Trace state variables
3855
3856 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3857 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3858 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3859 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3860 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3861 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3862 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3863 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3864 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3865 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3866
3867 ** Fast tracepoints
3868
3869 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3870 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3871 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3872 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3873 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3874 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3875 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3876 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3877 the regular trace command.
3878
3879 ** Disconnected tracing
3880
3881 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3882 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3883 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3884 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3885 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3886
3887 ** Trace files
3888
3889 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3890 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3891 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3892 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3893 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3894 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3895 <name>".
3896
3897 ** Circular trace buffer
3898
3899 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3900 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3901 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3902 not be available for all target agents.
3903
3904* Changed commands
3905
3906disassemble
3907 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3908 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3909
3910info variables
3911 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3912 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3913
3914source
3915 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3916 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3917 support.
3918
3919 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3920 "set script-extension" (see below).
3921
3922* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3923
3924record save [<FILENAME>]
3925 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3926 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3927
3928record restore <FILENAME>
3929 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3930 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3931
3932add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3933 Add a new inferior.
3934
3935clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3936 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3937 inferior has loaded.
3938
3939remove-inferior ID
3940 Remove an inferior.
3941
3942maint info program-spaces
3943 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3944
3945set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3946show remote interrupt-sequence
3947 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3948 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3949 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3950 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3951 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3952
3953set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3954show remote interrupt-on-connect
3955 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3956 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3957 Linux kernel.
3958
3959set remotebreak [on | off]
3960show remotebreak
3961Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3962
3963tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3964 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3965
3966info tvariables
3967 List trace state variables and their values.
3968
3969delete tvariable $NAME ...
3970 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3971
3972teval EXPR, ...
3973 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3974 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3975
3976ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3977 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3978
3979* New expression syntax
3980
3981 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3982 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3983
3984* New options
3985
3986set follow-exec-mode new|same
3987show follow-exec-mode
3988 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3989 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3990 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3991
3992set default-collect EXPR, ...
3993show default-collect
3994 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3995 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3996 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3997
3998set disconnected-tracing
3999show disconnected-tracing
4000 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
4001 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
4002 upon disconnection.
4003
4004set circular-trace-buffer
4005show circular-trace-buffer
4006 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
4007 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
4008 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
4009 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
4010
4011set script-extension off|soft|strict
4012show script-extension
4013 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
4014 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
4015 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
4016 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
4017 evaluation failed.
4018 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
4019
4020set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
4021show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
4022 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
4023 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
4024 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
4025 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
4026 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
4027 is on.
4028
4029* Python API Improvements
4030
4031 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
4032 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
4033 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
4034
4035 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
4036 `is_base_class' attribute.
4037
4038 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
4039
4040 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
4041 evaluate an expression.
4042
4043* New remote packets
4044
4045QTDV
4046 Define a trace state variable.
4047
4048qTV
4049 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
4050
4051QTDisconnected
4052 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
4053
4054QTBuffer:circular
4055 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
4056
4057qTfP, qTsP
4058 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
4059
4060* Bug fixes
4061
4062Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
4063
4064Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
4065much more reliable. In particular:
4066 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
4067 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
4068 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
4069 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
4070 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
4071 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
4072 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
4073 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
4074 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
4075 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
4076 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
4077 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
4078 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
4079 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
4080 non-threaded programs.
4081
4082PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
4083This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
4084libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
4085executable program.
4086
4087*** Changes in GDB 7.0
4088
4089* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
4090dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
4091them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
4092for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
4093"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
4094
4095* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
4096breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
4097or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
4098the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
4099for tracepoint actions.
4100
4101* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
4102raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
4103modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
4104
4105* Process record and replay
4106
4107 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
4108 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
4109 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
4110 execute commands.
4111
4112* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
4113step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
4114set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
4115reverse execution.
4116
4117* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
4118feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
41192.6.28 or later.
4120
4121* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
4122target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
4123char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
4124literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
4125U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
4126`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
4127system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
4128the installation instructions for more information.
4129
4130* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
4131remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
4132with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
4133the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
4134
4135* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
4136and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
4137
4138* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
4139now complete on file names.
4140
4141* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
4142completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
4143For instance, consider:
4144
4145 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
4146 # struct example variable;
4147 (gdb) p variable.
4148
4149If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
4150completions will be "f1" and "f2".
4151
4152* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
4153the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
4154
4155* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
4156operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
4157macros.
4158
4159* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
4160the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
4161implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
4162
4163* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
4164registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
4165can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
4166and simulator targets may also provide them.
4167
4168* New remote packets
4169
4170qSearch:memory:
4171 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4172
4173QStartNoAckMode
4174 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
4175 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
4176 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
4177
4178vKill
4179 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
4180 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
4181
4182qXfer:osdata:read
4183 Obtains additional operating system information
4184
4185qXfer:siginfo:read
4186qXfer:siginfo:write
4187 Read or write additional signal information.
4188
4189* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
4190
4191 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
4192 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
4193 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
4194
4195* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
4196DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
4197
4198* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
4199and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4200`set/show sh calling-convention'.
4201
4202* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4203with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4204
4205* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4206
4207* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4208
4209* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4210which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4211
4212* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
4213list of section offsets.
4214
4215* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4216conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4217have also been fixed.
4218
4219* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4220From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4221are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4222
4223* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4224example, given:
4225
4226 template<typename T> class C { };
4227 C<char const *> c;
4228
4229GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4230
4231 ptype C<char const *>
4232 ptype C<char const*>
4233 ptype C<const char *>
4234 ptype C<const char*>
4235
4236* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
4237
4238 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
4239 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4240
4241 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
4242 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4243 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
4244
4245 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
4246 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
4247
4248 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
4249 gdbserver.
4250
4251 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
4252 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4253
4254 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
4255 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
4256 as appropriate.
4257
4258* Python scripting
4259
4260 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
4261 available is determined at configure time.
4262
4263 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
4264
4265* Ada tasking support
4266
4267 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
4268 been introduced:
4269
4270 info tasks
4271 Print the list of Ada tasks.
4272 info task N
4273 Print detailed information about task number N.
4274 task
4275 Print the task number of the current task.
4276 task N
4277 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
4278
4279* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
4280add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
4281
4282* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
4283
4284 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
4285 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
4286 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
4287 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
4288 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
4289 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
4290 below.
4291
4292* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
4293"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
4294information.
4295
4296* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
4297to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
4298architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
4299See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
4300more information.
4301
4302* Multi-architecture debugging.
4303
4304 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
4305 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
4306 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
4307 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
4308 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
4309
4310* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
4311use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
4312Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
4313powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
4314--enable-targets configure option.
4315
4316* Non-stop mode debugging.
4317
4318 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
4319 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
4320 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
4321 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
4322 section in the user manual for more information.
4323
4324 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
4325 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
4326 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
4327 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
4328 extensions on linux targets.
4329
4330* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4331
4332catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
4333 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
4334 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
4335 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
4336 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
4337 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
4338 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
4339 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
4340 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
4341
4342find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
4343 val1 [, val2, ...]
4344 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4345
4346maint set python print-stack
4347maint show python print-stack
4348 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
4349
4350python [CODE]
4351 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
4352
4353macro define
4354macro list
4355macro undef
4356 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
4357 interactively.
4358
4359info os processes
4360 Show operating system information about processes.
4361
4362info inferiors
4363 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
4364
4365inferior NUM
4366 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
4367
4368detach inferior NUM
4369 Detach from inferior number NUM.
4370
4371kill inferior NUM
4372 Kill inferior number NUM.
4373
4374* New options
4375
4376set spu stop-on-load
4377show spu stop-on-load
4378 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4379
4380set spu auto-flush-cache
4381show spu auto-flush-cache
4382 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
4383 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4384
4385set sh calling-convention
4386show sh calling-convention
4387 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
4388
4389set debug timestamp
4390show debug timestamp
4391 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
4392
4393set disassemble-next-line
4394show disassemble-next-line
4395 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
4396 the debuggee stops.
4397
4398set remote noack-packet
4399show remote noack-packet
4400 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
4401 under "New remote packets."
4402
4403set remote query-attached-packet
4404show remote query-attached-packet
4405 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
4406
4407set remote read-siginfo-object
4408show remote read-siginfo-object
4409 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
4410 packet.
4411
4412set remote write-siginfo-object
4413show remote write-siginfo-object
4414 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
4415 packet.
4416
4417set remote reverse-continue
4418show remote reverse-continue
4419 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
4420
4421set remote reverse-step
4422show remote reverse-step
4423 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
4424
4425set displaced-stepping
4426show displaced-stepping
4427 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
4428 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
4429 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
4430
4431set debug displaced
4432show debug displaced
4433 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
4434
4435maint set internal-error
4436maint show internal-error
4437 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
4438
4439maint set internal-warning
4440maint show internal-warning
4441 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
4442
4443set exec-wrapper
4444show exec-wrapper
4445unset exec-wrapper
4446 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4447
4448set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
4449show multiple-symbols
4450 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
4451 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
4452 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
4453
4454set breakpoint always-inserted
4455show breakpoint always-inserted
4456 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
4457 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
4458 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
4459
4460set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4461show arm fallback-mode
4462set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4463show arm force-mode
4464 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
4465 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
4466 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
4467 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
4468
4469set disable-randomization
4470show disable-randomization
4471 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
4472 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
4473 multiple debugging sessions.
4474
4475set non-stop
4476show non-stop
4477 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
4478 a breakpoint.
4479
4480set target-async
4481show target-async
4482 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
4483 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
4484 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
4485 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
4486
4487set target-wide-charset
4488show target-wide-charset
4489 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
4490 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
4491
4492set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
4493show tcp auto-retry
4494set tcp connect-timeout
4495show tcp connect-timeout
4496 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
4497 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
4498 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
4499
4500set libthread-db-search-path
4501show libthread-db-search-path
4502 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
4503 libthread_db.
4504
4505set schedule-multiple (on|off)
4506show schedule-multiple
4507 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
4508 the current process.
4509
4510set stack-cache
4511show stack-cache
4512 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
4513 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
4514 affecting correctness.
4515
4516set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
4517show interactive-mode
4518 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
4519 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
4520 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
4521 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
4522 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
4523
4524* Removed commands
4525
4526info forks
4527 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
4528 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
4529 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
4530 command.
4531
4532fork NUM
4533 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
4534 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
4535 alias for the `fork' command.
4536
4537process PID
4538 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
4539 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
4540 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
4541
4542delete fork NUM
4543 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
4544 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
4545 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
4546 fork' command.
4547
4548detach fork NUM
4549 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
4550 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
4551 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
4552 fork' command.
4553
4554* New native configurations
4555
4556x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
4557
4558x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
4559
4560* New targets
4561
4562Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
4563x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4564x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
4565S+core 3 score-*-*
4566
4567* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
4568 (mingw32ce) debugging.
4569
4570* Removed commands
4571
4572catch load
4573catch unload
4574 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
4575
4576*** Changes in GDB 6.8
4577
4578* New native configurations
4579
4580NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
4581Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4582
4583* New targets
4584
4585NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
4586Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
4587
4588* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4589
4590 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4591 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4592 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4593 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4594
4595* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4596(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4597
4598* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4599is resolved.
4600
4601* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4602including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4603and in inlined functions.
4604
4605* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4606accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4607more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4608
4609* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4610
4611* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4612registers on PowerPC targets.
4613
4614* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4615targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4616
4617* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
4618commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
4619
4620* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
4621extended-remote mode.
4622
4623* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
4624The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
4625error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
4626The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
4627
4628* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
4629building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
4630target architectures.
4631
4632* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
4633Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
4634now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
4635stored in two consecutive float registers.
4636
4637* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
4638breakpoints now.
4639
4640* Improved support for debugging Ada
4641Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
4642include:
4643 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
4644 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
4645 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
4646 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
4647 of an assignment
4648 - Improved command completion in Ada
4649 - Several bug fixes
4650
4651* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
4652process.
4653
4654* New commands
4655
4656set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
4657show print frame-arguments
4658 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
4659 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
4660
4661remote put
4662remote get
4663remote delete
4664 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4665
4666* New MI commands
4667
4668-target-file-put
4669-target-file-get
4670-target-file-delete
4671 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4672
4673* New remote packets
4674
4675vFile:open:
4676vFile:close:
4677vFile:pread:
4678vFile:pwrite:
4679vFile:unlink:
4680 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
4681
4682vAttach
4683 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
4684 mode.
4685
4686vRun
4687 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
4688
4689*** Changes in GDB 6.7
4690
4691* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
4692bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
4693Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
4694
4695* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
4696symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
4697-Bsymbolic linker option.
4698
4699* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4700recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4701is not supported.
4702
4703* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4704frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4705
4706* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
470732-bit or 64-bit register values.
4708
4709* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4710
4711* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4712target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
4713a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
4714
4715* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
4716automatically displayed as character or string data.
4717
4718* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
4719arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
4720as strings.
4721
4722* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4723for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
4724only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
4725
4726* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4727iWMMXt coprocessor.
4728
4729* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4730ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4731has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4732
4733* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4734
4735* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4736
4737* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4738layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4739segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4740
4741* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4742immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4743
4744* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4745"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4746packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4747where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4748Windows and SymbianOS).
4749
4750* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4751(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
4752
4753* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4754according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
4755
4756* New commands
4757
4758set remoteflow
4759show remoteflow
4760 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4761 when debugging using remote targets.
4762
4763set mem inaccessible-by-default
4764show mem inaccessible-by-default
4765 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4766 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4767 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4768 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4769 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4770
4771set breakpoint auto-hw
4772show breakpoint auto-hw
4773 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4774 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4775 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4776 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4777 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4778 including "next" and "finish".
4779
4780catch exception
4781catch exception unhandled
4782 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4783
4784catch assert
4785 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4786
4787set sysroot
4788show sysroot
4789 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4790 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4791 an alias to "set sysroot".
4792
4793info spu
4794 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4795 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4796 architecture.
4797
4798* New native configurations
4799
4800OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4801
4802set tdesc filename
4803unset tdesc filename
4804show tdesc filename
4805 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4806 not query the target for its built-in description.
4807
4808* New targets
4809
4810OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4811MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4812Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4813
4814* New remote packets
4815
4816QPassSignals:
4817 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4818 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4819
4820qXfer:features:read:
4821 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4822 features.
4823
4824qXfer:spu:read:
4825qXfer:spu:write:
4826 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4827 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4828
4829qXfer:libraries:read:
4830 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4831 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4832 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4833 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4834
4835* Removed targets
4836
4837Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4838
4839alpha*-*-osf1*
4840alpha*-*-osf2*
4841d10v-*-*
4842hppa*-*-hiux*
4843i[34567]86-ncr-*
4844i[34567]86-*-dgux*
4845i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4846i[34567]86-*-netware*
4847i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4848i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4849i[34567]86-*-sco*
4850i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4851i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
4852i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
4853i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4854i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4855i[34567]86-*-sysv*
4856i[34567]86-*-isc*
4857m68*-cisco*-*
4858m68*-tandem-*
4859mips*-*-pe
4860rs6000-*-lynxos*
4861sh*-*-pe
4862
4863* Other removed features
4864
4865target abug
4866target cpu32bug
4867target est
4868target rom68k
4869
4870 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4871
4872target hms
4873target e7000
4874target sh3
4875target sh3e
4876
4877 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4878 H8/300.
4879
4880target ocd
4881
4882 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4883 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4884 interfaces.
4885
4886DWARF 1 support
4887
4888 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4889 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4890
4891Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4892
4893 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4894 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4895 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4896 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4897
4898MIPS ".pdr" sections
4899
4900 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4901 in debugging information.
4902
4903Scheme support
4904
4905 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4906 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4907
4908set mips stack-arg-size
4909set mips saved-gpreg-size
4910
4911 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4912
4913*** Changes in GDB 6.6
4914
4915* New targets
4916
4917Xtensa xtensa-elf
4918Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4919
4920* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4921(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4922running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4923
4924* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4925Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4926supported.
4927
4928* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4929broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4930
4931* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4932stub provides the required support.
4933
4934* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4935longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4936
4937* New commands
4938
4939set substitute-path
4940unset substitute-path
4941show substitute-path
4942 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4943 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4944 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4945 between compilation and debugging.
4946
4947set trace-commands
4948show trace-commands
4949 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4950 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4951 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4952
4953* REMOVED features
4954
4955The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4956
4957Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4958an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4959
4960The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4961
4962* New remote packets
4963
4964qSupported:
4965 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4966 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4967 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4968 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4969 target.
4970
4971qXfer:auxv:read:
4972 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4973 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4974
4975qXfer:memory-map:read:
4976 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4977 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4978
4979vFlashErase:
4980vFlashWrite:
4981vFlashDone:
4982 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4983
4984* Removed remote packets
4985
4986qPart:auxv:read:
4987 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4988 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4989
4990*** Changes in GDB 6.5
4991
4992* New targets
4993
4994Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4995
4996Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4997
4998* New commands
4999
5000init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
5001 only if it doesn't already have a value.
5002
5003The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
5004
5005checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
5006
5007restart <n> Return the program state to a
5008 previously saved state.
5009
5010info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
5011
5012delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
5013
5014set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
5015 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
5016
5017info forks List forks of the user program that
5018 are available to be debugged.
5019
5020fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
5021 forks of the user program that are
5022 available to be debugged.
5023
5024delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5025 that are available to be debugged (and
5026 kill the forked process).
5027
5028detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5029 that are available to be debugged (and
5030 allow the process to continue).
5031
5032* New architecture
5033
5034Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
5035
5036* Improved Windows host support
5037
5038GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
5039native console support, and remote communications using either
5040network sockets or serial ports.
5041
5042* Improved Modula-2 language support
5043
5044GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
5045basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
5046pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
5047printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
5048written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
5049GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
5050
5051* REMOVED features
5052
5053The ARM rdi-share module.
5054
5055The Netware NLM debug server.
5056
5057*** Changes in GDB 6.4
5058
5059* New native configurations
5060
5061OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
5062OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
5063
5064* New targets
5065
5066Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5067
5068* New command line options
5069
5070--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
5071--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
5072 the child (debugged) program exited with.
5073--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
5074 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
5075 specified multiple times and in conjunction
5076 with the --command (-x) option.
5077
5078* Deprecated commands removed
5079
5080The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
5081removed:
5082
5083 Command Replacement
5084 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
5085 othernames set arm disassembler
5086 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
5087 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
5088 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
5089 regs info registers
5090
5091* New BSD user-level threads support
5092
5093It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
5094library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
5095configurations are:
5096
5097FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5098FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
5099OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
5100
5101Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
5102are not yet supported.
5103
5104* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
5105(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
5106
5107* REMOVED configurations and files
5108
5109VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
5110Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5111National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
5112
5113* New "set print array-indexes" command
5114
5115After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
5116when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
5117behavior.
5118
5119* VAX floating point support
5120
5121GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
5122
5123* User-defined command support
5124
5125In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
5126to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
5127section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
5128
5129*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
5130
5131* New command line option
5132
5133GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
5134debugging.
5135
5136* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
5137
5138GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
5139information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
5140by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
5141proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
5142to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
5143
5144* Internationalization
5145
5146When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
5147internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
5148continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
5149
5150* Ada
5151
5152Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
5153implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
5154into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
5155
5156* New native configurations
5157
5158GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
5159
5160* Remote 'p' packet
5161
5162GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
5163packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
5164
5165* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
5166
5167GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5168The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
5169features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
5170i386 application).
5171
5172GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
5173compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
5174continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
5175configurations:
5176
5177hppa-*-hpux
5178ia64-*-aix
5179mips-*-irix*
5180*-*-lynx
5181mips-*-linux-gnu
5182sds protocol
5183xdr protocol
5184powerpc bdm protocol
5185
5186Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5187made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
5188
5189* OBSOLETE configurations and files
5190
5191Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5192been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5193configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5194permanently REMOVED.
5195
5196h8300-*-*
5197mcore-*-*
5198mn10300-*-*
5199ns32k-*-*
5200sh64-*-*
5201v850-*-*
5202
5203*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5204
5205* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5206
5207When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5208heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5209been fixed.
5210
5211* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5212
5213When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5214fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5215IRIX long double values).
5216
5217* VAX and "next"
5218
5219A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5220command. This problem has been fixed.
5221
5222*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5223
5224* Fix for ``many threads''
5225
5226On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
5227rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
5228error message:
5229
5230 ptrace: No such process.
5231 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
5232
5233This problem has been fixed.
5234
5235* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
5236
5237Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
5238GDB to dump core).
5239
5240* New ``start'' command.
5241
5242This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
5243
5244* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
5245
5246Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
5247live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
5248platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
5249
5250FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5251FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
5252NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
5253NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
5254NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
5255OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5256OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
5257OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
5258OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5259
5260* Signal trampoline code overhauled
5261
5262Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
5263These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
5264of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
5265call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
5266signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
5267
5268Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
5269features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
5270include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
5271
5272* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
5273
5274* New native configurations
5275
5276GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
5277OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
5278OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
5279OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
5280OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
5281NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
5282OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
5283
5284* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
5285
5286GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5287The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
5288including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
5289migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
5290compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
5291work, was also included.
5292
5293GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
5294module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
5295
5296h8300-*-*
5297mcore-*-*
5298mn10300-*-*
5299ns32k-*-*
5300sh64-*-*
5301v850-*-*
5302xstormy16-*-*
5303
5304Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5305made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
5306
5307* REMOVED configurations and files
5308
5309Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5310Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5311Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5312Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5313Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5314AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5315Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5316decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5317riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5318sonymips mips-sony-*
5319sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5320
5321*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
5322
5323* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
5324
5325The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
5326GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
5327command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
5328program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
5329with GDB".
5330
5331* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
5332
5333Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
5334libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
5335cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
5336GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
5337shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
5338the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
5339are created.
5340
5341Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
5342
5343* Fixed ISO-C build problems
5344
5345The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
5346non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
5347compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
5348
5349* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
5350
5351Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
5352wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
5353
5354* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
5355
5356The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
5357permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
5358systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
5359
5360* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
5361
5362Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
5363has been updated to use constant array sizes.
5364
5365* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
5366
5367GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
5368its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
5369panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
5370
5371* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
5372
5373When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
5374by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
5375not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
5376
5377*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
5378
5379* Removed --with-mmalloc
5380
5381Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
5382conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
5383
5384* Changes in AMD64 configurations
5385
5386The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
5387the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
5388and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
5389you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
5390
5391* Revised SPARC target
5392
5393The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
5394FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
5395support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
5396from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
5397(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
5398
5399* New C++ demangler
5400
5401GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
5402names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
5403with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
5404programs.
5405
5406* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5407
5408GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
5409arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
5410encountered these.
5411
5412* C++ nested types and namespaces
5413
5414GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
5415improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
5416is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
5417Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
5418namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
5419"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
5420frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
5421if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
5422GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
5423
5424* New native configurations
5425
5426NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
5427OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5428OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
5429OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5430OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
5431
5432* New debugging protocols
5433
5434M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
5435
5436* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
5437
5438The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
5439and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
5440tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
5441
5442* OBSOLETE configurations and files
5443
5444Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5445been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5446configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5447permanently REMOVED.
5448
5449Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5450Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5451Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5452Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5453Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5454AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5455Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5456decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5457riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5458sonymips mips-sony-*
5459sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5460
5461* REMOVED configurations and files
5462
5463SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5464SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5465Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5466Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5467H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5468HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5469HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5470HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5471PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5472386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
5473Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5474 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5475 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5476SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
5477SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
5478Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5479Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5480
5481*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
5482
5483* Objective-C
5484
5485Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
5486integrated into GDB.
5487
5488* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
5489
5490DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
5491information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
5492By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
5493backtraces.
5494
5495The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
5496have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
5497DWARF 2 CFI support.
5498
5499* Hosted file I/O.
5500
5501GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
5502file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
5503remote protocol documentation for details.
5504
5505* All targets using the new architecture framework.
5506
5507All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
5508architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
5509to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
5510ppc32 on ppc64).
5511
5512* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
5513
5514GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
5515per-thread variables.
5516
5517* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
5518
5519GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
5520GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
5521
5522* Separate debug info.
5523
5524GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
5525automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
5526of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
5527system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
5528and optional debug files.
5529
5530* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5531
5532DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
5533describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
5534debugger.
5535
5536GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
5537for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
5538
5539* Java
5540
5541A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
5542Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
5543considered "useable".
5544
5545* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
5546
5547The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
5548commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
5549kernel.
5550
5551* GDB supports logging output to a file
5552
5553There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
5554used to capture GDB's output to a file.
5555
5556* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
5557
5558The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
5559disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
5560command.
5561
5562* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5563
5564The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
5565registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
5566
5567* Profiling support
5568
5569A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
5570be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
5571session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
5572"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
5573data, for more informative profiling results.
5574
5575* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
5576
5577The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
5578option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
5579"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
5580
5581Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
5582removed.
5583
5584Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
5585Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
5586Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
5587 in a subsequent -var-update.
5588
5589* New native configurations.
5590
5591FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5592
5593* Multi-arched targets.
5594
5595HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5596Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5597
5598* OBSOLETE configurations and files
5599
5600Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5601been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5602configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5603permanently REMOVED.
5604
5605Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5606Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5607H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5608HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5609HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5610HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5611PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5612Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5613 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5614 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5615Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5616Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5617
5618* REMOVED configurations and files
5619
5620V850EA ISA
5621Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5622IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5623i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5624i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5625i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5626HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5627 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5628 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5629Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5630Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5631Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5632OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5633I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5634
5635* MIPS $fp behavior changed
5636
5637The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
5638the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
5639context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
5640address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
5641The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
5642
5643*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
5644
5645* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
5646
5647When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
5648`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
5649in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
5650library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
5651shared libs like mad''.
5652
5653* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
5654
5655Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
5656the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
5657arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
5658powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
5659
5660* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
5661
5662GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
5663and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
5664they expand.
5665
5666The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
5667invocations in expression, and shows the result.
5668
5669The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
5670macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
5671
5672Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
5673information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
5674your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
5675information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
5676
5677* Multi-arched targets.
5678
5679DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
5680DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
5681NEC V850 v850-*-*
5682National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
5683Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
5684Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5685
5686* New targets.
5687
5688Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
5689
5690
5691* New native configurations
5692
5693Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
5694SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
5695MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
5696UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
5697
5698* OBSOLETE configurations and files
5699
5700Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5701been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5702configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5703permanently REMOVED.
5704
5705Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5706OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5707IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5708Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5709Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5710Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5711i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5712i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5713i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5714HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5715 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5716 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5717I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5718
5719* OBSOLETE languages
5720
5721CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5722
5723* REMOVED configurations and files
5724
5725AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5726A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5727AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5728AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5729AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5730
5731testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5732
5733* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5734
5735This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5736commands. The default is 1024.
5737
5738* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5739
5740Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5741
5742* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5743
5744These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5745to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5746from a file into memory (restore).
5747
5748* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5749
5750The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5751including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5752of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5753
5754*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5755
5756* New targets.
5757
5758Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
5759
5760* Bug fixes
5761
5762gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5763mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5764Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5765
5766gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5767dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5768Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5769
5770Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5771Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5772By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5773
5774i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5775avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5776By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5777
5778*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5779
5780* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5781
5782This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5783really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5784In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5785target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5786This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5787(notably embedded) targets.
5788
5789* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5790
5791This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5792process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5793GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5794hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5795
5796* New command line option
5797
5798GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5799
5800* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5801
5802There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5803command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5804a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5805be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5806open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5807issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5808a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5809it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5810GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5811is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5812
5813* Changes in ARM configurations.
5814
5815Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5816configuration is fully multi-arch.
5817
5818* New native configurations
5819
5820ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5821x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5822AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5823Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5824
5825* New targets
5826
5827Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5828
5829* OBSOLETE configurations and files
5830
5831Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5832been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5833configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5834permanently REMOVED.
5835
5836AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5837A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5838AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5839AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5840AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5841
5842testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5843
5844* REMOVED configurations and files
5845
5846TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5847WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5848PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5849PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5850PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5851Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5852Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5853 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5854SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5855Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5856Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5857ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5858Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5859
5860* Changes to command line processing
5861
5862The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5863for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5864
5865* Changes to key bindings
5866
5867There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5868
5869*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5870
5871Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5872
5873Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5874corrupted.
5875
5876Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5877
5878Numerous documentation fixes.
5879
5880Numerous testsuite fixes.
5881
5882*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5883
5884* New native configurations
5885
5886Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5887x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5888MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5889MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5890ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5891s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5892
5893* New targets
5894
5895Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5896CRIS cris-axis
5897UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5898
5899* OBSOLETE configurations and files
5900
5901x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5902Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5903Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5904 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5905TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5906WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5907Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5908PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5909PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5910PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5911SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5912Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5913ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5914Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5915
5916stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5917kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5918
5919Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5920been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5921configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5922permanently REMOVED.
5923
5924* REMOVED configurations and files
5925
5926Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5927Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5928Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5929ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5930Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5931ser-ocd.c *-*-*
5932
5933* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5934
5935GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5936sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5937present.
5938
5939* Other news:
5940
5941* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5942
5943* The MI enabled by default.
5944
5945The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5946revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5947engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5948using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5949which is now deprecated.
5950
5951* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5952
5953GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5954main features are supported:
5955
5956 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5957
5958 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5959 extension;
5960
5961 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5962
5963 - a Pascal expression parser.
5964
5965However, some important features are not yet supported.
5966
5967 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5968
5969 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5970
5971 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5972 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5973
5974 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5975
5976 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5977
5978* Changes in completion.
5979
5980Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5981to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5982users expect at the shell prompt.
5983
5984Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5985`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5986program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5987files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5988be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5989considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5990name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5991
5992`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5993
5994* New platform-independent commands:
5995
5996It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5997hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5998documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5999
6000* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
6001
6002Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
6003revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
6004many threads as your system allows you to have.
6005
6006Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
6007
6008Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
6009multi-threaded programs though.
6010
6011* Changes in MIPS configurations.
6012
6013Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
6014
6015GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
6016debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
6017supported.)
6018
6019* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
6020
6021Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
6022breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
6023implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
6024put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
6025and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
6026registers.
6027
6028The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
6029debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
6030watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
6031
6032* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
6033
6034New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
6035the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
6036
6037New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
6038display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
6039IDT.
6040
6041New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
6042from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
6043New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
6044a given linear address.
6045
6046GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
6047program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
6048which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
6049
6050DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
6051
6052It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
6053
6054* Changes in documentation.
6055
6056All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
6057Documentation License.
6058
6059Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6060manual.
6061
6062TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
6063
6064Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6065manual.
6066
6067The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
6068documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
6069hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
6070
6071* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
6072
6073The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
6074``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
6075contents of this file.
6076
6077* gdba.el deleted
6078
6079GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
6080
6081*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
6082
6083* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
6084
6085Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
6086programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
6087displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
6088greater level of detail.
6089
6090* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
6091
6092It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
6093bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
6094on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
6095written.
6096
6097* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
6098
6099The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
6100necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
6101machines ``out of the box''.
6102
6103The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
6104possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
6105signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
6106would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
6107interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
6108
6109It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
6110standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
6111even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
6112and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
6113terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
6114
6115The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
6116enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
6117also works.
6118
6119DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
6120GDB.
6121
6122It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
6123directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
6124times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
6125breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
6126
6127* New native configurations
6128
6129ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
6130PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6131
6132* New targets
6133
6134Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
6135x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
6136PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
6137TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6138
6139* OBSOLETE configurations
6140
6141Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6142Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6143Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6144ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6145Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6146
6147Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6148but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6149these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6150be permanently REMOVED.
6151
6152* Gould support removed
6153
6154Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
6155
6156* New features for SVR4
6157
6158On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
6159without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
6160load symbols from the running process's executable file.
6161
6162* Many C++ enhancements
6163
6164C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
6165in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
6166
6167* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
6168
6169A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
6170sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
6171with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
6172``|<program> <args>'' vis:
6173
6174 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
6175 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
6176
6177* MIPS 64 remote protocol
6178
6179A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
6180expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
6181instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
6182
6183The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
6184added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
6185
6186* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
6187
6188The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
6189``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
6190include ``set remote P-packet''.
6191
6192* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
6193
6194The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
6195accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
6196``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
6197
6198* ``apropos'' command added.
6199
6200The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6201documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6202try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6203
6204* New MI interface
6205
6206A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6207interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6208process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6209"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6210enabled by configuring with:
6211
6212 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6213
6214*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6215
6216* New native configurations
6217
6218HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6219HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6220M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6221
6222* New targets
6223
6224Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6225Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6226Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6227
6228* OBSOLETE configurations
6229
6230Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
6231
6232Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6233but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6234these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6235be permanently REMOVED.
6236
6237* ANSI/ISO C
6238
6239As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
6240buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
6241containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
6242use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
6243available. If this is not true, please report the affected
6244configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
6245information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
6246already.
6247
6248* Readline 2.2
6249
6250GDB now uses readline 2.2.
6251
6252* set extension-language
6253
6254You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
6255languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
6256you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
6257 set extension-language .c c++
6258The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
6259and their associated languages.
6260
6261* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
6262
6263When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
6264you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
6265PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
6266
6267 set processor NAME
6268
6269sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
6270following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
6271
6272 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
6273 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
6274 403 IBM PowerPC 403
6275 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
6276 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
6277 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
6278 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
6279 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
6280 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
6281 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
6282 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
6283
6284At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
6285special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
6286registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
6287only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
6288
6289* HP-UX support
6290
6291Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
6292more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
6293library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
6294support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
6295for xdb and dbx commands.
6296
6297* Catchpoints
6298
6299HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
6300generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
6301to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
6302
6303This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
6304argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
6305output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
6306
6307* Debugging across forks
6308
6309On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
6310in the inferior.
6311
6312* TUI
6313
6314HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
6315it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
6316configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
6317
6318* GDB remote protocol additions
6319
6320A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
6321Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
6322fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
6323allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
6324
6325For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
6326full 64-bit address. The command
6327
6328 set remoteaddresssize 32
6329
6330can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
6331the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
6332will be discarded.
6333
6334In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
6335command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
6336
6337 maint packet heythere
6338
6339sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
6340disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
6341time.
6342
6343The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
6344target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
6345downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
6346
6347* Tracing can collect general expressions
6348
6349You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
6350further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
6351doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
6352
6353* mask-address variable for Mips
6354
6355For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
6356a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
6357of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
6358
6359* Higher serial baud rates
6360
6361GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
6362230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
6363to achieve all of these rates.)
6364
6365* i960 simulator
6366
6367The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
6368builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
6369
6370
6371*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
6372
6373* New native configurations
6374
6375Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
6376Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
6377Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6378PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6379PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6380Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
6381Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
6382
6383* New targets
6384
6385Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6386Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
6387Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6388Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
6389MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
6390MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
6391MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
6392Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
6393Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6394Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6395NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
6396
6397* New debugging protocols
6398
6399ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
6400M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
6401DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
6402PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6403PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6404Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6405
6406* DWARF 2
6407
6408All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
6409format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
6410information.
6411
6412* Java frontend
6413
6414GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
6415only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
6416
6417* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
6418
6419For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
6420loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
6421locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
6422
6423* Live range splitting
6424
6425GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
6426range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
6427more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
6428
6429* Hurd support
6430
6431GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
6432updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
6433
6434* ARM Thumb support
6435
6436GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
6437instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
6438instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
6439accordingly.
6440
6441* MIPS16 support
6442
6443GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
6444instruction set.
6445
6446* Overlay support
6447
6448GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
6449linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
6450will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
6451control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
6452additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
6453in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
6454
6455* info symbol
6456
6457The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
6458the symbol at the specified address.
6459
6460* Trace support
6461
6462The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
6463asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
6464extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
6465includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
6466file tracepoint.c for more details.
6467
6468* MIPS simulator
6469
6470Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
6471by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
6472of most MIPS variants.
6473
6474* Sparc simulator
6475
6476Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
6477by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
6478Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
6479
6480* set architecture
6481
6482For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
6483basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
6484architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
6485the possible architectures.
6486
6487*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
6488
6489* New native configurations
6490
6491Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
6492M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
6493PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
6494PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
6495PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6496RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
6497
6498* New targets
6499
6500ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
6501I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6502MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
6503MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
6504PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
6505Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
6506Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6507
6508* PowerPC simulator
6509
6510The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
6511contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
6512PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
6513basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
6514performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
6515
6516* Solaris 2.5
6517
6518GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
6519
6520* Windows 95/NT native
6521
6522GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
6523To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
6524which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
6525Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
6526ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
6527
6528* dont-repeat command
6529
6530If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
6531command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
6532useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
6533extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
6534
6535* Send break instead of ^C
6536
6537The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
6538rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
6539GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
6540
6541* Remote protocol timeout
6542
6543The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
6544that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
6545to read from the target. The default value is 2.
6546
6547* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
6548
6549By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
6550loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
6551stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
6552when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
6553in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
6554
6555Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
6556/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
6557automatically on hpux10.
6558
6559* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
6560
6561Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
6562
6563* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
6564
6565When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
6566may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
6567the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
6568every character. The default value is 1050.
6569
6570* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
6571
6572If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
6573a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
6574replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
6575details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
6576remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
6577to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
6578
6579* Speedups for remote debugging
6580
6581GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
6582the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
6583and more efficient S-record downloading.
6584
6585* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
6586
6587GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
6588Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
6589
6590*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6591
6592* Psymtabs for XCOFF
6593
6594The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6595can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6596
6597* Remote targets use caching
6598
6599Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6600remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6601it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6602debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6603off' turns the the data cache off.
6604
6605* Remote targets may have threads
6606
6607The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6608in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6609gdb/remote.c for details.
6610
6611* NetROM support
6612
6613If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6614support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6615acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6616write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
6617support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
6618another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
6619sequence is something like
6620
6621 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
6622 load <prog>
6623 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
6624
6625* Macintosh host
6626
6627GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
6628may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
6629it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
6630available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
6631device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
6632directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
6633scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
6634mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
6635
6636* Autoconf
6637
6638GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
6639but does simplify configuration and building.
6640
6641* hpux10
6642
6643GDB now supports hpux10.
6644
6645*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
6646
6647* New native configurations
6648
6649x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
6650x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
6651NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
6652Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
6653
6654* New targets
6655
6656A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6657HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
6658CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
6659PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
6660WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6661
6662* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
6663
6664GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
6665possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
6666filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
6667the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
6668if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
6669
6670* Arguments to user-defined commands
6671
6672User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
6673Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
6674trivial example:
6675define adder
6676 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
6677
6678To execute the command use:
6679adder 1 2 3
6680
6681Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
6682Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
6683use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
6684
6685* New `if' and `while' commands
6686
6687This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
6688commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
6689expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
6690execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
6691terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
6692`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
6693if the expression is zero.
6694
6695* Fortran source language mode
6696
6697GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
6698Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6699variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6700with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6701Fortran compilers.
6702
6703* Better HPUX support
6704
6705Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6706running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6707processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6708for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6709that behavior do the following before running the program:
6710
6711 adb -w a.out
6712 __dld_flags?W 0x5
6713 control-d
6714
6715This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
6716To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
6717
6718 adb -w a.out
6719 __dld_flags?W 0x4
6720 control-d
6721
6722You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6723the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6724external linkage.
6725
6726GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6727HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6728
6729* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6730
6731You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6732commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6733current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6734"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6735associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6736configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6737
6738* New DOS host serial code
6739
6740This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6741no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6742a PC's serial port.
6743
6744*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6745
6746* New "complete" command
6747
6748This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6749were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6750
6751* Trailing space optional in prompt
6752
6753"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6754allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6755
6756* Breakpoint hit counts
6757
6758"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6759has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6760can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6761to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6762less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6763that breakpoint.
6764
6765* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6766
6767"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6768an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6769arrays actually contain only short strings.
6770
6771* Shared library breakpoints
6772
6773In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6774breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6775
6776* Hardware watchpoints
6777
6778There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6779targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6780
6781Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6782
6783* Annotations
6784
6785Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6786and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6787
6788* Improved Irix 5 support
6789
6790GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6791
6792* Improved HPPA support
6793
6794GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6795
6796* New native configurations
6797
6798Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6799HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6800Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6801RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6802
6803* New targets
6804
6805OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6806MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6807Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
6808
6809* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6810
6811There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6812This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6813
6814* Fixes
6815
6816As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6817and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6818
6819*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6820
6821* Irix 5 is now supported
6822
6823* HPPA support
6824
6825GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6826to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6827GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6828of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6829can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6830
6831
6832*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6833
6834* User visible changes:
6835
6836* Remote Debugging
6837
6838The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6839target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6840debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6841integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6842debugging info for the mips target).
6843
6844* DEC Alpha native support
6845
6846GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6847debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6848work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6849Alpha-specific notes.
6850
6851* Preliminary thread implementation
6852
6853GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6854
6855* LynxOS native and target support for 386
6856
6857This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6858to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6859for details).
6860
6861* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6862
6863This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6864mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6865call methods, ...etc.
6866
6867*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6868
6869 * User visible changes:
6870
6871Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6872supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6873other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6874somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6875
6876Filename completion now works.
6877
6878When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6879arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6880addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6881
6882All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6883vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6884should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6885your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6886to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6887
6888 * DEC alpha support
6889
6890This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6891cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6892
6893
6894*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6895
6896 * Testsuite
6897
6898This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6899The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6900via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6901
6902 * C++ demangling
6903
6904'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6905emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6906Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6907disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6908use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6909
6910 * Simulators
6911
6912GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6913So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6914Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6915
6916 * New targets supported
6917
6918H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6919H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6920SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6921Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6922IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6923
6924Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6925version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6926GO32 memory extender.
6927
6928 * New remote protocols
6929
6930MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6931
6932 * New source languages supported
6933
6934This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6935used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6936into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6937
6938
6939*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6940
6941 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6942
6943GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6944version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6945University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6946compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6947format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6948(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6949
6950Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6951
6952 * Faster and better demangling
6953
6954We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6955demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6956character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6957only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6958This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6959increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6960symbol lookups.
6961
6962`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6963from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6964compiler does not actually implement.
6965
6966 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6967
6968In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6969inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6970recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6971very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6972The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6973circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6974fix.
6975
6976The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6977release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6978
6979 * Improved configure script
6980
6981The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6982you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6983host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6984done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6985
6986We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6987version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6988`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6989The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6990only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6991We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6992
6993 * Documentation improvements
6994
6995There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6996produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6997before submitting changes.
6998
6999The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
7000M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
7001`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
7002you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
7003a future texinfo-X.Y release.
7004
7005*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
7006We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
7007been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
7008or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
7009`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
7010around this problem.
7011
7012 * New features
7013
7014GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
7015the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
7016`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
7017the target program.
7018
7019The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
7020how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
7021
7022 * New native hosts supported
7023
7024HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
7025386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
7026
7027 * New targets supported
7028
7029AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
7030
7031 * New file formats supported
7032
7033BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
7034HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
7035
7036 * Major bug fixes
7037
7038Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
7039
7040We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
7041printf_filtered("%s") problems.
7042
7043We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
7044for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
7045release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
7046
7047You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
7048will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
7049
7050We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
7051for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
7052especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
7053libraries.
7054
7055The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
7056information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
7057command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
7058any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
7059when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
7060
7061 * Internal improvements
7062
7063GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
7064debugging of multiple languages in the future.
7065
7066GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
7067Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
7068symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
7069contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
7070shared code that handles any of them.
7071
7072 * New command line options
7073
7074We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
7075
7076 * Mmalloc licensing
7077
7078The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
7079General Public License.
7080
7081*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
7082
7083 * Host/native/target split
7084
7085GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
7086hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
7087target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
7088local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
7089ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
7090
7091The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
7092GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
7093is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
7094code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
7095any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
7096built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
7097handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
7098
7099GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
7100It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
7101plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
7102
7103 * New hosts supported
7104
7105HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
7106386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7107386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
7108
7109 * New targets supported
7110
7111Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
711268030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
7113
7114 * New native hosts supported
7115
7116386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7117 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
7118386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
7119
7120 * New file formats supported
7121
7122BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
7123supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
7124format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
7125
7126 * New commands
7127
7128`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
7129`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
7130These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
7131
7132`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
7133
7134You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
7135scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
7136prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
7137executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
7138
7139 * C++ improvements
7140
7141We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
7142info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
7143symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
7144
7145Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
7146
7147 * Major bug fixes
7148
7149The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
7150fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
7151by the compiler.
7152
7153We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
7154support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
7155
7156John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
7157slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
7158that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
7159purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
7160the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
7161mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
7162
7163Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
7164about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
7165completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
7166we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
7167
7168 * AMD 29k support
7169
7170A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
7171specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
7172calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
7173usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
7174in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
7175
7176We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
7177Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
7178of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
7179resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
7180
7181 * Remote interfaces
7182
7183We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
7184with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
7185message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
7186This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
7187needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
7188breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
7189each instruction being stepped through.
7190
7191The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
7192registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
7193
7194There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
7195find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
7196Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
7197processor with a serial port.
7198
7199 * Configuration
7200
7201Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7202`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7203supported, and what files each one uses.
7204
7205 * Library changes
7206
7207There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7208disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7209Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7210disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7211
7212The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7213Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7214can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7215grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7216
7217 * Documentation
7218
7219The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7220reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7221as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7222encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7223system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7224bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7225
7226And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
7227
7228
7229*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
7230
7231 * Better support for C++ function names
7232
7233GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
7234names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
7235(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
7236single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
7237Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
7238
7239GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
7240the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
7241You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
7242lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
7243for the list of formats.
7244
7245 * G++ symbol mangling problem
7246
7247Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
7248C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
7249directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
7250can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
7251usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
7252about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
7253this problem.)
7254
7255 * New 'maintenance' command
7256
7257All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
7258the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
7259can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
7260
7261 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
7262 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
7263 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
7264 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
7265 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
7266 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
7267
7268The following commands are new:
7269
7270 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
7271 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
7272 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
7273
7274 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
7275
7276We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
7277(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
7278be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
7279read after argv processing.
7280
7281 * New hosts supported
7282
7283Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
7284
7285GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
7286
7287We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
7288is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
7289for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
7290masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
7291fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
7292It costs extra.
7293
7294 * New targets supported
7295
7296Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7297
7298 * More smarts about finding #include files
7299
7300GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
7301all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
7302greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
7303especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
7304the one that contains your sources.
7305
7306We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
7307breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
7308try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
7309
7310 * Interesting infernals change
7311
7312GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
7313section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
7314target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
7315stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
7316
7317 * Bug fixes (of course!)
7318
7319There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
7320 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
7321 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
7322
7323See the ChangeLog for details.
7324
7325*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
7326
7327 * New machines supported (host and target)
7328
7329IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
7330
7331SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7332
7333 * New malloc package
7334
7335GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
7336Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
7337capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
7338This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
7339pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
7340more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
7341
7342 * info proc
7343
7344The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
7345'help info proc' for details.
7346
7347 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
7348
7349The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
7350Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
7351possible.
7352
7353 * File name changes for MS-DOS
7354
7355Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
7356support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
7357conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
7358environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
7359that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
7360in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
7361
7362 * Cross byte order fixes
7363
7364Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
7365targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
7366
7367 * New -mapped and -readnow options
7368
7369If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
7370system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
7371`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
7372program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
7373called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
7374Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
7375and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
7376the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
7377option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
7378starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
7379
7380You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
7381the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
7382information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
7383slower, but makes future operations faster.
7384
7385The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
7386build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
7387A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
7388use is:
7389
7390 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
7391
7392The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
7393It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
7394shared across multiple host platforms.
7395
7396 * longjmp() handling
7397
7398GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
7399siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
7400all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
7401platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
7402
7403 * Solaris 2.0
7404
7405Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
7406this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
7407reading symbols.
7408
7409 * Bug fixes
7410
7411As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
7412People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
7413crashes and trashed symbol tables.
7414
7415*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
7416
7417 * New machines supported (host and target)
7418
7419SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7420 (except core files)
7421BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
7422Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
7423
7424 * New machines supported (target)
7425
7426AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7427
7428 * C++ support
7429
7430GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
7431The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
7432per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
7433
7434GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
7435`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
7436extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
7437good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
7438will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
7439released.
7440
7441 * New features for SVR4
7442
7443GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
7444shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
7445only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
7446
7447The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
7448on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
7449it prints the address mappings of the process.
7450
7451If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
7452bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
7453
7454 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
7455
7456Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
7457now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
7458skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
7459make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
7460same code linked statically.
7461
7462 * New Getopt
7463
7464GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
7465version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
7466continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
7467Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
7468added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
7469future by other options that begin with the same letter.
7470
7471 * Bugs fixed
7472
7473The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7474Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7475See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7476
7477
7478*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
7479
7480 * New machines supported (host and target)
7481
7482Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
7483NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
7484Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7485
7486 * Almost SCO Unix support
7487
7488We had hoped to support:
7489SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7490(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
7491that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
7492about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
7493
7494 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
7495
7496GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
7497debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
7498is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
7499send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
7500reqired (if any).
7501
7502 * New Readline
7503
7504GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
7505is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
7506required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
7507
7508 * Bugs fixed
7509
7510The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7511Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7512See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7513
7514 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
7515
7516GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
7517supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
7518symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
7519
7520Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
7521mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
7522debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
7523mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
7524version 2.
7525
7526Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
7527really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
7528line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
7529variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
7530situation somewhat.
7531
7532When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
7533However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
7534methods.
7535
7536We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
7537DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
7538encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
7539
7540
7541*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
7542
7543 * Improved configuration
7544
7545Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
7546Porting BFD is simpler.
7547
7548 * Stepping improved
7549
7550The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
7551of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
7552in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
7553function that has debugging information is called within the line.
7554
7555 * Bug fixing
7556
7557Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
7558
7559 * New host supported (not target)
7560
7561Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
7562
7563
7564*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
7565
7566 * Multiple source language support
7567
7568GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
7569It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
7570and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
7571language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
7572You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
7573`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
7574
7575 * GDB and Modula-2
7576
7577GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
7578currently under development at the State University of New York at
7579Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
7580continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
7581
7582Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
7583debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
7584symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
7585
7586There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
7587in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7588
7589 * set write on/off
7590
7591GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7592a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7593the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7594by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7595effect immediately.
7596
7597 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7598
7599When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7600shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7601The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7602examining core files.
7603
7604 * set listsize
7605
7606You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7607The default is 10.
7608
7609 * New machines supported (host and target)
7610
7611SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7612Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7613Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7614
7615 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7616
7617IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
7618
7619 * New targets supported (not hosts)
7620
7621AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7622AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7623Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
7624
7625 * New remote interfaces
7626
7627AMD 29000 Adapt
7628AMD 29000 Minimon
7629
7630
7631*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
7632
7633 * New Facilities
7634
7635Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
7636
7637Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
7638target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
7639is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
7640remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
7641remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
7642also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
7643using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
7644stub on the target system.
7645
7646New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
7647
7648GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
7649library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
7650object file types such as a.out and coff.
7651
7652There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
7653refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
7654
7655
7656 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
7657
7658All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
7659by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
7660
7661For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
7662``Show prompt'' produces the response:
7663Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
7664
7665What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
7666print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
7667will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
7668all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
7669
7670confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
7671 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
7672 it is already running. Default is ON.
7673
7674editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
7675 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
7676 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
7677 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
7678 Default is ON.
7679
7680history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
7681 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
7682 or the value of the environment variable
7683 GDBHISTFILE.
7684
7685history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
7686 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
7687 HISTSIZE.
7688
7689history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
7690 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
7691 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
7692
7693history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
7694 history expansion will be performed on
7695 command line input. The default is OFF.
7696
7697radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
7698 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7699 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7700
7701height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7702 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7703 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7704 variable TERM.
7705
7706width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7707 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7708 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7709 variable TERM.
7710
7711Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7712``set width'' instead.
7713
7714print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
7715 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
7716 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
7717 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
7718
7719print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
7720 is OFF.
7721
7722print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7723 "raw" form if off.
7724
7725print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7726 like instructions.
7727
7728print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7729
7730
7731 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7732
7733The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7734new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7735are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7736window.
7737
7738
7739 * Support for Shared Libraries
7740
7741GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7742Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7743before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7744happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7745At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7746from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7747shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7748It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7749
7750sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7751 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7752 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7753
7754info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7755
7756
7757 * Watchpoints
7758
7759A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7760expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7761tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7762quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7763problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7764more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7765
7766watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7767
7768info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7769
7770delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7771disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7772enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7773
7774
7775 * C++ multiple inheritance
7776
7777When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7778for C++ programs.
7779
7780 * C++ exception handling
7781
7782Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7783ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7784the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7785handler's context).
7786
7787catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7788 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7789 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7790
7791info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7792 current stack frame.
7793
7794
7795 * Minor command changes
7796
7797The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7798command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7799is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7800
7801The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7802at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7803frames without printing.
7804
7805 * New directory command
7806
7807'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7808The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7809about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7810with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7811find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7812
7813 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7814
7815For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7816for more details.
7817
7818GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7819two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7820Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7821where the program that you are debugging will run.
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