1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.7
8 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
9 show print frame-arguments
10 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
11 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
13 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
14 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
16 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
19 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
20 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
21 and in inlined functions.
23 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
25 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
26 registers on PowerPC targets.
28 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
29 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
31 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
32 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
33 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
34 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
36 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
38 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
39 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
40 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
42 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
43 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
44 -Bsymbolic linker option.
46 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
47 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
50 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
51 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
53 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
54 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
56 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
58 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
59 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
60 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
62 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
63 automatically displayed as character or string data.
65 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
66 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
69 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
70 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
71 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
73 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
76 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
77 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
78 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
80 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
82 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
84 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
85 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
86 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
88 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
89 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
91 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
92 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
93 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
94 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
95 Windows and SymbianOS).
97 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
98 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
100 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
101 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
107 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
108 when debugging using remote targets.
110 set mem inaccessible-by-default
111 show mem inaccessible-by-default
112 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
113 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
114 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
115 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
116 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
118 set breakpoint auto-hw
119 show breakpoint auto-hw
120 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
121 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
122 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
123 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
124 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
125 including "next" and "finish".
128 catch exception unhandled
129 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
132 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
136 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
137 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
138 an alias to "set sysroot".
141 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
142 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
145 * New native configurations
147 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
152 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
153 not query the target for its built-in description.
157 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
158 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
159 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
164 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
165 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
168 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
173 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
174 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
176 qXfer:libraries:read:
177 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
178 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
179 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
180 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
184 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
193 i[34567]86-*-netware*
194 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
195 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
197 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
200 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
201 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
210 * Other removed features
217 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
224 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
229 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
230 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
235 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
236 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
238 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
240 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
241 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
242 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
243 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
247 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
248 in debugging information.
252 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
253 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
255 set mips stack-arg-size
256 set mips saved-gpreg-size
258 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
260 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
265 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
267 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
268 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
269 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
271 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
272 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
275 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
276 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
278 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
279 stub provides the required support.
281 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
282 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
287 unset substitute-path
289 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
290 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
291 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
292 between compilation and debugging.
296 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
297 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
298 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
302 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
304 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
305 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
307 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
312 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
313 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
314 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
315 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
319 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
320 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
322 qXfer:memory-map:read:
323 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
324 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
329 Erase and program a flash memory device.
331 * Removed remote packets
334 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
335 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
337 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
341 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
343 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
347 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
348 only if it doesn't already have a value.
350 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
352 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
354 restart <n> Return the program state to a
355 previously saved state.
357 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
359 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
361 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
362 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
364 info forks List forks of the user program that
365 are available to be debugged.
367 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
368 forks of the user program that are
369 available to be debugged.
371 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
372 that are available to be debugged (and
373 kill the forked process).
375 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
376 that are available to be debugged (and
377 allow the process to continue).
381 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
383 * Improved Windows host support
385 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
386 native console support, and remote communications using either
387 network sockets or serial ports.
389 * Improved Modula-2 language support
391 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
392 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
393 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
394 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
395 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
396 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
400 The ARM rdi-share module.
402 The Netware NLM debug server.
404 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
406 * New native configurations
408 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
409 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
413 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
415 * New command line options
417 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
418 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
419 the child (debugged) program exited with.
420 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
421 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
422 specified multiple times and in conjunction
423 with the --command (-x) option.
425 * Deprecated commands removed
427 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
431 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
432 othernames set arm disassembler
433 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
434 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
435 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
438 * New BSD user-level threads support
440 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
441 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
444 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
445 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
446 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
448 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
449 are not yet supported.
451 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
452 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
454 * REMOVED configurations and files
456 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
457 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
458 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
460 * New "set print array-indexes" command
462 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
463 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
466 * VAX floating point support
468 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
470 * User-defined command support
472 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
473 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
474 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
476 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
478 * New command line option
480 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
483 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
485 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
486 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
487 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
488 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
489 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
491 * Internationalization
493 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
494 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
495 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
499 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
500 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
501 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
503 * New native configurations
505 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
509 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
510 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
512 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
514 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
515 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
516 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
519 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
520 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
521 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
533 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
534 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
536 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
538 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
539 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
540 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
550 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
552 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
554 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
555 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
558 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
560 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
561 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
562 IRIX long double values).
566 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
567 command. This problem has been fixed.
569 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
571 * Fix for ``many threads''
573 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
574 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
577 ptrace: No such process.
578 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
580 This problem has been fixed.
582 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
584 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
587 * New ``start'' command.
589 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
591 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
593 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
594 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
595 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
597 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
598 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
599 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
600 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
601 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
602 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
603 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
604 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
605 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
607 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
609 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
610 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
611 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
612 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
613 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
615 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
616 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
617 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
619 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
621 * New native configurations
623 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
624 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
625 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
626 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
627 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
628 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
629 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
631 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
633 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
634 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
635 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
636 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
637 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
638 work, was also included.
640 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
641 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
651 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
652 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
654 * REMOVED configurations and files
656 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
657 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
658 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
659 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
660 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
661 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
662 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
663 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
664 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
666 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
668 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
670 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
672 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
673 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
674 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
675 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
678 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
680 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
681 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
682 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
683 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
684 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
685 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
688 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
690 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
692 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
693 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
694 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
696 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
698 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
699 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
701 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
703 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
704 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
705 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
707 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
709 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
710 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
712 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
714 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
715 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
716 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
718 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
720 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
721 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
722 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
724 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
726 * Removed --with-mmalloc
728 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
729 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
731 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
733 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
734 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
735 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
736 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
738 * Revised SPARC target
740 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
741 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
742 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
743 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
744 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
748 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
749 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
750 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
753 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
755 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
756 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
759 * C++ nested types and namespaces
761 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
762 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
763 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
764 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
765 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
766 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
767 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
768 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
769 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
771 * New native configurations
773 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
774 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
775 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
776 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
777 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
779 * New debugging protocols
781 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
783 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
785 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
786 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
787 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
789 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
791 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
792 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
793 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
796 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
797 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
798 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
799 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
800 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
801 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
802 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
803 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
804 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
806 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
808 * REMOVED configurations and files
810 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
811 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
812 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
813 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
814 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
815 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
816 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
817 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
818 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
819 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
820 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
821 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
822 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
823 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
824 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
825 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
826 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
828 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
832 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
835 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
837 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
838 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
839 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
842 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
843 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
848 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
849 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
850 remote protocol documentation for details.
852 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
854 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
855 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
856 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
859 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
861 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
862 per-thread variables.
864 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
866 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
867 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
869 * Separate debug info.
871 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
872 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
873 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
874 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
875 and optional debug files.
877 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
879 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
880 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
883 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
884 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
888 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
889 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
890 considered "useable".
892 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
894 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
895 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
898 * GDB supports logging output to a file
900 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
901 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
903 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
905 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
906 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
909 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
911 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
912 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
916 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
917 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
918 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
919 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
920 data, for more informative profiling results.
922 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
924 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
925 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
926 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
928 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
931 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
932 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
933 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
934 in a subsequent -var-update.
936 * New native configurations.
938 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
940 * Multi-arched targets.
942 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
943 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
945 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
947 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
948 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
949 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
952 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
953 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
954 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
955 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
956 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
957 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
958 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
959 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
960 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
961 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
962 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
963 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
965 * REMOVED configurations and files
968 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
969 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
970 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
971 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
972 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
973 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
975 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
976 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
977 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
978 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
979 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
980 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
982 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
984 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
985 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
986 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
987 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
988 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
990 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
992 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
994 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
995 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
996 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
997 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
998 shared libs like mad''.
1000 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1002 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1003 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1004 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1005 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1007 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1009 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1010 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1013 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1014 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1016 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1017 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1019 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1020 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1021 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1022 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1024 * Multi-arched targets.
1026 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1027 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1029 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1030 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1031 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1035 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1038 * New native configurations
1040 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1041 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1042 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1043 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1045 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1047 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1048 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1049 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1050 permanently REMOVED.
1052 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1053 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1054 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1055 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1056 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1057 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1058 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1059 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1060 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1061 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1063 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1064 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1066 * OBSOLETE languages
1068 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1070 * REMOVED configurations and files
1072 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1073 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1074 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1075 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1076 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1078 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1080 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1082 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1083 commands. The default is 1024.
1085 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1087 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1089 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1091 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1092 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1093 from a file into memory (restore).
1095 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1097 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1098 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1099 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1101 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1109 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1110 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1111 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1113 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1114 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1115 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1117 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1118 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1119 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1121 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1122 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1123 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1125 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1127 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1129 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1130 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1131 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1132 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1133 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1134 (notably embedded) targets.
1136 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1138 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1139 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1140 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1141 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1143 * New command line option
1145 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1147 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1149 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1150 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1151 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1152 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1153 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1154 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1155 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1156 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1157 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1158 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1160 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1162 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1163 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1165 * New native configurations
1167 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1168 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1169 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1170 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1174 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1176 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1178 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1179 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1180 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1181 permanently REMOVED.
1183 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1184 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1185 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1186 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1187 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1189 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1191 * REMOVED configurations and files
1193 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1195 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1196 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1197 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1198 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1199 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1200 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1201 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1202 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1203 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1204 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1205 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1207 * Changes to command line processing
1209 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1210 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1212 * Changes to key bindings
1214 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1216 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1218 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1220 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1223 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1225 Numerous documentation fixes.
1227 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1229 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1231 * New native configurations
1233 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1234 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1235 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1236 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1237 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1238 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1242 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1244 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1246 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1248 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1249 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1250 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1251 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1252 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1254 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1255 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1256 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1257 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1258 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1259 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1260 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1261 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1263 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1264 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1266 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1267 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1268 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1269 permanently REMOVED.
1271 * REMOVED configurations and files
1273 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1274 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1276 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1280 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1282 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1283 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1288 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1290 * The MI enabled by default.
1292 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1293 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1294 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1295 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1296 which is now deprecated.
1298 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1300 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1301 main features are supported:
1303 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1305 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1308 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1310 - a Pascal expression parser.
1312 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1314 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1316 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1318 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1319 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1321 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1323 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1325 * Changes in completion.
1327 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1328 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1329 users expect at the shell prompt.
1331 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1332 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1333 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1334 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1335 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1336 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1337 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1339 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1341 * New platform-independent commands:
1343 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1344 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1345 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1347 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1349 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1350 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1351 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1353 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1355 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1356 multi-threaded programs though.
1358 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1360 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1362 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1363 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1366 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1368 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1369 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1370 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1371 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1372 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1375 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1376 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1377 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1379 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1381 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1382 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1384 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1385 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1388 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1389 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1390 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1391 a given linear address.
1393 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1394 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1395 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1397 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1399 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1401 * Changes in documentation.
1403 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1404 Documentation License.
1406 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1409 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1411 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1414 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1415 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1416 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1418 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1420 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1421 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1422 contents of this file.
1426 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1428 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1430 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1432 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1433 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1434 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1435 greater level of detail.
1437 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1439 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1440 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1441 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1444 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1446 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1447 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1448 machines ``out of the box''.
1450 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1451 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1452 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1453 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1454 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1456 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1457 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1458 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1459 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1460 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1462 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1463 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1466 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1469 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1470 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1471 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1472 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1474 * New native configurations
1476 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1477 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1481 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1482 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1483 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1484 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1486 * OBSOLETE configurations
1488 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1489 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1491 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1494 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1495 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1496 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1497 be permanently REMOVED.
1499 * Gould support removed
1501 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1503 * New features for SVR4
1505 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1506 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1507 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1509 * Many C++ enhancements
1511 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1512 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1514 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1516 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1517 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1518 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1519 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1521 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1522 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1524 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1526 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1527 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1528 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1530 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1531 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1533 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1535 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1536 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1537 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1539 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1541 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1542 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1543 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1545 * ``apropos'' command added.
1547 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1548 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1549 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1553 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1554 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1555 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1556 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1557 enabled by configuring with:
1559 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1561 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1563 * New native configurations
1565 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1566 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1567 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1571 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1572 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1573 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1575 * OBSOLETE configurations
1577 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1579 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1580 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1581 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1582 be permanently REMOVED.
1586 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1587 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1588 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1589 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1590 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1591 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1592 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1597 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1599 * set extension-language
1601 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1602 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1603 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1604 set extension-language .c c++
1605 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1606 and their associated languages.
1608 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1610 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1611 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1612 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1616 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1617 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1619 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1620 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1622 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1623 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1624 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1625 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1626 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1627 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1628 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1629 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1631 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1632 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1633 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1634 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1638 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1639 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1640 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1641 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1642 for xdb and dbx commands.
1646 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1647 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1648 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1650 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1651 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1652 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1654 * Debugging across forks
1656 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1661 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1662 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1663 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1665 * GDB remote protocol additions
1667 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1668 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1669 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1670 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1672 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1673 full 64-bit address. The command
1675 set remoteaddresssize 32
1677 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1678 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1681 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1682 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1684 maint packet heythere
1686 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1687 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1690 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1691 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1692 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1694 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1696 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1697 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1698 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1700 * mask-address variable for Mips
1702 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1703 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1704 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1706 * Higher serial baud rates
1708 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1709 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1710 to achieve all of these rates.)
1714 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1715 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1718 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1720 * New native configurations
1722 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1723 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1724 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1725 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1726 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1727 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1728 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1732 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1733 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1734 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1735 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1736 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1737 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1738 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1739 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1740 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1741 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1742 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1744 * New debugging protocols
1746 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1747 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1748 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1749 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1750 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1751 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1755 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1756 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1761 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1762 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1764 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1766 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1767 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1768 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1770 * Live range splitting
1772 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1773 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1774 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1778 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1779 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1783 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1784 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1785 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1790 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1795 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1796 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1797 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1798 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1799 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1800 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1804 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1805 the symbol at the specified address.
1809 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1810 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1811 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1812 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1813 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1817 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1818 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1819 of most MIPS variants.
1823 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1824 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1825 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1829 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1830 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1831 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1832 the possible architectures.
1834 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1836 * New native configurations
1838 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1839 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1840 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1841 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1842 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1843 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1847 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1848 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1849 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1850 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1851 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1853 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1857 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1858 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1859 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1860 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1861 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1865 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1867 * Windows 95/NT native
1869 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1870 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1871 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1872 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1873 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1875 * dont-repeat command
1877 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1878 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1879 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1880 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1882 * Send break instead of ^C
1884 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1885 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1886 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1888 * Remote protocol timeout
1890 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1891 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1892 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1894 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1896 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1897 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1898 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1899 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1900 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1902 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1903 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1904 automatically on hpux10.
1906 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1908 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1910 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1912 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1913 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1914 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1915 every character. The default value is 1050.
1917 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1919 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1920 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1921 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1922 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1923 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1924 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1926 * Speedups for remote debugging
1928 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1929 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1930 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1932 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1934 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1935 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1937 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1939 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1941 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1942 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1944 * Remote targets use caching
1946 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1947 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1948 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1949 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1950 off' turns the the data cache off.
1952 * Remote targets may have threads
1954 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1955 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1956 gdb/remote.c for details.
1960 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1961 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1962 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1963 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1964 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1965 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1966 sequence is something like
1968 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1970 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1974 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1975 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1976 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1977 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1978 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1979 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1980 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1981 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1985 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1986 but does simplify configuration and building.
1990 GDB now supports hpux10.
1992 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1994 * New native configurations
1996 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1997 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1998 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1999 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2003 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2004 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2005 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2006 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2009 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2011 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2012 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2013 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2014 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2015 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2017 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2019 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2020 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2023 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2025 To execute the command use:
2028 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2029 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2030 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2032 * New `if' and `while' commands
2034 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2035 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2036 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2037 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2038 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2039 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2040 if the expression is zero.
2042 * Fortran source language mode
2044 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2045 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2046 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2047 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2050 * Better HPUX support
2052 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2053 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2054 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2055 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2056 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2062 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2063 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2069 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2070 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2073 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2074 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2076 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2078 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2079 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2080 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2081 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2082 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2083 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2085 * New DOS host serial code
2087 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2088 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2091 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2093 * New "complete" command
2095 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2096 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2098 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2100 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2101 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2103 * Breakpoint hit counts
2105 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2106 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2107 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2108 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2109 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2112 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2114 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2115 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2116 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2118 * Shared library breakpoints
2120 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2121 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2123 * Hardware watchpoints
2125 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2126 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2128 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2132 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2133 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2135 * Improved Irix 5 support
2137 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2139 * Improved HPPA support
2141 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2143 * New native configurations
2145 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2146 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2147 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2148 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2152 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2153 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2156 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2158 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2159 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2163 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2164 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2166 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2168 * Irix 5 is now supported
2172 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2173 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2174 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2175 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2176 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2179 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2181 * User visible changes:
2185 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2186 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2187 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2188 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2189 debugging info for the mips target).
2191 * DEC Alpha native support
2193 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2194 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2195 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2196 Alpha-specific notes.
2198 * Preliminary thread implementation
2200 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2202 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2204 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2205 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2208 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2210 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2211 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2212 call methods, ...etc.
2214 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2216 * User visible changes:
2218 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2219 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2220 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2221 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2223 Filename completion now works.
2225 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2226 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2227 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2229 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2230 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2231 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2232 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2233 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2237 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2238 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2241 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2245 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2246 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2247 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2251 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2252 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2253 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2254 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2255 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2259 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2260 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2261 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2263 * New targets supported
2265 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2266 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2267 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2268 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2269 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2271 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2272 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2273 GO32 memory extender.
2275 * New remote protocols
2277 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2279 * New source languages supported
2281 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2282 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2283 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2286 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2288 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2290 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2291 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2292 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2293 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2294 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2295 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2297 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2299 * Faster and better demangling
2301 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2302 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2303 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2304 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2305 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2306 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2309 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2310 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2311 compiler does not actually implement.
2313 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2315 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2316 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2317 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2318 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2319 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2320 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2323 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2324 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2326 * Improved configure script
2328 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2329 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2330 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2331 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2333 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2334 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2335 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2336 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2337 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2338 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2340 * Documentation improvements
2342 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2343 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2344 before submitting changes.
2346 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2347 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2348 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2349 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2350 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2352 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2353 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2354 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2355 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2356 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2357 around this problem.
2361 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2362 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2363 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2366 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2367 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2369 * New native hosts supported
2371 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2372 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2374 * New targets supported
2376 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2378 * New file formats supported
2380 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2381 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2385 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2387 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2388 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2390 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2391 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2392 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2394 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2395 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2397 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2398 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2399 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2402 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2403 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2404 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2405 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2406 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2408 * Internal improvements
2410 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2411 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2413 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2414 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2415 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2416 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2417 shared code that handles any of them.
2419 * New command line options
2421 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2425 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2426 General Public License.
2428 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2430 * Host/native/target split
2432 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2433 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2434 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2435 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2436 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2438 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2439 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2440 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2441 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2442 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2443 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2444 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2446 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2447 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2448 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2450 * New hosts supported
2452 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2453 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2454 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2456 * New targets supported
2458 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2459 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2461 * New native hosts supported
2463 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2464 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2465 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2467 * New file formats supported
2469 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2470 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2471 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2475 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2476 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2477 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2479 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2481 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2482 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2483 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2484 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2488 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2489 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2490 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2492 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2496 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2497 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2500 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2501 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2503 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2504 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2505 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2506 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2507 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2508 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2510 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2511 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2512 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2513 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2517 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2518 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2519 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2520 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2521 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2523 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2524 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2525 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2526 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2530 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2531 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2532 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2533 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2534 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2535 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2536 each instruction being stepped through.
2538 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2539 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2541 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2542 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2543 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2544 processor with a serial port.
2548 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2549 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2550 supported, and what files each one uses.
2554 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2555 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2556 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2557 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2559 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2560 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2561 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2562 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2566 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2567 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2568 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2569 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2570 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2571 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2573 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2576 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2578 * Better support for C++ function names
2580 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2581 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2582 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2583 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2584 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2586 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2587 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2588 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2589 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2590 for the list of formats.
2592 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2594 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2595 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2596 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2597 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2598 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2599 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2602 * New 'maintenance' command
2604 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2605 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2606 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2608 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2609 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2610 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2611 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2612 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2613 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2615 The following commands are new:
2617 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2618 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2619 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2621 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2623 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2624 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2625 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2626 read after argv processing.
2628 * New hosts supported
2630 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2632 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2634 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2635 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2636 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2637 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2638 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2641 * New targets supported
2643 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2645 * More smarts about finding #include files
2647 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2648 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2649 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2650 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2651 the one that contains your sources.
2653 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2654 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2655 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2657 * Interesting infernals change
2659 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2660 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2661 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2662 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2664 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2666 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2667 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2668 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2670 See the ChangeLog for details.
2672 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2674 * New machines supported (host and target)
2676 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2678 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2680 * New malloc package
2682 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2683 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2684 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2685 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2686 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2687 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2691 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2692 'help info proc' for details.
2694 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2696 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2697 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2700 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2702 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2703 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2704 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2705 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2706 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2707 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2709 * Cross byte order fixes
2711 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2712 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2714 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2716 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2717 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2718 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2719 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2720 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2721 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2722 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2723 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2724 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2725 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2727 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2728 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2729 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2730 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2732 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2733 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2734 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2737 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2739 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2740 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2741 shared across multiple host platforms.
2743 * longjmp() handling
2745 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2746 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2747 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2748 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2752 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2753 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2758 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2759 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2760 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2762 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2764 * New machines supported (host and target)
2766 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2768 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2769 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2771 * New machines supported (target)
2773 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2777 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2778 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2779 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2781 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2782 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2783 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2784 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2785 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2788 * New features for SVR4
2790 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2791 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2792 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2794 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2795 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2796 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2798 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2799 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2801 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2803 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2804 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2805 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2806 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2807 same code linked statically.
2811 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2812 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2813 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2814 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2815 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2816 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2820 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2821 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2822 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2825 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2827 * New machines supported (host and target)
2829 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2830 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2831 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2833 * Almost SCO Unix support
2835 We had hoped to support:
2836 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2837 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2838 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2839 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2841 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2843 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2844 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2845 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2846 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2851 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2852 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2853 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2857 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2858 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2859 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2861 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2863 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2864 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2865 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2867 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2868 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2869 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2870 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2873 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2874 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2875 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2876 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2879 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2880 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2883 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2884 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2885 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2888 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2890 * Improved configuration
2892 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2893 Porting BFD is simpler.
2897 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2898 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2899 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2900 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2904 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2906 * New host supported (not target)
2908 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2911 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2913 * Multiple source language support
2915 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2916 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2917 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2918 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2919 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2920 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2924 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2925 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2926 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2927 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2929 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2930 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2931 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2933 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2934 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2938 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2939 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2940 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2941 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2944 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2946 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2947 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2948 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2949 examining core files.
2953 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2956 * New machines supported (host and target)
2958 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2959 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2960 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2962 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2964 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2966 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2968 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2969 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2970 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2972 * New remote interfaces
2978 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2982 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2984 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2985 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2986 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2987 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2988 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2989 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2990 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2991 stub on the target system.
2993 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2995 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2996 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2997 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2999 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3000 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3003 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3005 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3006 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3008 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3009 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3010 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3012 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3013 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3014 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3015 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3017 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3018 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3019 it is already running. Default is ON.
3021 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3022 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3023 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3024 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3027 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3028 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3029 or the value of the environment variable
3032 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3033 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3036 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3037 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3038 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3040 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3041 history expansion will be performed on
3042 command line input. The default is OFF.
3044 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3045 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3046 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3048 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3049 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3050 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3053 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3054 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3055 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3058 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3059 ``set width'' instead.
3061 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3062 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3063 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3064 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3066 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3069 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3072 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3075 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3078 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3080 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3081 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3082 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3086 * Support for Shared Libraries
3088 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3089 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3090 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3091 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3092 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3093 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3094 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3095 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3097 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3098 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3099 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3101 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3106 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3107 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3108 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3109 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3110 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3111 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3113 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3115 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3117 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3118 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3119 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3122 * C++ multiple inheritance
3124 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3127 * C++ exception handling
3129 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3130 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3131 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3134 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3135 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3136 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3138 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3139 current stack frame.
3142 * Minor command changes
3144 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3145 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3146 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3148 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3149 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3150 frames without printing.
3152 * New directory command
3154 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3155 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3156 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3157 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3158 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3160 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3162 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3165 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3166 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3167 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3168 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob