Move elf32.em and elf-generic.em functions
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4*** Changes since GDB 8.3
5
6* 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
7
8* New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
9 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
10 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
11 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
12 such as in system-wide init files.
13
14* GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
15 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
16 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
17 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
18
19* Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
20 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
21 postfix [PAC].
22
23* Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
24 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
25
26* New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
27 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
28 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
29
30* The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
31
32* Python API
33
34 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
35 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
36 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
37 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
38 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
39
40 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
41 type was defined in.
42
43 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
44 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
45 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
46 is given.
47
48 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
49 symbols with static linkage.
50
51 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
52 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
53
54 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
55 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
56
57* New commands
58
59| [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
60| -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
61pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
62pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
63 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
64 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
65 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
66
67with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
68w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
69 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
70 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
71 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
72 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
73 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
74 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
75 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
76 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
77 of array elements to print.
78
79maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
80 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
81
82set may-call-functions [on|off]
83show may-call-functions
84 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
85 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
86 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
87 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
88 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
89 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
90 in the program.
91
92set print finish [on|off]
93show print finish
94 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
95 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
96 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
97 default is `on'.
98
99set print max-depth
100show print max-depth
101 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
102 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
103 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
104 the old behavior back.
105
106set logging debugredirect [on|off]
107 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
108 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
109
110set style title foreground COLOR
111set style title background COLOR
112set style title intensity VALUE
113 Control the styling of titles.
114
115set style highlight foreground COLOR
116set style highlight background COLOR
117set style highlight intensity VALUE
118 Control the styling of highlightings.
119
120maint set test-settings KIND
121maint show test-settings KIND
122 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
123 infrastructure.
124
125set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
126 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
127show print frame-info
128 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
129 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
130 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
131 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
132
133* Changed commands
134
135help
136 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
137 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
138 command names.
139
140apropos [-v] REGEXP
141 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
142 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
143 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
144 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
145 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
146
147printf
148eval
149 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
150 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
151 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
152 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
153
154info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
155 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
156 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
157 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
158 parts of the files.
159
160show style
161 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
162 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
163 the user visualize the different styles.
164
165set print frame-arguments
166 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
167 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
168
169set print raw-frame-arguments
170show print raw-frame-arguments
171
172 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
173 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
174 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
175 release.
176
177maint test-options require-delimiter
178maint test-options unknown-is-error
179maint test-options unknown-is-operand
180maint show test-options-completion-result
181 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
182 framework.
183
184* New command options, command completion
185
186 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
187 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
188 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
189 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
190 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
191 number of commands got support for new command options in this
192 release:
193
194 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
195 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
196 set by "set print" subcommands:
197
198 -address [on|off]
199 -array [on|off]
200 -array-indexes [on|off]
201 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
202 -null-stop [on|off]
203 -object [on|off]
204 -pretty [on|off]
205 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
206 -static-members [on|off]
207 -symbol [on|off]
208 -union [on|off]
209 -vtbl [on|off]
210
211 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
212 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
213 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
214 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
215
216 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
217 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
218 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
219
220 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
221 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
222 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
223 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
224 |location-and-address|short-location
225 -past-main [on|off]
226 -past-entry [on|off]
227
228 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
229 exposed as command options too:
230
231 -full
232 -no-filters
233 -hide
234
235 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
236 support the following options:
237
238 -past-main [on|off]
239 -past-entry [on|off]
240
241 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
242 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
243
244 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
245 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
246 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
247 like for example:
248
249 (gdb) p -r -p -o 0 -- *myptr
250
251 The above is equivalent to:
252
253 (gdb) print -raw -pretty -object off -- *myptr
254
255 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
256 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
257 variables" and "info functions".
258
259 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
260 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
261 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
262 from the results.
263
264* Completion improvements
265
266 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
267 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
268 abbreviated.
269
270 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
271 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
272 commands.
273
274 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
275 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
276 completes on filenames.
277
278 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
279 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
280
281* In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
282
283 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
284 elements unlimited".
285
286* New MI commands
287
288-complete
289 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
290 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
291 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
292
293-catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
294 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
295 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
296
297* Other MI changes
298
299 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
300 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
301 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
302 present.
303
304* Testsuite
305
306 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
307 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
308 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
309 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
310
311* Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
312
313 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
314 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
315
316* Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
317
318 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
319 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
320
321*** Changes in GDB 8.3
322
323* GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
324 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
325 HTM registers.
326
327* GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
328 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
329 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
330 and operators.
331
332 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
333 (the C++ plug-in).
334
335* GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
336 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
337 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
338
339* DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
340 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
341
342* Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
343 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
344 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
345 in the GDB user manual.
346
347* GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
348 executed failed.
349
350* The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
351
352* System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
353 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
354 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
355 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
356 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
357 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
358 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
359 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
360 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
361 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
362 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
363 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
364
365* Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
366 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
367 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
368 information.
369
370* Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
371 lucid.
372
373* New commands
374
375set debug compile-cplus-types
376show debug compile-cplus-types
377 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
378 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiliong
379 for other languages.
380
381set debug skip
382show debug skip
383 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
384 displayed.
385
386frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
387 Apply a command to some frames.
388 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
389 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
390
391taas COMMAND
392 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
393 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
394
395faas COMMAND
396 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
397 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
398
399tfaas COMMAND
400 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
401 output).
402 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
403
404maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
405maint show dwarf unwinders
406 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
407
408info proc files
409 Display a list of open files for a process.
410
411* Changed commands
412
413Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
414 These commands all now take a frame specification which
415 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
416 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
417 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
418 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
419 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
420
421target remote FILENAME
422target extended-remote FILENAME
423 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
424 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
425
426info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
427info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
428info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
429info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
430 These commands can now print only the searched entities
431 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
432 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
433 printing headers or informations messages.
434
435info functions
436info types
437info variables
438rbreak
439 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
440 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
441 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
442 the shown entities.
443
444thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
445 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
446 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
447 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
448
449set tui tab-width NCHARS
450show tui tab-width NCHARS
451 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
452
453set style enabled [on|off]
454show style enabled
455 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
456 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
457
458set style sources [on|off]
459show style sources
460 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
461 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
462 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
463
464set style filename foreground COLOR
465set style filename background COLOR
466set style filename intensity VALUE
467 Control the styling of file names.
468
469set style function foreground COLOR
470set style function background COLOR
471set style function intensity VALUE
472 Control the styling of function names.
473
474set style variable foreground COLOR
475set style variable background COLOR
476set style variable intensity VALUE
477 Control the styling of variable names.
478
479set style address foreground COLOR
480set style address background COLOR
481set style address intensity VALUE
482 Control the styling of addresses.
483
484* MI changes
485
486 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
487
488 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
489 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
490 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
491 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
492 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
493
494 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
495 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
496
497 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
498 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
499 the following commands and events:
500
501 - -break-insert
502 - -break-info
503 - =breakpoint-created
504 - =breakpoint-modified
505
506 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
507 this behavior with previous MI versions.
508
509* New native configurations
510
511GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
512FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
513
514* New targets
515
516GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
517CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
518CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
519FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
520NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
521GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
522
523* Removed targets
524
525GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
526before Windows XP.
527
528* Python API
529
530 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
531
532 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
533 space associated to that inferior.
534
535 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
536 of objfiles associated to that program space.
537
538 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
539 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
540 the gdb core.
541
542 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
543 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
544 correct and did not work properly.
545
546 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
547 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
548
549* Configure changes
550
551--enable-ubsan
552
553 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
554 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
555 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
556 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
557 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
558
559*** Changes in GDB 8.2
560
561* The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
562 for the MIPS target.
563
564* The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
565 offset to all sections.
566
567* Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
568 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
569 address of individual sections using '-s'.
570
571* The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
572 (address of the text section).
573
574* The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
575 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
576 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
577 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
578 default.
579
580* The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
581 for the rest of the current command.
582
583* The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
584 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
585
586* 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
587 files created on FreeBSD systems.
588
589* C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
590 alignof.
591
592* Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
593 the vector length while the process is running.
594
595* New commands
596
597set debug fbsd-nat
598show debug fbsd-nat
599 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
600
601set|show varsize-limit
602 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
603 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
604 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
605
606set|show record btrace cpu
607 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
608 branch trace decode.
609
610maint check libthread-db
611 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
612 library
613
614maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
615maint show check-libthread-db
616 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
617 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
618 perform such checks.
619
620* Python API
621
622 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
623
624 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
625 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
626
627 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
628
629 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
630 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
631 of convenience variables.
632
633 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
634 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
635 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
636
637* New targets
638
639RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
640
641* Removed targets and native configurations
642
643m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
644SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
645SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
646SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
647
648* Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
649
650 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
651 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
652 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
653 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
654 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
655 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
656 reported.
657
658* Configure changes
659
660--enable-codesign=CERT
661 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
662 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
663 gdb to work properly.
664
665--disable-gdbcli has been removed
666 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
667
668*** Changes in GDB 8.1
669
670* GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
671 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
672 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
673
674* The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
675 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
676
677* New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
678 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
679 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
680 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
681 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
682
683* GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
684 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
685 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
686 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
687
688* GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
689 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
690
691* On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
692 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
693 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
694
695 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
696 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
697 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
698
699 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
700 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
701 environment" command.
702
703* Completion improvements
704
705 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
706 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
707 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
708 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
709 correctly:
710
711 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
712 (gdb) b function(int)
713
714 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
715 C++ anonymous namespaces:
716
717 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
718 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
719 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
720 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
721
722 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
723 completion support, that better understands what you're
724 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
725 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
726 setting a breakpoint.
727
728 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
729
730 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
731
732* New command line options (gcore)
733
734-a
735 Dump all memory mappings.
736
737* Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
738
739 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
740 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
741 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
742
743 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
744
745 A::B::func()
746 B::func()
747
748 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
749 on both symbols.
750
751 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
752 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
753 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
754 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
755 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
756 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
757 a breakpoint from Python.
758
759* Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
760
761 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
762 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
763 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
764
765 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
766
767 function[abi:cxx11](int)
768 ^^^^^^^^^^^
769
770 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
771 no tag, like:
772
773 (gdb) b function(int)
774
775 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
776
777 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
778
779 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
780
781* Python Scripting
782
783 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
784 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
785 description of these.
786
787 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
788 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
789 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
790
791 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
792 manual for a further description of this feature.
793
794
795* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
796
797 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
798 specified initial working directory.
799
800 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
801 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
802
803 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
804 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
805
806 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
807 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
808
809 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
810 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
811 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
812 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
813 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
814
815 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
816 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
817 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
818
819* When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
820 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
821 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
822 in the *stopped notification.
823
824* Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
825 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
826
827* New remote packets
828
829QEnvironmentHexEncoded
830 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
831 the inferior when starting it.
832
833QEnvironmentUnset
834 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
835 before starting the remote inferior.
836
837QEnvironmentReset
838 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
839 user-set environment variables should be unset).
840
841QStartupWithShell
842 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
843
844QSetWorkingDir
845 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
846 working directory.
847
848* The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
849 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
850
851* The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
852 filter the tests to be run.
853
854* The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
855 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
856
857* New commands
858
859set|show cwd
860 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
861
862set|show compile-gcc
863 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
864 with the 'compile' commands.
865
866set debug separate-debug-file
867show debug separate-debug-file
868 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
869
870set dump-excluded-mappings
871show dump-excluded-mappings
872 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
873 dumped when generating a core file.
874
875maint info selftests
876 List the registered selftests.
877
878starti
879 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
880
881set|show debug or1k
882 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
883
884set|show print type nested-type-limit
885 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
886 type printer will show.
887
888* TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
889 `o' for nexti.
890
891* Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
892
893 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
894 'int'.
895
896 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
897 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
898 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
899 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
900
901 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
902 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
903 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
904 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
905 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
906 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
907
908 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
909 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
910 unless you tell it the variable's type:
911
912 (gdb) p var
913 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
914 (gdb) p (float) var
915 $3 = 3.14
916
917* New native configurations
918
919FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
920FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
921
922* New targets
923
924FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
925FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
926OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
927
928* Removed targets and native configurations
929
930Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
931
932*** Changes in GDB 8.0
933
934* GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
935 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
936 available in future Intel CPUs.
937
938* GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
939
940* Python Scripting
941
942 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
943 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
944
945* GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
946 instructions.
947
948* Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
949
950 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
951
952 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
953 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
954 removed.
955
956* Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
957
958 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
959 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
960
961* Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
962
963 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
964 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
965 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
966 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
967 features.
968
969* Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
970
971 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
972 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
973 debugger.
974
975* Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
976
977* User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
978 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
979
980* The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
981
982 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
983
984 define mycommand
985 set $i = 0
986 while $i < $argc
987 eval "print $arg%d", $i
988 set $i = $i + 1
989 end
990 end
991
992* Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
993
994* GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
995 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
996
997* New native configurations
998
999FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1000
1001* New targets
1002
1003Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1004FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1005
1006* Removed targets and native configurations
1007
1008Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1009Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1010
1011* New commands
1012
1013flash-erase
1014 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1015
1016maint print arc arc-instruction address
1017 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1018
1019* New options
1020
1021set disassembler-options
1022show disassembler-options
1023 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1024 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1025 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1026 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1027 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
1028
1029* New MI commands
1030
1031-target-flash-erase
1032 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
1033 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1034
1035-file-list-shared-libraries
1036 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
1037 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1038
1039-catch-handlers
1040 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
1041 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
1042
1043*** Changes in GDB 7.12
1044
1045* GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
1046
1047 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
1048 default. One must now explicitly configure with
1049 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
1050 option will be removed in a future release.
1051
1052* GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
1053 GDB connection.
1054
1055* GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
1056 memory backward from the given address. For example:
1057
1058 (gdb) bt
1059 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
1060 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
1061 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
1062 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
1063 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
1064 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
1065 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
1066 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
1067 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
1068
1069* Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
1070 arrays of dynamic types.
1071
1072* The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
1073maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1074maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1075maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1076maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1077maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
1078
1079* GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
1080 descriptions.
1081
1082* New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
1083 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
1084 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
1085
1086* Intel MPX bound violation handling.
1087
1088 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
1089 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
1090 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
1091 signal received and code location.
1092
1093 For example:
1094
1095 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
1096 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
1097 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
1098 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
1099
1100* Rust language support.
1101 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
1102 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
1103 Rust.
1104
1105* Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
1106
1107 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
1108 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
1109 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
1110 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
1111 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
1112 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
1113 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
1114 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
1115 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
1116 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
1117 line.
1118
1119* The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
1120
1121 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
1122 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
1123
1124* New commands
1125
1126skip -file file
1127skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
1128skip -function function
1129skip -rfunction regular-expression
1130 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
1131 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
1132 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
1133
1134maint info line-table REGEXP
1135 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
1136
1137maint selftest
1138 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
1139
1140new-ui INTERP TTY
1141 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
1142 using the TTY file for input/output.
1143
1144* Python Scripting
1145
1146 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
1147 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
1148 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
1149 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
1150 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
1151
1152signal-event EVENTID
1153 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
1154 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
1155 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
1156 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
1157 signalling an event.
1158
1159* Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
1160 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
1161 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
1162
1163* Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
1164 been removed:
1165
1166 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
1167 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
1168 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
1169 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
1170 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
1171 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
1172
1173* Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
1174 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
1175 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
1176 bytecode into native code.
1177
1178* MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
1179 recording. For example:
1180
1181 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
1182
1183* MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
1184
1185 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
1186
1187* New targets
1188
1189Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
1190
1191*** Changes in GDB 7.11
1192
1193* GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
1194
1195* Per-inferior thread numbers
1196
1197 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
1198 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
1199 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
1200
1201 (gdb) info threads
1202 Id Target Id Frame
1203 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
1204 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
1205 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
1206 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
1207
1208 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
1209 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
1210 are no longer unique between inferiors.
1211
1212 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
1213 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
1214 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
1215
1216 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
1217 IDs.
1218
1219* Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
1220 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
1221
1222 (gdb) thread 2.1
1223 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
1224 (gdb)
1225
1226* In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
1227 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
1228 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
1229 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
1230 threads 2.*".
1231
1232* You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
1233 all threads.
1234
1235* The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
1236 the current thread.
1237
1238* The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
1239 current inferior.
1240
1241* GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
1242 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
1243 example:
1244
1245 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
1246 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
1247
1248* Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
1249
1250* Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
1251
1252* The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
1253 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
1254
1255* GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
1256 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
1257 clients.
1258
1259* Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1260 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
1261 at the same time.
1262
1263* Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
1264 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
1265 into native code.
1266
1267* GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1268
1269* "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
1270 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
1271 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
1272
1273* In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
1274 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
1275
1276* New commands
1277
1278maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
1279maint show target-non-stop
1280 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
1281 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
1282 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
1283
1284maint set bfd-sharing
1285maint show bfd-sharing
1286 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
1287
1288set debug bfd-cache
1289show debug bfd-cache
1290 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
1291
1292set debug fbsd-lwp
1293show debug fbsd-lwp
1294 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
1295
1296set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1297show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1298 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
1299
1300set remote thread-events
1301show remote thread-events
1302 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
1303
1304set ada print-signatures on|off
1305show ada print-signatures"
1306 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
1307 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
1308
1309set max-value-size
1310show max-value-size
1311 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
1312 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
1313 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
1314
1315* The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1316 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
1317 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
1318 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
1319 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
1320 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
1321
1322* The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1323 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
1324
1325* The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
1326 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
1327
1328* Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
1329
1330 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
1331 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
1332 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
1333 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
1334 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
1335 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
1336
1337* Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
1338 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
1339
1340catch handlers
1341 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
1342
1343* New remote packets
1344
1345exec stop reason
1346 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
1347
1348exec-events feature in qSupported
1349 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
1350 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
1351 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
1352 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
1353
1354vCtrlC
1355 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
1356 non-stop mode.
1357
1358thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
1359 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
1360
1361thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
1362 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
1363
1364QThreadEvents
1365 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
1366 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
1367 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
1368 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
1369 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
1370 stop for that same thread.
1371
1372N stop reply
1373 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
1374 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
1375 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
1376
1377QCatchSyscalls
1378 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
1379 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
1380
1381syscall_entry stop reason
1382 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
1383
1384syscall_return stop reason
1385 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
1386
1387* Extended-remote exec events
1388
1389 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
1390 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1391 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1392
1393set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1394show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1395 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1396
1397 * Thread names in remote protocol
1398
1399 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1400 thread.
1401
1402* Target remote mode fork and exec events
1403
1404 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1405 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1406 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1407 fork and exec catchpoints.
1408
1409* Remote syscall events
1410
1411 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1412 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1413
1414set remote catch-syscall-packet
1415show remote catch-syscall-packet
1416 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
1417
1418* MI changes
1419
1420 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
1421 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
1422 left.
1423
1424* Python Scripting
1425
1426 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
1427 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
1428 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
1429 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
1430 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
1431 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
1432
1433*** Changes in GDB 7.10
1434
1435* Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
1436 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
1437 including advance SIMD instructions.
1438
1439* Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
1440
1441* GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
1442 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
1443 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
1444 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
1445 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
1446 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
1447 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
1448
1449* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1450 cpu information :
1451 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
1452
1453* GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
1454 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
1455 remote serial I/O.
1456
1457* The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
1458 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
1459 and may include things like its command line arguments.
1460
1461* The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
1462 is now available on all platforms.
1463
1464* Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
1465 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
1466 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
1467 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
1468 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
1469 backward compatibility.
1470
1471* The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
1472 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
1473 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
1474 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
1475
1476* GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
1477 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
1478 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
1479 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
1480 packets" below.
1481
1482* The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
1483
1484* GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
1485
1486* On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
1487 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
1488 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
1489 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
1490 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
1491 See "New remote packets" below.
1492
1493* The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
1494 available register groups, including target specific groups.
1495
1496* The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
1497 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
1498 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1499 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1500 are ignored.
1501
1502* Guile Scripting
1503
1504 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1505
1506* Python Scripting
1507
1508 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1509 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1510 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
1511 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
1512 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
1513 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
1514 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
1515 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
1516 "const" version of the value respectively.
1517
1518* New commands
1519
1520maint print symbol-cache
1521 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1522
1523maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1524 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1525
1526maint flush-symbol-cache
1527 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1528
1529record btrace bts
1530record bts
1531 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1532
1533compile print
1534 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1535
1536tui enable
1537tui disable
1538 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1539
1540show mpx bound
1541set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
1542 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
1543
1544record btrace pt
1545record pt
1546 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
1547
1548maint info btrace
1549 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1550
1551maint btrace packet-history
1552 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1553
1554maint btrace clear-packet-history
1555 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1556
1557maint btrace clear
1558 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1559 anew by the next "record" command.
1560
1561* New options
1562
1563set debug dwarf-die
1564 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1565show debug dwarf-die
1566 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1567
1568set debug dwarf-read
1569 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1570show debug dwarf-read
1571 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1572
1573maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1574 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1575maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1576 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1577
1578maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1579 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1580maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1581 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1582
1583set debug dwarf-line
1584show debug dwarf-line
1585 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1586
1587set max-completions
1588show max-completions
1589 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1590 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1591 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1592 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1593
1594set history remove-duplicates
1595show history remove-duplicates
1596 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1597
1598maint set symbol-cache-size
1599maint show symbol-cache-size
1600 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1601
1602set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1603 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1604 BTS format.
1605 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1606 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1607
1608set debug linux-namespaces
1609show debug linux-namespaces
1610 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1611
1612set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1613 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1614 Intel Processor Trace format.
1615 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1616 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1617
1618maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1619 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1620 packet history.
1621
1622* The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1623 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1624
1625* Python/Guile scripting
1626
1627 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1628 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1629
1630* New remote packets
1631
1632qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1633 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1634
1635Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1636 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1637
1638Qbtrace:pt
1639 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1640 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1641 qSupported query.
1642
1643Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1644 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1645 Trace format.
1646
1647swbreak stop reason
1648 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1649 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1650 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1651 mode operation.
1652
1653hwbreak stop reason
1654 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1655 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1656
1657vFile:fstat:
1658 Return information about files on the remote system.
1659
1660qXfer:exec-file:read
1661 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1662 create a process running on the remote system.
1663
1664vFile:setfs:
1665 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1666 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1667 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1668 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1669
1670fork stop reason
1671 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1672
1673vfork stop reason
1674 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1675
1676vforkdone stop reason
1677 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1678 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1679
1680fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1681 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1682 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1683 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1684 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1685 whether these features are enabled.
1686
1687* Extended-remote fork events
1688
1689 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1690 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1691 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1692 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1693
1694* The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1695 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1696 the btrace record target.
1697 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1698
1699* GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1700 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1701
1702* GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1703 targets.
1704
1705* Removed command line options
1706
1707-xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1708
1709* Removed targets and native configurations
1710
1711HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1712Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1713
1714* New configure options
1715
1716--with-intel-pt
1717 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1718 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1719
1720--with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1721 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1722 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1723 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1724
1725*** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1726
1727* Python Scripting
1728
1729 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1730
1731*** Changes in GDB 7.9
1732
1733* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1734
1735* Python Scripting
1736
1737 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1738 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1739 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1740 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1741 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1742 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1743 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1744 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1745 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1746 selecting a new file to debug.
1747 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1748 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1749
1750 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1751 inferior.
1752
1753 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1754 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1755 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1756 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1757
1758* New Python-based convenience functions:
1759
1760 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1761 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1762 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1763 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1764
1765* GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1766 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1767 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1768 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1769 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1770 interface with this new feature are:
1771
1772 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1773 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1774
1775* New commands
1776
1777demangle [-l language] [--] name
1778 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1779 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1780 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1781 as "maint demangler-warning".
1782
1783queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1784 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1785
1786add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1787 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1788 scripts.
1789
1790maint print user-registers
1791 List all currently available "user" registers.
1792
1793compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1794 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1795 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1796
1797compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1798 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1799 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
1800 provided.
1801
1802* On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
1803 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
1804 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
1805 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
1806 at resume time.
1807
1808* Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
1809 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
1810 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
1811 switched threads meanwhile.
1812
1813* "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
1814
1815 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
1816 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
1817 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
1818 is now the default mode.
1819
1820* New options
1821
1822set debug symbol-lookup
1823show debug symbol-lookup
1824 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
1825
1826* MI changes
1827
1828 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
1829 inferiors that have exited.
1830
1831* New targets
1832
1833MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
1834
1835* Removed targets
1836
1837Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1838
1839Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
1840SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
1841SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
1842VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
1843VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
1844
1845* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1846 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1847 its alias "share", instead.
1848
1849*** Changes in GDB 7.8
1850
1851* New command line options
1852
1853-D data-directory
1854 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
1855
1856* GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
1857 as specified in ISO C99.
1858
1859* The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
1860 with or without disassembly.
1861
1862* Guile scripting
1863
1864 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
1865 available is determined at configure time.
1866 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
1867 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
1868
1869* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1870
1871guile [code]
1872gu [code]
1873 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
1874
1875guile-repl
1876gr
1877 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
1878
1879info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
1880 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
1881
1882* The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
1883 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
1884
1885* New options
1886
1887set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
1888show print symbol-loading
1889 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
1890 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
1891 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
1892 becomes less useful.
1893
1894set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
1895show guile print-stack
1896 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
1897
1898set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
1899show auto-load guile-scripts
1900 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
1901
1902maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
1903maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
1904 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
1905 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
1906 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
1907 usage of this option.
1908
1909set auto-connect-native-target
1910
1911 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
1912 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
1913 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
1914
1915set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
1916show record btrace replay-memory-access
1917 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
1918
1919maint set target-async (on|off)
1920maint show target-async
1921 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
1922 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
1923 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
1924 occurring only in synchronous mode.
1925
1926set mi-async (on|off)
1927show mi-async
1928 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
1929 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
1930
1931* "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
1932 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
1933
1934* Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
1935 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
1936 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
1937 "set target-async on" command.
1938
1939* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1940
1941 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
1942 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
1943 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
1944 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
1945 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
1946
1947* The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
1948 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
1949 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
1950
1951* The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
1952 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
1953 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
1954 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
1955 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
1956 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
1957 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
1958
1959* The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
1960 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
1961
1962* The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
1963 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
1964 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
1965
1966* The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
1967 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
1968 memory or registers.
1969
1970* The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
1971
1972* The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
1973 remote. It now works with all targets.
1974
1975* All native targets are now consistently called "native".
1976 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
1977 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
1978 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
1979 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
1980 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
1981 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
1982 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
1983 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
1984 target-stack".
1985
1986* The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
1987 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
1988 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
1989
1990* GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
1991
1992* Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
1993 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
1994 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
1995
1996* New remote packets
1997
1998qXfer:btrace:read's annex
1999 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2000 branch trace incrementally.
2001
2002* Python Scripting
2003
2004 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2005 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2006 available.
2007 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2008 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2009 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2010 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2011 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2012
2013* New targets
2014PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2015
2016* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2017 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2018 its alias "share", instead.
2019
2020* The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2021 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2022 instead.
2023
2024* MI changes
2025
2026 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2027 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2028 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2029 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2030 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2031 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
2032 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
2033 commands and CLI execution commands.
2034
2035*** Changes in GDB 7.7
2036
2037* Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
2038 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
2039 recording has been added.
2040
2041* GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2042
2043* GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
2044 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
2045
2046* New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
2047 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
2048 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
2049 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
2050 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
2051 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
2052 "void".
2053
2054* The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
2055
2056* The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
2057
2058* GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
2059 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
2060 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
2061 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
2062
2063 (gdb) p $rax
2064 $1 = <not saved>
2065
2066 (gdb) info registers rax
2067 rax <not saved>
2068
2069 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
2070 "*value not available*".
2071
2072* New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
2073 to binaries.
2074
2075* Python scripting
2076
2077 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
2078 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
2079 ** Line tables representation has been added.
2080 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
2081 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
2082 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
2083
2084* New targets
2085
2086Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
2087Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
2088Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
2089
2090* Removed native configurations
2091
2092Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
2093been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
2094
2095arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2096i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2097i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
2098i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
2099m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2100sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2101vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2102
2103* New commands:
2104catch rethrow
2105 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
2106maint check-psymtabs
2107 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
2108maint check-symtabs
2109 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
2110maint expand-symtabs
2111 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
2112
2113show configuration
2114 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2115
2116maint set|show per-command
2117maint set|show per-command space
2118maint set|show per-command time
2119maint set|show per-command symtab
2120 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
2121
2122remove-symbol-file FILENAME
2123remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
2124 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
2125 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
2126 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
2127
2128info exceptions
2129info exceptions REGEXP
2130 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
2131 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
2132 are listed.
2133
2134* New options
2135
2136set debug symfile off|on
2137show debug symfile
2138 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
2139 symbol tables within those files
2140
2141set print raw frame-arguments
2142show print raw frame-arguments
2143 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
2144 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
2145
2146set remote trace-status-packet
2147show remote trace-status-packet
2148 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
2149
2150set debug nios2
2151show debug nios2
2152 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
2153
2154set range-stepping
2155show range-stepping
2156 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
2157
2158set startup-with-shell
2159show startup-with-shell
2160 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
2161 directly.
2162
2163set code-cache
2164show code-cache
2165 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
2166 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
2167
2168* You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
2169 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
2170 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
2171 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
2172 "set height 0".
2173
2174* The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
2175 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
2176 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
2177
2178* New command-line options
2179--configuration
2180 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2181
2182* The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
2183 buffer in Common Trace Format.
2184
2185* Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
2186 GDB command gcore.
2187
2188* GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
2189
2190* The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
2191 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
2192
2193* The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
2194 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
2195
2196* The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
2197 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
2198 due to an uncaught signal.
2199
2200* MI changes
2201
2202 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
2203 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
2204 command, which should contain "language-option".
2205
2206 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
2207 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
2208
2209 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
2210 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
2211 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
2212 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2213 "undefined-command-error-code".
2214
2215 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
2216 Trace Format now.
2217
2218 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
2219
2220 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
2221 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
2222 are displayed.
2223
2224 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
2225 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
2226
2227 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
2228 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
2229 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
2230
2231 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
2232 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
2233 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
2234 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
2235 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2236 "exec-run-start-option".
2237
2238 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
2239 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
2240
2241 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
2242 the new "info exceptions" command.
2243
2244* New system-wide configuration scripts
2245 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
2246 configuration scripts for the following systems:
2247 ** ElinOS
2248 ** Wind River Linux
2249
2250* GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
2251 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
2252 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
2253 below.
2254
2255* GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
2256 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
2257
2258* On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
2259 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
2260 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
2261
2262* New remote packets
2263
2264vCont;r
2265
2266 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
2267 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
2268 involvemement at each single-step.
2269
2270qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
2271 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
2272 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
2273 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
2274 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
2275 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
2276 speedup.
2277
2278* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2279
2280 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
2281 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
2282
2283 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
2284 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
2285 trace state variables.
2286
2287 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
2288 target.
2289
2290* New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
2291 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
2292
2293* GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
2294
2295* The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
2296 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
2297 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
2298 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2299
2300*** Changes in GDB 7.6
2301
2302* Target record has been renamed to record-full.
2303 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
2304 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
2305 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
2306
2307set|show record full insn-number-max
2308set|show record full stop-at-limit
2309set|show record full memory-query
2310
2311* A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
2312 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
2313 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
2314 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
2315 This new recording method can be enabled using:
2316
2317record btrace
2318
2319 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
2320 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
2321
2322* Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
2323 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
2324 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
2325
2326record instruction-history prints the execution history at
2327 instruction granularity
2328
2329record function-call-history prints the execution history at
2330 function granularity
2331
2332* New native configurations
2333
2334ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
2335FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
2336x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2337Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
2338
2339* New targets
2340
2341ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
2342ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
2343Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
2344x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2345Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
2346
2347* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
2348 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
2349 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
2350 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
2351 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
2352 --data-directory command-line option.
2353
2354* New command line options:
2355
2356-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
2357 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
2358
2359* Removed command line options
2360
2361-epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
2362 Emacs.
2363
2364* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
2365 type formatting.
2366
2367* 'info proc' now works on some core files.
2368
2369* Python scripting
2370
2371 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
2372
2373 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
2374
2375 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
2376
2377 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
2378
2379 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
2380 of architecture in the Python API.
2381
2382 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
2383 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
2384
2385* New Python-based convenience functions:
2386
2387 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
2388 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
2389 ** $_strlen(str)
2390 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2391
2392* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2393 given an argument.
2394
2395* The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2396 default for GCC since November 2000.
2397
2398* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2399
2400* The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2401 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2402
2403* New configure options
2404
2405--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2406 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2407 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2408 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2409 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2410 options allow the user to override that default.
2411--with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2412 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2413 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2414
2415* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2416
2417catch signal
2418 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
2419 conditions to be attached.
2420
2421maint info bfds
2422 List the BFDs known to GDB.
2423
2424python-interactive [command]
2425pi [command]
2426 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
2427 and print the result of expressions.
2428
2429py [command]
2430 "py" is a new alias for "python".
2431
2432enable type-printer [name]...
2433disable type-printer [name]...
2434 Enable or disable type printers.
2435
2436* Removed commands
2437
2438 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
2439 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
2440 instead.
2441
2442* New options
2443
2444set print type methods (on|off)
2445show print type methods
2446 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
2447 The default is to show them.
2448
2449set print type typedefs (on|off)
2450show print type typedefs
2451 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
2452 The default is to show them.
2453
2454set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
2455show filename-display
2456 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
2457 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
2458
2459set trace-buffer-size
2460show trace-buffer-size
2461 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
2462
2463set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
2464show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
2465 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
2466
2467set debug aarch64
2468show debug aarch64
2469 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
2470 The default is off.
2471
2472set debug coff-pe-read
2473show debug coff-pe-read
2474 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
2475 exported symbols.
2476
2477set debug mach-o
2478show debug mach-o
2479 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
2480 processing.
2481
2482set debug notification
2483show debug notification
2484 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
2485
2486* MI changes
2487
2488 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
2489 "=cmd-param-changed".
2490 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
2491 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
2492 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
2493 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
2494 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
2495 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
2496 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
2497 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
2498 "=memory-changed".
2499 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
2500 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
2501 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2502 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
2503 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2504 library load/unload events.
2505 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2506 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2507 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
2508 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2509 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2510 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
2511 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2512 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
2513
2514* GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
2515 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
2516 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
2517 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
2518
2519* New remote packets
2520
2521QTBuffer:size
2522 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2523 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2524
2525Qbtrace:bts
2526 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2527 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2528 qSupported query.
2529
2530Qbtrace:off
2531 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2532 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2533
2534qXfer:btrace:read
2535 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2536 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2537
2538*** Changes in GDB 7.5
2539
2540* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2541 for more x32 ABI info.
2542
2543* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2544
2545* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2546
2547* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2548 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2549 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2550 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2551 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2552 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2553 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2554 "info os msg" lists message queues
2555 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2556
2557* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2558 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2559 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2560 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2561 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2562 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2563
2564* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2565 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2566 record/replay support.
2567
2568* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2569
2570* Python scripting
2571
2572 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2573 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
2574
2575 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2576
2577 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2578 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2579
2580 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2581
2582 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2583 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2584
2585 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2586 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2587 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2588 symbol's value.
2589
2590 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2591 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2592
2593 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2594 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2595 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2596
2597 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2598 object associated with a PC value.
2599
2600 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2601 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2602
2603* Go language support.
2604 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2605 language.
2606
2607* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2608 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2609
2610* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2611 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2612
2613* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2614 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2615 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2616 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2617 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2618 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
2619
2620* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2621 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2622 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2623 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2624
2625* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2626 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2627
2628* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2629 since December 2007.
2630
2631* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2632 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2633 command does. For instance:
2634
2635 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2636
2637 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2638 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2639 created, using the "condition" command.
2640
2641* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2642 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2643
2644* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2645
2646* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2647 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2648 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2649 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2650 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2651 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2652 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2653 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2654
2655 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2656 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2657 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2658 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2659 the .gdb_index section.
2660
2661* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2662
2663* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2664 target.
2665
2666* MI changes
2667
2668 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2669
2670 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2671
2672* New commands
2673
2674 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2675 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2676 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2677
2678 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2679 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2680
2681 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2682 several hits.
2683
2684 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2685 C++ and Java objects.
2686
2687 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2688 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2689 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2690 configured with '--with-python'.
2691
2692 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2693 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2694 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2695 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2696 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2697 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2698 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2699
2700 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2701 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2702 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2703 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2704
2705 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2706 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2707 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2708 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2709
2710 ** "set print symbol"
2711 "show print symbol"
2712 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2713 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2714 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2715
2716* Deprecated commands
2717
2718 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2719 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2720
2721* New targets
2722
2723Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2724HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2725
2726* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2727 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2728 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2729 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2730 evaluates to true.
2731
2732* New options
2733
2734set mips compression
2735show mips compression
2736 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2737 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2738 mips16
2739 micromips
2740 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2741
2742set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2743show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2744 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2745 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2746 available mode.
2747 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2748 target.
2749
2750set auto-load off
2751 Disable auto-loading globally.
2752
2753show auto-load
2754 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2755
2756set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2757show auto-load gdb-scripts
2758 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2759
2760set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2761show auto-load python-scripts
2762 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2763
2764set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2765show auto-load local-gdbinit
2766 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2767
2768set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2769show auto-load libthread-db
2770 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2771
2772set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2773show auto-load scripts-directory
2774 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2775 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2776 of the directories listed by this option.
2777 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2778
2779set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2780show auto-load safe-path
2781 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2782 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2783
2784set debug auto-load on|off
2785show debug auto-load
2786 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2787
2788set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
2789show dprintf-style
2790 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2791 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2792 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2793 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
2794
2795set dprintf-function <expr>
2796show dprintf-function
2797set dprintf-channel <expr>
2798show dprintf-channel
2799 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
2800 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
2801
2802set disconnected-dprintf on|off
2803show disconnected-dprintf
2804 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
2805 after GDB disconnects.
2806
2807* New configure options
2808
2809--with-auto-load-dir
2810 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
2811 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
2812 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
2813 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
2814 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
2815
2816--with-auto-load-safe-path
2817 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
2818 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
2819
2820--without-auto-load-safe-path
2821 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
2822 security feature.
2823
2824* New remote packets
2825
2826z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
2827
2828 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
2829 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
2830 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
2831 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
2832
2833QProgramSignals:
2834
2835 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
2836 program without GDB involvement.
2837
2838* New command line options
2839
2840--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
2841 before loading inferior.
2842--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
2843 execute it before loading inferior.
2844
2845*** Changes in GDB 7.4
2846
2847* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
2848 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
2849 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
2850 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
2851 inferior changes.
2852
2853* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
2854 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
2855
2856* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
2857 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
2858 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
2859 target hardware watchpoint.
2860
2861 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
2862 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
2863 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
2864 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
2865
2866* Python scripting
2867
2868 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
2869 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
2870 existing one.
2871
2872 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
2873 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
2874 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
2875 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
2876 now "message", which just prints the error message without
2877 the stack trace.
2878
2879 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
2880 Python API.
2881
2882 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
2883 modules library. This module provides functionality for
2884 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
2885 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
2886 corresponding value.
2887
2888 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
2889 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
2890 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
2891 on GDB start-up.
2892
2893 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
2894 static_block will return the global and static blocks
2895 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
2896 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
2897
2898 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
2899
2900 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
2901 "gdb.breakpoints".
2902
2903 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
2904 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
2905 available in the CLI.
2906
2907 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
2908 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
2909 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
2910 "some_type.items()".
2911
2912 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
2913 new object file.
2914
2915 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
2916 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
2917 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
2918 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
2919 any anonymous fields.
2920
2921* MI changes
2922
2923 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
2924 "solib-event".
2925
2926 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
2927 "=breakpoint-modified".
2928
2929 ** New command -ada-task-info.
2930
2931* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
2932 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
2933 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
2934 lives.
2935
2936 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
2937 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
2938 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
2939 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
2940 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
2941
2942 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
2943 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
2944
2945* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
2946 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
2947 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
2948 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
2949 use this option to specify where to find it.
2950
2951* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2952 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
2953 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
2954 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
2955 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
2956 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2957 section in the user manual for more details.
2958
2959* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
2960 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
2961 become available after that.
2962
2963* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
2964
2965* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
2966 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
2967 gcc version 4.7.
2968
2969* New commands
2970
2971!SHELL COMMAND
2972 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
2973 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
2974
2975* Changed commands
2976
2977watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
2978 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
2979 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
2980
2981info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
2982 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
2983 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
2984
2985info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
2986 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
2987 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
2988 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
2989 name starts with a hyphen.
2990
2991collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
2992 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
2993 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
2994 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
2995 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
2996 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
2997 number of bytes that will be collected.
2998
2999tstart [NOTES]
3000 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3001 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3002 setting the variable trace-notes.
3003
3004tstop [NOTES]
3005 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3006 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3007 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3008 trace-stop-notes.
3009
3010* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3011 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3012 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3013 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3014 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3015 is running.
3016
3017* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3018 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3019 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3020
3021* New options
3022
3023set debug dwarf2-read
3024show debug dwarf2-read
3025 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3026 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3027
3028set debug symtab-create
3029show debug symtab-create
3030 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3031 creation. The default is off.
3032
3033set extended-prompt
3034show extended-prompt
3035 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
3036 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
3037 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
3038 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
3039 prompt is displayed.
3040
3041set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
3042show print entry-values
3043 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
3044 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
3045 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
3046
3047set debug entry-values
3048show debug entry-values
3049 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
3050 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
3051
3052set basenames-may-differ
3053show basenames-may-differ
3054 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
3055 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
3056 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
3057 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
3058 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
3059 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
3060 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
3061 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
3062
3063set trace-user
3064show trace-user
3065set trace-notes
3066show trace-notes
3067 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
3068 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
3069 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
3070 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
3071
3072set trace-stop-notes
3073show trace-stop-notes
3074 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
3075 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
3076 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
3077 started by someone else.
3078
3079* New remote packets
3080
3081QTEnable
3082
3083 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3084
3085QTDisable
3086
3087 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3088
3089QTNotes
3090
3091 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
3092
3093qTP
3094
3095 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
3096
3097qTMinFTPILen
3098
3099 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
3100 be placed.
3101
3102* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
3103 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
3104
3105* New targets
3106
3107Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
3108
3109* New Simulators
3110
3111Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3112
3113*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
3114
3115* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
3116
3117*** Changes in GDB 7.3
3118
3119* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
3120 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
3121 matches the given regular expression.
3122
3123* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
3124
3125* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
3126 dumping the instruction opcodes.
3127
3128* New command line options
3129
3130-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
3131 This is mostly for testing purposes.
3132
3133* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
3134 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
3135
3136* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
3137 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
3138 source path list instead of augmenting it.
3139
3140* GDB now understands thread names.
3141
3142 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
3143 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
3144
3145 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
3146 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
3147
3148* OpenCL C
3149 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
3150 has been integrated into GDB.
3151
3152* Python scripting
3153
3154 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
3155 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
3156 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
3157
3158 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3159 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
3160 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
3161 and allows for more dynamic content.
3162
3163 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
3164 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
3165 have an is_valid method.
3166
3167 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3168 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
3169 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
3170
3171 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
3172
3173 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
3174 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
3175 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
3176 that function like so:
3177
3178 result = some_value (10,20)
3179
3180 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
3181 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
3182 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
3183
3184 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
3185 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
3186 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
3187 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
3188 New function: register_pretty_printer.
3189
3190 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
3191 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
3192
3193 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
3194
3195 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
3196 selected thread.
3197
3198 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
3199 holds the thread's name.
3200
3201 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
3202 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
3203 occurring in the process being debugged.
3204 The following events are currently supported:
3205 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
3206 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
3207 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
3208
3209* C++ Improvements:
3210
3211 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
3212 instantiation. For example, if you have:
3213
3214 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
3215
3216 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
3217 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
3218 was added to GCC 4.5.
3219
3220 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
3221 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
3222 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
3223 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
3224 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
3225 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
3226
3227* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
3228 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
3229 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
3230 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
3231 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
3232
3233* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
3234 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
3235 execution to a label.
3236
3237* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
3238 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
3239 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
3240 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
3241
3242* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
3243 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
3244 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
3245 of scope.
3246
3247* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
3248
3249 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
3250 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
3251 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
3252 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
3253 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
3254 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
3255
3256 (gdb) info threads
3257 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
3258
3259 While now you see this:
3260
3261 (gdb) info threads
3262 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
3263
3264 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
3265 dumps.
3266
3267 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
3268 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
3269 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
3270 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
3271
3272* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3273 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
3274 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
3275 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3276 section in the user manual for more details.
3277
3278* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3279
3280 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
3281 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
3282
3283 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
3284
3285* New native configurations
3286
3287ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3288
3289* New targets:
3290
3291Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
3292
3293* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
3294 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
3295 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
3296 in the GDB user manual.
3297
3298* Guile support was removed.
3299
3300* New features in the GNU simulator
3301
3302 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
3303
3304 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
3305
3306*** Changes in GDB 7.2
3307
3308* Shared library support for remote targets by default
3309
3310 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
3311 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
3312 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
3313 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
3314 was always disabled for such configurations.
3315
3316* C++ Improvements:
3317
3318 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
3319
3320 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
3321 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
3322 For example:
3323 namespace A
3324 {
3325 class B { };
3326 void foo (B) { }
3327 }
3328 ...
3329 A::B b
3330 foo(b)
3331 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
3332 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
3333 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
3334
3335 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
3336
3337 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
3338 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
3339 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
3340 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
3341 entry.
3342 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
3343 mentioned flavors of operators.
3344
3345 ** static const class members
3346
3347 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
3348 class definition has been fixed.
3349
3350* Windows Thread Information Block access.
3351
3352 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
3353 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
3354 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
3355 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
3356 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
3357 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
3358
3359* Static tracepoints
3360
3361 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
3362 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
3363 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
3364 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
3365 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
3366 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
3367 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
3368 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
3369 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
3370 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
3371 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
3372 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
3373 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
3374 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
3375 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
3376 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
3377 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
3378 the "New remote packets" section below.
3379
3380* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
3381
3382 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
3383 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
3384 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
3385 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
3386
3387* Observer mode
3388
3389 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
3390 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3391 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3392 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3393 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3394 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3395 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3396
3397* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3398 current thread.
3399
3400* New remote packets
3401
3402qGetTIBAddr
3403
3404 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3405
3406qRelocInsn
3407
3408 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3409 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3410 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3411 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3412 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3413 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3414
3415qTfSTM, qTsSTM
3416
3417 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
3418
3419qTSTMat
3420
3421 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
3422 program.
3423
3424qXfer:statictrace:read
3425
3426 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
3427 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
3428 to gdb's qSupported query.
3429
3430QAllow
3431
3432 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
3433
3434QTDPsrc
3435
3436 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
3437 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
3438
3439* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
3440 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
3441 a directory.
3442
3443* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3444
3445 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
3446 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
3447 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
3448 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
3449
3450 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
3451 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
3452 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
3453 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
3454 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
3455 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
3456 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
3457
3458 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
3459 for static tracepoints support.
3460
3461 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
3462
3463* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
3464 it understands register description.
3465
3466* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
3467
3468* X86 general purpose registers
3469
3470 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
3471 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
3472 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
3473 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
3474 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
3475
3476* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
3477 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
3478 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
3479 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
3480 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
3481 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
3482
3483* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
3484 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
3485 in the specified file.
3486
3487* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
3488 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
3489 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
3490 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
3491 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
3492 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
3493 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
3494 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
3495 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
3496 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
3497
3498* New commands
3499
3500eval template, expressions...
3501 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3502 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3503
3504set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3505show target-file-system-kind
3506 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3507 names.
3508
3509save breakpoints <filename>
3510 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3511 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3512 definitions, use the `source' command.
3513
3514`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
3515is now deprecated.
3516
3517info static-tracepoint-markers
3518 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
3519
3520strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3521 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3522 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3523
3524set observer on|off
3525show observer
3526 Enable and disable observer mode.
3527
3528set may-write-registers on|off
3529set may-write-memory on|off
3530set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3531set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3532set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3533set may-interrupt on|off
3534 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3535 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3536 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3537 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3538 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3539 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3540 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3541
3542set record memory-query on|off
3543show record memory-query
3544 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3545 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3546
3547* Changed commands
3548
3549disassemble
3550 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3551
3552* Python scripting
3553
3554** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3555 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3556 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3557 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3558 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3559
3560** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3561 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3562 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3563 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3564
3565** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3566 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3567
3568** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3569
3570** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3571
3572** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3573
3574** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3575 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3576 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3577
3578* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3579there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3580tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3581regular breakpoints.
3582
3583* New targets
3584
3585ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3586
3587* D language support.
3588 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3589 language.
3590
3591* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3592 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3593 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3594 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3595 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3596
3597* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3598 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3599 conditions of the form:
3600
3601 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3602
3603 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3604 interface mentioned above.
3605
3606*** Changes in GDB 7.1
3607
3608* C++ Improvements
3609
3610 ** Namespace Support
3611
3612 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3613 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3614 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3615 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3616 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3617
3618 ** Bug Fixes
3619
3620 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3621 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3622 qualified name.
3623
3624 ** Cast Operators
3625
3626 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3627 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3628
3629* New targets
3630
3631Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3632Renesas RX rx-*-elf
3633
3634* New Simulators
3635
3636Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3637Renesas RX rx
3638
3639* Multi-program debugging.
3640
3641 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3642 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3643 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3644 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3645 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3646 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3647 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3648 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3649
3650* New tracing features
3651
3652 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3653
3654 ** Trace state variables
3655
3656 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3657 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3658 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3659 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3660 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3661 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3662 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3663 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3664 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3665 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3666
3667 ** Fast tracepoints
3668
3669 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3670 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3671 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3672 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3673 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3674 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3675 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3676 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3677 the regular trace command.
3678
3679 ** Disconnected tracing
3680
3681 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3682 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3683 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3684 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3685 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3686
3687 ** Trace files
3688
3689 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3690 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3691 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3692 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3693 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3694 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3695 <name>".
3696
3697 ** Circular trace buffer
3698
3699 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3700 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3701 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3702 not be available for all target agents.
3703
3704* Changed commands
3705
3706disassemble
3707 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3708 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3709
3710info variables
3711 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3712 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3713
3714source
3715 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3716 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3717 support.
3718
3719 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3720 "set script-extension" (see below).
3721
3722* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3723
3724record save [<FILENAME>]
3725 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3726 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3727
3728record restore <FILENAME>
3729 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3730 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3731
3732add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3733 Add a new inferior.
3734
3735clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3736 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3737 inferior has loaded.
3738
3739remove-inferior ID
3740 Remove an inferior.
3741
3742maint info program-spaces
3743 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3744
3745set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3746show remote interrupt-sequence
3747 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3748 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3749 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3750 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3751 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3752
3753set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3754show remote interrupt-on-connect
3755 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3756 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3757 Linux kernel.
3758
3759set remotebreak [on | off]
3760show remotebreak
3761Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3762
3763tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3764 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3765
3766info tvariables
3767 List trace state variables and their values.
3768
3769delete tvariable $NAME ...
3770 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3771
3772teval EXPR, ...
3773 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3774 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3775
3776ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3777 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3778
3779* New expression syntax
3780
3781 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3782 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3783
3784* New options
3785
3786set follow-exec-mode new|same
3787show follow-exec-mode
3788 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3789 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3790 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3791
3792set default-collect EXPR, ...
3793show default-collect
3794 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3795 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3796 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3797
3798set disconnected-tracing
3799show disconnected-tracing
3800 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
3801 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
3802 upon disconnection.
3803
3804set circular-trace-buffer
3805show circular-trace-buffer
3806 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
3807 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
3808 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
3809 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
3810
3811set script-extension off|soft|strict
3812show script-extension
3813 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
3814 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
3815 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
3816 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
3817 evaluation failed.
3818 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
3819
3820set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
3821show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
3822 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
3823 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
3824 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
3825 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
3826 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
3827 is on.
3828
3829* Python API Improvements
3830
3831 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
3832 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
3833 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
3834
3835 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
3836 `is_base_class' attribute.
3837
3838 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
3839
3840 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
3841 evaluate an expression.
3842
3843* New remote packets
3844
3845QTDV
3846 Define a trace state variable.
3847
3848qTV
3849 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
3850
3851QTDisconnected
3852 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
3853
3854QTBuffer:circular
3855 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
3856
3857qTfP, qTsP
3858 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
3859
3860* Bug fixes
3861
3862Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
3863
3864Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
3865much more reliable. In particular:
3866 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
3867 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
3868 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
3869 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
3870 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
3871 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
3872 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
3873 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
3874 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
3875 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
3876 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
3877 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
3878 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
3879 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
3880 non-threaded programs.
3881
3882PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
3883This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
3884libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
3885executable program.
3886
3887*** Changes in GDB 7.0
3888
3889* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
3890dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
3891them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
3892for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
3893"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
3894
3895* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
3896breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
3897or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
3898the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
3899for tracepoint actions.
3900
3901* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
3902raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
3903modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
3904
3905* Process record and replay
3906
3907 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
3908 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
3909 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
3910 execute commands.
3911
3912* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
3913step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
3914set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
3915reverse execution.
3916
3917* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
3918feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
39192.6.28 or later.
3920
3921* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
3922target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
3923char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
3924literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
3925U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
3926`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
3927system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
3928the installation instructions for more information.
3929
3930* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
3931remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
3932with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
3933the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
3934
3935* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
3936and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
3937
3938* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
3939now complete on file names.
3940
3941* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
3942completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
3943For instance, consider:
3944
3945 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
3946 # struct example variable;
3947 (gdb) p variable.
3948
3949If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
3950completions will be "f1" and "f2".
3951
3952* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
3953the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
3954
3955* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
3956operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
3957macros.
3958
3959* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
3960the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
3961implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
3962
3963* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
3964registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
3965can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
3966and simulator targets may also provide them.
3967
3968* New remote packets
3969
3970qSearch:memory:
3971 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3972
3973QStartNoAckMode
3974 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
3975 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
3976 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
3977
3978vKill
3979 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
3980 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
3981
3982qXfer:osdata:read
3983 Obtains additional operating system information
3984
3985qXfer:siginfo:read
3986qXfer:siginfo:write
3987 Read or write additional signal information.
3988
3989* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
3990
3991 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
3992 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
3993 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
3994
3995* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
3996DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
3997
3998* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
3999and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4000`set/show sh calling-convention'.
4001
4002* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4003with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4004
4005* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4006
4007* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4008
4009* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4010which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4011
4012* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
4013list of section offsets.
4014
4015* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4016conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4017have also been fixed.
4018
4019* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4020From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4021are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4022
4023* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4024example, given:
4025
4026 template<typename T> class C { };
4027 C<char const *> c;
4028
4029GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4030
4031 ptype C<char const *>
4032 ptype C<char const*>
4033 ptype C<const char *>
4034 ptype C<const char*>
4035
4036* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
4037
4038 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
4039 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4040
4041 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
4042 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4043 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
4044
4045 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
4046 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
4047
4048 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
4049 gdbserver.
4050
4051 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
4052 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4053
4054 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
4055 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
4056 as appropriate.
4057
4058* Python scripting
4059
4060 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
4061 available is determined at configure time.
4062
4063 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
4064
4065* Ada tasking support
4066
4067 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
4068 been introduced:
4069
4070 info tasks
4071 Print the list of Ada tasks.
4072 info task N
4073 Print detailed information about task number N.
4074 task
4075 Print the task number of the current task.
4076 task N
4077 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
4078
4079* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
4080add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
4081
4082* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
4083
4084 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
4085 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
4086 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
4087 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
4088 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
4089 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
4090 below.
4091
4092* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
4093"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
4094information.
4095
4096* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
4097to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
4098architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
4099See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
4100more information.
4101
4102* Multi-architecture debugging.
4103
4104 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
4105 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
4106 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
4107 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
4108 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
4109
4110* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
4111use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
4112Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
4113powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
4114--enable-targets configure option.
4115
4116* Non-stop mode debugging.
4117
4118 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
4119 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
4120 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
4121 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
4122 section in the user manual for more information.
4123
4124 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
4125 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
4126 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
4127 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
4128 extensions on linux targets.
4129
4130* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4131
4132catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
4133 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
4134 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
4135 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
4136 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
4137 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
4138 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
4139 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
4140 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
4141
4142find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
4143 val1 [, val2, ...]
4144 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4145
4146maint set python print-stack
4147maint show python print-stack
4148 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
4149
4150python [CODE]
4151 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
4152
4153macro define
4154macro list
4155macro undef
4156 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
4157 interactively.
4158
4159info os processes
4160 Show operating system information about processes.
4161
4162info inferiors
4163 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
4164
4165inferior NUM
4166 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
4167
4168detach inferior NUM
4169 Detach from inferior number NUM.
4170
4171kill inferior NUM
4172 Kill inferior number NUM.
4173
4174* New options
4175
4176set spu stop-on-load
4177show spu stop-on-load
4178 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4179
4180set spu auto-flush-cache
4181show spu auto-flush-cache
4182 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
4183 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4184
4185set sh calling-convention
4186show sh calling-convention
4187 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
4188
4189set debug timestamp
4190show debug timestamp
4191 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
4192
4193set disassemble-next-line
4194show disassemble-next-line
4195 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
4196 the debuggee stops.
4197
4198set remote noack-packet
4199show remote noack-packet
4200 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
4201 under "New remote packets."
4202
4203set remote query-attached-packet
4204show remote query-attached-packet
4205 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
4206
4207set remote read-siginfo-object
4208show remote read-siginfo-object
4209 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
4210 packet.
4211
4212set remote write-siginfo-object
4213show remote write-siginfo-object
4214 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
4215 packet.
4216
4217set remote reverse-continue
4218show remote reverse-continue
4219 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
4220
4221set remote reverse-step
4222show remote reverse-step
4223 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
4224
4225set displaced-stepping
4226show displaced-stepping
4227 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
4228 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
4229 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
4230
4231set debug displaced
4232show debug displaced
4233 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
4234
4235maint set internal-error
4236maint show internal-error
4237 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
4238
4239maint set internal-warning
4240maint show internal-warning
4241 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
4242
4243set exec-wrapper
4244show exec-wrapper
4245unset exec-wrapper
4246 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4247
4248set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
4249show multiple-symbols
4250 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
4251 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
4252 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
4253
4254set breakpoint always-inserted
4255show breakpoint always-inserted
4256 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
4257 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
4258 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
4259
4260set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4261show arm fallback-mode
4262set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4263show arm force-mode
4264 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
4265 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
4266 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
4267 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
4268
4269set disable-randomization
4270show disable-randomization
4271 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
4272 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
4273 multiple debugging sessions.
4274
4275set non-stop
4276show non-stop
4277 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
4278 a breakpoint.
4279
4280set target-async
4281show target-async
4282 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
4283 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
4284 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
4285 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
4286
4287set target-wide-charset
4288show target-wide-charset
4289 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
4290 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
4291
4292set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
4293show tcp auto-retry
4294set tcp connect-timeout
4295show tcp connect-timeout
4296 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
4297 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
4298 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
4299
4300set libthread-db-search-path
4301show libthread-db-search-path
4302 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
4303 libthread_db.
4304
4305set schedule-multiple (on|off)
4306show schedule-multiple
4307 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
4308 the current process.
4309
4310set stack-cache
4311show stack-cache
4312 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
4313 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
4314 affecting correctness.
4315
4316set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
4317show interactive-mode
4318 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
4319 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
4320 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
4321 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
4322 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
4323
4324* Removed commands
4325
4326info forks
4327 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
4328 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
4329 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
4330 command.
4331
4332fork NUM
4333 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
4334 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
4335 alias for the `fork' command.
4336
4337process PID
4338 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
4339 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
4340 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
4341
4342delete fork NUM
4343 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
4344 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
4345 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
4346 fork' command.
4347
4348detach fork NUM
4349 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
4350 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
4351 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
4352 fork' command.
4353
4354* New native configurations
4355
4356x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
4357
4358x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
4359
4360* New targets
4361
4362Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
4363x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4364x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
4365S+core 3 score-*-*
4366
4367* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
4368 (mingw32ce) debugging.
4369
4370* Removed commands
4371
4372catch load
4373catch unload
4374 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
4375
4376*** Changes in GDB 6.8
4377
4378* New native configurations
4379
4380NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
4381Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4382
4383* New targets
4384
4385NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
4386Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
4387
4388* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4389
4390 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4391 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4392 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4393 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4394
4395* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4396(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4397
4398* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4399is resolved.
4400
4401* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4402including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4403and in inlined functions.
4404
4405* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4406accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4407more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4408
4409* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4410
4411* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4412registers on PowerPC targets.
4413
4414* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4415targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4416
4417* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
4418commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
4419
4420* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
4421extended-remote mode.
4422
4423* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
4424The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
4425error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
4426The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
4427
4428* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
4429building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
4430target architectures.
4431
4432* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
4433Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
4434now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
4435stored in two consecutive float registers.
4436
4437* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
4438breakpoints now.
4439
4440* Improved support for debugging Ada
4441Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
4442include:
4443 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
4444 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
4445 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
4446 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
4447 of an assignment
4448 - Improved command completion in Ada
4449 - Several bug fixes
4450
4451* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
4452process.
4453
4454* New commands
4455
4456set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
4457show print frame-arguments
4458 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
4459 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
4460
4461remote put
4462remote get
4463remote delete
4464 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4465
4466* New MI commands
4467
4468-target-file-put
4469-target-file-get
4470-target-file-delete
4471 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4472
4473* New remote packets
4474
4475vFile:open:
4476vFile:close:
4477vFile:pread:
4478vFile:pwrite:
4479vFile:unlink:
4480 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
4481
4482vAttach
4483 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
4484 mode.
4485
4486vRun
4487 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
4488
4489*** Changes in GDB 6.7
4490
4491* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
4492bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
4493Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
4494
4495* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
4496symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
4497-Bsymbolic linker option.
4498
4499* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4500recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4501is not supported.
4502
4503* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4504frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4505
4506* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
450732-bit or 64-bit register values.
4508
4509* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4510
4511* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4512target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
4513a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
4514
4515* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
4516automatically displayed as character or string data.
4517
4518* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
4519arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
4520as strings.
4521
4522* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4523for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
4524only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
4525
4526* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4527iWMMXt coprocessor.
4528
4529* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4530ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4531has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4532
4533* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4534
4535* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4536
4537* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4538layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4539segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4540
4541* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4542immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4543
4544* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4545"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4546packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4547where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4548Windows and SymbianOS).
4549
4550* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4551(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
4552
4553* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4554according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
4555
4556* New commands
4557
4558set remoteflow
4559show remoteflow
4560 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4561 when debugging using remote targets.
4562
4563set mem inaccessible-by-default
4564show mem inaccessible-by-default
4565 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4566 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4567 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4568 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4569 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4570
4571set breakpoint auto-hw
4572show breakpoint auto-hw
4573 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4574 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4575 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4576 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4577 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4578 including "next" and "finish".
4579
4580catch exception
4581catch exception unhandled
4582 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4583
4584catch assert
4585 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4586
4587set sysroot
4588show sysroot
4589 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4590 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4591 an alias to "set sysroot".
4592
4593info spu
4594 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4595 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4596 architecture.
4597
4598* New native configurations
4599
4600OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4601
4602set tdesc filename
4603unset tdesc filename
4604show tdesc filename
4605 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4606 not query the target for its built-in description.
4607
4608* New targets
4609
4610OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4611MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4612Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4613
4614* New remote packets
4615
4616QPassSignals:
4617 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4618 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4619
4620qXfer:features:read:
4621 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4622 features.
4623
4624qXfer:spu:read:
4625qXfer:spu:write:
4626 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4627 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4628
4629qXfer:libraries:read:
4630 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4631 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4632 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4633 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4634
4635* Removed targets
4636
4637Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4638
4639alpha*-*-osf1*
4640alpha*-*-osf2*
4641d10v-*-*
4642hppa*-*-hiux*
4643i[34567]86-ncr-*
4644i[34567]86-*-dgux*
4645i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4646i[34567]86-*-netware*
4647i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4648i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4649i[34567]86-*-sco*
4650i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4651i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
4652i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
4653i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4654i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4655i[34567]86-*-sysv*
4656i[34567]86-*-isc*
4657m68*-cisco*-*
4658m68*-tandem-*
4659mips*-*-pe
4660rs6000-*-lynxos*
4661sh*-*-pe
4662
4663* Other removed features
4664
4665target abug
4666target cpu32bug
4667target est
4668target rom68k
4669
4670 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4671
4672target hms
4673target e7000
4674target sh3
4675target sh3e
4676
4677 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4678 H8/300.
4679
4680target ocd
4681
4682 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4683 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4684 interfaces.
4685
4686DWARF 1 support
4687
4688 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4689 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4690
4691Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4692
4693 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4694 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4695 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4696 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4697
4698MIPS ".pdr" sections
4699
4700 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4701 in debugging information.
4702
4703Scheme support
4704
4705 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4706 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4707
4708set mips stack-arg-size
4709set mips saved-gpreg-size
4710
4711 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4712
4713*** Changes in GDB 6.6
4714
4715* New targets
4716
4717Xtensa xtensa-elf
4718Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4719
4720* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4721(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4722running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4723
4724* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4725Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4726supported.
4727
4728* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4729broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4730
4731* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4732stub provides the required support.
4733
4734* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4735longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4736
4737* New commands
4738
4739set substitute-path
4740unset substitute-path
4741show substitute-path
4742 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4743 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4744 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4745 between compilation and debugging.
4746
4747set trace-commands
4748show trace-commands
4749 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4750 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4751 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4752
4753* REMOVED features
4754
4755The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4756
4757Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4758an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4759
4760The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4761
4762* New remote packets
4763
4764qSupported:
4765 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4766 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4767 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4768 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4769 target.
4770
4771qXfer:auxv:read:
4772 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4773 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4774
4775qXfer:memory-map:read:
4776 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4777 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4778
4779vFlashErase:
4780vFlashWrite:
4781vFlashDone:
4782 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4783
4784* Removed remote packets
4785
4786qPart:auxv:read:
4787 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4788 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4789
4790*** Changes in GDB 6.5
4791
4792* New targets
4793
4794Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4795
4796Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4797
4798* New commands
4799
4800init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
4801 only if it doesn't already have a value.
4802
4803The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
4804
4805checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
4806
4807restart <n> Return the program state to a
4808 previously saved state.
4809
4810info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
4811
4812delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
4813
4814set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
4815 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
4816
4817info forks List forks of the user program that
4818 are available to be debugged.
4819
4820fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
4821 forks of the user program that are
4822 available to be debugged.
4823
4824delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4825 that are available to be debugged (and
4826 kill the forked process).
4827
4828detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4829 that are available to be debugged (and
4830 allow the process to continue).
4831
4832* New architecture
4833
4834Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
4835
4836* Improved Windows host support
4837
4838GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
4839native console support, and remote communications using either
4840network sockets or serial ports.
4841
4842* Improved Modula-2 language support
4843
4844GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
4845basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
4846pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
4847printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
4848written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
4849GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
4850
4851* REMOVED features
4852
4853The ARM rdi-share module.
4854
4855The Netware NLM debug server.
4856
4857*** Changes in GDB 6.4
4858
4859* New native configurations
4860
4861OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
4862OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
4863
4864* New targets
4865
4866Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4867
4868* New command line options
4869
4870--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
4871--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
4872 the child (debugged) program exited with.
4873--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
4874 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
4875 specified multiple times and in conjunction
4876 with the --command (-x) option.
4877
4878* Deprecated commands removed
4879
4880The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
4881removed:
4882
4883 Command Replacement
4884 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
4885 othernames set arm disassembler
4886 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
4887 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
4888 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
4889 regs info registers
4890
4891* New BSD user-level threads support
4892
4893It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
4894library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
4895configurations are:
4896
4897FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4898FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
4899OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
4900
4901Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
4902are not yet supported.
4903
4904* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
4905(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
4906
4907* REMOVED configurations and files
4908
4909VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
4910Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4911National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
4912
4913* New "set print array-indexes" command
4914
4915After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
4916when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
4917behavior.
4918
4919* VAX floating point support
4920
4921GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
4922
4923* User-defined command support
4924
4925In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
4926to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
4927section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
4928
4929*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
4930
4931* New command line option
4932
4933GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
4934debugging.
4935
4936* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
4937
4938GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
4939information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
4940by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
4941proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
4942to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
4943
4944* Internationalization
4945
4946When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
4947internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
4948continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
4949
4950* Ada
4951
4952Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
4953implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
4954into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
4955
4956* New native configurations
4957
4958GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
4959
4960* Remote 'p' packet
4961
4962GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
4963packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
4964
4965* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
4966
4967GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4968The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
4969features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
4970i386 application).
4971
4972GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
4973compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
4974continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
4975configurations:
4976
4977hppa-*-hpux
4978ia64-*-aix
4979mips-*-irix*
4980*-*-lynx
4981mips-*-linux-gnu
4982sds protocol
4983xdr protocol
4984powerpc bdm protocol
4985
4986Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4987made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
4988
4989* OBSOLETE configurations and files
4990
4991Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4992been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4993configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4994permanently REMOVED.
4995
4996h8300-*-*
4997mcore-*-*
4998mn10300-*-*
4999ns32k-*-*
5000sh64-*-*
5001v850-*-*
5002
5003*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5004
5005* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5006
5007When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5008heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5009been fixed.
5010
5011* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5012
5013When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5014fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5015IRIX long double values).
5016
5017* VAX and "next"
5018
5019A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5020command. This problem has been fixed.
5021
5022*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5023
5024* Fix for ``many threads''
5025
5026On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
5027rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
5028error message:
5029
5030 ptrace: No such process.
5031 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
5032
5033This problem has been fixed.
5034
5035* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
5036
5037Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
5038GDB to dump core).
5039
5040* New ``start'' command.
5041
5042This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
5043
5044* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
5045
5046Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
5047live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
5048platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
5049
5050FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5051FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
5052NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
5053NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
5054NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
5055OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5056OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
5057OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
5058OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5059
5060* Signal trampoline code overhauled
5061
5062Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
5063These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
5064of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
5065call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
5066signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
5067
5068Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
5069features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
5070include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
5071
5072* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
5073
5074* New native configurations
5075
5076GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
5077OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
5078OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
5079OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
5080OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
5081NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
5082OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
5083
5084* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
5085
5086GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5087The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
5088including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
5089migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
5090compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
5091work, was also included.
5092
5093GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
5094module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
5095
5096h8300-*-*
5097mcore-*-*
5098mn10300-*-*
5099ns32k-*-*
5100sh64-*-*
5101v850-*-*
5102xstormy16-*-*
5103
5104Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5105made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
5106
5107* REMOVED configurations and files
5108
5109Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5110Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5111Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5112Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5113Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5114AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5115Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5116decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5117riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5118sonymips mips-sony-*
5119sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5120
5121*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
5122
5123* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
5124
5125The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
5126GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
5127command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
5128program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
5129with GDB".
5130
5131* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
5132
5133Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
5134libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
5135cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
5136GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
5137shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
5138the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
5139are created.
5140
5141Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
5142
5143* Fixed ISO-C build problems
5144
5145The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
5146non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
5147compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
5148
5149* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
5150
5151Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
5152wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
5153
5154* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
5155
5156The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
5157permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
5158systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
5159
5160* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
5161
5162Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
5163has been updated to use constant array sizes.
5164
5165* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
5166
5167GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
5168its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
5169panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
5170
5171* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
5172
5173When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
5174by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
5175not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
5176
5177*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
5178
5179* Removed --with-mmalloc
5180
5181Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
5182conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
5183
5184* Changes in AMD64 configurations
5185
5186The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
5187the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
5188and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
5189you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
5190
5191* Revised SPARC target
5192
5193The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
5194FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
5195support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
5196from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
5197(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
5198
5199* New C++ demangler
5200
5201GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
5202names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
5203with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
5204programs.
5205
5206* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5207
5208GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
5209arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
5210encountered these.
5211
5212* C++ nested types and namespaces
5213
5214GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
5215improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
5216is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
5217Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
5218namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
5219"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
5220frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
5221if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
5222GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
5223
5224* New native configurations
5225
5226NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
5227OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5228OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
5229OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5230OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
5231
5232* New debugging protocols
5233
5234M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
5235
5236* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
5237
5238The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
5239and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
5240tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
5241
5242* OBSOLETE configurations and files
5243
5244Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5245been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5246configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5247permanently REMOVED.
5248
5249Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5250Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5251Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5252Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5253Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5254AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5255Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5256decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5257riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5258sonymips mips-sony-*
5259sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5260
5261* REMOVED configurations and files
5262
5263SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5264SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5265Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5266Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5267H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5268HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5269HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5270HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5271PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5272386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
5273Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5274 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5275 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5276SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
5277SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
5278Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5279Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5280
5281*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
5282
5283* Objective-C
5284
5285Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
5286integrated into GDB.
5287
5288* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
5289
5290DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
5291information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
5292By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
5293backtraces.
5294
5295The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
5296have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
5297DWARF 2 CFI support.
5298
5299* Hosted file I/O.
5300
5301GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
5302file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
5303remote protocol documentation for details.
5304
5305* All targets using the new architecture framework.
5306
5307All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
5308architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
5309to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
5310ppc32 on ppc64).
5311
5312* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
5313
5314GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
5315per-thread variables.
5316
5317* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
5318
5319GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
5320GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
5321
5322* Separate debug info.
5323
5324GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
5325automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
5326of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
5327system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
5328and optional debug files.
5329
5330* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5331
5332DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
5333describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
5334debugger.
5335
5336GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
5337for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
5338
5339* Java
5340
5341A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
5342Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
5343considered "useable".
5344
5345* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
5346
5347The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
5348commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
5349kernel.
5350
5351* GDB supports logging output to a file
5352
5353There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
5354used to capture GDB's output to a file.
5355
5356* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
5357
5358The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
5359disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
5360command.
5361
5362* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5363
5364The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
5365registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
5366
5367* Profiling support
5368
5369A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
5370be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
5371session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
5372"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
5373data, for more informative profiling results.
5374
5375* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
5376
5377The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
5378option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
5379"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
5380
5381Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
5382removed.
5383
5384Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
5385Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
5386Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
5387 in a subsequent -var-update.
5388
5389* New native configurations.
5390
5391FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5392
5393* Multi-arched targets.
5394
5395HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5396Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5397
5398* OBSOLETE configurations and files
5399
5400Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5401been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5402configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5403permanently REMOVED.
5404
5405Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5406Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5407H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5408HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5409HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5410HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5411PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5412Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5413 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5414 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5415Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5416Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5417
5418* REMOVED configurations and files
5419
5420V850EA ISA
5421Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5422IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5423i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5424i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5425i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5426HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5427 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5428 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5429Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5430Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5431Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5432OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5433I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5434
5435* MIPS $fp behavior changed
5436
5437The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
5438the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
5439context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
5440address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
5441The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
5442
5443*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
5444
5445* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
5446
5447When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
5448`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
5449in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
5450library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
5451shared libs like mad''.
5452
5453* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
5454
5455Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
5456the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
5457arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
5458powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
5459
5460* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
5461
5462GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
5463and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
5464they expand.
5465
5466The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
5467invocations in expression, and shows the result.
5468
5469The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
5470macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
5471
5472Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
5473information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
5474your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
5475information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
5476
5477* Multi-arched targets.
5478
5479DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
5480DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
5481NEC V850 v850-*-*
5482National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
5483Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
5484Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5485
5486* New targets.
5487
5488Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
5489
5490
5491* New native configurations
5492
5493Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
5494SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
5495MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
5496UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
5497
5498* OBSOLETE configurations and files
5499
5500Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5501been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5502configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5503permanently REMOVED.
5504
5505Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5506OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5507IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5508Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5509Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5510Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5511i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5512i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5513i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5514HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5515 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5516 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5517I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5518
5519* OBSOLETE languages
5520
5521CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5522
5523* REMOVED configurations and files
5524
5525AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5526A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5527AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5528AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5529AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5530
5531testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5532
5533* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5534
5535This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5536commands. The default is 1024.
5537
5538* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5539
5540Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5541
5542* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5543
5544These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5545to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5546from a file into memory (restore).
5547
5548* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5549
5550The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5551including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5552of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5553
5554*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5555
5556* New targets.
5557
5558Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
5559
5560* Bug fixes
5561
5562gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5563mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5564Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5565
5566gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5567dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5568Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5569
5570Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5571Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5572By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5573
5574i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5575avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5576By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5577
5578*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5579
5580* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5581
5582This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5583really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5584In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5585target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5586This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5587(notably embedded) targets.
5588
5589* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5590
5591This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5592process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5593GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5594hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5595
5596* New command line option
5597
5598GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5599
5600* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5601
5602There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5603command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5604a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5605be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5606open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5607issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5608a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5609it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5610GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5611is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5612
5613* Changes in ARM configurations.
5614
5615Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5616configuration is fully multi-arch.
5617
5618* New native configurations
5619
5620ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5621x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5622AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5623Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5624
5625* New targets
5626
5627Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5628
5629* OBSOLETE configurations and files
5630
5631Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5632been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5633configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5634permanently REMOVED.
5635
5636AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5637A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5638AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5639AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5640AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5641
5642testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5643
5644* REMOVED configurations and files
5645
5646TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5647WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5648PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5649PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5650PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5651Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5652Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5653 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5654SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5655Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5656Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5657ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5658Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5659
5660* Changes to command line processing
5661
5662The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5663for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5664
5665* Changes to key bindings
5666
5667There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5668
5669*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5670
5671Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5672
5673Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5674corrupted.
5675
5676Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5677
5678Numerous documentation fixes.
5679
5680Numerous testsuite fixes.
5681
5682*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5683
5684* New native configurations
5685
5686Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5687x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5688MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5689MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5690ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5691s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5692
5693* New targets
5694
5695Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5696CRIS cris-axis
5697UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5698
5699* OBSOLETE configurations and files
5700
5701x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5702Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5703Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5704 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5705TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5706WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5707Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5708PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5709PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5710PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5711SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5712Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5713ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5714Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5715
5716stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5717kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5718
5719Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5720been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5721configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5722permanently REMOVED.
5723
5724* REMOVED configurations and files
5725
5726Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5727Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5728Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5729ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5730Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5731ser-ocd.c *-*-*
5732
5733* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5734
5735GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5736sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5737present.
5738
5739* Other news:
5740
5741* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5742
5743* The MI enabled by default.
5744
5745The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5746revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5747engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5748using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5749which is now deprecated.
5750
5751* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5752
5753GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5754main features are supported:
5755
5756 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5757
5758 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5759 extension;
5760
5761 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5762
5763 - a Pascal expression parser.
5764
5765However, some important features are not yet supported.
5766
5767 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5768
5769 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5770
5771 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5772 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5773
5774 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5775
5776 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5777
5778* Changes in completion.
5779
5780Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5781to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5782users expect at the shell prompt.
5783
5784Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5785`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5786program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5787files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5788be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5789considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5790name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5791
5792`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5793
5794* New platform-independent commands:
5795
5796It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5797hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5798documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5799
5800* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
5801
5802Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
5803revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
5804many threads as your system allows you to have.
5805
5806Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
5807
5808Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
5809multi-threaded programs though.
5810
5811* Changes in MIPS configurations.
5812
5813Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
5814
5815GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
5816debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
5817supported.)
5818
5819* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
5820
5821Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
5822breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
5823implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
5824put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
5825and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
5826registers.
5827
5828The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
5829debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
5830watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
5831
5832* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
5833
5834New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
5835the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
5836
5837New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
5838display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
5839IDT.
5840
5841New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
5842from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
5843New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
5844a given linear address.
5845
5846GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
5847program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
5848which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
5849
5850DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
5851
5852It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
5853
5854* Changes in documentation.
5855
5856All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
5857Documentation License.
5858
5859Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5860manual.
5861
5862TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
5863
5864Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5865manual.
5866
5867The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
5868documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
5869hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
5870
5871* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
5872
5873The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
5874``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
5875contents of this file.
5876
5877* gdba.el deleted
5878
5879GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
5880
5881*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
5882
5883* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
5884
5885Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
5886programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
5887displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
5888greater level of detail.
5889
5890* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
5891
5892It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
5893bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
5894on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
5895written.
5896
5897* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
5898
5899The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
5900necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
5901machines ``out of the box''.
5902
5903The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
5904possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
5905signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
5906would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
5907interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
5908
5909It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
5910standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
5911even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
5912and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
5913terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
5914
5915The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
5916enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
5917also works.
5918
5919DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
5920GDB.
5921
5922It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
5923directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
5924times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
5925breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
5926
5927* New native configurations
5928
5929ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
5930PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5931
5932* New targets
5933
5934Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
5935x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
5936PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
5937TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5938
5939* OBSOLETE configurations
5940
5941Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5942Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5943Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5944ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5945Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5946
5947Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5948but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5949these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5950be permanently REMOVED.
5951
5952* Gould support removed
5953
5954Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
5955
5956* New features for SVR4
5957
5958On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
5959without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
5960load symbols from the running process's executable file.
5961
5962* Many C++ enhancements
5963
5964C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
5965in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
5966
5967* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
5968
5969A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
5970sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
5971with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
5972``|<program> <args>'' vis:
5973
5974 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
5975 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
5976
5977* MIPS 64 remote protocol
5978
5979A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
5980expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
5981instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
5982
5983The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
5984added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
5985
5986* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
5987
5988The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
5989``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
5990include ``set remote P-packet''.
5991
5992* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
5993
5994The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
5995accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
5996``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
5997
5998* ``apropos'' command added.
5999
6000The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6001documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6002try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6003
6004* New MI interface
6005
6006A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6007interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6008process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6009"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6010enabled by configuring with:
6011
6012 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6013
6014*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6015
6016* New native configurations
6017
6018HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6019HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6020M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6021
6022* New targets
6023
6024Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6025Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6026Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6027
6028* OBSOLETE configurations
6029
6030Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
6031
6032Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6033but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6034these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6035be permanently REMOVED.
6036
6037* ANSI/ISO C
6038
6039As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
6040buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
6041containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
6042use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
6043available. If this is not true, please report the affected
6044configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
6045information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
6046already.
6047
6048* Readline 2.2
6049
6050GDB now uses readline 2.2.
6051
6052* set extension-language
6053
6054You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
6055languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
6056you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
6057 set extension-language .c c++
6058The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
6059and their associated languages.
6060
6061* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
6062
6063When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
6064you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
6065PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
6066
6067 set processor NAME
6068
6069sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
6070following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
6071
6072 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
6073 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
6074 403 IBM PowerPC 403
6075 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
6076 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
6077 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
6078 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
6079 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
6080 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
6081 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
6082 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
6083
6084At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
6085special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
6086registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
6087only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
6088
6089* HP-UX support
6090
6091Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
6092more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
6093library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
6094support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
6095for xdb and dbx commands.
6096
6097* Catchpoints
6098
6099HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
6100generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
6101to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
6102
6103This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
6104argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
6105output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
6106
6107* Debugging across forks
6108
6109On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
6110in the inferior.
6111
6112* TUI
6113
6114HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
6115it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
6116configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
6117
6118* GDB remote protocol additions
6119
6120A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
6121Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
6122fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
6123allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
6124
6125For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
6126full 64-bit address. The command
6127
6128 set remoteaddresssize 32
6129
6130can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
6131the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
6132will be discarded.
6133
6134In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
6135command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
6136
6137 maint packet heythere
6138
6139sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
6140disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
6141time.
6142
6143The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
6144target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
6145downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
6146
6147* Tracing can collect general expressions
6148
6149You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
6150further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
6151doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
6152
6153* mask-address variable for Mips
6154
6155For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
6156a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
6157of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
6158
6159* Higher serial baud rates
6160
6161GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
6162230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
6163to achieve all of these rates.)
6164
6165* i960 simulator
6166
6167The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
6168builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
6169
6170
6171*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
6172
6173* New native configurations
6174
6175Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
6176Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
6177Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6178PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6179PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6180Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
6181Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
6182
6183* New targets
6184
6185Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6186Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
6187Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6188Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
6189MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
6190MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
6191MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
6192Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
6193Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6194Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6195NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
6196
6197* New debugging protocols
6198
6199ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
6200M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
6201DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
6202PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6203PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6204Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6205
6206* DWARF 2
6207
6208All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
6209format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
6210information.
6211
6212* Java frontend
6213
6214GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
6215only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
6216
6217* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
6218
6219For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
6220loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
6221locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
6222
6223* Live range splitting
6224
6225GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
6226range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
6227more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
6228
6229* Hurd support
6230
6231GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
6232updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
6233
6234* ARM Thumb support
6235
6236GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
6237instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
6238instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
6239accordingly.
6240
6241* MIPS16 support
6242
6243GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
6244instruction set.
6245
6246* Overlay support
6247
6248GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
6249linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
6250will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
6251control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
6252additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
6253in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
6254
6255* info symbol
6256
6257The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
6258the symbol at the specified address.
6259
6260* Trace support
6261
6262The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
6263asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
6264extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
6265includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
6266file tracepoint.c for more details.
6267
6268* MIPS simulator
6269
6270Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
6271by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
6272of most MIPS variants.
6273
6274* Sparc simulator
6275
6276Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
6277by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
6278Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
6279
6280* set architecture
6281
6282For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
6283basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
6284architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
6285the possible architectures.
6286
6287*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
6288
6289* New native configurations
6290
6291Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
6292M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
6293PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
6294PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
6295PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6296RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
6297
6298* New targets
6299
6300ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
6301I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6302MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
6303MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
6304PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
6305Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
6306Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6307
6308* PowerPC simulator
6309
6310The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
6311contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
6312PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
6313basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
6314performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
6315
6316* Solaris 2.5
6317
6318GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
6319
6320* Windows 95/NT native
6321
6322GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
6323To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
6324which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
6325Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
6326ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
6327
6328* dont-repeat command
6329
6330If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
6331command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
6332useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
6333extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
6334
6335* Send break instead of ^C
6336
6337The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
6338rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
6339GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
6340
6341* Remote protocol timeout
6342
6343The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
6344that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
6345to read from the target. The default value is 2.
6346
6347* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
6348
6349By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
6350loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
6351stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
6352when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
6353in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
6354
6355Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
6356/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
6357automatically on hpux10.
6358
6359* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
6360
6361Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
6362
6363* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
6364
6365When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
6366may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
6367the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
6368every character. The default value is 1050.
6369
6370* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
6371
6372If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
6373a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
6374replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
6375details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
6376remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
6377to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
6378
6379* Speedups for remote debugging
6380
6381GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
6382the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
6383and more efficient S-record downloading.
6384
6385* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
6386
6387GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
6388Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
6389
6390*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6391
6392* Psymtabs for XCOFF
6393
6394The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6395can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6396
6397* Remote targets use caching
6398
6399Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6400remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6401it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6402debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6403off' turns the the data cache off.
6404
6405* Remote targets may have threads
6406
6407The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6408in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6409gdb/remote.c for details.
6410
6411* NetROM support
6412
6413If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6414support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6415acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6416write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
6417support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
6418another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
6419sequence is something like
6420
6421 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
6422 load <prog>
6423 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
6424
6425* Macintosh host
6426
6427GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
6428may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
6429it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
6430available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
6431device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
6432directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
6433scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
6434mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
6435
6436* Autoconf
6437
6438GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
6439but does simplify configuration and building.
6440
6441* hpux10
6442
6443GDB now supports hpux10.
6444
6445*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
6446
6447* New native configurations
6448
6449x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
6450x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
6451NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
6452Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
6453
6454* New targets
6455
6456A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6457HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
6458CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
6459PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
6460WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6461
6462* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
6463
6464GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
6465possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
6466filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
6467the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
6468if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
6469
6470* Arguments to user-defined commands
6471
6472User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
6473Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
6474trivial example:
6475define adder
6476 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
6477
6478To execute the command use:
6479adder 1 2 3
6480
6481Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
6482Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
6483use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
6484
6485* New `if' and `while' commands
6486
6487This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
6488commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
6489expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
6490execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
6491terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
6492`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
6493if the expression is zero.
6494
6495* Fortran source language mode
6496
6497GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
6498Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6499variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6500with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6501Fortran compilers.
6502
6503* Better HPUX support
6504
6505Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6506running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6507processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6508for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6509that behavior do the following before running the program:
6510
6511 adb -w a.out
6512 __dld_flags?W 0x5
6513 control-d
6514
6515This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
6516To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
6517
6518 adb -w a.out
6519 __dld_flags?W 0x4
6520 control-d
6521
6522You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6523the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6524external linkage.
6525
6526GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6527HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6528
6529* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6530
6531You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6532commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6533current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6534"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6535associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6536configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6537
6538* New DOS host serial code
6539
6540This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6541no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6542a PC's serial port.
6543
6544*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6545
6546* New "complete" command
6547
6548This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6549were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6550
6551* Trailing space optional in prompt
6552
6553"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6554allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6555
6556* Breakpoint hit counts
6557
6558"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6559has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6560can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6561to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6562less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6563that breakpoint.
6564
6565* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6566
6567"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6568an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6569arrays actually contain only short strings.
6570
6571* Shared library breakpoints
6572
6573In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6574breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6575
6576* Hardware watchpoints
6577
6578There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6579targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6580
6581Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6582
6583* Annotations
6584
6585Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6586and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6587
6588* Improved Irix 5 support
6589
6590GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6591
6592* Improved HPPA support
6593
6594GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6595
6596* New native configurations
6597
6598Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6599HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6600Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6601RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6602
6603* New targets
6604
6605OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6606MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6607Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
6608
6609* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6610
6611There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6612This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6613
6614* Fixes
6615
6616As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6617and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6618
6619*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6620
6621* Irix 5 is now supported
6622
6623* HPPA support
6624
6625GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6626to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6627GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6628of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6629can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6630
6631
6632*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6633
6634* User visible changes:
6635
6636* Remote Debugging
6637
6638The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6639target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6640debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6641integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6642debugging info for the mips target).
6643
6644* DEC Alpha native support
6645
6646GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6647debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6648work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6649Alpha-specific notes.
6650
6651* Preliminary thread implementation
6652
6653GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6654
6655* LynxOS native and target support for 386
6656
6657This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6658to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6659for details).
6660
6661* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6662
6663This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6664mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6665call methods, ...etc.
6666
6667*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6668
6669 * User visible changes:
6670
6671Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6672supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6673other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6674somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6675
6676Filename completion now works.
6677
6678When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6679arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6680addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6681
6682All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6683vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6684should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6685your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6686to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6687
6688 * DEC alpha support
6689
6690This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6691cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6692
6693
6694*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6695
6696 * Testsuite
6697
6698This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6699The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6700via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6701
6702 * C++ demangling
6703
6704'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6705emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6706Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6707disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6708use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6709
6710 * Simulators
6711
6712GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6713So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6714Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6715
6716 * New targets supported
6717
6718H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6719H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6720SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6721Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6722IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6723
6724Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6725version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6726GO32 memory extender.
6727
6728 * New remote protocols
6729
6730MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6731
6732 * New source languages supported
6733
6734This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6735used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6736into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6737
6738
6739*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6740
6741 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6742
6743GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6744version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6745University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6746compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6747format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6748(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6749
6750Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6751
6752 * Faster and better demangling
6753
6754We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6755demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6756character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6757only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6758This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6759increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6760symbol lookups.
6761
6762`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6763from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6764compiler does not actually implement.
6765
6766 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6767
6768In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6769inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6770recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6771very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6772The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6773circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6774fix.
6775
6776The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6777release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6778
6779 * Improved configure script
6780
6781The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6782you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6783host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6784done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6785
6786We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6787version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6788`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6789The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6790only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6791We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6792
6793 * Documentation improvements
6794
6795There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6796produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6797before submitting changes.
6798
6799The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
6800M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
6801`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
6802you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
6803a future texinfo-X.Y release.
6804
6805*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
6806We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
6807been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
6808or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
6809`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
6810around this problem.
6811
6812 * New features
6813
6814GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
6815the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
6816`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
6817the target program.
6818
6819The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
6820how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
6821
6822 * New native hosts supported
6823
6824HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
6825386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
6826
6827 * New targets supported
6828
6829AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
6830
6831 * New file formats supported
6832
6833BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
6834HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
6835
6836 * Major bug fixes
6837
6838Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
6839
6840We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
6841printf_filtered("%s") problems.
6842
6843We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
6844for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
6845release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
6846
6847You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
6848will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
6849
6850We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
6851for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
6852especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
6853libraries.
6854
6855The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
6856information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
6857command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
6858any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
6859when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
6860
6861 * Internal improvements
6862
6863GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
6864debugging of multiple languages in the future.
6865
6866GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
6867Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
6868symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
6869contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
6870shared code that handles any of them.
6871
6872 * New command line options
6873
6874We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
6875
6876 * Mmalloc licensing
6877
6878The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
6879General Public License.
6880
6881*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
6882
6883 * Host/native/target split
6884
6885GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
6886hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
6887target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
6888local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
6889ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
6890
6891The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
6892GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
6893is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
6894code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
6895any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
6896built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
6897handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
6898
6899GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
6900It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
6901plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
6902
6903 * New hosts supported
6904
6905HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
6906386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6907386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
6908
6909 * New targets supported
6910
6911Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
691268030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
6913
6914 * New native hosts supported
6915
6916386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6917 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
6918386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
6919
6920 * New file formats supported
6921
6922BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
6923supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
6924format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
6925
6926 * New commands
6927
6928`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
6929`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
6930These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
6931
6932`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
6933
6934You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
6935scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
6936prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
6937executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
6938
6939 * C++ improvements
6940
6941We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
6942info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
6943symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
6944
6945Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
6946
6947 * Major bug fixes
6948
6949The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
6950fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
6951by the compiler.
6952
6953We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
6954support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
6955
6956John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
6957slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
6958that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
6959purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
6960the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
6961mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
6962
6963Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
6964about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
6965completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
6966we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
6967
6968 * AMD 29k support
6969
6970A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
6971specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
6972calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
6973usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
6974in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
6975
6976We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
6977Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
6978of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
6979resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
6980
6981 * Remote interfaces
6982
6983We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
6984with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
6985message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
6986This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
6987needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
6988breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
6989each instruction being stepped through.
6990
6991The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
6992registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
6993
6994There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
6995find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
6996Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
6997processor with a serial port.
6998
6999 * Configuration
7000
7001Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7002`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7003supported, and what files each one uses.
7004
7005 * Library changes
7006
7007There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7008disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7009Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7010disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7011
7012The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7013Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7014can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7015grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7016
7017 * Documentation
7018
7019The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7020reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7021as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7022encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7023system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7024bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7025
7026And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
7027
7028
7029*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
7030
7031 * Better support for C++ function names
7032
7033GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
7034names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
7035(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
7036single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
7037Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
7038
7039GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
7040the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
7041You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
7042lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
7043for the list of formats.
7044
7045 * G++ symbol mangling problem
7046
7047Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
7048C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
7049directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
7050can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
7051usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
7052about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
7053this problem.)
7054
7055 * New 'maintenance' command
7056
7057All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
7058the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
7059can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
7060
7061 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
7062 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
7063 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
7064 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
7065 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
7066 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
7067
7068The following commands are new:
7069
7070 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
7071 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
7072 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
7073
7074 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
7075
7076We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
7077(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
7078be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
7079read after argv processing.
7080
7081 * New hosts supported
7082
7083Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
7084
7085GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
7086
7087We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
7088is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
7089for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
7090masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
7091fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
7092It costs extra.
7093
7094 * New targets supported
7095
7096Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7097
7098 * More smarts about finding #include files
7099
7100GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
7101all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
7102greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
7103especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
7104the one that contains your sources.
7105
7106We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
7107breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
7108try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
7109
7110 * Interesting infernals change
7111
7112GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
7113section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
7114target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
7115stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
7116
7117 * Bug fixes (of course!)
7118
7119There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
7120 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
7121 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
7122
7123See the ChangeLog for details.
7124
7125*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
7126
7127 * New machines supported (host and target)
7128
7129IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
7130
7131SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7132
7133 * New malloc package
7134
7135GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
7136Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
7137capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
7138This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
7139pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
7140more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
7141
7142 * info proc
7143
7144The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
7145'help info proc' for details.
7146
7147 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
7148
7149The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
7150Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
7151possible.
7152
7153 * File name changes for MS-DOS
7154
7155Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
7156support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
7157conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
7158environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
7159that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
7160in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
7161
7162 * Cross byte order fixes
7163
7164Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
7165targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
7166
7167 * New -mapped and -readnow options
7168
7169If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
7170system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
7171`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
7172program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
7173called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
7174Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
7175and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
7176the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
7177option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
7178starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
7179
7180You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
7181the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
7182information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
7183slower, but makes future operations faster.
7184
7185The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
7186build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
7187A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
7188use is:
7189
7190 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
7191
7192The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
7193It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
7194shared across multiple host platforms.
7195
7196 * longjmp() handling
7197
7198GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
7199siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
7200all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
7201platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
7202
7203 * Solaris 2.0
7204
7205Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
7206this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
7207reading symbols.
7208
7209 * Bug fixes
7210
7211As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
7212People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
7213crashes and trashed symbol tables.
7214
7215*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
7216
7217 * New machines supported (host and target)
7218
7219SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7220 (except core files)
7221BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
7222Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
7223
7224 * New machines supported (target)
7225
7226AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7227
7228 * C++ support
7229
7230GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
7231The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
7232per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
7233
7234GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
7235`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
7236extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
7237good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
7238will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
7239released.
7240
7241 * New features for SVR4
7242
7243GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
7244shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
7245only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
7246
7247The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
7248on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
7249it prints the address mappings of the process.
7250
7251If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
7252bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
7253
7254 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
7255
7256Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
7257now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
7258skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
7259make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
7260same code linked statically.
7261
7262 * New Getopt
7263
7264GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
7265version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
7266continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
7267Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
7268added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
7269future by other options that begin with the same letter.
7270
7271 * Bugs fixed
7272
7273The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7274Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7275See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7276
7277
7278*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
7279
7280 * New machines supported (host and target)
7281
7282Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
7283NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
7284Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7285
7286 * Almost SCO Unix support
7287
7288We had hoped to support:
7289SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7290(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
7291that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
7292about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
7293
7294 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
7295
7296GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
7297debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
7298is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
7299send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
7300reqired (if any).
7301
7302 * New Readline
7303
7304GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
7305is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
7306required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
7307
7308 * Bugs fixed
7309
7310The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7311Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7312See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7313
7314 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
7315
7316GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
7317supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
7318symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
7319
7320Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
7321mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
7322debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
7323mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
7324version 2.
7325
7326Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
7327really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
7328line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
7329variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
7330situation somewhat.
7331
7332When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
7333However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
7334methods.
7335
7336We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
7337DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
7338encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
7339
7340
7341*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
7342
7343 * Improved configuration
7344
7345Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
7346Porting BFD is simpler.
7347
7348 * Stepping improved
7349
7350The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
7351of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
7352in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
7353function that has debugging information is called within the line.
7354
7355 * Bug fixing
7356
7357Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
7358
7359 * New host supported (not target)
7360
7361Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
7362
7363
7364*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
7365
7366 * Multiple source language support
7367
7368GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
7369It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
7370and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
7371language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
7372You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
7373`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
7374
7375 * GDB and Modula-2
7376
7377GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
7378currently under development at the State University of New York at
7379Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
7380continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
7381
7382Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
7383debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
7384symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
7385
7386There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
7387in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7388
7389 * set write on/off
7390
7391GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7392a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7393the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7394by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7395effect immediately.
7396
7397 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7398
7399When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7400shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7401The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7402examining core files.
7403
7404 * set listsize
7405
7406You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7407The default is 10.
7408
7409 * New machines supported (host and target)
7410
7411SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7412Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7413Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7414
7415 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7416
7417IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
7418
7419 * New targets supported (not hosts)
7420
7421AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7422AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7423Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
7424
7425 * New remote interfaces
7426
7427AMD 29000 Adapt
7428AMD 29000 Minimon
7429
7430
7431*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
7432
7433 * New Facilities
7434
7435Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
7436
7437Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
7438target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
7439is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
7440remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
7441remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
7442also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
7443using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
7444stub on the target system.
7445
7446New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
7447
7448GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
7449library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
7450object file types such as a.out and coff.
7451
7452There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
7453refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
7454
7455
7456 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
7457
7458All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
7459by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
7460
7461For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
7462``Show prompt'' produces the response:
7463Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
7464
7465What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
7466print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
7467will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
7468all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
7469
7470confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
7471 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
7472 it is already running. Default is ON.
7473
7474editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
7475 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
7476 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
7477 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
7478 Default is ON.
7479
7480history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
7481 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
7482 or the value of the environment variable
7483 GDBHISTFILE.
7484
7485history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
7486 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
7487 HISTSIZE.
7488
7489history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
7490 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
7491 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
7492
7493history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
7494 history expansion will be performed on
7495 command line input. The default is OFF.
7496
7497radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
7498 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7499 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7500
7501height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7502 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7503 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7504 variable TERM.
7505
7506width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7507 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7508 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7509 variable TERM.
7510
7511Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7512``set width'' instead.
7513
7514print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
7515 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
7516 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
7517 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
7518
7519print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
7520 is OFF.
7521
7522print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7523 "raw" form if off.
7524
7525print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7526 like instructions.
7527
7528print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7529
7530
7531 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7532
7533The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7534new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7535are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7536window.
7537
7538
7539 * Support for Shared Libraries
7540
7541GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7542Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7543before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7544happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7545At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7546from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7547shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7548It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7549
7550sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7551 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7552 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7553
7554info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7555
7556
7557 * Watchpoints
7558
7559A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7560expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7561tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7562quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7563problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7564more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7565
7566watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7567
7568info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7569
7570delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7571disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7572enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7573
7574
7575 * C++ multiple inheritance
7576
7577When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7578for C++ programs.
7579
7580 * C++ exception handling
7581
7582Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7583ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7584the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7585handler's context).
7586
7587catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7588 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7589 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7590
7591info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7592 current stack frame.
7593
7594
7595 * Minor command changes
7596
7597The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7598command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7599is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7600
7601The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7602at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7603frames without printing.
7604
7605 * New directory command
7606
7607'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7608The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7609about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7610with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7611find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7612
7613 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7614
7615For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7616for more details.
7617
7618GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7619two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7620Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7621where the program that you are debugging will run.
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