1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.0
8 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
13 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
16 * Multi-program debugging.
18 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
19 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
20 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
21 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
22 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
23 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
24 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
25 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
27 * Trace state variables
29 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
30 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
31 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
32 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
33 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
34 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
35 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
36 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
37 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
38 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
43 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
44 the arguments to be comma-separated.
47 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
48 which only declare a variable are not shown.
50 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
52 record save [<FILENAME>]
53 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
54 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
56 record restore <FILENAME>
57 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
58 earlier time, for replay debugging.
60 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
63 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
64 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
70 maint info program-spaces
71 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
73 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
74 show remote interrupt-sequence
75 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
76 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
77 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
78 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
79 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
81 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
82 show remote interrupt-on-connect
83 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
84 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
87 set remotebreak [on | off]
89 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
91 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
92 Create or modify a trace state variable.
95 List trace state variables and their values.
97 delete tvariable $NAME ...
98 Delete one or more trace state variables.
101 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
102 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
106 set follow-exec-mode new|same
107 show follow-exec-mode
108 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
109 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
110 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
112 set default-collect EXPR, ...
114 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
115 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
116 such as registers or a critical global variable.
121 Define a trace state variable.
124 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
128 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
130 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
132 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
133 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
134 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
135 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
136 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
138 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
139 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
140 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
141 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
142 for tracepoint actions.
144 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
145 in hex as well as in symbolic form."
147 * Process record and replay
149 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
150 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
151 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
154 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
155 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
156 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
159 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
160 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
163 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
164 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
165 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
166 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
167 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
168 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
169 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
170 the installation instructions for more information.
172 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
173 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
174 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
175 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
177 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
178 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
180 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
181 now complete on file names.
183 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
184 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
185 For instance, consider:
187 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
188 # struct example variable;
191 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
192 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
194 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
195 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
197 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
198 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
201 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
202 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
203 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
205 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
206 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
207 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
208 and simulator targets may also provide them.
213 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
216 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
217 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
218 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
221 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
222 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
225 Obtains additional operating system information
229 Read or write additional signal information.
231 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
233 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
234 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
235 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
237 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
240 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
241 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
243 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
244 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
245 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
247 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
248 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
250 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
252 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
254 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
255 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
257 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
258 list of section offsets.
260 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
261 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
262 have also been fixed.
264 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
265 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
266 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
268 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
271 template<typename T> class C { };
274 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
276 ptype C<char const *>
278 ptype C<const char *>
281 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
283 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
284 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
286 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
287 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
288 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
290 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
291 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
293 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
296 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
297 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
299 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
300 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
305 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
306 available is determined at configure time.
308 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
310 * Ada tasking support
312 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
316 Print the list of Ada tasks.
318 Print detailed information about task number N.
320 Print the task number of the current task.
322 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
324 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
325 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
327 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
329 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
330 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
331 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
332 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
333 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
334 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
337 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
338 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
341 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
342 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
343 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
344 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
347 * Multi-architecture debugging.
349 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
350 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
351 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
352 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
353 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
355 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
356 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
357 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
358 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
359 --enable-targets configure option.
361 * Non-stop mode debugging.
363 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
364 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
365 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
366 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
367 section in the user manual for more information.
369 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
370 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
371 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
372 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
373 extensions on linux targets.
375 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
377 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
378 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
379 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
380 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
381 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
382 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
383 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
384 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
385 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
387 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
389 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
391 maint set python print-stack
392 maint show python print-stack
393 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
396 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
401 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
405 Show operating system information about processes.
408 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
411 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
414 Detach from inferior number NUM.
417 Kill inferior number NUM.
422 show spu stop-on-load
423 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
425 set spu auto-flush-cache
426 show spu auto-flush-cache
427 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
428 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
430 set sh calling-convention
431 show sh calling-convention
432 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
436 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
438 set disassemble-next-line
439 show disassemble-next-line
440 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
443 set remote noack-packet
444 show remote noack-packet
445 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
446 under "New remote packets."
448 set remote query-attached-packet
449 show remote query-attached-packet
450 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
452 set remote read-siginfo-object
453 show remote read-siginfo-object
454 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
457 set remote write-siginfo-object
458 show remote write-siginfo-object
459 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
462 set remote reverse-continue
463 show remote reverse-continue
464 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
466 set remote reverse-step
467 show remote reverse-step
468 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
470 set displaced-stepping
471 show displaced-stepping
472 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
473 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
474 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
478 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
480 maint set internal-error
481 maint show internal-error
482 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
484 maint set internal-warning
485 maint show internal-warning
486 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
491 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
493 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
494 show multiple-symbols
495 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
496 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
497 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
499 set breakpoint always-inserted
500 show breakpoint always-inserted
501 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
502 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
503 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
505 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
506 show arm fallback-mode
507 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
509 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
510 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
511 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
512 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
514 set disable-randomization
515 show disable-randomization
516 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
517 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
518 multiple debugging sessions.
522 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
527 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
528 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
529 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
530 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
532 set target-wide-charset
533 show target-wide-charset
534 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
535 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
537 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
539 set tcp connect-timeout
540 show tcp connect-timeout
541 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
542 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
543 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
545 set libthread-db-search-path
546 show libthread-db-search-path
547 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
550 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
551 show schedule-multiple
552 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
557 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
558 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
559 affecting correctness.
561 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
562 show interactive-mode
563 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
564 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
565 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
566 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
567 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
572 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
573 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
574 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
578 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
579 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
580 alias for the `fork' command.
583 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
584 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
585 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
588 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
589 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
590 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
594 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
595 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
596 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
599 * New native configurations
601 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
603 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
607 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
608 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
609 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
612 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
613 (mingw32ce) debugging.
619 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
621 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
623 * New native configurations
625 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
626 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
630 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
631 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
633 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
635 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
636 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
637 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
638 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
640 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
641 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
643 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
646 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
647 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
648 and in inlined functions.
650 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
651 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
652 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
654 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
656 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
657 registers on PowerPC targets.
659 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
660 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
662 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
663 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
665 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
666 extended-remote mode.
668 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
669 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
670 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
671 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
673 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
674 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
675 target architectures.
677 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
678 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
679 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
680 stored in two consecutive float registers.
682 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
685 * Improved support for debugging Ada
686 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
688 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
689 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
690 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
691 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
693 - Improved command completion in Ada
696 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
701 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
702 show print frame-arguments
703 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
704 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
709 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
716 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
725 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
728 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
732 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
734 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
736 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
737 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
738 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
740 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
741 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
742 -Bsymbolic linker option.
744 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
745 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
748 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
749 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
751 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
752 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
754 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
756 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
757 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
758 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
760 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
761 automatically displayed as character or string data.
763 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
764 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
767 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
768 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
769 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
771 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
774 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
775 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
776 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
778 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
780 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
782 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
783 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
784 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
786 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
787 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
789 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
790 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
791 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
792 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
793 Windows and SymbianOS).
795 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
796 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
798 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
799 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
805 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
806 when debugging using remote targets.
808 set mem inaccessible-by-default
809 show mem inaccessible-by-default
810 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
811 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
812 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
813 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
814 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
816 set breakpoint auto-hw
817 show breakpoint auto-hw
818 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
819 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
820 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
821 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
822 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
823 including "next" and "finish".
826 catch exception unhandled
827 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
830 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
834 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
835 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
836 an alias to "set sysroot".
839 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
840 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
843 * New native configurations
845 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
850 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
851 not query the target for its built-in description.
855 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
856 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
857 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
862 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
863 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
866 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
871 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
872 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
874 qXfer:libraries:read:
875 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
876 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
877 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
878 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
882 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
891 i[34567]86-*-netware*
892 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
893 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
895 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
898 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
899 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
908 * Other removed features
915 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
922 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
927 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
928 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
933 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
934 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
936 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
938 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
939 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
940 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
941 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
945 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
946 in debugging information.
950 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
951 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
953 set mips stack-arg-size
954 set mips saved-gpreg-size
956 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
958 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
963 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
965 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
966 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
967 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
969 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
970 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
973 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
974 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
976 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
977 stub provides the required support.
979 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
980 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
985 unset substitute-path
987 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
988 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
989 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
990 between compilation and debugging.
994 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
995 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
996 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1000 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1002 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1003 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1005 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1007 * New remote packets
1010 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1011 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1012 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1013 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1017 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1018 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1020 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1021 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1022 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1027 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1029 * Removed remote packets
1032 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1033 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1035 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1039 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1041 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1045 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1046 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1048 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1050 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1052 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1053 previously saved state.
1055 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1057 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1059 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1060 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1062 info forks List forks of the user program that
1063 are available to be debugged.
1065 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1066 forks of the user program that are
1067 available to be debugged.
1069 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1070 that are available to be debugged (and
1071 kill the forked process).
1073 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1074 that are available to be debugged (and
1075 allow the process to continue).
1079 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1081 * Improved Windows host support
1083 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1084 native console support, and remote communications using either
1085 network sockets or serial ports.
1087 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1089 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1090 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1091 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1092 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1093 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1094 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1098 The ARM rdi-share module.
1100 The Netware NLM debug server.
1102 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1104 * New native configurations
1106 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1107 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1111 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1113 * New command line options
1115 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1116 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1117 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1118 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1119 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1120 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1121 with the --command (-x) option.
1123 * Deprecated commands removed
1125 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1129 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1130 othernames set arm disassembler
1131 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1132 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1133 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1136 * New BSD user-level threads support
1138 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1139 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1142 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1143 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1144 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1146 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1147 are not yet supported.
1149 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1150 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1152 * REMOVED configurations and files
1154 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1155 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1156 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1158 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1160 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1161 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1164 * VAX floating point support
1166 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1168 * User-defined command support
1170 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1171 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1172 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1174 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1176 * New command line option
1178 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1181 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1183 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1184 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1185 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1186 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1187 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1189 * Internationalization
1191 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1192 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1193 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1197 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1198 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1199 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1201 * New native configurations
1203 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1207 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1208 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1210 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1212 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1213 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1214 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1217 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1218 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1219 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1229 powerpc bdm protocol
1231 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1232 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1234 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1236 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1237 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1238 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1239 permanently REMOVED.
1248 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1250 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1252 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1253 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1256 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1258 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1259 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1260 IRIX long double values).
1264 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1265 command. This problem has been fixed.
1267 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1269 * Fix for ``many threads''
1271 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1272 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1275 ptrace: No such process.
1276 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1278 This problem has been fixed.
1280 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1282 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1285 * New ``start'' command.
1287 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1289 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1291 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1292 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1293 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1295 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1296 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1297 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1298 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1299 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1300 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1301 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1302 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1303 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1305 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1307 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1308 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1309 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1310 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1311 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1313 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1314 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1315 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1317 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1319 * New native configurations
1321 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1322 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1323 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1324 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1325 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1326 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1327 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1329 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1331 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1332 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1333 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1334 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1335 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1336 work, was also included.
1338 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1339 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1349 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1350 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1352 * REMOVED configurations and files
1354 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1355 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1356 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1357 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1358 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1359 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1360 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1361 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1362 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1363 sonymips mips-sony-*
1364 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1366 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1368 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1370 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1371 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1372 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1373 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1376 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1378 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1379 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1380 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1381 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1382 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1383 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1386 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1388 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1390 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1391 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1392 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1394 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1396 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1397 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1399 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1401 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1402 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1403 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1405 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1407 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1408 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1410 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1412 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1413 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1414 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1416 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1418 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1419 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1420 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1422 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1424 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1426 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1427 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1429 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1431 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1432 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1433 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1434 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1436 * Revised SPARC target
1438 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1439 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1440 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1441 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1442 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1446 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1447 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1448 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1451 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1453 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1454 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1457 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1459 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1460 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1461 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1462 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1463 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1464 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1465 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1466 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1467 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1469 * New native configurations
1471 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1472 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1473 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1474 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1475 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1477 * New debugging protocols
1479 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1481 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1483 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1484 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1485 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1487 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1489 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1490 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1491 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1492 permanently REMOVED.
1494 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1495 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1496 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1497 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1498 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1499 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1500 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1501 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1502 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1503 sonymips mips-sony-*
1504 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1506 * REMOVED configurations and files
1508 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1509 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1510 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1511 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1512 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1513 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1514 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1515 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1516 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1517 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1518 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1519 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1520 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1521 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1522 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1523 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1524 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1526 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1530 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1531 integrated into GDB.
1533 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1535 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1536 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1537 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1540 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1541 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1542 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1546 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1547 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1548 remote protocol documentation for details.
1550 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1552 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1553 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1554 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1557 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1559 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1560 per-thread variables.
1562 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1564 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1565 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1567 * Separate debug info.
1569 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1570 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1571 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1572 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1573 and optional debug files.
1575 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1577 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1578 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1581 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1582 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1586 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1587 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1588 considered "useable".
1590 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1592 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1593 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1596 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1598 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1599 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1601 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1603 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1604 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1607 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1609 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1610 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1614 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1615 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1616 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1617 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1618 data, for more informative profiling results.
1620 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1622 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1623 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1624 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1626 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1629 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1630 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1631 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1632 in a subsequent -var-update.
1634 * New native configurations.
1636 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1638 * Multi-arched targets.
1640 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1641 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1643 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1645 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1646 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1647 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1648 permanently REMOVED.
1650 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1651 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1652 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1653 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1654 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1655 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1656 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1657 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1658 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1659 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1660 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1661 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1663 * REMOVED configurations and files
1666 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1667 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1668 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1669 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1670 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1671 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1673 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1674 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1675 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1676 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1677 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1678 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1680 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1682 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1683 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1684 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1685 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1686 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1688 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1690 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1692 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1693 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1694 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1695 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1696 shared libs like mad''.
1698 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1700 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1701 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1702 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1703 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1705 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1707 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1708 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1711 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1712 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1714 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1715 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1717 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1718 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1719 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1720 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1722 * Multi-arched targets.
1724 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1725 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1727 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1728 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1729 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1733 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1736 * New native configurations
1738 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1739 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1740 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1741 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1743 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1745 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1746 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1747 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1748 permanently REMOVED.
1750 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1751 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1752 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1753 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1754 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1755 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1756 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1757 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1758 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1759 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1761 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1762 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1764 * OBSOLETE languages
1766 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1768 * REMOVED configurations and files
1770 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1771 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1772 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1773 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1774 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1776 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1778 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1780 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1781 commands. The default is 1024.
1783 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1785 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1787 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1789 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1790 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1791 from a file into memory (restore).
1793 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1795 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1796 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1797 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1799 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1807 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1808 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1809 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1811 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1812 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1813 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1815 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1816 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1817 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1819 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1820 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1821 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1823 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1825 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1827 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1828 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1829 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1830 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1831 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1832 (notably embedded) targets.
1834 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1836 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1837 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1838 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1839 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1841 * New command line option
1843 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1845 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1847 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1848 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1849 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1850 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1851 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1852 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1853 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1854 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1855 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1856 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1858 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1860 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1861 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1863 * New native configurations
1865 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1866 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1867 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1868 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1872 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1874 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1876 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1877 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1878 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1879 permanently REMOVED.
1881 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1882 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1883 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1884 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1885 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1887 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1889 * REMOVED configurations and files
1891 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1893 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1894 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1895 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1896 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1897 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1898 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1899 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1900 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1901 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1902 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1903 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1905 * Changes to command line processing
1907 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1908 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1910 * Changes to key bindings
1912 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1914 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1916 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1918 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1921 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1923 Numerous documentation fixes.
1925 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1927 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1929 * New native configurations
1931 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1932 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1933 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1934 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1935 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1936 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1940 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1942 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1944 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1946 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1947 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1948 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1949 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1950 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1952 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1953 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1954 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1955 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1956 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1957 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1958 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1959 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1961 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1962 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1964 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1965 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1966 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1967 permanently REMOVED.
1969 * REMOVED configurations and files
1971 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1972 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1974 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1978 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1980 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1981 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1986 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1988 * The MI enabled by default.
1990 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1991 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1992 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1993 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1994 which is now deprecated.
1996 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1998 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1999 main features are supported:
2001 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2003 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2006 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2008 - a Pascal expression parser.
2010 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2012 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2014 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2016 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2017 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2019 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2021 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2023 * Changes in completion.
2025 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2026 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2027 users expect at the shell prompt.
2029 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2030 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2031 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2032 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2033 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2034 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2035 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2037 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2039 * New platform-independent commands:
2041 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2042 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2043 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2045 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2047 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2048 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2049 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2051 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2053 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2054 multi-threaded programs though.
2056 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2058 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2060 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2061 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2064 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2066 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2067 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2068 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2069 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2070 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2073 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2074 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2075 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2077 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2079 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2080 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2082 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2083 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2086 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2087 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2088 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2089 a given linear address.
2091 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2092 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2093 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2095 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2097 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2099 * Changes in documentation.
2101 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2102 Documentation License.
2104 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2107 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2109 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2112 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2113 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2114 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2116 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2118 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2119 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2120 contents of this file.
2124 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2126 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2128 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2130 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2131 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2132 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2133 greater level of detail.
2135 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2137 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2138 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2139 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2142 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2144 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2145 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2146 machines ``out of the box''.
2148 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2149 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2150 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2151 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2152 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2154 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2155 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2156 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2157 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2158 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2160 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2161 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2164 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2167 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2168 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2169 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2170 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2172 * New native configurations
2174 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2175 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2179 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2180 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2181 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2182 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2184 * OBSOLETE configurations
2186 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2187 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2189 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2192 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2193 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2194 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2195 be permanently REMOVED.
2197 * Gould support removed
2199 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2201 * New features for SVR4
2203 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2204 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2205 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2207 * Many C++ enhancements
2209 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2210 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2212 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2214 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2215 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2216 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2217 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2219 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2220 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2222 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2224 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2225 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2226 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2228 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2229 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2231 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2233 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2234 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2235 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2237 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2239 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2240 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2241 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2243 * ``apropos'' command added.
2245 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2246 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2247 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2251 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2252 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2253 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2254 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2255 enabled by configuring with:
2257 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2259 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2261 * New native configurations
2263 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2264 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2265 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2269 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2270 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2271 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2273 * OBSOLETE configurations
2275 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2277 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2278 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2279 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2280 be permanently REMOVED.
2284 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2285 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2286 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2287 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2288 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2289 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2290 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2295 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2297 * set extension-language
2299 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2300 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2301 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2302 set extension-language .c c++
2303 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2304 and their associated languages.
2306 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2308 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2309 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2310 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2314 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2315 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2317 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2318 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2320 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2321 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2322 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2323 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2324 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2325 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2326 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2327 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2329 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2330 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2331 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2332 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2336 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2337 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2338 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2339 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2340 for xdb and dbx commands.
2344 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2345 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2346 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2348 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2349 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2350 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2352 * Debugging across forks
2354 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2359 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2360 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2361 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2363 * GDB remote protocol additions
2365 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2366 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2367 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2368 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2370 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2371 full 64-bit address. The command
2373 set remoteaddresssize 32
2375 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2376 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2379 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2380 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2382 maint packet heythere
2384 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2385 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2388 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2389 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2390 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2392 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2394 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2395 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2396 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2398 * mask-address variable for Mips
2400 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2401 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2402 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2404 * Higher serial baud rates
2406 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2407 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2408 to achieve all of these rates.)
2412 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2413 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2416 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2418 * New native configurations
2420 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2421 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2422 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2423 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2424 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2425 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2426 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2430 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2431 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2432 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2433 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2434 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2435 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2436 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2437 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2438 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2439 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2440 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2442 * New debugging protocols
2444 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2445 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2446 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2447 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2448 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2449 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2453 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2454 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2459 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2460 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2462 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2464 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2465 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2466 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2468 * Live range splitting
2470 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2471 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2472 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2476 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2477 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2481 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2482 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2483 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2488 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2493 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2494 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2495 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2496 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2497 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2498 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2502 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2503 the symbol at the specified address.
2507 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2508 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2509 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2510 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2511 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2515 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2516 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2517 of most MIPS variants.
2521 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2522 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2523 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2527 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2528 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2529 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2530 the possible architectures.
2532 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2534 * New native configurations
2536 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2537 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2538 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2539 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2540 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2541 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2545 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2546 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2547 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2548 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2549 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2551 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2555 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2556 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2557 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2558 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2559 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2563 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2565 * Windows 95/NT native
2567 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2568 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2569 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2570 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2571 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2573 * dont-repeat command
2575 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2576 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2577 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2578 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2580 * Send break instead of ^C
2582 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2583 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2584 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2586 * Remote protocol timeout
2588 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2589 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2590 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2592 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2594 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2595 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2596 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2597 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2598 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2600 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2601 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2602 automatically on hpux10.
2604 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2606 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2608 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2610 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2611 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2612 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2613 every character. The default value is 1050.
2615 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2617 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2618 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2619 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2620 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2621 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2622 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2624 * Speedups for remote debugging
2626 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2627 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2628 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2630 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2632 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2633 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2635 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2637 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2639 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2640 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2642 * Remote targets use caching
2644 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2645 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2646 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2647 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2648 off' turns the the data cache off.
2650 * Remote targets may have threads
2652 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2653 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2654 gdb/remote.c for details.
2658 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2659 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2660 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2661 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2662 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2663 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2664 sequence is something like
2666 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2668 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2672 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2673 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2674 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2675 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2676 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2677 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2678 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2679 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2683 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2684 but does simplify configuration and building.
2688 GDB now supports hpux10.
2690 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2692 * New native configurations
2694 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2695 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2696 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2697 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2701 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2702 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2703 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2704 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2707 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2709 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2710 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2711 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2712 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2713 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2715 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2717 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2718 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2721 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2723 To execute the command use:
2726 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2727 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2728 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2730 * New `if' and `while' commands
2732 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2733 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2734 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2735 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2736 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2737 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2738 if the expression is zero.
2740 * Fortran source language mode
2742 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2743 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2744 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2745 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2748 * Better HPUX support
2750 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2751 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2752 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2753 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2754 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2760 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2761 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2767 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2768 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2771 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2772 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2774 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2776 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2777 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2778 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2779 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2780 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2781 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2783 * New DOS host serial code
2785 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2786 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2789 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2791 * New "complete" command
2793 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2794 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2796 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2798 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2799 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2801 * Breakpoint hit counts
2803 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2804 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2805 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2806 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2807 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2810 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2812 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2813 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2814 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2816 * Shared library breakpoints
2818 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2819 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2821 * Hardware watchpoints
2823 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2824 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2826 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2830 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2831 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2833 * Improved Irix 5 support
2835 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2837 * Improved HPPA support
2839 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2841 * New native configurations
2843 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2844 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2845 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2846 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2850 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2851 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2854 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2856 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2857 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2861 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2862 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2864 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2866 * Irix 5 is now supported
2870 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2871 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2872 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2873 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2874 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2877 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2879 * User visible changes:
2883 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2884 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2885 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2886 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2887 debugging info for the mips target).
2889 * DEC Alpha native support
2891 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2892 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2893 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2894 Alpha-specific notes.
2896 * Preliminary thread implementation
2898 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2900 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2902 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2903 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2906 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2908 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2909 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2910 call methods, ...etc.
2912 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2914 * User visible changes:
2916 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2917 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2918 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2919 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2921 Filename completion now works.
2923 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2924 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2925 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2927 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2928 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2929 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2930 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2931 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2935 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2936 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2939 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2943 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2944 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2945 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2949 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2950 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2951 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2952 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2953 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2957 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2958 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2959 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2961 * New targets supported
2963 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2964 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2965 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2966 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2967 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2969 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2970 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2971 GO32 memory extender.
2973 * New remote protocols
2975 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2977 * New source languages supported
2979 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2980 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2981 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2984 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2986 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2988 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2989 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2990 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2991 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2992 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2993 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2995 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2997 * Faster and better demangling
2999 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3000 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3001 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3002 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3003 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3004 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3007 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3008 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3009 compiler does not actually implement.
3011 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3013 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3014 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3015 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3016 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3017 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3018 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3021 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3022 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3024 * Improved configure script
3026 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3027 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3028 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3029 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3031 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3032 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3033 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3034 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3035 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3036 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3038 * Documentation improvements
3040 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3041 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3042 before submitting changes.
3044 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3045 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3046 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3047 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3048 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3050 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3051 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3052 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3053 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3054 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3055 around this problem.
3059 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3060 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3061 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3064 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3065 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3067 * New native hosts supported
3069 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3070 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3072 * New targets supported
3074 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3076 * New file formats supported
3078 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3079 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3083 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3085 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3086 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3088 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3089 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3090 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3092 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3093 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3095 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3096 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3097 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3100 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3101 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3102 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3103 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3104 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3106 * Internal improvements
3108 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3109 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3111 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3112 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3113 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3114 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3115 shared code that handles any of them.
3117 * New command line options
3119 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3123 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3124 General Public License.
3126 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3128 * Host/native/target split
3130 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3131 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3132 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3133 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3134 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3136 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3137 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3138 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3139 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3140 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3141 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3142 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3144 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3145 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3146 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3148 * New hosts supported
3150 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3151 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3152 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3154 * New targets supported
3156 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3157 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3159 * New native hosts supported
3161 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3162 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3163 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3165 * New file formats supported
3167 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3168 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3169 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3173 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3174 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3175 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3177 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3179 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3180 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3181 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3182 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3186 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3187 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3188 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3190 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3194 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3195 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3198 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3199 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3201 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3202 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3203 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3204 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3205 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3206 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3208 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3209 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3210 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3211 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3215 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3216 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3217 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3218 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3219 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3221 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3222 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3223 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3224 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3228 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3229 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3230 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3231 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3232 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3233 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3234 each instruction being stepped through.
3236 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3237 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3239 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3240 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3241 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3242 processor with a serial port.
3246 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3247 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3248 supported, and what files each one uses.
3252 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3253 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3254 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3255 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3257 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3258 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3259 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3260 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3264 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3265 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3266 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3267 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3268 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3269 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3271 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3274 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3276 * Better support for C++ function names
3278 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3279 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3280 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3281 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3282 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3284 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3285 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3286 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3287 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3288 for the list of formats.
3290 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3292 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3293 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3294 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3295 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3296 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3297 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3300 * New 'maintenance' command
3302 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3303 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3304 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3306 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3307 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3308 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3309 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3310 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3311 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3313 The following commands are new:
3315 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3316 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3317 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3319 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3321 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3322 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3323 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3324 read after argv processing.
3326 * New hosts supported
3328 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3330 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3332 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3333 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3334 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3335 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3336 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3339 * New targets supported
3341 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3343 * More smarts about finding #include files
3345 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3346 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3347 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3348 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3349 the one that contains your sources.
3351 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3352 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3353 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3355 * Interesting infernals change
3357 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3358 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3359 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3360 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3362 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3364 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3365 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3366 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3368 See the ChangeLog for details.
3370 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3372 * New machines supported (host and target)
3374 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3376 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3378 * New malloc package
3380 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3381 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3382 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3383 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3384 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3385 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3389 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3390 'help info proc' for details.
3392 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3394 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3395 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3398 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3400 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3401 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3402 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3403 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3404 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3405 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3407 * Cross byte order fixes
3409 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3410 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3412 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3414 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3415 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3416 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3417 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3418 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3419 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3420 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3421 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3422 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3423 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3425 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3426 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3427 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3428 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3430 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3431 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3432 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3435 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3437 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3438 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3439 shared across multiple host platforms.
3441 * longjmp() handling
3443 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3444 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3445 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3446 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3450 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3451 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3456 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3457 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3458 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3460 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3462 * New machines supported (host and target)
3464 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3466 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3467 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3469 * New machines supported (target)
3471 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3475 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3476 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3477 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3479 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3480 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3481 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3482 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3483 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3486 * New features for SVR4
3488 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3489 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3490 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3492 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3493 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3494 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3496 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3497 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3499 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3501 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3502 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3503 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3504 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3505 same code linked statically.
3509 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3510 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3511 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3512 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3513 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3514 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3518 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3519 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3520 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3523 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3525 * New machines supported (host and target)
3527 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3528 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3529 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3531 * Almost SCO Unix support
3533 We had hoped to support:
3534 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3535 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3536 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3537 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3539 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3541 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3542 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3543 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3544 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3549 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3550 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3551 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3555 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3556 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3557 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3559 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3561 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3562 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3563 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3565 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3566 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3567 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3568 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3571 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3572 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3573 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3574 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3577 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3578 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3581 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3582 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3583 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3586 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3588 * Improved configuration
3590 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3591 Porting BFD is simpler.
3595 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3596 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3597 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3598 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3602 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3604 * New host supported (not target)
3606 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3609 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3611 * Multiple source language support
3613 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3614 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3615 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3616 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3617 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3618 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3622 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3623 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3624 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3625 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3627 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3628 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3629 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3631 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3632 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3636 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3637 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3638 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3639 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3642 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3644 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3645 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3646 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3647 examining core files.
3651 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3654 * New machines supported (host and target)
3656 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3657 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3658 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3660 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3662 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3664 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3666 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3667 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3668 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3670 * New remote interfaces
3676 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3680 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3682 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3683 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3684 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3685 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3686 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3687 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3688 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3689 stub on the target system.
3691 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3693 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3694 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3695 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3697 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3698 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3701 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3703 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3704 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3706 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3707 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3708 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3710 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3711 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3712 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3713 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3715 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3716 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3717 it is already running. Default is ON.
3719 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3720 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3721 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3722 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3725 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3726 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3727 or the value of the environment variable
3730 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3731 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3734 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3735 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3736 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3738 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3739 history expansion will be performed on
3740 command line input. The default is OFF.
3742 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3743 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3744 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3746 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3747 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3748 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3751 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3752 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3753 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3756 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3757 ``set width'' instead.
3759 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3760 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3761 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3762 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3764 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3767 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3770 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3773 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3776 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3778 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3779 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3780 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3784 * Support for Shared Libraries
3786 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3787 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3788 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3789 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3790 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3791 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3792 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3793 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3795 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3796 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3797 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3799 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3804 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3805 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3806 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3807 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3808 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3809 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3811 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3813 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3815 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3816 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3817 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3820 * C++ multiple inheritance
3822 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3825 * C++ exception handling
3827 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3828 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3829 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3832 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3833 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3834 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3836 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3837 current stack frame.
3840 * Minor command changes
3842 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3843 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3844 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3846 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3847 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3848 frames without printing.
3850 * New directory command
3852 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3853 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3854 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3855 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3856 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3858 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3860 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3863 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3864 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3865 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3866 where the program that you are debugging will run.