1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.8
6 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
10 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
11 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
12 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
13 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
14 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
15 selecting a new file to debug.
17 * New Python-based convenience functions:
19 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
20 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
21 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
22 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
26 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
27 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
29 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
30 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
31 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
32 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
35 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
36 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
37 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
38 switched threads meanwhile.
40 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
42 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
43 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
44 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
45 is now the default mode.
49 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
50 inferiors that have exited.
54 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
56 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
57 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
58 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
59 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
60 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
62 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
64 * New command line options
67 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
69 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
70 as specified in ISO C99.
72 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
73 with or without disassembly.
77 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
78 available is determined at configure time.
79 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
80 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
82 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
86 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
90 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
92 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
93 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
95 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
96 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
100 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
101 show print symbol-loading
102 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
103 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
104 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
107 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
108 show guile print-stack
109 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
111 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
112 show auto-load guile-scripts
113 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
115 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
116 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
117 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
118 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
119 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
120 usage of this option.
122 set auto-connect-native-target
124 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
125 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
126 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
128 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
129 show record btrace replay-memory-access
130 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
132 maint set target-async (on|off)
133 maint show target-async
134 This controls whether GDB targets operate in syncronous or
135 asyncronous mode. Normally the default is asyncronous, if it is
136 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
137 occurring only in syncronous mode.
139 set mi-async (on|off)
141 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
142 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
144 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
145 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
147 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
148 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
149 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
150 "set target-async on" command.
152 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
154 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
155 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
156 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
157 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
158 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
160 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
161 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
162 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
164 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
165 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
166 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
167 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
168 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
169 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
170 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
172 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
173 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
175 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
176 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
177 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
179 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
180 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
183 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
185 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
186 remote. It now works with all targets.
188 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
189 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
190 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
191 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
192 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
193 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
194 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
195 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
196 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
199 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
200 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
201 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
203 * GDB now supports access to Intel(R) MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
205 * Support for Intel(R) AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
206 Support displaying and modifying Intel(R) AVX-512 registers
207 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
211 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
212 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
213 branch trace incrementally.
217 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
218 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
220 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
221 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
222 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
223 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
224 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
227 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
229 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
230 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
231 its alias "share", instead.
233 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
234 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
239 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
240 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
241 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
242 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
243 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
244 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
245 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
246 commands and CLI execution commands.
248 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
250 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
251 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
252 recording has been added.
254 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
256 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
257 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
259 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
260 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
261 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
262 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
263 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
264 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
267 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
269 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
271 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
272 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
273 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
274 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
279 (gdb) info registers rax
282 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
283 "*value not available*".
285 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
290 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
291 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
292 ** Line tables representation has been added.
293 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
294 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
295 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
299 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
300 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
301 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
303 * Removed native configurations
305 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
306 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
308 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
309 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
310 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
311 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
312 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
313 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
314 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
318 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
320 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
322 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
324 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
327 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
329 maint set|show per-command
330 maint set|show per-command space
331 maint set|show per-command time
332 maint set|show per-command symtab
333 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
335 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
336 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
337 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
338 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
339 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
342 info exceptions REGEXP
343 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
344 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
349 set debug symfile off|on
351 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
352 symbol tables within those files
354 set print raw frame-arguments
355 show print raw frame-arguments
356 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
357 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
359 set remote trace-status-packet
360 show remote trace-status-packet
361 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
365 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
369 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
371 set startup-with-shell
372 show startup-with-shell
373 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
378 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
379 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
381 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
382 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
383 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
384 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
387 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
388 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
389 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
391 * New command-line options
393 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
395 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
396 buffer in Common Trace Format.
398 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
401 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
403 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
404 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
406 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
407 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
409 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
410 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
411 due to an uncaught signal.
415 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
416 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
417 command, which should contain "language-option".
419 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
420 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
422 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
423 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
424 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
425 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
426 "undefined-command-error-code".
428 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
431 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
433 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
434 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
437 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
438 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
440 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
441 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
442 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
444 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
445 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
446 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
447 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
448 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
449 "exec-run-start-option".
451 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
452 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
454 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
455 the new "info exceptions" command.
457 * New system-wide configuration scripts
458 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
459 configuration scripts for the following systems:
463 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
464 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
465 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
468 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
469 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
471 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
472 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
473 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
479 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
480 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
481 involvemement at each single-step.
483 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
484 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
485 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
486 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
487 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
488 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
491 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
493 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
494 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
496 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
497 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
498 trace state variables.
500 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
503 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
504 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
506 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
508 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
509 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
510 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
511 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
513 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
515 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
516 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
517 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
518 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
520 set|show record full insn-number-max
521 set|show record full stop-at-limit
522 set|show record full memory-query
524 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
525 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
526 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
527 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
528 This new recording method can be enabled using:
532 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
533 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
535 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
536 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
537 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
539 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
540 instruction granularity
542 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
545 * New native configurations
547 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
548 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
549 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
550 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
554 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
555 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
556 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
557 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
558 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
560 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
561 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
562 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
563 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
564 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
565 --data-directory command-line option.
567 * New command line options:
569 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
570 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
572 * Removed command line options
574 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
577 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
580 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
584 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
586 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
588 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
590 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
592 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
593 of architecture in the Python API.
595 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
596 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
598 * New Python-based convenience functions:
600 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
601 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
603 ** $_regex(str, regex)
605 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
608 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
609 default for GCC since November 2000.
611 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
613 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
614 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
616 * New configure options
618 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
619 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
620 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
621 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
622 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
623 options allow the user to override that default.
624 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
625 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
626 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
628 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
631 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
632 conditions to be attached.
635 List the BFDs known to GDB.
637 python-interactive [command]
639 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
640 and print the result of expressions.
643 "py" is a new alias for "python".
645 enable type-printer [name]...
646 disable type-printer [name]...
647 Enable or disable type printers.
651 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
652 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
657 set print type methods (on|off)
658 show print type methods
659 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
660 The default is to show them.
662 set print type typedefs (on|off)
663 show print type typedefs
664 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
665 The default is to show them.
667 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
668 show filename-display
669 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
670 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
672 set trace-buffer-size
673 show trace-buffer-size
674 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
676 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
677 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
678 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
682 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
685 set debug coff-pe-read
686 show debug coff-pe-read
687 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
692 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
695 set debug notification
696 show debug notification
697 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
701 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
702 "=cmd-param-changed".
703 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
704 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
705 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
706 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
707 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
708 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
709 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
710 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
712 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
713 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
714 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
715 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
716 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
717 library load/unload events.
718 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
719 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
720 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
721 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
722 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
723 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
724 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
725 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
727 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
728 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
729 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
730 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
735 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
736 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
739 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
740 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
744 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
745 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
748 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
749 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
751 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
753 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
754 for more x32 ABI info.
756 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
758 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
760 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
761 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
762 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
763 "info os files" lists file descriptors
764 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
765 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
766 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
767 "info os msg" lists message queues
768 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
770 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
771 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
772 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
773 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
774 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
775 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
777 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
778 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
779 record/replay support.
781 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
785 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
788 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
790 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
791 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
793 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
795 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
796 the source at which the symbol was defined.
798 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
799 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
800 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
803 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
804 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
806 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
807 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
808 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
810 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
811 object associated with a PC value.
813 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
814 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
816 * Go language support.
817 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
820 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
821 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
823 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
824 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
826 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
827 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
828 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
829 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
830 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
833 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
834 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
835 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
838 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
839 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
841 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
844 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
845 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
846 command does. For instance:
848 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
850 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
851 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
852 created, using the "condition" command.
854 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
855 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
857 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
859 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
860 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
861 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
862 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
863 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
864 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
865 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
866 files with older .gdb_index sections.
868 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
869 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
870 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
871 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
872 the .gdb_index section.
874 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
876 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
881 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
883 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
887 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
888 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
889 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
891 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
892 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
894 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
897 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
898 C++ and Java objects.
900 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
901 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
902 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
903 configured with '--with-python'.
905 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
906 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
907 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
908 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
909 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
910 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
911 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
913 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
914 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
915 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
916 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
918 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
919 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
920 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
921 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
923 ** "set print symbol"
925 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
926 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
927 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
929 * Deprecated commands
931 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
932 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
936 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
937 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
939 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
940 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
941 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
942 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
948 show mips compression
949 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
950 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
953 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
955 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
956 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
957 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
958 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
960 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
964 Disable auto-loading globally.
967 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
969 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
970 show auto-load gdb-scripts
971 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
973 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
974 show auto-load python-scripts
975 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
977 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
978 show auto-load local-gdbinit
979 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
981 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
982 show auto-load libthread-db
983 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
985 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
986 show auto-load scripts-directory
987 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
988 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
989 of the directories listed by this option.
990 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
992 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
993 show auto-load safe-path
994 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
995 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
997 set debug auto-load on|off
999 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1001 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
1003 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1004 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1005 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1006 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
1008 set dprintf-function <expr>
1009 show dprintf-function
1010 set dprintf-channel <expr>
1011 show dprintf-channel
1012 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1013 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1015 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1016 show disconnected-dprintf
1017 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1018 after GDB disconnects.
1020 * New configure options
1022 --with-auto-load-dir
1023 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1024 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1025 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1026 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1027 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
1029 --with-auto-load-safe-path
1030 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
1031 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
1033 --without-auto-load-safe-path
1034 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1037 * New remote packets
1039 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1041 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1042 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
1043 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
1044 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
1048 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
1049 program without GDB involvement.
1051 * New command line options
1053 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
1054 before loading inferior.
1055 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
1056 execute it before loading inferior.
1058 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
1060 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
1061 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1062 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1063 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1066 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1067 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1069 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1070 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1071 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1072 target hardware watchpoint.
1074 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1075 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1076 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1077 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1081 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
1082 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
1085 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
1086 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1087 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1088 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1089 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1092 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
1095 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1096 modules library. This module provides functionality for
1097 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
1098 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1099 corresponding value.
1101 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1102 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1103 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1106 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1107 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1108 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1109 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1111 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1113 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1116 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1117 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1118 available in the CLI.
1120 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1121 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1122 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1123 "some_type.items()".
1125 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1128 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1129 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1130 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1131 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1132 any anonymous fields.
1136 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1139 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1140 "=breakpoint-modified".
1142 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1144 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
1145 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
1146 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
1149 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
1150 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
1151 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
1152 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
1153 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
1155 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
1156 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
1158 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
1159 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
1160 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
1161 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
1162 use this option to specify where to find it.
1164 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1165 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
1166 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
1167 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
1168 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
1169 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1170 section in the user manual for more details.
1172 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
1173 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
1174 become available after that.
1176 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
1178 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
1179 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
1185 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
1186 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
1190 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
1191 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
1192 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
1194 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
1195 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
1196 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
1198 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
1199 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
1200 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
1201 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
1202 name starts with a hyphen.
1204 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
1205 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
1206 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
1207 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
1208 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
1209 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
1210 number of bytes that will be collected.
1213 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
1214 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
1215 setting the variable trace-notes.
1218 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
1219 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
1220 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
1223 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
1224 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
1225 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
1226 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
1227 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
1230 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
1231 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
1232 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
1236 set debug dwarf2-read
1237 show debug dwarf2-read
1238 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
1239 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
1241 set debug symtab-create
1242 show debug symtab-create
1243 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
1244 creation. The default is off.
1247 show extended-prompt
1248 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
1249 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
1250 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
1251 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
1252 prompt is displayed.
1254 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
1255 show print entry-values
1256 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
1257 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
1258 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
1260 set debug entry-values
1261 show debug entry-values
1262 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
1263 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
1265 set basenames-may-differ
1266 show basenames-may-differ
1267 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
1268 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
1269 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
1270 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
1271 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
1272 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
1273 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
1274 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
1280 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
1281 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
1282 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
1283 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
1285 set trace-stop-notes
1286 show trace-stop-notes
1287 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
1288 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
1289 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
1290 started by someone else.
1292 * New remote packets
1296 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1300 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1304 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
1308 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
1312 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
1315 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
1316 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
1320 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
1324 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1326 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
1328 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
1330 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
1332 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
1333 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
1334 matches the given regular expression.
1336 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
1338 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
1339 dumping the instruction opcodes.
1341 * New command line options
1343 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
1344 This is mostly for testing purposes.
1346 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
1347 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
1349 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
1350 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
1351 source path list instead of augmenting it.
1353 * GDB now understands thread names.
1355 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
1356 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
1358 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
1359 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
1362 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
1363 has been integrated into GDB.
1367 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
1368 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
1369 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
1371 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1372 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
1373 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
1374 and allows for more dynamic content.
1376 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
1377 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
1378 have an is_valid method.
1380 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1381 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
1382 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
1384 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
1386 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
1387 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
1388 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
1389 that function like so:
1391 result = some_value (10,20)
1393 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
1394 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
1395 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
1397 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
1398 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
1399 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
1400 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
1401 New function: register_pretty_printer.
1403 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
1404 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
1406 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
1408 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
1411 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
1412 holds the thread's name.
1414 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
1415 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
1416 occurring in the process being debugged.
1417 The following events are currently supported:
1418 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
1419 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
1420 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
1424 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
1425 instantiation. For example, if you have:
1427 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
1429 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
1430 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
1431 was added to GCC 4.5.
1433 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
1434 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
1435 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
1436 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
1437 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
1438 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
1440 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
1441 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
1442 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
1443 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
1444 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
1446 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
1447 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
1448 execution to a label.
1450 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
1451 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
1452 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
1453 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
1455 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
1456 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
1457 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
1460 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
1462 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
1463 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
1464 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
1465 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
1466 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
1467 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
1470 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1472 While now you see this:
1475 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1477 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1480 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1481 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1482 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1483 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1485 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1486 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1487 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1488 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1489 section in the user manual for more details.
1491 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1493 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1494 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
1496 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1498 * New native configurations
1500 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1504 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1506 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1507 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1508 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1509 in the GDB user manual.
1511 * Guile support was removed.
1513 * New features in the GNU simulator
1515 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1517 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1519 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
1521 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
1523 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1524 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1525 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1526 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1527 was always disabled for such configurations.
1531 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1533 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1534 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1544 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1545 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1546 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1548 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1550 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1551 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1552 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1553 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1555 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1556 mentioned flavors of operators.
1558 ** static const class members
1560 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1561 class definition has been fixed.
1563 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
1565 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1566 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
1567 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
1568 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
1569 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
1570 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
1572 * Static tracepoints
1574 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
1575 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
1576 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
1577 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
1578 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
1579 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
1580 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
1581 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
1582 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
1583 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
1584 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
1585 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
1586 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
1587 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1588 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1589 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1590 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1591 the "New remote packets" section below.
1593 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1595 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1596 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1597 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1598 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1602 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1603 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1604 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1605 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1606 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1607 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1608 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1610 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1613 * New remote packets
1617 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1621 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1622 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1623 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1624 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1625 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1626 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1630 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1634 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1637 qXfer:statictrace:read
1639 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1640 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1641 to gdb's qSupported query.
1645 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1649 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1650 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1652 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1653 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1656 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1658 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1659 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1660 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1661 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1663 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1664 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1665 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1666 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1667 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1668 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1669 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1671 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1672 for static tracepoints support.
1674 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1676 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1677 it understands register description.
1679 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1681 * X86 general purpose registers
1683 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1684 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1685 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1686 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1687 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1689 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
1690 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1691 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1692 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1693 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1694 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
1696 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1697 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1698 in the specified file.
1700 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1701 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1702 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1703 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1704 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1705 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1706 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1707 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1708 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1709 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1713 eval template, expressions...
1714 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1715 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1717 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1718 show target-file-system-kind
1719 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1722 save breakpoints <filename>
1723 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1724 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1725 definitions, use the `source' command.
1727 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1730 info static-tracepoint-markers
1731 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1733 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1734 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1735 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1739 Enable and disable observer mode.
1741 set may-write-registers on|off
1742 set may-write-memory on|off
1743 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1744 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1745 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1746 set may-interrupt on|off
1747 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1748 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1749 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1750 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1751 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1752 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1753 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1755 set record memory-query on|off
1756 show record memory-query
1757 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1758 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1763 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1767 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1768 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1769 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1770 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1771 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1773 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
1774 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1775 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1776 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
1778 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
1779 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1781 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
1783 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
1785 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1787 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1788 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1789 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1791 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1792 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1793 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1794 regular breakpoints.
1798 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1800 * D language support.
1801 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1804 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1805 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1806 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1807 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1808 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1810 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1811 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1812 conditions of the form:
1814 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1816 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1817 interface mentioned above.
1819 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
1823 ** Namespace Support
1825 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1826 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1827 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1828 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1829 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1833 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1834 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1839 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1840 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1844 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
1849 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
1852 * Multi-program debugging.
1854 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1855 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1856 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1857 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1858 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1859 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1860 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1861 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1863 * New tracing features
1865 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1867 ** Trace state variables
1869 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1870 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1871 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1872 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1873 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1874 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1875 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1876 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1877 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1878 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
1882 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1883 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1884 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1885 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1886 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1887 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1888 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1889 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1890 the regular trace command.
1892 ** Disconnected tracing
1894 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1895 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1896 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1897 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1898 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1902 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1903 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1904 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1905 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1906 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1907 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1910 ** Circular trace buffer
1912 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1913 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1914 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1915 not be available for all target agents.
1920 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1921 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1924 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1925 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1928 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1929 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1932 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1933 "set script-extension" (see below).
1935 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1937 record save [<FILENAME>]
1938 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1939 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1941 record restore <FILENAME>
1942 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1943 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1945 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1948 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1949 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1950 inferior has loaded.
1955 maint info program-spaces
1956 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1958 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1959 show remote interrupt-sequence
1960 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1961 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1962 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1963 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1964 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1966 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1967 show remote interrupt-on-connect
1968 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1969 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1972 set remotebreak [on | off]
1974 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1976 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1977 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1980 List trace state variables and their values.
1982 delete tvariable $NAME ...
1983 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1986 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1987 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1989 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1990 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1992 * New expression syntax
1994 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1995 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1999 set follow-exec-mode new|same
2000 show follow-exec-mode
2001 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2002 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2003 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2005 set default-collect EXPR, ...
2006 show default-collect
2007 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2008 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2009 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2011 set disconnected-tracing
2012 show disconnected-tracing
2013 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2014 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2017 set circular-trace-buffer
2018 show circular-trace-buffer
2019 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2020 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2021 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2022 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2024 set script-extension off|soft|strict
2025 show script-extension
2026 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2027 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2028 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2029 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2031 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2033 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2034 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2035 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2036 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2037 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2038 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2039 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2042 * Python API Improvements
2044 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
2045 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
2046 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
2048 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
2049 `is_base_class' attribute.
2051 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
2053 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
2054 evaluate an expression.
2056 * New remote packets
2059 Define a trace state variable.
2062 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2065 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2068 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2071 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2075 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2077 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2078 much more reliable. In particular:
2079 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2080 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2081 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2082 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2083 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2084 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2085 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2086 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2087 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2088 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2089 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2090 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2091 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2092 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2093 non-threaded programs.
2095 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2096 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2097 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2100 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
2102 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2103 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2104 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2105 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2106 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2108 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2109 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2110 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2111 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2112 for tracepoint actions.
2114 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2115 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2116 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
2118 * Process record and replay
2120 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2121 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2122 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2125 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2126 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2127 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2130 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2131 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
2134 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2135 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2136 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2137 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2138 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2139 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2140 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2141 the installation instructions for more information.
2143 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2144 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
2145 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
2146 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
2148 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
2149 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
2151 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
2152 now complete on file names.
2154 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
2155 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
2156 For instance, consider:
2158 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
2159 # struct example variable;
2162 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
2163 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
2165 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
2166 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
2168 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
2169 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
2172 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
2173 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
2174 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
2176 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
2177 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
2178 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
2179 and simulator targets may also provide them.
2181 * New remote packets
2184 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2187 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
2188 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
2189 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
2192 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
2193 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
2196 Obtains additional operating system information
2200 Read or write additional signal information.
2202 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
2204 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
2205 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
2206 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
2208 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
2209 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
2211 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
2212 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
2213 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
2215 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
2216 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
2218 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
2220 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
2222 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
2223 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
2225 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
2226 list of section offsets.
2228 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
2229 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
2230 have also been fixed.
2232 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
2233 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
2234 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
2236 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
2239 template<typename T> class C { };
2242 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
2244 ptype C<char const *>
2245 ptype C<char const*>
2246 ptype C<const char *>
2247 ptype C<const char*>
2249 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
2251 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
2252 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2254 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
2255 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2256 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
2258 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
2259 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
2261 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
2264 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
2265 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2267 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
2268 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
2273 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
2274 available is determined at configure time.
2276 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
2278 * Ada tasking support
2280 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
2284 Print the list of Ada tasks.
2286 Print detailed information about task number N.
2288 Print the task number of the current task.
2290 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
2292 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
2293 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
2295 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
2297 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
2298 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
2299 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
2300 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
2301 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
2302 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
2305 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
2306 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
2309 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
2310 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
2311 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
2312 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
2315 * Multi-architecture debugging.
2317 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
2318 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
2319 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
2320 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
2321 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
2323 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
2324 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
2325 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
2326 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
2327 --enable-targets configure option.
2329 * Non-stop mode debugging.
2331 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
2332 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
2333 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
2334 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
2335 section in the user manual for more information.
2337 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
2338 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
2339 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
2340 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
2341 extensions on linux targets.
2343 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2345 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
2346 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
2347 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
2348 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
2349 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
2350 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
2351 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
2352 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
2353 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
2355 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
2357 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2359 maint set python print-stack
2360 maint show python print-stack
2361 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
2364 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
2369 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
2373 Show operating system information about processes.
2376 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
2379 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
2382 Detach from inferior number NUM.
2385 Kill inferior number NUM.
2389 set spu stop-on-load
2390 show spu stop-on-load
2391 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2393 set spu auto-flush-cache
2394 show spu auto-flush-cache
2395 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
2396 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2398 set sh calling-convention
2399 show sh calling-convention
2400 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
2403 show debug timestamp
2404 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
2406 set disassemble-next-line
2407 show disassemble-next-line
2408 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
2411 set remote noack-packet
2412 show remote noack-packet
2413 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
2414 under "New remote packets."
2416 set remote query-attached-packet
2417 show remote query-attached-packet
2418 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
2420 set remote read-siginfo-object
2421 show remote read-siginfo-object
2422 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
2425 set remote write-siginfo-object
2426 show remote write-siginfo-object
2427 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
2430 set remote reverse-continue
2431 show remote reverse-continue
2432 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
2434 set remote reverse-step
2435 show remote reverse-step
2436 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
2438 set displaced-stepping
2439 show displaced-stepping
2440 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
2441 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
2442 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
2445 show debug displaced
2446 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
2448 maint set internal-error
2449 maint show internal-error
2450 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
2452 maint set internal-warning
2453 maint show internal-warning
2454 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
2459 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2461 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
2462 show multiple-symbols
2463 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
2464 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
2465 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
2467 set breakpoint always-inserted
2468 show breakpoint always-inserted
2469 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
2470 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2471 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2473 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2474 show arm fallback-mode
2475 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2477 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2478 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2479 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2480 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2482 set disable-randomization
2483 show disable-randomization
2484 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2485 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2486 multiple debugging sessions.
2490 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2495 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2496 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2497 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2498 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2500 set target-wide-charset
2501 show target-wide-charset
2502 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2503 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2505 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2507 set tcp connect-timeout
2508 show tcp connect-timeout
2509 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2510 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2511 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2513 set libthread-db-search-path
2514 show libthread-db-search-path
2515 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2518 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2519 show schedule-multiple
2520 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2521 the current process.
2525 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2526 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2527 affecting correctness.
2529 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2530 show interactive-mode
2531 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2532 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2533 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2534 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2535 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2540 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2541 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2542 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2546 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2547 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2548 alias for the `fork' command.
2551 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2552 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2553 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2556 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2557 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2558 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2562 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2563 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2564 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2567 * New native configurations
2569 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
2571 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
2575 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
2576 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
2577 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
2580 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
2581 (mingw32ce) debugging.
2587 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2589 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
2591 * New native configurations
2593 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
2594 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
2598 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
2599 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
2601 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2603 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2604 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2605 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2606 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2608 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2609 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2611 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
2614 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
2615 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2616 and in inlined functions.
2618 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2619 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2620 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2622 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2624 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2625 registers on PowerPC targets.
2627 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2628 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2630 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2631 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2633 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2634 extended-remote mode.
2636 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
2637 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2638 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2639 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
2641 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2642 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2643 target architectures.
2645 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2646 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2647 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2648 stored in two consecutive float registers.
2650 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2653 * Improved support for debugging Ada
2654 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2656 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2657 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2658 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2659 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2661 - Improved command completion in Ada
2664 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2669 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2670 show print frame-arguments
2671 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2672 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2677 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2684 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2686 * New remote packets
2693 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
2696 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2700 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2702 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
2704 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2705 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2706 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2708 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2709 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2710 -Bsymbolic linker option.
2712 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2713 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2716 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2717 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2719 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
2720 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
2722 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2724 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2725 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2726 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2728 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2729 automatically displayed as character or string data.
2731 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2732 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2735 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2736 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
2737 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
2739 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2742 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2743 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2744 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2746 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2748 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2750 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2751 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2752 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2754 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2755 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2757 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2758 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2759 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2760 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2761 Windows and SymbianOS).
2763 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2764 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
2766 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2767 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
2773 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2774 when debugging using remote targets.
2776 set mem inaccessible-by-default
2777 show mem inaccessible-by-default
2778 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2779 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2780 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2781 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2782 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2784 set breakpoint auto-hw
2785 show breakpoint auto-hw
2786 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2787 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2788 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2789 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2790 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2791 including "next" and "finish".
2794 catch exception unhandled
2795 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2798 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2802 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2803 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2804 an alias to "set sysroot".
2807 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2808 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2811 * New native configurations
2813 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2816 unset tdesc filename
2818 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2819 not query the target for its built-in description.
2823 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
2824 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
2825 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
2827 * New remote packets
2830 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2831 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2833 qXfer:features:read:
2834 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2839 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2840 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2842 qXfer:libraries:read:
2843 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2844 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2845 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2846 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2850 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2858 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2859 i[34567]86-*-netware*
2860 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2861 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2863 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2866 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2867 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2876 * Other removed features
2883 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2890 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2895 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2896 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2901 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2902 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2904 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2906 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2907 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2908 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2909 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2911 MIPS ".pdr" sections
2913 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2914 in debugging information.
2918 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2919 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2921 set mips stack-arg-size
2922 set mips saved-gpreg-size
2924 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2926 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
2931 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
2933 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2934 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2935 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2937 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2938 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2941 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2942 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2944 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2945 stub provides the required support.
2947 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2948 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2953 unset substitute-path
2954 show substitute-path
2955 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2956 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2957 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2958 between compilation and debugging.
2962 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2963 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2964 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2968 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2970 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2971 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2973 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2975 * New remote packets
2978 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2979 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2980 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2981 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2985 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2986 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2988 qXfer:memory-map:read:
2989 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2990 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2995 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2997 * Removed remote packets
3000 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3001 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3003 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
3007 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3009 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3013 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3014 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3016 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3018 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3020 restart <n> Return the program state to a
3021 previously saved state.
3023 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3025 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3027 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3028 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3030 info forks List forks of the user program that
3031 are available to be debugged.
3033 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3034 forks of the user program that are
3035 available to be debugged.
3037 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3038 that are available to be debugged (and
3039 kill the forked process).
3041 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3042 that are available to be debugged (and
3043 allow the process to continue).
3047 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
3049 * Improved Windows host support
3051 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
3052 native console support, and remote communications using either
3053 network sockets or serial ports.
3055 * Improved Modula-2 language support
3057 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
3058 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
3059 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
3060 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
3061 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3062 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3066 The ARM rdi-share module.
3068 The Netware NLM debug server.
3070 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
3072 * New native configurations
3074 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
3075 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3079 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3081 * New command line options
3083 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3084 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3085 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3086 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3087 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3088 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3089 with the --command (-x) option.
3091 * Deprecated commands removed
3093 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3097 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3098 othernames set arm disassembler
3099 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3100 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3101 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3104 * New BSD user-level threads support
3106 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3107 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3110 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3111 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3112 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3114 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3115 are not yet supported.
3117 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3118 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3120 * REMOVED configurations and files
3122 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
3123 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3124 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
3126 * New "set print array-indexes" command
3128 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3129 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3132 * VAX floating point support
3134 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3136 * User-defined command support
3138 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3139 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3140 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3142 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3144 * New command line option
3146 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
3149 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
3151 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
3152 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
3153 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
3154 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
3155 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
3157 * Internationalization
3159 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
3160 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
3161 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
3165 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
3166 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
3167 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
3169 * New native configurations
3171 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
3175 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
3176 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
3178 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
3180 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3181 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
3182 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
3185 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
3186 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
3187 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
3197 powerpc bdm protocol
3199 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3200 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
3202 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3204 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3205 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3206 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3207 permanently REMOVED.
3216 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
3218 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
3220 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
3221 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
3224 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
3226 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
3227 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
3228 IRIX long double values).
3232 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
3233 command. This problem has been fixed.
3235 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
3237 * Fix for ``many threads''
3239 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
3240 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
3243 ptrace: No such process.
3244 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
3246 This problem has been fixed.
3248 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
3250 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
3253 * New ``start'' command.
3255 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
3257 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
3259 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
3260 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
3261 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
3263 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3264 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
3265 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
3266 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
3267 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
3268 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3269 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
3270 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
3271 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3273 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
3275 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
3276 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
3277 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
3278 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
3279 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
3281 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
3282 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
3283 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3285 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
3287 * New native configurations
3289 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
3290 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
3291 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
3292 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
3293 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
3294 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
3295 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
3297 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
3299 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3300 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
3301 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
3302 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
3303 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
3304 work, was also included.
3306 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
3307 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
3317 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3318 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
3320 * REMOVED configurations and files
3322 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3323 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3324 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3325 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3326 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3327 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3328 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3329 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3330 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3331 sonymips mips-sony-*
3332 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3334 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
3336 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
3338 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
3339 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
3340 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
3341 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
3344 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
3346 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
3347 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
3348 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
3349 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
3350 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
3351 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
3354 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
3356 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
3358 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
3359 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
3360 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
3362 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
3364 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
3365 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
3367 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
3369 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
3370 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
3371 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
3373 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
3375 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
3376 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
3378 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
3380 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
3381 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
3382 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
3384 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
3386 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
3387 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
3388 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
3390 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
3392 * Removed --with-mmalloc
3394 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
3395 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
3397 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
3399 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
3400 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
3401 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
3402 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
3404 * Revised SPARC target
3406 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
3407 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
3408 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
3409 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
3410 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
3414 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
3415 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
3416 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
3419 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3421 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
3422 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
3425 * C++ nested types and namespaces
3427 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
3428 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
3429 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
3430 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
3431 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
3432 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
3433 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
3434 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
3435 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
3437 * New native configurations
3439 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
3440 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3441 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
3442 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3443 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
3445 * New debugging protocols
3447 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
3449 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
3451 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
3452 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
3453 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
3455 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3457 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3458 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3459 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3460 permanently REMOVED.
3462 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3463 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3464 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3465 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3466 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3467 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3468 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3469 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3470 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3471 sonymips mips-sony-*
3472 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3474 * REMOVED configurations and files
3476 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3477 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3478 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3479 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3480 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3481 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3482 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3483 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3484 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3485 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
3486 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3487 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3488 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3489 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3490 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
3491 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3492 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3494 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3498 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3499 integrated into GDB.
3501 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3503 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3504 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3505 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3508 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3509 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3510 DWARF 2 CFI support.
3514 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3515 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3516 remote protocol documentation for details.
3518 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
3520 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3521 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3522 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3525 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3527 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3528 per-thread variables.
3530 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3532 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3533 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3535 * Separate debug info.
3537 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3538 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3539 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3540 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3541 and optional debug files.
3543 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3545 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3546 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3549 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3550 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3554 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3555 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3556 considered "useable".
3558 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3560 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3561 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3564 * GDB supports logging output to a file
3566 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
3567 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
3569 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
3571 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
3572 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
3575 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
3577 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
3578 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
3582 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
3583 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
3584 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
3585 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
3586 data, for more informative profiling results.
3588 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3590 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3591 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
3592 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
3594 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3597 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3598 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3599 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3600 in a subsequent -var-update.
3602 * New native configurations.
3604 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3606 * Multi-arched targets.
3608 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
3609 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3611 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3613 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3614 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3615 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3616 permanently REMOVED.
3618 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3619 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3620 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3621 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3622 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3623 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3624 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3625 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3626 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3627 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3628 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3629 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3631 * REMOVED configurations and files
3634 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3635 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3636 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3637 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3638 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3639 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3641 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3642 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3643 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3644 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3645 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3646 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3648 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
3650 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3651 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3652 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3653 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3654 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3656 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
3658 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3660 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3661 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3662 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3663 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3664 shared libs like mad''.
3666 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
3668 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3669 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3670 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3671 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
3673 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3675 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3676 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3679 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3680 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3682 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3683 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3685 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3686 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3687 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3688 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3690 * Multi-arched targets.
3692 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3693 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
3695 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
3696 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3697 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3701 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3704 * New native configurations
3706 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
3707 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
3708 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
3709 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
3711 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3713 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3714 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3715 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3716 permanently REMOVED.
3718 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3719 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3720 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3721 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3722 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3723 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3724 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3725 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3726 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3727 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3729 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3730 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3732 * OBSOLETE languages
3734 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3736 * REMOVED configurations and files
3738 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3739 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3740 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3741 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3742 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3744 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3746 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3748 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3749 commands. The default is 1024.
3751 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3753 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3755 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3757 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3758 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3759 from a file into memory (restore).
3761 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3763 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3764 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3765 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3767 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3775 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3776 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3777 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3779 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3780 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3781 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3783 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3784 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3785 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3787 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3788 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3789 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3791 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
3793 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3795 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3796 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3797 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3798 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3799 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3800 (notably embedded) targets.
3802 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3804 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3805 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3806 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3807 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
3809 * New command line option
3811 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3813 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3815 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3816 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3817 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3818 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3819 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3820 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3821 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3822 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3823 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3824 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3826 * Changes in ARM configurations.
3828 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3829 configuration is fully multi-arch.
3831 * New native configurations
3833 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
3834 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
3835 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
3836 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
3840 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3842 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3844 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3845 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3846 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3847 permanently REMOVED.
3849 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3850 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3851 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3852 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3853 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3855 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3857 * REMOVED configurations and files
3859 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3861 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3862 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3863 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3864 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3865 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3866 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3867 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3868 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3869 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3870 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3871 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
3873 * Changes to command line processing
3875 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3876 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3878 * Changes to key bindings
3880 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3882 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3884 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3886 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3889 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3891 Numerous documentation fixes.
3893 Numerous testsuite fixes.
3895 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
3897 * New native configurations
3899 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3900 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
3901 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
3902 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3903 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
3904 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
3908 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
3910 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
3912 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3914 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
3915 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3916 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3917 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3918 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3920 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3921 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3922 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3923 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3924 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3925 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3926 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3927 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
3929 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3930 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3932 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3933 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3934 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3935 permanently REMOVED.
3937 * REMOVED configurations and files
3939 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3940 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3942 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3946 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
3948 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
3949 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3954 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3956 * The MI enabled by default.
3958 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3959 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3960 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3961 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3962 which is now deprecated.
3964 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3966 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3967 main features are supported:
3969 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3971 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3974 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3976 - a Pascal expression parser.
3978 However, some important features are not yet supported.
3980 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3982 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3984 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3985 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3987 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3989 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3991 * Changes in completion.
3993 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3994 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3995 users expect at the shell prompt.
3997 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3998 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3999 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4000 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4001 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4002 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4003 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4005 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4007 * New platform-independent commands:
4009 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4010 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4011 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4013 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4015 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4016 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4017 many threads as your system allows you to have.
4019 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4021 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4022 multi-threaded programs though.
4024 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
4026 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4028 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4029 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4032 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4034 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4035 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4036 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4037 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4038 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4041 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4042 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
4043 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
4045 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
4047 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
4048 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
4050 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
4051 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
4054 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
4055 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
4056 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
4057 a given linear address.
4059 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
4060 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
4061 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4063 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4065 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4067 * Changes in documentation.
4069 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4070 Documentation License.
4072 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4075 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4077 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4080 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4081 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4082 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4084 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4086 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4087 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4088 contents of this file.
4092 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
4094 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
4096 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4098 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4099 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4100 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4101 greater level of detail.
4103 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4105 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4106 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4107 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4110 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4112 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4113 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4114 machines ``out of the box''.
4116 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4117 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4118 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4119 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4120 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4122 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4123 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4124 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4125 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4126 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4128 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4129 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4132 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4135 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4136 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4137 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4138 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4140 * New native configurations
4142 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
4143 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4147 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
4148 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
4149 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
4150 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4152 * OBSOLETE configurations
4154 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4155 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4157 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4160 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4161 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4162 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4163 be permanently REMOVED.
4165 * Gould support removed
4167 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
4169 * New features for SVR4
4171 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
4172 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
4173 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
4175 * Many C++ enhancements
4177 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
4178 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
4180 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
4182 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
4183 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
4184 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
4185 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
4187 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
4188 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
4190 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
4192 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
4193 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
4194 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
4196 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
4197 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4199 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
4201 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
4202 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
4203 include ``set remote P-packet''.
4205 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
4207 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
4208 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
4209 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
4211 * ``apropos'' command added.
4213 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
4214 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
4215 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
4219 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
4220 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
4221 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
4222 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
4223 enabled by configuring with:
4225 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
4227 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
4229 * New native configurations
4231 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
4232 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
4233 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
4237 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4238 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
4239 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4241 * OBSOLETE configurations
4243 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
4245 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4246 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4247 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4248 be permanently REMOVED.
4252 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
4253 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
4254 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
4255 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
4256 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
4257 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
4258 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
4263 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
4265 * set extension-language
4267 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
4268 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
4269 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
4270 set extension-language .c c++
4271 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
4272 and their associated languages.
4274 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
4276 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
4277 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
4278 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
4282 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
4283 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
4285 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
4286 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
4288 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
4289 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
4290 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
4291 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
4292 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
4293 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
4294 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
4295 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
4297 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
4298 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
4299 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
4300 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
4304 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
4305 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
4306 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
4307 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
4308 for xdb and dbx commands.
4312 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
4313 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
4314 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
4316 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
4317 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
4318 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
4320 * Debugging across forks
4322 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
4327 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
4328 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
4329 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
4331 * GDB remote protocol additions
4333 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
4334 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
4335 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
4336 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
4338 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
4339 full 64-bit address. The command
4341 set remoteaddresssize 32
4343 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
4344 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
4347 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
4348 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
4350 maint packet heythere
4352 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
4353 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
4356 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
4357 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
4358 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
4360 * Tracing can collect general expressions
4362 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
4363 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
4364 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
4366 * mask-address variable for Mips
4368 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
4369 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
4370 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
4372 * Higher serial baud rates
4374 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
4375 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
4376 to achieve all of these rates.)
4380 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
4381 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
4384 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
4386 * New native configurations
4388 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
4389 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
4390 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4391 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4392 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4393 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
4394 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
4398 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4399 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
4400 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4401 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
4402 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
4403 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
4404 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
4405 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
4406 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4407 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4408 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
4410 * New debugging protocols
4412 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4413 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
4414 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
4415 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4416 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4417 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4421 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
4422 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
4427 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
4428 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
4430 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
4432 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
4433 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
4434 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
4436 * Live range splitting
4438 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
4439 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
4440 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
4444 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
4445 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
4449 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
4450 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
4451 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
4456 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
4461 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
4462 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
4463 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
4464 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
4465 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
4466 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
4470 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4471 the symbol at the specified address.
4475 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4476 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4477 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4478 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4479 file tracepoint.c for more details.
4483 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4484 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4485 of most MIPS variants.
4489 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4490 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4491 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4495 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4496 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4497 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4498 the possible architectures.
4500 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4502 * New native configurations
4504 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4505 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4506 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4507 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4508 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4509 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4513 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4514 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4515 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4516 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4517 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4519 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4523 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4524 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4525 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4526 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4527 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4531 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4533 * Windows 95/NT native
4535 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4536 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4537 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4538 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4539 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4541 * dont-repeat command
4543 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4544 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4545 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4546 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4548 * Send break instead of ^C
4550 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4551 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4552 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4554 * Remote protocol timeout
4556 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4557 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4558 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4560 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4562 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4563 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4564 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4565 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4566 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
4568 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
4569 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
4570 automatically on hpux10.
4572 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
4574 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
4576 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
4578 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
4579 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
4580 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
4581 every character. The default value is 1050.
4583 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
4585 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
4586 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
4587 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4588 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4589 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4590 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4592 * Speedups for remote debugging
4594 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4595 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4596 and more efficient S-record downloading.
4598 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4600 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4601 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4603 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4605 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
4607 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4608 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4610 * Remote targets use caching
4612 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4613 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4614 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4615 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4616 off' turns the the data cache off.
4618 * Remote targets may have threads
4620 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4621 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4622 gdb/remote.c for details.
4626 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4627 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4628 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4629 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4630 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4631 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4632 sequence is something like
4634 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4636 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4640 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4641 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4642 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4643 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4644 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4645 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4646 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4647 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4651 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4652 but does simplify configuration and building.
4656 GDB now supports hpux10.
4658 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4660 * New native configurations
4662 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4663 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4664 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4665 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4669 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4670 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4671 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4672 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4675 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4677 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4678 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4679 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4680 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4681 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4683 * Arguments to user-defined commands
4685 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4686 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4689 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4691 To execute the command use:
4694 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4695 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4696 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4698 * New `if' and `while' commands
4700 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4701 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4702 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4703 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4704 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4705 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4706 if the expression is zero.
4708 * Fortran source language mode
4710 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4711 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4712 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4713 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4716 * Better HPUX support
4718 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4719 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4720 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4721 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4722 that behavior do the following before running the program:
4728 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4729 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4735 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4736 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4739 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4740 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4742 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4744 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4745 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4746 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4747 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4748 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4749 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4751 * New DOS host serial code
4753 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4754 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4757 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4759 * New "complete" command
4761 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4762 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4764 * Trailing space optional in prompt
4766 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4767 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4769 * Breakpoint hit counts
4771 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4772 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4773 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4774 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4775 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4778 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4780 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4781 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4782 arrays actually contain only short strings.
4784 * Shared library breakpoints
4786 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4787 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4789 * Hardware watchpoints
4791 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4792 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4794 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
4798 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4799 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4801 * Improved Irix 5 support
4803 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4805 * Improved HPPA support
4807 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4809 * New native configurations
4811 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4812 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4813 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4814 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4818 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4819 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4822 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4824 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4825 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4829 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4830 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4832 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4834 * Irix 5 is now supported
4838 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4839 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4840 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4841 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4842 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4845 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4847 * User visible changes:
4851 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4852 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4853 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4854 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4855 debugging info for the mips target).
4857 * DEC Alpha native support
4859 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4860 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4861 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4862 Alpha-specific notes.
4864 * Preliminary thread implementation
4866 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4868 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
4870 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4871 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4874 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4876 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4877 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4878 call methods, ...etc.
4880 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4882 * User visible changes:
4884 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4885 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4886 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4887 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4889 Filename completion now works.
4891 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4892 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4893 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4895 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4896 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4897 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4898 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4899 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4903 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4904 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4907 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4911 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4912 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4913 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4917 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4918 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4919 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4920 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4921 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4925 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4926 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4927 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4929 * New targets supported
4931 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4932 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4933 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4934 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4935 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4937 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4938 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4939 GO32 memory extender.
4941 * New remote protocols
4943 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4945 * New source languages supported
4947 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4948 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4949 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4952 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4954 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4956 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4957 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4958 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4959 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4960 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4961 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4963 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4965 * Faster and better demangling
4967 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4968 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4969 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4970 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4971 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4972 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4975 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4976 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4977 compiler does not actually implement.
4979 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4981 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4982 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4983 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4984 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4985 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4986 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4989 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4990 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4992 * Improved configure script
4994 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4995 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4996 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4997 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4999 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5000 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5001 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5002 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5003 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5004 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5006 * Documentation improvements
5008 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5009 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5010 before submitting changes.
5012 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5013 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5014 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5015 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5016 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5018 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5019 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5020 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5021 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5022 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5023 around this problem.
5027 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5028 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5029 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5032 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5033 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5035 * New native hosts supported
5037 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5038 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5040 * New targets supported
5042 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
5044 * New file formats supported
5046 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
5047 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
5051 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
5053 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
5054 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
5056 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
5057 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
5058 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
5060 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
5061 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5063 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5064 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5065 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5068 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5069 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5070 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5071 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5072 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5074 * Internal improvements
5076 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5077 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5079 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5080 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5081 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5082 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5083 shared code that handles any of them.
5085 * New command line options
5087 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5091 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5092 General Public License.
5094 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5096 * Host/native/target split
5098 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5099 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5100 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5101 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5102 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5104 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5105 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5106 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5107 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5108 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5109 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5110 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5112 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5113 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5114 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5116 * New hosts supported
5118 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5119 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5120 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5122 * New targets supported
5124 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5125 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5127 * New native hosts supported
5129 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5130 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5131 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5133 * New file formats supported
5135 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5136 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5137 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5141 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5142 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5143 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5145 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5147 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
5148 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
5149 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
5150 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
5154 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
5155 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
5156 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
5158 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5162 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
5163 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
5166 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
5167 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
5169 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
5170 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
5171 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
5172 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
5173 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
5174 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
5176 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
5177 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
5178 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
5179 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
5183 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
5184 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
5185 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
5186 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
5187 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
5189 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
5190 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
5191 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
5192 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
5196 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
5197 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
5198 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
5199 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
5200 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
5201 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
5202 each instruction being stepped through.
5204 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
5205 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
5207 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
5208 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
5209 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
5210 processor with a serial port.
5214 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
5215 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
5216 supported, and what files each one uses.
5220 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
5221 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
5222 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
5223 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
5225 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
5226 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
5227 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
5228 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
5232 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
5233 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
5234 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
5235 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
5236 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
5237 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
5239 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
5242 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
5244 * Better support for C++ function names
5246 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
5247 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
5248 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
5249 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
5250 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
5252 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
5253 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
5254 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
5255 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
5256 for the list of formats.
5258 * G++ symbol mangling problem
5260 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
5261 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
5262 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
5263 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
5264 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
5265 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
5268 * New 'maintenance' command
5270 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
5271 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
5272 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
5274 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
5275 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
5276 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
5277 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
5278 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
5279 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
5281 The following commands are new:
5283 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
5284 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
5285 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
5287 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
5289 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
5290 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
5291 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
5292 read after argv processing.
5294 * New hosts supported
5296 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
5298 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
5300 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
5301 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
5302 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
5303 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
5304 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
5307 * New targets supported
5309 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5311 * More smarts about finding #include files
5313 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
5314 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
5315 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
5316 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
5317 the one that contains your sources.
5319 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
5320 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
5321 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
5323 * Interesting infernals change
5325 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
5326 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
5327 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
5328 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
5330 * Bug fixes (of course!)
5332 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
5333 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
5334 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
5336 See the ChangeLog for details.
5338 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
5340 * New machines supported (host and target)
5342 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
5344 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5346 * New malloc package
5348 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
5349 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
5350 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
5351 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
5352 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
5353 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
5357 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
5358 'help info proc' for details.
5360 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
5362 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
5363 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
5366 * File name changes for MS-DOS
5368 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
5369 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
5370 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
5371 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
5372 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
5373 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
5375 * Cross byte order fixes
5377 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
5378 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
5380 * New -mapped and -readnow options
5382 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
5383 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
5384 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
5385 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
5386 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
5387 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
5388 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
5389 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
5390 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
5391 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
5393 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
5394 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
5395 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
5396 slower, but makes future operations faster.
5398 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
5399 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
5400 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
5403 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
5405 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
5406 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
5407 shared across multiple host platforms.
5409 * longjmp() handling
5411 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
5412 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
5413 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
5414 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
5418 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
5419 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
5424 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
5425 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
5426 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
5428 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
5430 * New machines supported (host and target)
5432 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5434 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
5435 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
5437 * New machines supported (target)
5439 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5443 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
5444 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
5445 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
5447 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
5448 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
5449 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
5450 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
5451 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
5454 * New features for SVR4
5456 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
5457 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
5458 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
5460 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
5461 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
5462 it prints the address mappings of the process.
5464 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
5465 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
5467 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
5469 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
5470 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5471 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5472 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5473 same code linked statically.
5477 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5478 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5479 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5480 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5481 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5482 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5486 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5487 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5488 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5491 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5493 * New machines supported (host and target)
5495 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5496 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5497 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5499 * Almost SCO Unix support
5501 We had hoped to support:
5502 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5503 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5504 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5505 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5507 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5509 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5510 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5511 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5512 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5517 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5518 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5519 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5523 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5524 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5525 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5527 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5529 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5530 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5531 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5533 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5534 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5535 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5536 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5539 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5540 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5541 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5542 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5545 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5546 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5549 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5550 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5551 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5554 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5556 * Improved configuration
5558 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5559 Porting BFD is simpler.
5563 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5564 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5565 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5566 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
5570 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
5572 * New host supported (not target)
5574 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
5577 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
5579 * Multiple source language support
5581 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
5582 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
5583 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
5584 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
5585 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
5586 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
5590 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5591 currently under development at the State University of New York at
5592 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5593 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5595 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5596 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5597 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5599 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5600 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5604 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5605 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5606 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5607 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5610 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5612 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5613 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5614 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5615 examining core files.
5619 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5622 * New machines supported (host and target)
5624 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5625 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5626 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5628 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5630 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5632 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5634 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5635 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5636 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5638 * New remote interfaces
5644 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5648 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5650 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5651 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5652 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5653 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5654 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5655 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5656 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5657 stub on the target system.
5659 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5661 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5662 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5663 object file types such as a.out and coff.
5665 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5666 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5669 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5671 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5672 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5674 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5675 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5676 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5678 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5679 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5680 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5681 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5683 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5684 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5685 it is already running. Default is ON.
5687 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5688 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5689 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5690 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5693 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5694 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5695 or the value of the environment variable
5698 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5699 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5702 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5703 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5704 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5706 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5707 history expansion will be performed on
5708 command line input. The default is OFF.
5710 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5711 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5712 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5714 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5715 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5716 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5719 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5720 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5721 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5724 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5725 ``set width'' instead.
5727 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5728 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5729 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5730 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5732 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5735 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5738 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5741 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5744 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5746 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5747 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5748 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5752 * Support for Shared Libraries
5754 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5755 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5756 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5757 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5758 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5759 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5760 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5761 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5763 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5764 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5765 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5767 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5772 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5773 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5774 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5775 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5776 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5777 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5779 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5781 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5783 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5784 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5785 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5788 * C++ multiple inheritance
5790 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5793 * C++ exception handling
5795 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5796 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5797 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5800 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5801 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5802 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5804 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5805 current stack frame.
5808 * Minor command changes
5810 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5811 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5812 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5814 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5815 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5816 frames without printing.
5818 * New directory command
5820 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5821 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5822 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5823 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5824 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5826 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5828 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5831 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5832 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5833 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5834 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob