1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.6
6 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
7 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
9 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
10 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
14 set mem inaccessible-by-default
15 show mem inaccessible-by-default
16 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
17 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
18 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
19 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
20 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
22 set breakpoint auto-hw
23 show breakpoint auto-hw
24 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
25 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
26 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
27 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
28 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
29 including "next" and "finish".
31 * New native configurations
33 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
37 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
38 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
43 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
44 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
47 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
52 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
54 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
55 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
56 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
58 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
59 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
62 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
63 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
65 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
66 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
73 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
74 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
75 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
76 between compilation and debugging.
80 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
81 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
82 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
86 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
88 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
89 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
91 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
96 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
97 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
98 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
99 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
103 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
104 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
106 * Removed remote packets
109 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
110 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
112 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
116 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
118 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
122 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
123 only if it doesn't already have a value.
125 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
127 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
129 restart <n> Return the program state to a
130 previously saved state.
132 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
134 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
136 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
137 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
139 info forks List forks of the user program that
140 are available to be debugged.
142 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
143 forks of the user program that are
144 available to be debugged.
146 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
147 that are available to be debugged (and
148 kill the forked process).
150 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
151 that are available to be debugged (and
152 allow the process to continue).
156 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
158 * Improved Windows host support
160 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
161 native console support, and remote communications using either
162 network sockets or serial ports.
164 * Improved Modula-2 language support
166 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
167 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
168 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
169 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
170 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
171 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
175 The ARM rdi-share module.
177 The Netware NLM debug server.
179 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
181 * New native configurations
183 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
184 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
188 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
190 * New command line options
192 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
193 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
194 the child (debugged) program exited with.
195 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
196 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
197 specified multiple times and in conjunction
198 with the --command (-x) option.
200 * Deprecated commands removed
202 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
206 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
207 othernames set arm disassembler
208 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
209 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
210 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
213 * New BSD user-level threads support
215 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
216 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
219 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
220 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
221 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
223 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
224 are not yet supported.
226 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
227 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
229 * REMOVED configurations and files
231 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
232 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
233 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
235 * New "set print array-indexes" command
237 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
238 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
241 * VAX floating point support
243 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
245 * User-defined command support
247 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
248 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
249 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
251 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
253 * New command line option
255 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
258 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
260 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
261 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
262 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
263 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
264 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
266 * Internationalization
268 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
269 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
270 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
274 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
275 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
276 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
278 * New native configurations
280 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
284 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
285 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
287 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
289 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
290 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
291 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
294 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
295 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
296 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
308 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
309 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
311 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
313 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
314 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
315 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
325 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
327 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
329 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
330 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
333 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
335 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
336 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
337 IRIX long double values).
341 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
342 command. This problem has been fixed.
344 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
346 * Fix for ``many threads''
348 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
349 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
352 ptrace: No such process.
353 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
355 This problem has been fixed.
357 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
359 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
362 * New ``start'' command.
364 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
366 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
368 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
369 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
370 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
372 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
373 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
374 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
375 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
376 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
377 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
378 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
379 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
380 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
382 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
384 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
385 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
386 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
387 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
388 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
390 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
391 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
392 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
394 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
396 * New native configurations
398 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
399 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
400 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
401 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
402 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
403 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
404 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
406 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
408 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
409 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
410 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
411 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
412 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
413 work, was also included.
415 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
416 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
426 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
427 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
429 * REMOVED configurations and files
431 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
432 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
433 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
434 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
435 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
436 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
437 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
438 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
439 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
441 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
443 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
445 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
447 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
448 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
449 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
450 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
453 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
455 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
456 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
457 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
458 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
459 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
460 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
463 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
465 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
467 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
468 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
469 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
471 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
473 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
474 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
476 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
478 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
479 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
480 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
482 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
484 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
485 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
487 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
489 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
490 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
491 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
493 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
495 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
496 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
497 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
499 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
501 * Removed --with-mmalloc
503 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
504 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
506 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
508 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
509 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
510 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
511 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
513 * Revised SPARC target
515 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
516 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
517 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
518 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
519 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
523 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
524 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
525 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
528 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
530 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
531 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
534 * C++ nested types and namespaces
536 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
537 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
538 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
539 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
540 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
541 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
542 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
543 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
544 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
546 * New native configurations
548 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
549 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
550 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
551 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
552 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
554 * New debugging protocols
556 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
558 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
560 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
561 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
562 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
564 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
566 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
567 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
568 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
571 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
572 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
573 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
574 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
575 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
576 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
577 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
578 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
579 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
581 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
583 * REMOVED configurations and files
585 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
586 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
587 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
588 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
589 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
590 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
591 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
592 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
593 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
594 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
595 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
596 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
597 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
598 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
599 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
600 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
601 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
603 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
607 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
610 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
612 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
613 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
614 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
617 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
618 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
623 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
624 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
625 remote protocol documentation for details.
627 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
629 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
630 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
631 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
634 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
636 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
637 per-thread variables.
639 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
641 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
642 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
644 * Separate debug info.
646 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
647 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
648 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
649 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
650 and optional debug files.
652 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
654 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
655 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
658 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
659 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
663 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
664 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
665 considered "useable".
667 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
669 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
670 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
673 * GDB supports logging output to a file
675 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
676 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
678 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
680 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
681 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
684 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
686 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
687 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
691 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
692 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
693 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
694 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
695 data, for more informative profiling results.
697 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
699 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
700 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
701 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
703 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
706 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
707 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
708 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
709 in a subsequent -var-update.
711 * New native configurations.
713 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
715 * Multi-arched targets.
717 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
718 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
720 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
722 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
723 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
724 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
727 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
728 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
729 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
730 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
731 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
732 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
733 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
734 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
735 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
736 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
737 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
738 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
740 * REMOVED configurations and files
743 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
744 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
745 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
746 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
747 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
748 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
750 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
751 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
752 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
753 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
754 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
755 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
757 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
759 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
760 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
761 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
762 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
763 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
765 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
767 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
769 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
770 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
771 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
772 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
773 shared libs like mad''.
775 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
777 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
778 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
779 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
780 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
782 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
784 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
785 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
788 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
789 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
791 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
792 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
794 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
795 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
796 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
797 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
799 * Multi-arched targets.
801 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
802 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
804 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
805 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
806 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
810 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
813 * New native configurations
815 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
816 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
817 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
818 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
820 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
822 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
823 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
824 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
827 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
828 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
829 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
830 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
831 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
832 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
833 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
834 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
835 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
836 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
838 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
839 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
843 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
845 * REMOVED configurations and files
847 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
848 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
849 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
850 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
851 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
853 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
855 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
857 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
858 commands. The default is 1024.
860 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
862 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
864 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
866 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
867 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
868 from a file into memory (restore).
870 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
872 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
873 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
874 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
876 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
884 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
885 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
886 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
888 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
889 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
890 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
892 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
893 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
894 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
896 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
897 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
898 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
900 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
902 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
904 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
905 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
906 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
907 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
908 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
909 (notably embedded) targets.
911 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
913 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
914 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
915 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
916 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
918 * New command line option
920 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
922 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
924 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
925 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
926 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
927 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
928 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
929 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
930 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
931 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
932 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
933 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
935 * Changes in ARM configurations.
937 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
938 configuration is fully multi-arch.
940 * New native configurations
942 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
943 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
944 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
945 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
949 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
951 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
953 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
954 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
955 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
958 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
959 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
960 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
961 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
962 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
964 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
966 * REMOVED configurations and files
968 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
970 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
971 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
972 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
973 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
974 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
975 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
976 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
977 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
978 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
979 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
980 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
982 * Changes to command line processing
984 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
985 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
987 * Changes to key bindings
989 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
991 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
993 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
995 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
998 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1000 Numerous documentation fixes.
1002 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1004 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1006 * New native configurations
1008 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1009 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1010 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1011 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1012 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1013 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1017 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1019 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1021 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1023 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1024 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1025 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1026 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1027 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1029 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1030 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1031 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1032 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1033 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1034 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1035 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1036 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1038 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1039 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1041 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1042 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1043 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1044 permanently REMOVED.
1046 * REMOVED configurations and files
1048 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1049 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1051 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1055 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1057 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1058 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1063 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1065 * The MI enabled by default.
1067 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1068 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1069 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1070 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1071 which is now deprecated.
1073 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1075 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1076 main features are supported:
1078 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1080 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1083 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1085 - a Pascal expression parser.
1087 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1089 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1091 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1093 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1094 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1096 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1098 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1100 * Changes in completion.
1102 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1103 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1104 users expect at the shell prompt.
1106 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1107 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1108 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1109 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1110 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1111 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1112 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1114 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1116 * New platform-independent commands:
1118 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1119 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1120 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1122 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1124 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1125 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1126 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1128 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1130 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1131 multi-threaded programs though.
1133 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1135 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1137 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1138 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1141 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1143 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1144 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1145 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1146 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1147 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1150 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1151 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1152 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1154 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1156 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1157 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1159 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1160 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1163 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1164 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1165 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1166 a given linear address.
1168 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1169 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1170 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1172 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1174 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1176 * Changes in documentation.
1178 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1179 Documentation License.
1181 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1184 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1186 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1189 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1190 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1191 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1193 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1195 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1196 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1197 contents of this file.
1201 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1203 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1205 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1207 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1208 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1209 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1210 greater level of detail.
1212 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1214 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1215 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1216 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1219 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1221 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1222 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1223 machines ``out of the box''.
1225 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1226 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1227 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1228 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1229 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1231 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1232 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1233 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1234 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1235 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1237 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1238 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1241 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1244 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1245 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1246 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1247 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1249 * New native configurations
1251 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1252 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1256 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1257 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1258 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1259 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1261 * OBSOLETE configurations
1263 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1264 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1266 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1269 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1270 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1271 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1272 be permanently REMOVED.
1274 * Gould support removed
1276 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1278 * New features for SVR4
1280 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1281 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1282 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1284 * Many C++ enhancements
1286 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1287 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1289 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1291 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1292 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1293 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1294 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1296 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1297 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1299 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1301 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1302 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1303 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1305 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1306 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1308 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1310 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1311 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1312 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1314 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1316 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1317 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1318 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1320 * ``apropos'' command added.
1322 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1323 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1324 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1328 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1329 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1330 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1331 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1332 enabled by configuring with:
1334 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1336 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1338 * New native configurations
1340 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1341 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1342 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1346 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1347 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1348 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1350 * OBSOLETE configurations
1352 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1354 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1355 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1356 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1357 be permanently REMOVED.
1361 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1362 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1363 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1364 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1365 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1366 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1367 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1372 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1374 * set extension-language
1376 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1377 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1378 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1379 set extension-language .c c++
1380 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1381 and their associated languages.
1383 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1385 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1386 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1387 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1391 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1392 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1394 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1395 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1397 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1398 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1399 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1400 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1401 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1402 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1403 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1404 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1406 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1407 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1408 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1409 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1413 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1414 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1415 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1416 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1417 for xdb and dbx commands.
1421 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1422 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1423 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1425 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1426 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1427 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1429 * Debugging across forks
1431 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1436 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1437 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1438 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1440 * GDB remote protocol additions
1442 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1443 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1444 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1445 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1447 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1448 full 64-bit address. The command
1450 set remoteaddresssize 32
1452 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1453 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1456 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1457 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1459 maint packet heythere
1461 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1462 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1465 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1466 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1467 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1469 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1471 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1472 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1473 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1475 * mask-address variable for Mips
1477 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1478 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1479 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1481 * Higher serial baud rates
1483 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1484 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1485 to achieve all of these rates.)
1489 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1490 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1493 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1495 * New native configurations
1497 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1498 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1499 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1500 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1501 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1502 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1503 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1507 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1508 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1509 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1510 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1511 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1512 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1513 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1514 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1515 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1516 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1517 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1519 * New debugging protocols
1521 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1522 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1523 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1524 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1525 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1526 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1530 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1531 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1536 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1537 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1539 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1541 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1542 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1543 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1545 * Live range splitting
1547 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1548 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1549 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1553 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1554 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1558 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1559 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1560 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1565 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1570 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1571 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1572 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1573 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1574 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1575 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1579 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1580 the symbol at the specified address.
1584 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1585 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1586 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1587 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1588 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1592 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1593 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1594 of most MIPS variants.
1598 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1599 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1600 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1604 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1605 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1606 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1607 the possible architectures.
1609 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1611 * New native configurations
1613 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1614 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1615 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1616 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1617 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1618 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1622 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1623 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1624 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1625 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1626 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1628 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1632 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1633 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1634 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1635 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1636 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1640 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1642 * Windows 95/NT native
1644 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1645 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1646 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1647 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1648 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1650 * dont-repeat command
1652 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1653 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1654 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1655 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1657 * Send break instead of ^C
1659 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1660 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1661 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1663 * Remote protocol timeout
1665 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1666 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1667 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1669 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1671 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1672 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1673 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1674 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1675 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1677 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1678 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1679 automatically on hpux10.
1681 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1683 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1685 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1687 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1688 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1689 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1690 every character. The default value is 1050.
1692 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1694 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1695 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1696 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1697 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1698 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1699 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1701 * Speedups for remote debugging
1703 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1704 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1705 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1707 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1709 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1710 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1712 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1714 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1716 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1717 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1719 * Remote targets use caching
1721 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1722 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1723 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1724 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1725 off' turns the the data cache off.
1727 * Remote targets may have threads
1729 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1730 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1731 gdb/remote.c for details.
1735 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1736 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1737 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1738 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1739 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1740 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1741 sequence is something like
1743 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1745 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1749 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1750 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1751 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1752 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1753 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1754 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1755 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1756 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1760 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1761 but does simplify configuration and building.
1765 GDB now supports hpux10.
1767 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1769 * New native configurations
1771 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1772 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1773 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1774 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1778 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1779 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1780 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1781 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1784 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1786 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1787 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1788 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1789 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1790 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1792 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1794 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1795 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1798 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1800 To execute the command use:
1803 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1804 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1805 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1807 * New `if' and `while' commands
1809 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1810 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1811 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1812 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1813 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1814 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1815 if the expression is zero.
1817 * Fortran source language mode
1819 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1820 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1821 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1822 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1825 * Better HPUX support
1827 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1828 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1829 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1830 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1831 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1837 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1838 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1844 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1845 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1848 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1849 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1851 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1853 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1854 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1855 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1856 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1857 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1858 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1860 * New DOS host serial code
1862 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1863 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1866 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1868 * New "complete" command
1870 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1871 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1873 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1875 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1876 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1878 * Breakpoint hit counts
1880 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1881 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1882 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1883 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1884 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1887 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1889 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1890 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1891 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1893 * Shared library breakpoints
1895 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1896 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1898 * Hardware watchpoints
1900 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1901 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1903 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1907 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1908 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1910 * Improved Irix 5 support
1912 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1914 * Improved HPPA support
1916 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1918 * New native configurations
1920 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1921 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1922 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1923 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1927 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1928 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1931 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1933 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1934 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1938 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1939 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1941 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1943 * Irix 5 is now supported
1947 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1948 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1949 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1950 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1951 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1954 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1956 * User visible changes:
1960 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1961 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1962 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1963 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1964 debugging info for the mips target).
1966 * DEC Alpha native support
1968 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1969 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1970 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1971 Alpha-specific notes.
1973 * Preliminary thread implementation
1975 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1977 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1979 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1980 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1983 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1985 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1986 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1987 call methods, ...etc.
1989 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1991 * User visible changes:
1993 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1994 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1995 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1996 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1998 Filename completion now works.
2000 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2001 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2002 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2004 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2005 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2006 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2007 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2008 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2012 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2013 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2016 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2020 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2021 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2022 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2026 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2027 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2028 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2029 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2030 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2034 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2035 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2036 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2038 * New targets supported
2040 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2041 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2042 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2043 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2044 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2046 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2047 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2048 GO32 memory extender.
2050 * New remote protocols
2052 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2054 * New source languages supported
2056 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2057 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2058 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2061 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2063 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2065 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2066 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2067 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2068 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2069 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2070 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2072 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2074 * Faster and better demangling
2076 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2077 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2078 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2079 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2080 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2081 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2084 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2085 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2086 compiler does not actually implement.
2088 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2090 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2091 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2092 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2093 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2094 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2095 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2098 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2099 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2101 * Improved configure script
2103 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2104 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2105 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2106 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2108 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2109 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2110 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2111 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2112 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2113 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2115 * Documentation improvements
2117 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2118 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2119 before submitting changes.
2121 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2122 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2123 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2124 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2125 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2127 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2128 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2129 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2130 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2131 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2132 around this problem.
2136 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2137 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2138 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2141 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2142 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2144 * New native hosts supported
2146 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2147 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2149 * New targets supported
2151 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2153 * New file formats supported
2155 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2156 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2160 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2162 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2163 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2165 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2166 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2167 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2169 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2170 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2172 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2173 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2174 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2177 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2178 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2179 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2180 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2181 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2183 * Internal improvements
2185 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2186 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2188 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2189 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2190 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2191 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2192 shared code that handles any of them.
2194 * New command line options
2196 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2200 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2201 General Public License.
2203 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2205 * Host/native/target split
2207 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2208 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2209 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2210 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2211 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2213 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2214 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2215 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2216 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2217 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2218 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2219 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2221 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2222 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2223 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2225 * New hosts supported
2227 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2228 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2229 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2231 * New targets supported
2233 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2234 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2236 * New native hosts supported
2238 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2239 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2240 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2242 * New file formats supported
2244 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2245 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2246 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2250 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2251 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2252 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2254 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2256 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2257 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2258 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2259 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2263 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2264 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2265 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2267 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2271 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2272 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2275 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2276 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2278 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2279 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2280 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2281 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2282 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2283 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2285 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2286 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2287 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2288 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2292 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2293 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2294 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2295 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2296 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2298 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2299 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2300 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2301 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2305 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2306 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2307 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2308 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2309 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2310 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2311 each instruction being stepped through.
2313 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2314 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2316 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2317 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2318 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2319 processor with a serial port.
2323 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2324 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2325 supported, and what files each one uses.
2329 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2330 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2331 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2332 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2334 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2335 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2336 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2337 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2341 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2342 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2343 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2344 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2345 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2346 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2348 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2351 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2353 * Better support for C++ function names
2355 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2356 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2357 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2358 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2359 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2361 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2362 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2363 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2364 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2365 for the list of formats.
2367 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2369 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2370 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2371 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2372 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2373 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2374 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2377 * New 'maintenance' command
2379 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2380 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2381 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2383 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2384 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2385 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2386 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2387 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2388 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2390 The following commands are new:
2392 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2393 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2394 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2396 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2398 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2399 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2400 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2401 read after argv processing.
2403 * New hosts supported
2405 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2407 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2409 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2410 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2411 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2412 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2413 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2416 * New targets supported
2418 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2420 * More smarts about finding #include files
2422 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2423 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2424 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2425 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2426 the one that contains your sources.
2428 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2429 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2430 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2432 * Interesting infernals change
2434 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2435 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2436 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2437 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2439 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2441 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2442 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2443 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2445 See the ChangeLog for details.
2447 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2449 * New machines supported (host and target)
2451 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2453 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2455 * New malloc package
2457 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2458 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2459 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2460 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2461 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2462 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2466 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2467 'help info proc' for details.
2469 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2471 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2472 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2475 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2477 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2478 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2479 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2480 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2481 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2482 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2484 * Cross byte order fixes
2486 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2487 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2489 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2491 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2492 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2493 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2494 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2495 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2496 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2497 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2498 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2499 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2500 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2502 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2503 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2504 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2505 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2507 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2508 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2509 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2512 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2514 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2515 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2516 shared across multiple host platforms.
2518 * longjmp() handling
2520 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2521 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2522 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2523 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2527 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2528 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2533 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2534 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2535 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2537 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2539 * New machines supported (host and target)
2541 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2543 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2544 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2546 * New machines supported (target)
2548 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2552 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2553 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2554 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2556 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2557 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2558 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2559 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2560 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2563 * New features for SVR4
2565 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2566 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2567 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2569 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2570 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2571 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2573 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2574 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2576 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2578 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2579 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2580 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2581 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2582 same code linked statically.
2586 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2587 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2588 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2589 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2590 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2591 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2595 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2596 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2597 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2600 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2602 * New machines supported (host and target)
2604 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2605 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2606 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2608 * Almost SCO Unix support
2610 We had hoped to support:
2611 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2612 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2613 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2614 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2616 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2618 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2619 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2620 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2621 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2626 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2627 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2628 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2632 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2633 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2634 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2636 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2638 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2639 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2640 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2642 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2643 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2644 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2645 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2648 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2649 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2650 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2651 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2654 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2655 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2658 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2659 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2660 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2663 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2665 * Improved configuration
2667 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2668 Porting BFD is simpler.
2672 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2673 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2674 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2675 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2679 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2681 * New host supported (not target)
2683 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2686 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2688 * Multiple source language support
2690 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2691 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2692 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2693 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2694 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2695 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2699 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2700 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2701 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2702 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2704 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2705 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2706 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2708 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2709 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2713 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2714 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2715 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2716 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2719 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2721 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2722 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2723 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2724 examining core files.
2728 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2731 * New machines supported (host and target)
2733 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2734 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2735 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2737 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2739 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2741 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2743 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2744 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2745 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2747 * New remote interfaces
2753 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2757 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2759 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2760 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2761 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2762 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2763 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2764 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2765 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2766 stub on the target system.
2768 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2770 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2771 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2772 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2774 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2775 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2778 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2780 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2781 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2783 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2784 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2785 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2787 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2788 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2789 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2790 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2792 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2793 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2794 it is already running. Default is ON.
2796 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2797 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2798 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2799 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2802 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2803 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2804 or the value of the environment variable
2807 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2808 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2811 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2812 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2813 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2815 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2816 history expansion will be performed on
2817 command line input. The default is OFF.
2819 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2820 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2821 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2823 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2824 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2825 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2828 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2829 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2830 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2833 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2834 ``set width'' instead.
2836 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2837 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2838 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2839 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2841 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2844 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2847 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2850 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2853 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2855 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2856 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2857 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2861 * Support for Shared Libraries
2863 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2864 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2865 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2866 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2867 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2868 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2869 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2870 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2872 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2873 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2874 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2876 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2881 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2882 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2883 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2884 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2885 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2886 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2888 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2890 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2892 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2893 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2894 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2897 * C++ multiple inheritance
2899 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2902 * C++ exception handling
2904 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2905 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2906 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2909 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2910 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2911 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2913 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2914 current stack frame.
2917 * Minor command changes
2919 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2920 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2921 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2923 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2924 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2925 frames without printing.
2927 * New directory command
2929 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2930 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2931 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2932 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2933 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2935 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2937 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2940 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2941 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2942 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2943 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob