1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.6
6 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
7 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
8 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
10 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
11 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
12 -Bsymbolic linker option.
14 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
15 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
18 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
19 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
21 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
22 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
24 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
26 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
27 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
28 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
30 * Arrays of explicitly SIGNED or UNSIGNED CHARs are now printed as arrays
33 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
34 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
37 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
40 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
41 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
42 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
44 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
46 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
48 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
49 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
50 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
52 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
53 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
55 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
56 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
57 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
58 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
59 Windows and SymbianOS).
61 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
62 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
68 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
69 when debugging using remote targets.
71 set mem inaccessible-by-default
72 show mem inaccessible-by-default
73 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
74 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
75 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
76 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
77 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
79 set breakpoint auto-hw
80 show breakpoint auto-hw
81 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
82 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
83 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
84 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
85 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
86 including "next" and "finish".
89 catch exception unhandled
90 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
93 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
97 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
98 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
99 an alias to "set sysroot".
102 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
103 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
106 * New native configurations
108 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
113 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
114 not query the target for its built-in description.
118 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
119 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
120 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
125 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
126 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
129 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
134 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
135 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
137 qXfer:libraries:read:
138 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
139 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
140 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
141 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
145 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
154 i[34567]86-*-netware*
155 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
156 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
158 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
161 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
162 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
171 * Other removed features
178 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
185 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
190 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
191 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
196 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
197 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
199 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
201 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
202 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
203 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
204 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
208 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
209 in debugging information.
213 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
214 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
216 set mips stack-arg-size
217 set mips saved-gpreg-size
219 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
221 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
226 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
228 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
229 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
230 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
232 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
233 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
236 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
237 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
239 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
240 stub provides the required support.
242 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
243 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
248 unset substitute-path
250 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
251 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
252 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
253 between compilation and debugging.
257 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
258 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
259 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
263 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
265 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
266 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
268 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
273 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
274 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
275 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
276 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
280 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
281 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
283 qXfer:memory-map:read:
284 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
285 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
290 Erase and program a flash memory device.
292 * Removed remote packets
295 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
296 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
298 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
302 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
304 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
308 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
309 only if it doesn't already have a value.
311 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
313 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
315 restart <n> Return the program state to a
316 previously saved state.
318 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
320 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
322 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
323 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
325 info forks List forks of the user program that
326 are available to be debugged.
328 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
329 forks of the user program that are
330 available to be debugged.
332 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
333 that are available to be debugged (and
334 kill the forked process).
336 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
337 that are available to be debugged (and
338 allow the process to continue).
342 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
344 * Improved Windows host support
346 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
347 native console support, and remote communications using either
348 network sockets or serial ports.
350 * Improved Modula-2 language support
352 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
353 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
354 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
355 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
356 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
357 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
361 The ARM rdi-share module.
363 The Netware NLM debug server.
365 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
367 * New native configurations
369 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
370 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
374 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
376 * New command line options
378 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
379 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
380 the child (debugged) program exited with.
381 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
382 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
383 specified multiple times and in conjunction
384 with the --command (-x) option.
386 * Deprecated commands removed
388 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
392 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
393 othernames set arm disassembler
394 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
395 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
396 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
399 * New BSD user-level threads support
401 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
402 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
405 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
406 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
407 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
409 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
410 are not yet supported.
412 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
413 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
415 * REMOVED configurations and files
417 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
418 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
419 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
421 * New "set print array-indexes" command
423 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
424 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
427 * VAX floating point support
429 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
431 * User-defined command support
433 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
434 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
435 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
437 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
439 * New command line option
441 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
444 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
446 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
447 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
448 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
449 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
450 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
452 * Internationalization
454 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
455 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
456 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
460 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
461 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
462 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
464 * New native configurations
466 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
470 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
471 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
473 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
475 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
476 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
477 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
480 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
481 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
482 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
494 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
495 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
497 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
499 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
500 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
501 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
511 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
513 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
515 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
516 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
519 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
521 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
522 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
523 IRIX long double values).
527 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
528 command. This problem has been fixed.
530 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
532 * Fix for ``many threads''
534 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
535 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
538 ptrace: No such process.
539 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
541 This problem has been fixed.
543 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
545 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
548 * New ``start'' command.
550 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
552 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
554 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
555 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
556 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
558 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
559 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
560 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
561 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
562 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
563 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
564 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
565 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
566 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
568 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
570 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
571 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
572 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
573 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
574 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
576 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
577 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
578 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
580 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
582 * New native configurations
584 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
585 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
586 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
587 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
588 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
589 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
590 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
592 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
594 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
595 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
596 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
597 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
598 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
599 work, was also included.
601 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
602 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
612 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
613 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
615 * REMOVED configurations and files
617 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
618 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
619 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
620 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
621 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
622 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
623 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
624 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
625 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
627 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
629 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
631 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
633 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
634 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
635 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
636 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
639 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
641 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
642 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
643 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
644 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
645 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
646 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
649 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
651 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
653 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
654 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
655 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
657 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
659 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
660 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
662 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
664 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
665 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
666 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
668 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
670 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
671 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
673 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
675 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
676 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
677 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
679 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
681 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
682 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
683 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
685 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
687 * Removed --with-mmalloc
689 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
690 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
692 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
694 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
695 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
696 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
697 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
699 * Revised SPARC target
701 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
702 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
703 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
704 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
705 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
709 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
710 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
711 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
714 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
716 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
717 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
720 * C++ nested types and namespaces
722 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
723 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
724 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
725 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
726 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
727 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
728 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
729 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
730 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
732 * New native configurations
734 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
735 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
736 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
737 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
738 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
740 * New debugging protocols
742 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
744 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
746 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
747 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
748 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
750 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
752 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
753 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
754 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
757 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
758 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
759 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
760 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
761 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
762 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
763 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
764 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
765 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
767 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
769 * REMOVED configurations and files
771 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
772 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
773 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
774 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
775 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
776 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
777 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
778 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
779 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
780 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
781 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
782 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
783 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
784 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
785 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
786 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
787 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
789 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
793 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
796 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
798 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
799 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
800 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
803 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
804 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
809 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
810 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
811 remote protocol documentation for details.
813 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
815 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
816 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
817 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
820 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
822 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
823 per-thread variables.
825 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
827 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
828 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
830 * Separate debug info.
832 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
833 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
834 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
835 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
836 and optional debug files.
838 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
840 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
841 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
844 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
845 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
849 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
850 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
851 considered "useable".
853 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
855 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
856 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
859 * GDB supports logging output to a file
861 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
862 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
864 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
866 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
867 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
870 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
872 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
873 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
877 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
878 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
879 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
880 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
881 data, for more informative profiling results.
883 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
885 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
886 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
887 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
889 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
892 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
893 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
894 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
895 in a subsequent -var-update.
897 * New native configurations.
899 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
901 * Multi-arched targets.
903 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
904 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
906 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
908 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
909 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
910 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
913 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
914 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
915 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
916 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
917 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
918 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
919 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
920 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
921 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
922 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
923 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
924 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
926 * REMOVED configurations and files
929 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
930 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
931 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
932 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
933 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
934 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
936 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
937 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
938 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
939 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
940 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
941 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
943 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
945 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
946 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
947 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
948 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
949 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
951 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
953 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
955 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
956 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
957 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
958 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
959 shared libs like mad''.
961 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
963 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
964 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
965 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
966 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
968 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
970 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
971 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
974 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
975 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
977 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
978 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
980 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
981 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
982 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
983 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
985 * Multi-arched targets.
987 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
988 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
990 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
991 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
992 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
996 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
999 * New native configurations
1001 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1002 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1003 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1004 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1006 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1008 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1009 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1010 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1011 permanently REMOVED.
1013 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1014 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1015 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1016 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1017 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1018 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1019 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1020 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1021 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1022 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1024 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1025 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1027 * OBSOLETE languages
1029 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1031 * REMOVED configurations and files
1033 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1034 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1035 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1036 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1037 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1039 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1041 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1043 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1044 commands. The default is 1024.
1046 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1048 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1050 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1052 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1053 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1054 from a file into memory (restore).
1056 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1058 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1059 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1060 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1062 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1070 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1071 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1072 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1074 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1075 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1076 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1078 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1079 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1080 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1082 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1083 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1084 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1086 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1088 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1090 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1091 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1092 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1093 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1094 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1095 (notably embedded) targets.
1097 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1099 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1100 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1101 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1102 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1104 * New command line option
1106 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1108 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1110 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1111 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1112 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1113 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1114 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1115 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1116 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1117 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1118 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1119 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1121 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1123 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1124 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1126 * New native configurations
1128 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1129 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1130 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1131 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1135 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1137 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1139 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1140 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1141 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1142 permanently REMOVED.
1144 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1145 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1146 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1147 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1148 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1150 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1152 * REMOVED configurations and files
1154 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1156 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1157 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1158 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1159 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1160 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1161 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1162 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1163 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1164 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1165 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1166 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1168 * Changes to command line processing
1170 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1171 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1173 * Changes to key bindings
1175 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1177 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1179 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1181 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1184 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1186 Numerous documentation fixes.
1188 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1190 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1192 * New native configurations
1194 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1195 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1196 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1197 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1198 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1199 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1203 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1205 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1207 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1209 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1210 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1211 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1212 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1213 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1215 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1216 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1217 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1218 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1219 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1220 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1221 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1222 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1224 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1225 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1227 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1228 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1229 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1230 permanently REMOVED.
1232 * REMOVED configurations and files
1234 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1235 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1237 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1241 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1243 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1244 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1249 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1251 * The MI enabled by default.
1253 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1254 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1255 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1256 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1257 which is now deprecated.
1259 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1261 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1262 main features are supported:
1264 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1266 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1269 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1271 - a Pascal expression parser.
1273 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1275 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1277 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1279 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1280 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1282 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1284 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1286 * Changes in completion.
1288 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1289 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1290 users expect at the shell prompt.
1292 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1293 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1294 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1295 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1296 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1297 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1298 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1300 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1302 * New platform-independent commands:
1304 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1305 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1306 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1308 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1310 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1311 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1312 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1314 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1316 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1317 multi-threaded programs though.
1319 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1321 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1323 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1324 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1327 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1329 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1330 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1331 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1332 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1333 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1336 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1337 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1338 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1340 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1342 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1343 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1345 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1346 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1349 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1350 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1351 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1352 a given linear address.
1354 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1355 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1356 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1358 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1360 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1362 * Changes in documentation.
1364 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1365 Documentation License.
1367 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1370 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1372 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1375 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1376 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1377 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1379 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1381 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1382 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1383 contents of this file.
1387 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1389 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1391 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1393 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1394 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1395 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1396 greater level of detail.
1398 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1400 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1401 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1402 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1405 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1407 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1408 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1409 machines ``out of the box''.
1411 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1412 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1413 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1414 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1415 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1417 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1418 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1419 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1420 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1421 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1423 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1424 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1427 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1430 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1431 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1432 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1433 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1435 * New native configurations
1437 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1438 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1442 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1443 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1444 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1445 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1447 * OBSOLETE configurations
1449 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1450 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1452 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1455 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1456 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1457 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1458 be permanently REMOVED.
1460 * Gould support removed
1462 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1464 * New features for SVR4
1466 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1467 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1468 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1470 * Many C++ enhancements
1472 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1473 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1475 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1477 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1478 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1479 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1480 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1482 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1483 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1485 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1487 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1488 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1489 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1491 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1492 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1494 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1496 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1497 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1498 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1500 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1502 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1503 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1504 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1506 * ``apropos'' command added.
1508 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1509 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1510 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1514 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1515 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1516 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1517 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1518 enabled by configuring with:
1520 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1522 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1524 * New native configurations
1526 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1527 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1528 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1532 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1533 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1534 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1536 * OBSOLETE configurations
1538 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1540 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1541 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1542 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1543 be permanently REMOVED.
1547 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1548 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1549 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1550 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1551 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1552 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1553 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1558 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1560 * set extension-language
1562 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1563 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1564 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1565 set extension-language .c c++
1566 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1567 and their associated languages.
1569 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1571 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1572 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1573 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1577 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1578 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1580 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1581 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1583 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1584 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1585 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1586 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1587 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1588 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1589 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1590 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1592 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1593 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1594 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1595 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1599 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1600 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1601 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1602 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1603 for xdb and dbx commands.
1607 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1608 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1609 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1611 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1612 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1613 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1615 * Debugging across forks
1617 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1622 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1623 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1624 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1626 * GDB remote protocol additions
1628 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1629 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1630 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1631 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1633 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1634 full 64-bit address. The command
1636 set remoteaddresssize 32
1638 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1639 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1642 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1643 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1645 maint packet heythere
1647 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1648 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1651 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1652 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1653 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1655 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1657 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1658 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1659 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1661 * mask-address variable for Mips
1663 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1664 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1665 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1667 * Higher serial baud rates
1669 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1670 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1671 to achieve all of these rates.)
1675 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1676 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1679 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1681 * New native configurations
1683 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1684 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1685 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1686 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1687 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1688 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1689 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1693 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1694 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1695 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1696 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1697 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1698 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1699 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1700 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1701 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1702 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1703 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1705 * New debugging protocols
1707 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1708 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1709 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1710 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1711 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1712 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1716 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1717 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1722 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1723 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1725 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1727 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1728 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1729 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1731 * Live range splitting
1733 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1734 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1735 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1739 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1740 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1744 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1745 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1746 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1751 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1756 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1757 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1758 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1759 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1760 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1761 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1765 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1766 the symbol at the specified address.
1770 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1771 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1772 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1773 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1774 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1778 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1779 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1780 of most MIPS variants.
1784 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1785 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1786 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1790 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1791 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1792 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1793 the possible architectures.
1795 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1797 * New native configurations
1799 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1800 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1801 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1802 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1803 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1804 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1808 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1809 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1810 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1811 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1812 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1814 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1818 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1819 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1820 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1821 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1822 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1826 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1828 * Windows 95/NT native
1830 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1831 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1832 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1833 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1834 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1836 * dont-repeat command
1838 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1839 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1840 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1841 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1843 * Send break instead of ^C
1845 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1846 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1847 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1849 * Remote protocol timeout
1851 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1852 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1853 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1855 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1857 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1858 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1859 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1860 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1861 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1863 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1864 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1865 automatically on hpux10.
1867 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1869 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1871 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1873 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1874 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1875 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1876 every character. The default value is 1050.
1878 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1880 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1881 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1882 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1883 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1884 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1885 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1887 * Speedups for remote debugging
1889 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1890 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1891 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1893 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1895 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1896 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1898 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1900 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1902 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1903 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1905 * Remote targets use caching
1907 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1908 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1909 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1910 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1911 off' turns the the data cache off.
1913 * Remote targets may have threads
1915 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1916 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1917 gdb/remote.c for details.
1921 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1922 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1923 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1924 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1925 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1926 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1927 sequence is something like
1929 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1931 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1935 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1936 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1937 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1938 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1939 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1940 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1941 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1942 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1946 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1947 but does simplify configuration and building.
1951 GDB now supports hpux10.
1953 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1955 * New native configurations
1957 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1958 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1959 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1960 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1964 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1965 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1966 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1967 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1970 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1972 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1973 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1974 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1975 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1976 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1978 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1980 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1981 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1984 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1986 To execute the command use:
1989 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1990 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1991 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1993 * New `if' and `while' commands
1995 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1996 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1997 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1998 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1999 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2000 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2001 if the expression is zero.
2003 * Fortran source language mode
2005 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2006 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2007 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2008 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2011 * Better HPUX support
2013 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2014 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2015 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2016 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2017 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2023 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2024 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2030 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2031 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2034 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2035 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2037 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2039 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2040 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2041 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2042 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2043 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2044 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2046 * New DOS host serial code
2048 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2049 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2052 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2054 * New "complete" command
2056 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2057 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2059 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2061 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2062 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2064 * Breakpoint hit counts
2066 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2067 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2068 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2069 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2070 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2073 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2075 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2076 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2077 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2079 * Shared library breakpoints
2081 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2082 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2084 * Hardware watchpoints
2086 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2087 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2089 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2093 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2094 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2096 * Improved Irix 5 support
2098 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2100 * Improved HPPA support
2102 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2104 * New native configurations
2106 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2107 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2108 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2109 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2113 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2114 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2117 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2119 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2120 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2124 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2125 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2127 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2129 * Irix 5 is now supported
2133 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2134 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2135 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2136 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2137 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2140 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2142 * User visible changes:
2146 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2147 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2148 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2149 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2150 debugging info for the mips target).
2152 * DEC Alpha native support
2154 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2155 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2156 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2157 Alpha-specific notes.
2159 * Preliminary thread implementation
2161 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2163 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2165 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2166 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2169 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2171 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2172 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2173 call methods, ...etc.
2175 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2177 * User visible changes:
2179 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2180 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2181 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2182 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2184 Filename completion now works.
2186 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2187 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2188 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2190 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2191 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2192 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2193 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2194 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2198 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2199 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2202 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2206 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2207 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2208 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2212 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2213 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2214 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2215 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2216 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2220 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2221 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2222 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2224 * New targets supported
2226 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2227 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2228 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2229 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2230 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2232 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2233 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2234 GO32 memory extender.
2236 * New remote protocols
2238 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2240 * New source languages supported
2242 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2243 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2244 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2247 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2249 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2251 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2252 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2253 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2254 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2255 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2256 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2258 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2260 * Faster and better demangling
2262 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2263 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2264 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2265 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2266 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2267 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2270 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2271 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2272 compiler does not actually implement.
2274 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2276 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2277 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2278 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2279 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2280 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2281 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2284 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2285 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2287 * Improved configure script
2289 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2290 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2291 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2292 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2294 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2295 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2296 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2297 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2298 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2299 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2301 * Documentation improvements
2303 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2304 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2305 before submitting changes.
2307 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2308 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2309 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2310 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2311 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2313 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2314 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2315 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2316 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2317 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2318 around this problem.
2322 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2323 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2324 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2327 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2328 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2330 * New native hosts supported
2332 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2333 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2335 * New targets supported
2337 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2339 * New file formats supported
2341 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2342 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2346 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2348 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2349 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2351 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2352 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2353 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2355 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2356 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2358 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2359 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2360 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2363 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2364 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2365 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2366 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2367 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2369 * Internal improvements
2371 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2372 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2374 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2375 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2376 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2377 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2378 shared code that handles any of them.
2380 * New command line options
2382 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2386 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2387 General Public License.
2389 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2391 * Host/native/target split
2393 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2394 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2395 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2396 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2397 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2399 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2400 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2401 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2402 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2403 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2404 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2405 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2407 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2408 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2409 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2411 * New hosts supported
2413 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2414 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2415 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2417 * New targets supported
2419 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2420 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2422 * New native hosts supported
2424 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2425 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2426 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2428 * New file formats supported
2430 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2431 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2432 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2436 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2437 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2438 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2440 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2442 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2443 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2444 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2445 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2449 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2450 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2451 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2453 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2457 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2458 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2461 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2462 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2464 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2465 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2466 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2467 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2468 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2469 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2471 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2472 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2473 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2474 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2478 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2479 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2480 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2481 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2482 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2484 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2485 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2486 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2487 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2491 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2492 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2493 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2494 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2495 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2496 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2497 each instruction being stepped through.
2499 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2500 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2502 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2503 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2504 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2505 processor with a serial port.
2509 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2510 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2511 supported, and what files each one uses.
2515 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2516 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2517 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2518 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2520 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2521 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2522 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2523 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2527 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2528 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2529 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2530 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2531 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2532 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2534 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2537 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2539 * Better support for C++ function names
2541 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2542 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2543 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2544 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2545 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2547 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2548 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2549 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2550 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2551 for the list of formats.
2553 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2555 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2556 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2557 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2558 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2559 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2560 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2563 * New 'maintenance' command
2565 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2566 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2567 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2569 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2570 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2571 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2572 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2573 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2574 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2576 The following commands are new:
2578 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2579 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2580 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2582 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2584 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2585 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2586 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2587 read after argv processing.
2589 * New hosts supported
2591 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2593 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2595 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2596 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2597 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2598 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2599 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2602 * New targets supported
2604 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2606 * More smarts about finding #include files
2608 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2609 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2610 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2611 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2612 the one that contains your sources.
2614 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2615 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2616 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2618 * Interesting infernals change
2620 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2621 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2622 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2623 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2625 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2627 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2628 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2629 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2631 See the ChangeLog for details.
2633 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2635 * New machines supported (host and target)
2637 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2639 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2641 * New malloc package
2643 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2644 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2645 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2646 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2647 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2648 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2652 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2653 'help info proc' for details.
2655 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2657 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2658 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2661 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2663 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2664 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2665 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2666 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2667 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2668 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2670 * Cross byte order fixes
2672 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2673 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2675 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2677 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2678 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2679 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2680 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2681 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2682 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2683 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2684 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2685 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2686 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2688 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2689 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2690 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2691 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2693 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2694 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2695 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2698 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2700 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2701 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2702 shared across multiple host platforms.
2704 * longjmp() handling
2706 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2707 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2708 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2709 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2713 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2714 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2719 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2720 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2721 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2723 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2725 * New machines supported (host and target)
2727 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2729 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2730 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2732 * New machines supported (target)
2734 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2738 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2739 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2740 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2742 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2743 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2744 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2745 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2746 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2749 * New features for SVR4
2751 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2752 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2753 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2755 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2756 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2757 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2759 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2760 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2762 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2764 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2765 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2766 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2767 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2768 same code linked statically.
2772 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2773 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2774 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2775 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2776 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2777 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2781 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2782 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2783 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2786 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2788 * New machines supported (host and target)
2790 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2791 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2792 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2794 * Almost SCO Unix support
2796 We had hoped to support:
2797 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2798 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2799 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2800 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2802 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2804 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2805 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2806 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2807 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2812 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2813 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2814 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2818 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2819 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2820 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2822 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2824 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2825 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2826 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2828 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2829 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2830 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2831 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2834 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2835 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2836 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2837 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2840 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2841 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2844 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2845 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2846 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2849 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2851 * Improved configuration
2853 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2854 Porting BFD is simpler.
2858 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2859 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2860 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2861 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2865 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2867 * New host supported (not target)
2869 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2872 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2874 * Multiple source language support
2876 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2877 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2878 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2879 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2880 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2881 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2885 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2886 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2887 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2888 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2890 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2891 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2892 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2894 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2895 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2899 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2900 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2901 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2902 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2905 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2907 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2908 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2909 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2910 examining core files.
2914 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2917 * New machines supported (host and target)
2919 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2920 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2921 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2923 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2925 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2927 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2929 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2930 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2931 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2933 * New remote interfaces
2939 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2943 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2945 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2946 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2947 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2948 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2949 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2950 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2951 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2952 stub on the target system.
2954 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2956 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2957 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2958 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2960 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2961 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2964 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2966 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2967 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2969 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2970 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2971 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2973 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2974 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2975 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2976 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2978 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2979 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2980 it is already running. Default is ON.
2982 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2983 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2984 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2985 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2988 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2989 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2990 or the value of the environment variable
2993 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2994 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2997 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2998 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2999 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3001 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3002 history expansion will be performed on
3003 command line input. The default is OFF.
3005 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3006 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3007 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3009 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3010 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3011 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3014 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3015 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3016 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3019 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3020 ``set width'' instead.
3022 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3023 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3024 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3025 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3027 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3030 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3033 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3036 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3039 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3041 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3042 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3043 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3047 * Support for Shared Libraries
3049 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3050 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3051 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3052 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3053 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3054 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3055 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3056 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3058 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3059 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3060 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3062 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3067 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3068 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3069 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3070 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3071 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3072 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3074 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3076 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3078 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3079 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3080 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3083 * C++ multiple inheritance
3085 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3088 * C++ exception handling
3090 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3091 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3092 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3095 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3096 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3097 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3099 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3100 current stack frame.
3103 * Minor command changes
3105 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3106 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3107 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3109 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3110 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3111 frames without printing.
3113 * New directory command
3115 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3116 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3117 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3118 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3119 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3121 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3123 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3126 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3127 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3128 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3129 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob