46f6635dda00f1efd8d504c85bfcc59386192b81
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 8.1
5
6 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
7 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
8
9 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
10 files created on FreeBSD systems.
11
12 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
13 alignof.
14
15 * New commands
16
17 set debug fbsd-nat
18 show debug fbsd-nat
19 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
20
21 set|show varsize-limit
22 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
23 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
24 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
25
26 set|show record btrace cpu
27 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
28 branch trace decode.
29
30 * Python API
31
32 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
33
34 * New targets
35
36 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
37
38 * Removed targets and native configurations
39
40 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
41 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
42 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
43 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
44
45 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
46
47 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
48 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
49 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
50 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
51 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
52 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
53 reported.
54
55 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
56
57 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
58 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
59 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
60
61 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
62 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
63
64 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
65 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
66 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
67 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
68 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
69
70 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
71 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
72 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
73 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
74
75 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
76 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
77
78 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
79 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
80 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
81
82 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
83 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
84 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
85
86 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
87 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
88 environment" command.
89
90 * Completion improvements
91
92 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
93 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
94 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
95 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
96 correctly:
97
98 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
99 (gdb) b function(int)
100
101 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
102 C++ anonymous namespaces:
103
104 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
105 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
106 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
107 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
108
109 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
110 completion support, that better understands what you're
111 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
112 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
113 setting a breakpoint.
114
115 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
116
117 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
118
119 * New command line options (gcore)
120
121 -a
122 Dump all memory mappings.
123
124 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
125
126 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
127 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
128 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
129
130 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
131
132 A::B::func()
133 B::func()
134
135 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
136 on both symbols.
137
138 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
139 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
140 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
141 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
142 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
143 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
144 a breakpoint from Python.
145
146 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
147
148 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
149 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
150 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
151
152 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
153
154 function[abi:cxx11](int)
155 ^^^^^^^^^^^
156
157 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
158 no tag, like:
159
160 (gdb) b function(int)
161
162 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
163
164 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
165
166 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
167
168 * Python Scripting
169
170 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
171 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
172 description of these.
173
174 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
175 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
176 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
177
178 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
179 manual for a further description of this feature.
180
181
182 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
183
184 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
185 specified initial working directory.
186
187 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
188 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
189
190 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
191 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
192
193 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
194 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
195
196 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
197 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
198 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
199 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
200 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
201
202 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
203 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
204 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
205
206 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
207 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
208 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
209 in the *stopped notification.
210
211 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
212 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
213
214 * New remote packets
215
216 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
217 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
218 the inferior when starting it.
219
220 QEnvironmentUnset
221 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
222 before starting the remote inferior.
223
224 QEnvironmentReset
225 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
226 user-set environment variables should be unset).
227
228 QStartupWithShell
229 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
230
231 QSetWorkingDir
232 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
233 working directory.
234
235 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
236 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
237
238 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
239 filter the tests to be run.
240
241 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
242 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
243
244 * New commands
245
246 set|show cwd
247 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
248
249 set|show compile-gcc
250 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
251 with the 'compile' commands.
252
253 set debug separate-debug-file
254 show debug separate-debug-file
255 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
256
257 set dump-excluded-mappings
258 show dump-excluded-mappings
259 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
260 dumped when generating a core file.
261
262 maint info selftests
263 List the registered selftests.
264
265 starti
266 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
267
268 set|show debug or1k
269 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
270
271 set|show print type nested-type-limit
272 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
273 type printer will show.
274
275 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
276 `o' for nexti.
277
278 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
279
280 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
281 'int'.
282
283 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
284 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
285 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
286 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
287
288 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
289 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
290 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
291 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
292 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
293 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
294
295 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
296 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
297 unless you tell it the variable's type:
298
299 (gdb) p var
300 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
301 (gdb) p (float) var
302 $3 = 3.14
303
304 * New native configurations
305
306 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
307 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
308
309 * New targets
310
311 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
312 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
313 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
314
315 * Removed targets and native configurations
316
317 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
318
319 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
320
321 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
322 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
323 available in future Intel CPUs.
324
325 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
326
327 * Python Scripting
328
329 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
330 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
331
332 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
333 instructions.
334
335 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
336
337 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
338
339 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
340 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
341 removed.
342
343 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
344
345 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
346 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
347
348 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
349
350 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
351 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
352 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
353 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
354 features.
355
356 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
357
358 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
359 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
360 debugger.
361
362 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
363
364 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
365 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
366
367 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
368
369 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
370
371 define mycommand
372 set $i = 0
373 while $i < $argc
374 eval "print $arg%d", $i
375 set $i = $i + 1
376 end
377 end
378
379 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
380
381 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
382 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
383
384 * New native configurations
385
386 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
387
388 * New targets
389
390 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
391 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
392
393 * Removed targets and native configurations
394
395 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
396 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
397
398 * New commands
399
400 flash-erase
401 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
402
403 maint print arc arc-instruction address
404 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
405
406 * New options
407
408 set disassembler-options
409 show disassembler-options
410 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
411 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
412 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
413 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
414 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
415
416 * New MI commands
417
418 -target-flash-erase
419 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
420 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
421
422 -file-list-shared-libraries
423 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
424 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
425
426 -catch-handlers
427 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
428 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
429
430 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
431
432 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
433
434 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
435 default. One must now explicitly configure with
436 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
437 option will be removed in a future release.
438
439 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
440 GDB connection.
441
442 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
443 memory backward from the given address. For example:
444
445 (gdb) bt
446 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
447 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
448 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
449 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
450 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
451 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
452 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
453 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
454 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
455
456 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
457 arrays of dynamic types.
458
459 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
460 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
461 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
462 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
463 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
464 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
465
466 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
467 descriptions.
468
469 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
470 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
471 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
472
473 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
474
475 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
476 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
477 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
478 signal received and code location.
479
480 For example:
481
482 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
483 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
484 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
485 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
486
487 * Rust language support.
488 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
489 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
490 Rust.
491
492 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
493
494 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
495 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
496 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
497 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
498 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
499 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
500 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
501 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
502 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
503 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
504 line.
505
506 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
507
508 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
509 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
510
511 * New commands
512
513 skip -file file
514 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
515 skip -function function
516 skip -rfunction regular-expression
517 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
518 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
519 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
520
521 maint info line-table REGEXP
522 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
523
524 maint selftest
525 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
526
527 new-ui INTERP TTY
528 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
529 using the TTY file for input/output.
530
531 * Python Scripting
532
533 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
534 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
535 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
536 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
537 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
538
539 signal-event EVENTID
540 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
541 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
542 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
543 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
544 signalling an event.
545
546 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
547 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
548 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
549
550 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
551 been removed:
552
553 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
554 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
555 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
556 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
557 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
558 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
559
560 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
561 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
562 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
563 bytecode into native code.
564
565 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
566 recording. For example:
567
568 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
569
570 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
571
572 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
573
574 * New targets
575
576 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
577
578 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
579
580 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
581
582 * Per-inferior thread numbers
583
584 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
585 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
586 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
587
588 (gdb) info threads
589 Id Target Id Frame
590 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
591 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
592 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
593 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
594
595 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
596 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
597 are no longer unique between inferiors.
598
599 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
600 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
601 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
602
603 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
604 IDs.
605
606 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
607 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
608
609 (gdb) thread 2.1
610 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
611 (gdb)
612
613 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
614 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
615 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
616 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
617 threads 2.*".
618
619 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
620 all threads.
621
622 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
623 the current thread.
624
625 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
626 current inferior.
627
628 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
629 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
630 example:
631
632 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
633 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
634
635 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
636
637 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
638
639 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
640 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
641
642 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
643 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
644 clients.
645
646 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
647 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
648 at the same time.
649
650 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
651 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
652 into native code.
653
654 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
655
656 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
657 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
658 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
659
660 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
661 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
662
663 * New commands
664
665 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
666 maint show target-non-stop
667 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
668 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
669 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
670
671 maint set bfd-sharing
672 maint show bfd-sharing
673 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
674
675 set debug bfd-cache
676 show debug bfd-cache
677 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
678
679 set debug fbsd-lwp
680 show debug fbsd-lwp
681 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
682
683 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
684 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
685 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
686
687 set remote thread-events
688 show remote thread-events
689 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
690
691 set ada print-signatures on|off
692 show ada print-signatures"
693 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
694 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
695
696 set max-value-size
697 show max-value-size
698 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
699 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
700 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
701
702 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
703 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
704 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
705 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
706 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
707 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
708
709 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
710 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
711
712 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
713 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
714
715 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
716
717 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
718 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
719 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
720 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
721 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
722 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
723
724 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
725 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
726
727 catch handlers
728 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
729
730 * New remote packets
731
732 exec stop reason
733 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
734
735 exec-events feature in qSupported
736 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
737 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
738 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
739 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
740
741 vCtrlC
742 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
743 non-stop mode.
744
745 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
746 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
747
748 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
749 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
750
751 QThreadEvents
752 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
753 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
754 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
755 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
756 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
757 stop for that same thread.
758
759 N stop reply
760 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
761 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
762 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
763
764 QCatchSyscalls
765 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
766 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
767
768 syscall_entry stop reason
769 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
770
771 syscall_return stop reason
772 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
773
774 * Extended-remote exec events
775
776 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
777 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
778 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
779
780 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
781 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
782 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
783
784 * Thread names in remote protocol
785
786 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
787 thread.
788
789 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
790
791 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
792 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
793 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
794 fork and exec catchpoints.
795
796 * Remote syscall events
797
798 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
799 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
800
801 set remote catch-syscall-packet
802 show remote catch-syscall-packet
803 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
804
805 * MI changes
806
807 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
808 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
809 left.
810
811 * Python Scripting
812
813 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
814 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
815 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
816 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
817 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
818 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
819
820 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
821
822 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
823 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
824 including advance SIMD instructions.
825
826 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
827
828 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
829 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
830 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
831 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
832 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
833 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
834 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
835
836 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
837 cpu information :
838 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
839
840 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
841 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
842 remote serial I/O.
843
844 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
845 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
846 and may include things like its command line arguments.
847
848 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
849 is now available on all platforms.
850
851 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
852 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
853 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
854 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
855 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
856 backward compatibility.
857
858 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
859 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
860 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
861 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
862
863 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
864 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
865 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
866 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
867 packets" below.
868
869 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
870
871 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
872
873 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
874 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
875 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
876 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
877 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
878 See "New remote packets" below.
879
880 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
881 available register groups, including target specific groups.
882
883 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
884 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
885 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
886 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
887 are ignored.
888
889 * Guile Scripting
890
891 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
892
893 * Python Scripting
894
895 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
896 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
897 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
898 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
899 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
900 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
901 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
902 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
903 "const" version of the value respectively.
904
905 * New commands
906
907 maint print symbol-cache
908 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
909
910 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
911 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
912
913 maint flush-symbol-cache
914 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
915
916 record btrace bts
917 record bts
918 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
919
920 compile print
921 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
922
923 tui enable
924 tui disable
925 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
926
927 show mpx bound
928 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
929 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
930
931 record btrace pt
932 record pt
933 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
934
935 maint info btrace
936 Print information about branch tracing internals.
937
938 maint btrace packet-history
939 Print the raw branch tracing data.
940
941 maint btrace clear-packet-history
942 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
943
944 maint btrace clear
945 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
946 anew by the next "record" command.
947
948 * New options
949
950 set debug dwarf-die
951 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
952 show debug dwarf-die
953 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
954
955 set debug dwarf-read
956 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
957 show debug dwarf-read
958 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
959
960 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
961 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
962 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
963 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
964
965 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
966 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
967 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
968 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
969
970 set debug dwarf-line
971 show debug dwarf-line
972 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
973
974 set max-completions
975 show max-completions
976 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
977 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
978 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
979 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
980
981 set history remove-duplicates
982 show history remove-duplicates
983 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
984
985 maint set symbol-cache-size
986 maint show symbol-cache-size
987 Control the size of the symbol cache.
988
989 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
990 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
991 BTS format.
992 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
993 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
994
995 set debug linux-namespaces
996 show debug linux-namespaces
997 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
998
999 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1000 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1001 Intel Processor Trace format.
1002 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1003 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1004
1005 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1006 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1007 packet history.
1008
1009 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1010 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1011
1012 * Python/Guile scripting
1013
1014 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1015 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1016
1017 * New remote packets
1018
1019 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1020 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1021
1022 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1023 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1024
1025 Qbtrace:pt
1026 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1027 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1028 qSupported query.
1029
1030 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1031 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1032 Trace format.
1033
1034 swbreak stop reason
1035 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1036 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1037 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1038 mode operation.
1039
1040 hwbreak stop reason
1041 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1042 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1043
1044 vFile:fstat:
1045 Return information about files on the remote system.
1046
1047 qXfer:exec-file:read
1048 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1049 create a process running on the remote system.
1050
1051 vFile:setfs:
1052 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1053 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1054 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1055 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1056
1057 fork stop reason
1058 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1059
1060 vfork stop reason
1061 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1062
1063 vforkdone stop reason
1064 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1065 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1066
1067 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1068 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1069 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1070 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1071 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1072 whether these features are enabled.
1073
1074 * Extended-remote fork events
1075
1076 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1077 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1078 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1079 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1080
1081 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1082 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1083 the btrace record target.
1084 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1085
1086 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1087 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1088
1089 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1090 targets.
1091
1092 * Removed command line options
1093
1094 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1095
1096 * Removed targets and native configurations
1097
1098 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1099 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1100
1101 * New configure options
1102
1103 --with-intel-pt
1104 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1105 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1106
1107 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1108 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1109 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1110 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1111
1112 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1113
1114 * Python Scripting
1115
1116 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1117
1118 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
1119
1120 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1121
1122 * Python Scripting
1123
1124 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1125 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1126 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1127 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1128 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1129 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1130 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1131 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1132 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1133 selecting a new file to debug.
1134 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1135 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1136
1137 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1138 inferior.
1139
1140 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1141 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1142 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1143 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1144
1145 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1146
1147 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1148 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1149 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1150 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1151
1152 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1153 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1154 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1155 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1156 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1157 interface with this new feature are:
1158
1159 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1160 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1161
1162 * New commands
1163
1164 demangle [-l language] [--] name
1165 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1166 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1167 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1168 as "maint demangler-warning".
1169
1170 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1171 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1172
1173 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1174 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1175 scripts.
1176
1177 maint print user-registers
1178 List all currently available "user" registers.
1179
1180 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1181 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1182 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1183
1184 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1185 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1186 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
1187 provided.
1188
1189 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
1190 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
1191 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
1192 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
1193 at resume time.
1194
1195 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
1196 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
1197 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
1198 switched threads meanwhile.
1199
1200 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
1201
1202 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
1203 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
1204 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
1205 is now the default mode.
1206
1207 * New options
1208
1209 set debug symbol-lookup
1210 show debug symbol-lookup
1211 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
1212
1213 * MI changes
1214
1215 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
1216 inferiors that have exited.
1217
1218 * New targets
1219
1220 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
1221
1222 * Removed targets
1223
1224 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1225
1226 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
1227 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
1228 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
1229 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
1230 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
1231
1232 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1233 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1234 its alias "share", instead.
1235
1236 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
1237
1238 * New command line options
1239
1240 -D data-directory
1241 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
1242
1243 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
1244 as specified in ISO C99.
1245
1246 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
1247 with or without disassembly.
1248
1249 * Guile scripting
1250
1251 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
1252 available is determined at configure time.
1253 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
1254 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
1255
1256 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1257
1258 guile [code]
1259 gu [code]
1260 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
1261
1262 guile-repl
1263 gr
1264 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
1265
1266 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
1267 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
1268
1269 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
1270 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
1271
1272 * New options
1273
1274 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
1275 show print symbol-loading
1276 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
1277 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
1278 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
1279 becomes less useful.
1280
1281 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
1282 show guile print-stack
1283 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
1284
1285 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
1286 show auto-load guile-scripts
1287 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
1288
1289 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
1290 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
1291 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
1292 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
1293 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
1294 usage of this option.
1295
1296 set auto-connect-native-target
1297
1298 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
1299 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
1300 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
1301
1302 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
1303 show record btrace replay-memory-access
1304 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
1305
1306 maint set target-async (on|off)
1307 maint show target-async
1308 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
1309 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
1310 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
1311 occurring only in synchronous mode.
1312
1313 set mi-async (on|off)
1314 show mi-async
1315 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
1316 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
1317
1318 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
1319 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
1320
1321 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
1322 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
1323 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
1324 "set target-async on" command.
1325
1326 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1327
1328 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
1329 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
1330 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
1331 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
1332 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
1333
1334 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
1335 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
1336 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
1337
1338 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
1339 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
1340 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
1341 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
1342 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
1343 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
1344 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
1345
1346 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
1347 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
1348
1349 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
1350 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
1351 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
1352
1353 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
1354 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
1355 memory or registers.
1356
1357 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
1358
1359 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
1360 remote. It now works with all targets.
1361
1362 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
1363 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
1364 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
1365 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
1366 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
1367 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
1368 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
1369 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
1370 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
1371 target-stack".
1372
1373 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
1374 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
1375 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
1376
1377 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
1378
1379 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
1380 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
1381 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
1382
1383 * New remote packets
1384
1385 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
1386 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
1387 branch trace incrementally.
1388
1389 * Python Scripting
1390
1391 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
1392 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
1393 available.
1394 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
1395 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
1396 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
1397 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
1398 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
1399
1400 * New targets
1401 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
1402
1403 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1404 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1405 its alias "share", instead.
1406
1407 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
1408 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
1409 instead.
1410
1411 * MI changes
1412
1413 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
1414 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
1415 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
1416 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
1417 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
1418 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
1419 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
1420 commands and CLI execution commands.
1421
1422 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
1423
1424 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
1425 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
1426 recording has been added.
1427
1428 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1429
1430 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
1431 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
1432
1433 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
1434 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
1435 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
1436 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
1437 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
1438 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
1439 "void".
1440
1441 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
1442
1443 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
1444
1445 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
1446 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
1447 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
1448 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
1449
1450 (gdb) p $rax
1451 $1 = <not saved>
1452
1453 (gdb) info registers rax
1454 rax <not saved>
1455
1456 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
1457 "*value not available*".
1458
1459 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
1460 to binaries.
1461
1462 * Python scripting
1463
1464 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
1465 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
1466 ** Line tables representation has been added.
1467 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
1468 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
1469 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1470
1471 * New targets
1472
1473 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
1474 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
1475 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
1476
1477 * Removed native configurations
1478
1479 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
1480 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
1481
1482 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1483 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1484 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
1485 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
1486 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1487 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1488 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1489
1490 * New commands:
1491 catch rethrow
1492 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
1493 maint check-psymtabs
1494 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
1495 maint check-symtabs
1496 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
1497 maint expand-symtabs
1498 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
1499
1500 show configuration
1501 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1502
1503 maint set|show per-command
1504 maint set|show per-command space
1505 maint set|show per-command time
1506 maint set|show per-command symtab
1507 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
1508
1509 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
1510 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
1511 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
1512 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
1513 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
1514
1515 info exceptions
1516 info exceptions REGEXP
1517 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
1518 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
1519 are listed.
1520
1521 * New options
1522
1523 set debug symfile off|on
1524 show debug symfile
1525 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
1526 symbol tables within those files
1527
1528 set print raw frame-arguments
1529 show print raw frame-arguments
1530 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
1531 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
1532
1533 set remote trace-status-packet
1534 show remote trace-status-packet
1535 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
1536
1537 set debug nios2
1538 show debug nios2
1539 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
1540
1541 set range-stepping
1542 show range-stepping
1543 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
1544
1545 set startup-with-shell
1546 show startup-with-shell
1547 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
1548 directly.
1549
1550 set code-cache
1551 show code-cache
1552 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
1553 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
1554
1555 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
1556 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
1557 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
1558 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
1559 "set height 0".
1560
1561 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
1562 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
1563 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
1564
1565 * New command-line options
1566 --configuration
1567 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1568
1569 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
1570 buffer in Common Trace Format.
1571
1572 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
1573 GDB command gcore.
1574
1575 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
1576
1577 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
1578 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
1579
1580 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
1581 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
1582
1583 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
1584 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
1585 due to an uncaught signal.
1586
1587 * MI changes
1588
1589 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
1590 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
1591 command, which should contain "language-option".
1592
1593 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
1594 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
1595
1596 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
1597 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
1598 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
1599 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1600 "undefined-command-error-code".
1601
1602 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
1603 Trace Format now.
1604
1605 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
1606
1607 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
1608 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
1609 are displayed.
1610
1611 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
1612 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
1613
1614 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
1615 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
1616 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
1617
1618 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
1619 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
1620 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
1621 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
1622 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1623 "exec-run-start-option".
1624
1625 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
1626 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
1627
1628 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
1629 the new "info exceptions" command.
1630
1631 * New system-wide configuration scripts
1632 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
1633 configuration scripts for the following systems:
1634 ** ElinOS
1635 ** Wind River Linux
1636
1637 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
1638 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
1639 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
1640 below.
1641
1642 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
1643 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
1644
1645 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
1646 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
1647 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
1648
1649 * New remote packets
1650
1651 vCont;r
1652
1653 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
1654 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
1655 involvemement at each single-step.
1656
1657 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
1658 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
1659 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
1660 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
1661 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
1662 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
1663 speedup.
1664
1665 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1666
1667 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
1668 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
1669
1670 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
1671 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
1672 trace state variables.
1673
1674 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
1675 target.
1676
1677 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
1678 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
1679
1680 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
1681
1682 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
1683 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
1684 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
1685 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1686
1687 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
1688
1689 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
1690 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
1691 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
1692 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
1693
1694 set|show record full insn-number-max
1695 set|show record full stop-at-limit
1696 set|show record full memory-query
1697
1698 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
1699 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
1700 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
1701 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
1702 This new recording method can be enabled using:
1703
1704 record btrace
1705
1706 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
1707 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
1708
1709 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
1710 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
1711 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
1712
1713 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
1714 instruction granularity
1715
1716 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
1717 function granularity
1718
1719 * New native configurations
1720
1721 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
1722 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
1723 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1724 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
1725
1726 * New targets
1727
1728 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
1729 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
1730 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
1731 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1732 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
1733
1734 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
1735 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
1736 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
1737 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
1738 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
1739 --data-directory command-line option.
1740
1741 * New command line options:
1742
1743 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1744 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1745
1746 * Removed command line options
1747
1748 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1749 Emacs.
1750
1751 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1752 type formatting.
1753
1754 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1755
1756 * Python scripting
1757
1758 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1759
1760 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1761
1762 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1763
1764 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1765
1766 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1767 of architecture in the Python API.
1768
1769 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1770 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1771
1772 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1773
1774 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1775 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1776 ** $_strlen(str)
1777 ** $_regex(str, regex)
1778
1779 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
1780 given an argument.
1781
1782 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
1783 default for GCC since November 2000.
1784
1785 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
1786
1787 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
1788 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
1789
1790 * New configure options
1791
1792 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
1793 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
1794 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
1795 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
1796 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
1797 options allow the user to override that default.
1798 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
1799 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
1800 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
1801
1802 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1803
1804 catch signal
1805 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
1806 conditions to be attached.
1807
1808 maint info bfds
1809 List the BFDs known to GDB.
1810
1811 python-interactive [command]
1812 pi [command]
1813 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
1814 and print the result of expressions.
1815
1816 py [command]
1817 "py" is a new alias for "python".
1818
1819 enable type-printer [name]...
1820 disable type-printer [name]...
1821 Enable or disable type printers.
1822
1823 * Removed commands
1824
1825 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
1826 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
1827 instead.
1828
1829 * New options
1830
1831 set print type methods (on|off)
1832 show print type methods
1833 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
1834 The default is to show them.
1835
1836 set print type typedefs (on|off)
1837 show print type typedefs
1838 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
1839 The default is to show them.
1840
1841 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
1842 show filename-display
1843 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
1844 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
1845
1846 set trace-buffer-size
1847 show trace-buffer-size
1848 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
1849
1850 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
1851 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
1852 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
1853
1854 set debug aarch64
1855 show debug aarch64
1856 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
1857 The default is off.
1858
1859 set debug coff-pe-read
1860 show debug coff-pe-read
1861 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
1862 exported symbols.
1863
1864 set debug mach-o
1865 show debug mach-o
1866 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
1867 processing.
1868
1869 set debug notification
1870 show debug notification
1871 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
1872
1873 * MI changes
1874
1875 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
1876 "=cmd-param-changed".
1877 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
1878 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
1879 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
1880 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
1881 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
1882 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
1883 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
1884 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
1885 "=memory-changed".
1886 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
1887 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
1888 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
1889 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
1890 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
1891 library load/unload events.
1892 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
1893 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
1894 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
1895 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
1896 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
1897 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
1898 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
1899 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
1900
1901 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
1902 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
1903 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
1904 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
1905
1906 * New remote packets
1907
1908 QTBuffer:size
1909 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
1910 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1911
1912 Qbtrace:bts
1913 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
1914 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
1915 qSupported query.
1916
1917 Qbtrace:off
1918 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
1919 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1920
1921 qXfer:btrace:read
1922 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
1923 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1924
1925 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
1926
1927 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
1928 for more x32 ABI info.
1929
1930 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
1931
1932 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
1933
1934 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1935 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
1936 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
1937 "info os files" lists file descriptors
1938 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
1939 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
1940 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
1941 "info os msg" lists message queues
1942 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
1943
1944 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
1945 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
1946 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
1947 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
1948 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
1949 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
1950
1951 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
1952 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
1953 record/replay support.
1954
1955 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
1956
1957 * Python scripting
1958
1959 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
1960 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
1961
1962 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
1963
1964 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
1965 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
1966
1967 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
1968
1969 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
1970 the source at which the symbol was defined.
1971
1972 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
1973 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
1974 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
1975 symbol's value.
1976
1977 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
1978 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
1979
1980 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
1981 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
1982 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
1983
1984 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
1985 object associated with a PC value.
1986
1987 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
1988 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
1989
1990 * Go language support.
1991 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
1992 language.
1993
1994 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
1995 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
1996
1997 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
1998 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
1999
2000 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2001 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2002 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2003 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2004 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2005 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
2006
2007 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2008 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2009 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2010 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2011
2012 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2013 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2014
2015 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2016 since December 2007.
2017
2018 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2019 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2020 command does. For instance:
2021
2022 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2023
2024 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2025 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2026 created, using the "condition" command.
2027
2028 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2029 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2030
2031 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2032
2033 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2034 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2035 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2036 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2037 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2038 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2039 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2040 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2041
2042 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2043 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2044 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2045 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2046 the .gdb_index section.
2047
2048 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2049
2050 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2051 target.
2052
2053 * MI changes
2054
2055 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2056
2057 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2058
2059 * New commands
2060
2061 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2062 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2063 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2064
2065 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2066 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2067
2068 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2069 several hits.
2070
2071 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2072 C++ and Java objects.
2073
2074 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2075 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2076 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2077 configured with '--with-python'.
2078
2079 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2080 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2081 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2082 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2083 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2084 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2085 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2086
2087 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2088 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2089 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2090 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2091
2092 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2093 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2094 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2095 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2096
2097 ** "set print symbol"
2098 "show print symbol"
2099 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2100 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2101 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2102
2103 * Deprecated commands
2104
2105 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2106 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2107
2108 * New targets
2109
2110 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2111 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2112
2113 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2114 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2115 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2116 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2117 evaluates to true.
2118
2119 * New options
2120
2121 set mips compression
2122 show mips compression
2123 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2124 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2125 mips16
2126 micromips
2127 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2128
2129 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2130 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2131 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2132 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2133 available mode.
2134 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2135 target.
2136
2137 set auto-load off
2138 Disable auto-loading globally.
2139
2140 show auto-load
2141 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2142
2143 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2144 show auto-load gdb-scripts
2145 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2146
2147 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2148 show auto-load python-scripts
2149 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2150
2151 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2152 show auto-load local-gdbinit
2153 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2154
2155 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2156 show auto-load libthread-db
2157 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2158
2159 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2160 show auto-load scripts-directory
2161 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2162 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2163 of the directories listed by this option.
2164 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2165
2166 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2167 show auto-load safe-path
2168 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2169 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2170
2171 set debug auto-load on|off
2172 show debug auto-load
2173 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2174
2175 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
2176 show dprintf-style
2177 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2178 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2179 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2180 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
2181
2182 set dprintf-function <expr>
2183 show dprintf-function
2184 set dprintf-channel <expr>
2185 show dprintf-channel
2186 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
2187 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
2188
2189 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
2190 show disconnected-dprintf
2191 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
2192 after GDB disconnects.
2193
2194 * New configure options
2195
2196 --with-auto-load-dir
2197 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
2198 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
2199 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
2200 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
2201 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
2202
2203 --with-auto-load-safe-path
2204 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
2205 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
2206
2207 --without-auto-load-safe-path
2208 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
2209 security feature.
2210
2211 * New remote packets
2212
2213 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
2214
2215 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
2216 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
2217 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
2218 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
2219
2220 QProgramSignals:
2221
2222 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
2223 program without GDB involvement.
2224
2225 * New command line options
2226
2227 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
2228 before loading inferior.
2229 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
2230 execute it before loading inferior.
2231
2232 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
2233
2234 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
2235 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
2236 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
2237 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
2238 inferior changes.
2239
2240 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
2241 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
2242
2243 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
2244 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
2245 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
2246 target hardware watchpoint.
2247
2248 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
2249 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
2250 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
2251 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
2252
2253 * Python scripting
2254
2255 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
2256 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
2257 existing one.
2258
2259 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
2260 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
2261 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
2262 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
2263 now "message", which just prints the error message without
2264 the stack trace.
2265
2266 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
2267 Python API.
2268
2269 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
2270 modules library. This module provides functionality for
2271 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
2272 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
2273 corresponding value.
2274
2275 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
2276 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
2277 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
2278 on GDB start-up.
2279
2280 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
2281 static_block will return the global and static blocks
2282 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
2283 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
2284
2285 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
2286
2287 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
2288 "gdb.breakpoints".
2289
2290 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
2291 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
2292 available in the CLI.
2293
2294 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
2295 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
2296 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
2297 "some_type.items()".
2298
2299 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
2300 new object file.
2301
2302 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
2303 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
2304 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
2305 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
2306 any anonymous fields.
2307
2308 * MI changes
2309
2310 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
2311 "solib-event".
2312
2313 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
2314 "=breakpoint-modified".
2315
2316 ** New command -ada-task-info.
2317
2318 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
2319 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
2320 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
2321 lives.
2322
2323 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
2324 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
2325 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
2326 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
2327 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
2328
2329 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
2330 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
2331
2332 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
2333 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
2334 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
2335 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
2336 use this option to specify where to find it.
2337
2338 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2339 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
2340 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
2341 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
2342 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
2343 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2344 section in the user manual for more details.
2345
2346 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
2347 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
2348 become available after that.
2349
2350 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
2351
2352 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
2353 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
2354 gcc version 4.7.
2355
2356 * New commands
2357
2358 !SHELL COMMAND
2359 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
2360 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
2361
2362 * Changed commands
2363
2364 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
2365 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
2366 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
2367
2368 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
2369 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
2370 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
2371
2372 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
2373 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
2374 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
2375 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
2376 name starts with a hyphen.
2377
2378 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
2379 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
2380 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
2381 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
2382 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
2383 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
2384 number of bytes that will be collected.
2385
2386 tstart [NOTES]
2387 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
2388 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
2389 setting the variable trace-notes.
2390
2391 tstop [NOTES]
2392 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
2393 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
2394 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
2395 trace-stop-notes.
2396
2397 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
2398 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
2399 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
2400 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
2401 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
2402 is running.
2403
2404 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
2405 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
2406 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
2407
2408 * New options
2409
2410 set debug dwarf2-read
2411 show debug dwarf2-read
2412 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
2413 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
2414
2415 set debug symtab-create
2416 show debug symtab-create
2417 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
2418 creation. The default is off.
2419
2420 set extended-prompt
2421 show extended-prompt
2422 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
2423 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
2424 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
2425 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
2426 prompt is displayed.
2427
2428 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
2429 show print entry-values
2430 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
2431 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
2432 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
2433
2434 set debug entry-values
2435 show debug entry-values
2436 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
2437 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
2438
2439 set basenames-may-differ
2440 show basenames-may-differ
2441 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
2442 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
2443 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
2444 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
2445 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
2446 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
2447 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
2448 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
2449
2450 set trace-user
2451 show trace-user
2452 set trace-notes
2453 show trace-notes
2454 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
2455 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
2456 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
2457 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
2458
2459 set trace-stop-notes
2460 show trace-stop-notes
2461 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
2462 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
2463 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
2464 started by someone else.
2465
2466 * New remote packets
2467
2468 QTEnable
2469
2470 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2471
2472 QTDisable
2473
2474 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2475
2476 QTNotes
2477
2478 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
2479
2480 qTP
2481
2482 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
2483
2484 qTMinFTPILen
2485
2486 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
2487 be placed.
2488
2489 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
2490 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
2491
2492 * New targets
2493
2494 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
2495
2496 * New Simulators
2497
2498 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2499
2500 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
2501
2502 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
2503
2504 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
2505
2506 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
2507 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
2508 matches the given regular expression.
2509
2510 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
2511
2512 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
2513 dumping the instruction opcodes.
2514
2515 * New command line options
2516
2517 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
2518 This is mostly for testing purposes.
2519
2520 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
2521 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
2522
2523 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
2524 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
2525 source path list instead of augmenting it.
2526
2527 * GDB now understands thread names.
2528
2529 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
2530 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
2531
2532 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
2533 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
2534
2535 * OpenCL C
2536 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
2537 has been integrated into GDB.
2538
2539 * Python scripting
2540
2541 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
2542 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
2543 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
2544
2545 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2546 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
2547 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
2548 and allows for more dynamic content.
2549
2550 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
2551 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
2552 have an is_valid method.
2553
2554 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2555 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
2556 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
2557
2558 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
2559
2560 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
2561 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
2562 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
2563 that function like so:
2564
2565 result = some_value (10,20)
2566
2567 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
2568 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
2569 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
2570
2571 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
2572 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
2573 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
2574 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
2575 New function: register_pretty_printer.
2576
2577 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
2578 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
2579
2580 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
2581
2582 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
2583 selected thread.
2584
2585 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
2586 holds the thread's name.
2587
2588 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
2589 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
2590 occurring in the process being debugged.
2591 The following events are currently supported:
2592 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
2593 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
2594 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
2595
2596 * C++ Improvements:
2597
2598 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
2599 instantiation. For example, if you have:
2600
2601 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
2602
2603 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
2604 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
2605 was added to GCC 4.5.
2606
2607 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
2608 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
2609 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
2610 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
2611 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
2612 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
2613
2614 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
2615 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
2616 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
2617 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
2618 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
2619
2620 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
2621 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
2622 execution to a label.
2623
2624 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
2625 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
2626 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
2627 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
2628
2629 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
2630 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
2631 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
2632 of scope.
2633
2634 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
2635
2636 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
2637 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
2638 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
2639 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
2640 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
2641 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
2642
2643 (gdb) info threads
2644 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
2645
2646 While now you see this:
2647
2648 (gdb) info threads
2649 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
2650
2651 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
2652 dumps.
2653
2654 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
2655 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
2656 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
2657 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
2658
2659 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2660 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
2661 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
2662 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2663 section in the user manual for more details.
2664
2665 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2666
2667 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
2668 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
2669
2670 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
2671
2672 * New native configurations
2673
2674 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2675
2676 * New targets:
2677
2678 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
2679
2680 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
2681 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2682 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2683 in the GDB user manual.
2684
2685 * Guile support was removed.
2686
2687 * New features in the GNU simulator
2688
2689 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
2690
2691 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
2692
2693 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
2694
2695 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
2696
2697 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
2698 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
2699 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
2700 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
2701 was always disabled for such configurations.
2702
2703 * C++ Improvements:
2704
2705 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
2706
2707 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
2708 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
2709 For example:
2710 namespace A
2711 {
2712 class B { };
2713 void foo (B) { }
2714 }
2715 ...
2716 A::B b
2717 foo(b)
2718 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
2719 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
2720 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
2721
2722 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
2723
2724 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
2725 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
2726 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
2727 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
2728 entry.
2729 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
2730 mentioned flavors of operators.
2731
2732 ** static const class members
2733
2734 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
2735 class definition has been fixed.
2736
2737 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
2738
2739 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
2740 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2741 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2742 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2743 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2744 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2745
2746 * Static tracepoints
2747
2748 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2749 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2750 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2751 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2752 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2753 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2754 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2755 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2756 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2757 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2758 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2759 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2760 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2761 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2762 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2763 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2764 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2765 the "New remote packets" section below.
2766
2767 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2768
2769 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2770 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2771 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2772 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2773
2774 * Observer mode
2775
2776 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2777 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
2778 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
2779 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
2780 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
2781 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
2782 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
2783
2784 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
2785 current thread.
2786
2787 * New remote packets
2788
2789 qGetTIBAddr
2790
2791 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
2792
2793 qRelocInsn
2794
2795 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
2796 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
2797 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
2798 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
2799 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
2800 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
2801
2802 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
2803
2804 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
2805
2806 qTSTMat
2807
2808 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
2809 program.
2810
2811 qXfer:statictrace:read
2812
2813 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
2814 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
2815 to gdb's qSupported query.
2816
2817 QAllow
2818
2819 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
2820
2821 QTDPsrc
2822
2823 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
2824 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
2825
2826 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
2827 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
2828 a directory.
2829
2830 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2831
2832 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
2833 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
2834 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
2835 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
2836
2837 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
2838 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
2839 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
2840 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
2841 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
2842 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
2843 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
2844
2845 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
2846 for static tracepoints support.
2847
2848 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
2849
2850 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
2851 it understands register description.
2852
2853 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
2854
2855 * X86 general purpose registers
2856
2857 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
2858 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
2859 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
2860 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
2861 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
2862
2863 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
2864 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
2865 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
2866 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
2867 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
2868 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
2869
2870 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
2871 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
2872 in the specified file.
2873
2874 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
2875 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
2876 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
2877 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
2878 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
2879 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
2880 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
2881 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
2882 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
2883 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
2884
2885 * New commands
2886
2887 eval template, expressions...
2888 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
2889 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
2890
2891 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
2892 show target-file-system-kind
2893 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
2894 names.
2895
2896 save breakpoints <filename>
2897 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
2898 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
2899 definitions, use the `source' command.
2900
2901 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
2902 is now deprecated.
2903
2904 info static-tracepoint-markers
2905 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
2906
2907 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
2908 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
2909 function, line, address, or marker ID.
2910
2911 set observer on|off
2912 show observer
2913 Enable and disable observer mode.
2914
2915 set may-write-registers on|off
2916 set may-write-memory on|off
2917 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
2918 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
2919 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
2920 set may-interrupt on|off
2921 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
2922 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
2923 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
2924 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
2925 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
2926 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
2927 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
2928
2929 set record memory-query on|off
2930 show record memory-query
2931 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
2932 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
2933
2934 * Changed commands
2935
2936 disassemble
2937 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
2938
2939 * Python scripting
2940
2941 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
2942 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
2943 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
2944 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
2945 GDB using Python' in the manual.
2946
2947 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
2948 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
2949 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
2950 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
2951
2952 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
2953 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
2954
2955 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
2956
2957 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
2958
2959 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
2960
2961 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
2962 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
2963 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
2964
2965 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
2966 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
2967 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
2968 regular breakpoints.
2969
2970 * New targets
2971
2972 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
2973
2974 * D language support.
2975 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
2976 language.
2977
2978 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
2979 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
2980 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
2981 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
2982 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
2983
2984 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
2985 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
2986 conditions of the form:
2987
2988 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
2989
2990 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
2991 interface mentioned above.
2992
2993 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
2994
2995 * C++ Improvements
2996
2997 ** Namespace Support
2998
2999 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3000 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3001 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3002 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3003 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3004
3005 ** Bug Fixes
3006
3007 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3008 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3009 qualified name.
3010
3011 ** Cast Operators
3012
3013 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3014 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3015
3016 * New targets
3017
3018 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3019 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
3020
3021 * New Simulators
3022
3023 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3024 Renesas RX rx
3025
3026 * Multi-program debugging.
3027
3028 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3029 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3030 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3031 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3032 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3033 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3034 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3035 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3036
3037 * New tracing features
3038
3039 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3040
3041 ** Trace state variables
3042
3043 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3044 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3045 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3046 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3047 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3048 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3049 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3050 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3051 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3052 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3053
3054 ** Fast tracepoints
3055
3056 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3057 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3058 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3059 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3060 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3061 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3062 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3063 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3064 the regular trace command.
3065
3066 ** Disconnected tracing
3067
3068 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3069 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3070 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3071 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3072 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3073
3074 ** Trace files
3075
3076 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3077 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3078 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3079 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3080 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3081 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3082 <name>".
3083
3084 ** Circular trace buffer
3085
3086 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3087 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3088 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3089 not be available for all target agents.
3090
3091 * Changed commands
3092
3093 disassemble
3094 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3095 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3096
3097 info variables
3098 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3099 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3100
3101 source
3102 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3103 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3104 support.
3105
3106 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3107 "set script-extension" (see below).
3108
3109 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3110
3111 record save [<FILENAME>]
3112 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3113 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3114
3115 record restore <FILENAME>
3116 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3117 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3118
3119 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3120 Add a new inferior.
3121
3122 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3123 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3124 inferior has loaded.
3125
3126 remove-inferior ID
3127 Remove an inferior.
3128
3129 maint info program-spaces
3130 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3131
3132 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3133 show remote interrupt-sequence
3134 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3135 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3136 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3137 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3138 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3139
3140 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3141 show remote interrupt-on-connect
3142 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3143 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3144 Linux kernel.
3145
3146 set remotebreak [on | off]
3147 show remotebreak
3148 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3149
3150 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3151 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3152
3153 info tvariables
3154 List trace state variables and their values.
3155
3156 delete tvariable $NAME ...
3157 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3158
3159 teval EXPR, ...
3160 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3161 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3162
3163 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3164 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3165
3166 * New expression syntax
3167
3168 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3169 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3170
3171 * New options
3172
3173 set follow-exec-mode new|same
3174 show follow-exec-mode
3175 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3176 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3177 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3178
3179 set default-collect EXPR, ...
3180 show default-collect
3181 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3182 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3183 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3184
3185 set disconnected-tracing
3186 show disconnected-tracing
3187 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
3188 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
3189 upon disconnection.
3190
3191 set circular-trace-buffer
3192 show circular-trace-buffer
3193 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
3194 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
3195 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
3196 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
3197
3198 set script-extension off|soft|strict
3199 show script-extension
3200 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
3201 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
3202 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
3203 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
3204 evaluation failed.
3205 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
3206
3207 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
3208 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
3209 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
3210 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
3211 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
3212 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
3213 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
3214 is on.
3215
3216 * Python API Improvements
3217
3218 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
3219 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
3220 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
3221
3222 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
3223 `is_base_class' attribute.
3224
3225 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
3226
3227 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
3228 evaluate an expression.
3229
3230 * New remote packets
3231
3232 QTDV
3233 Define a trace state variable.
3234
3235 qTV
3236 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
3237
3238 QTDisconnected
3239 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
3240
3241 QTBuffer:circular
3242 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
3243
3244 qTfP, qTsP
3245 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
3246
3247 * Bug fixes
3248
3249 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
3250
3251 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
3252 much more reliable. In particular:
3253 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
3254 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
3255 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
3256 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
3257 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
3258 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
3259 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
3260 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
3261 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
3262 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
3263 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
3264 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
3265 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
3266 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
3267 non-threaded programs.
3268
3269 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
3270 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
3271 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
3272 executable program.
3273
3274 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
3275
3276 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
3277 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
3278 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
3279 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
3280 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
3281
3282 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
3283 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
3284 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
3285 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
3286 for tracepoint actions.
3287
3288 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
3289 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
3290 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
3291
3292 * Process record and replay
3293
3294 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
3295 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
3296 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
3297 execute commands.
3298
3299 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
3300 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
3301 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
3302 reverse execution.
3303
3304 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
3305 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
3306 2.6.28 or later.
3307
3308 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
3309 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
3310 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
3311 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
3312 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
3313 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
3314 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
3315 the installation instructions for more information.
3316
3317 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
3318 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
3319 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
3320 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
3321
3322 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
3323 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
3324
3325 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
3326 now complete on file names.
3327
3328 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
3329 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
3330 For instance, consider:
3331
3332 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
3333 # struct example variable;
3334 (gdb) p variable.
3335
3336 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
3337 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
3338
3339 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
3340 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
3341
3342 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
3343 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
3344 macros.
3345
3346 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
3347 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
3348 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
3349
3350 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
3351 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
3352 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
3353 and simulator targets may also provide them.
3354
3355 * New remote packets
3356
3357 qSearch:memory:
3358 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3359
3360 QStartNoAckMode
3361 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
3362 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
3363 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
3364
3365 vKill
3366 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
3367 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
3368
3369 qXfer:osdata:read
3370 Obtains additional operating system information
3371
3372 qXfer:siginfo:read
3373 qXfer:siginfo:write
3374 Read or write additional signal information.
3375
3376 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
3377
3378 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
3379 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
3380 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
3381
3382 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
3383 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
3384
3385 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
3386 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
3387 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
3388
3389 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
3390 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
3391
3392 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
3393
3394 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
3395
3396 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
3397 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
3398
3399 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
3400 list of section offsets.
3401
3402 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
3403 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
3404 have also been fixed.
3405
3406 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
3407 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
3408 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
3409
3410 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
3411 example, given:
3412
3413 template<typename T> class C { };
3414 C<char const *> c;
3415
3416 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
3417
3418 ptype C<char const *>
3419 ptype C<char const*>
3420 ptype C<const char *>
3421 ptype C<const char*>
3422
3423 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
3424
3425 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
3426 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3427
3428 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
3429 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3430 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
3431
3432 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
3433 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
3434
3435 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
3436 gdbserver.
3437
3438 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
3439 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3440
3441 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
3442 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
3443 as appropriate.
3444
3445 * Python scripting
3446
3447 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
3448 available is determined at configure time.
3449
3450 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
3451
3452 * Ada tasking support
3453
3454 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
3455 been introduced:
3456
3457 info tasks
3458 Print the list of Ada tasks.
3459 info task N
3460 Print detailed information about task number N.
3461 task
3462 Print the task number of the current task.
3463 task N
3464 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
3465
3466 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
3467 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
3468
3469 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
3470
3471 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
3472 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
3473 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
3474 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
3475 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
3476 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
3477 below.
3478
3479 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
3480 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
3481 information.
3482
3483 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
3484 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
3485 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
3486 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
3487 more information.
3488
3489 * Multi-architecture debugging.
3490
3491 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
3492 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
3493 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
3494 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
3495 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
3496
3497 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
3498 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
3499 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
3500 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
3501 --enable-targets configure option.
3502
3503 * Non-stop mode debugging.
3504
3505 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
3506 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
3507 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
3508 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
3509 section in the user manual for more information.
3510
3511 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
3512 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
3513 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
3514 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
3515 extensions on linux targets.
3516
3517 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3518
3519 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
3520 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
3521 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
3522 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
3523 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
3524 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
3525 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
3526 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
3527 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
3528
3529 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
3530 val1 [, val2, ...]
3531 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3532
3533 maint set python print-stack
3534 maint show python print-stack
3535 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
3536
3537 python [CODE]
3538 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
3539
3540 macro define
3541 macro list
3542 macro undef
3543 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
3544 interactively.
3545
3546 info os processes
3547 Show operating system information about processes.
3548
3549 info inferiors
3550 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
3551
3552 inferior NUM
3553 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
3554
3555 detach inferior NUM
3556 Detach from inferior number NUM.
3557
3558 kill inferior NUM
3559 Kill inferior number NUM.
3560
3561 * New options
3562
3563 set spu stop-on-load
3564 show spu stop-on-load
3565 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3566
3567 set spu auto-flush-cache
3568 show spu auto-flush-cache
3569 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
3570 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3571
3572 set sh calling-convention
3573 show sh calling-convention
3574 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
3575
3576 set debug timestamp
3577 show debug timestamp
3578 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
3579
3580 set disassemble-next-line
3581 show disassemble-next-line
3582 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
3583 the debuggee stops.
3584
3585 set remote noack-packet
3586 show remote noack-packet
3587 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
3588 under "New remote packets."
3589
3590 set remote query-attached-packet
3591 show remote query-attached-packet
3592 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
3593
3594 set remote read-siginfo-object
3595 show remote read-siginfo-object
3596 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
3597 packet.
3598
3599 set remote write-siginfo-object
3600 show remote write-siginfo-object
3601 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
3602 packet.
3603
3604 set remote reverse-continue
3605 show remote reverse-continue
3606 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
3607
3608 set remote reverse-step
3609 show remote reverse-step
3610 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
3611
3612 set displaced-stepping
3613 show displaced-stepping
3614 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
3615 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
3616 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
3617
3618 set debug displaced
3619 show debug displaced
3620 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
3621
3622 maint set internal-error
3623 maint show internal-error
3624 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
3625
3626 maint set internal-warning
3627 maint show internal-warning
3628 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
3629
3630 set exec-wrapper
3631 show exec-wrapper
3632 unset exec-wrapper
3633 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3634
3635 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
3636 show multiple-symbols
3637 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
3638 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
3639 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
3640
3641 set breakpoint always-inserted
3642 show breakpoint always-inserted
3643 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
3644 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
3645 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
3646
3647 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3648 show arm fallback-mode
3649 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3650 show arm force-mode
3651 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
3652 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
3653 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
3654 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
3655
3656 set disable-randomization
3657 show disable-randomization
3658 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
3659 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
3660 multiple debugging sessions.
3661
3662 set non-stop
3663 show non-stop
3664 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
3665 a breakpoint.
3666
3667 set target-async
3668 show target-async
3669 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
3670 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
3671 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
3672 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
3673
3674 set target-wide-charset
3675 show target-wide-charset
3676 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
3677 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
3678
3679 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
3680 show tcp auto-retry
3681 set tcp connect-timeout
3682 show tcp connect-timeout
3683 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
3684 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
3685 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
3686
3687 set libthread-db-search-path
3688 show libthread-db-search-path
3689 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
3690 libthread_db.
3691
3692 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
3693 show schedule-multiple
3694 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
3695 the current process.
3696
3697 set stack-cache
3698 show stack-cache
3699 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
3700 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
3701 affecting correctness.
3702
3703 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
3704 show interactive-mode
3705 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
3706 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
3707 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
3708 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
3709 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
3710
3711 * Removed commands
3712
3713 info forks
3714 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
3715 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
3716 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
3717 command.
3718
3719 fork NUM
3720 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
3721 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
3722 alias for the `fork' command.
3723
3724 process PID
3725 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
3726 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
3727 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
3728
3729 delete fork NUM
3730 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
3731 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
3732 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
3733 fork' command.
3734
3735 detach fork NUM
3736 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
3737 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
3738 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
3739 fork' command.
3740
3741 * New native configurations
3742
3743 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3744
3745 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3746
3747 * New targets
3748
3749 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
3750 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
3751 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
3752 S+core 3 score-*-*
3753
3754 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3755 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3756
3757 * Removed commands
3758
3759 catch load
3760 catch unload
3761 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3762
3763 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
3764
3765 * New native configurations
3766
3767 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
3768 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
3769
3770 * New targets
3771
3772 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
3773 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
3774
3775 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3776
3777 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
3778 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
3779 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
3780 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
3781
3782 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
3783 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
3784
3785 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
3786 is resolved.
3787
3788 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
3789 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
3790 and in inlined functions.
3791
3792 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
3793 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
3794 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
3795
3796 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
3797
3798 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
3799 registers on PowerPC targets.
3800
3801 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
3802 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
3803
3804 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
3805 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
3806
3807 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
3808 extended-remote mode.
3809
3810 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
3811 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
3812 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
3813 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
3814
3815 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
3816 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
3817 target architectures.
3818
3819 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
3820 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
3821 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
3822 stored in two consecutive float registers.
3823
3824 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
3825 breakpoints now.
3826
3827 * Improved support for debugging Ada
3828 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
3829 include:
3830 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
3831 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
3832 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
3833 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
3834 of an assignment
3835 - Improved command completion in Ada
3836 - Several bug fixes
3837
3838 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
3839 process.
3840
3841 * New commands
3842
3843 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
3844 show print frame-arguments
3845 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
3846 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
3847
3848 remote put
3849 remote get
3850 remote delete
3851 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3852
3853 * New MI commands
3854
3855 -target-file-put
3856 -target-file-get
3857 -target-file-delete
3858 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3859
3860 * New remote packets
3861
3862 vFile:open:
3863 vFile:close:
3864 vFile:pread:
3865 vFile:pwrite:
3866 vFile:unlink:
3867 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
3868
3869 vAttach
3870 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
3871 mode.
3872
3873 vRun
3874 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
3875
3876 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
3877
3878 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
3879 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
3880 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
3881
3882 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
3883 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
3884 -Bsymbolic linker option.
3885
3886 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
3887 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
3888 is not supported.
3889
3890 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
3891 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
3892
3893 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
3894 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
3895
3896 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
3897
3898 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
3899 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
3900 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
3901
3902 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
3903 automatically displayed as character or string data.
3904
3905 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
3906 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
3907 as strings.
3908
3909 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
3910 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
3911 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
3912
3913 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
3914 iWMMXt coprocessor.
3915
3916 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
3917 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
3918 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
3919
3920 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
3921
3922 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
3923
3924 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
3925 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
3926 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
3927
3928 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
3929 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
3930
3931 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
3932 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
3933 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
3934 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
3935 Windows and SymbianOS).
3936
3937 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
3938 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
3939
3940 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
3941 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
3942
3943 * New commands
3944
3945 set remoteflow
3946 show remoteflow
3947 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
3948 when debugging using remote targets.
3949
3950 set mem inaccessible-by-default
3951 show mem inaccessible-by-default
3952 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3953 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3954 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
3955 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
3956 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
3957
3958 set breakpoint auto-hw
3959 show breakpoint auto-hw
3960 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3961 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3962 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
3963 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
3964 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
3965 including "next" and "finish".
3966
3967 catch exception
3968 catch exception unhandled
3969 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
3970
3971 catch assert
3972 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
3973
3974 set sysroot
3975 show sysroot
3976 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
3977 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
3978 an alias to "set sysroot".
3979
3980 info spu
3981 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
3982 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
3983 architecture.
3984
3985 * New native configurations
3986
3987 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
3988
3989 set tdesc filename
3990 unset tdesc filename
3991 show tdesc filename
3992 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
3993 not query the target for its built-in description.
3994
3995 * New targets
3996
3997 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
3998 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
3999 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4000
4001 * New remote packets
4002
4003 QPassSignals:
4004 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4005 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4006
4007 qXfer:features:read:
4008 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4009 features.
4010
4011 qXfer:spu:read:
4012 qXfer:spu:write:
4013 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4014 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4015
4016 qXfer:libraries:read:
4017 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4018 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4019 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4020 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4021
4022 * Removed targets
4023
4024 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4025
4026 alpha*-*-osf1*
4027 alpha*-*-osf2*
4028 d10v-*-*
4029 hppa*-*-hiux*
4030 i[34567]86-ncr-*
4031 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
4032 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4033 i[34567]86-*-netware*
4034 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4035 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4036 i[34567]86-*-sco*
4037 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4038 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
4039 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
4040 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4041 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4042 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
4043 i[34567]86-*-isc*
4044 m68*-cisco*-*
4045 m68*-tandem-*
4046 mips*-*-pe
4047 rs6000-*-lynxos*
4048 sh*-*-pe
4049
4050 * Other removed features
4051
4052 target abug
4053 target cpu32bug
4054 target est
4055 target rom68k
4056
4057 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4058
4059 target hms
4060 target e7000
4061 target sh3
4062 target sh3e
4063
4064 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4065 H8/300.
4066
4067 target ocd
4068
4069 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4070 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4071 interfaces.
4072
4073 DWARF 1 support
4074
4075 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4076 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4077
4078 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4079
4080 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4081 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4082 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4083 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4084
4085 MIPS ".pdr" sections
4086
4087 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4088 in debugging information.
4089
4090 Scheme support
4091
4092 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4093 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4094
4095 set mips stack-arg-size
4096 set mips saved-gpreg-size
4097
4098 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4099
4100 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
4101
4102 * New targets
4103
4104 Xtensa xtensa-elf
4105 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4106
4107 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4108 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4109 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4110
4111 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4112 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4113 supported.
4114
4115 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4116 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4117
4118 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4119 stub provides the required support.
4120
4121 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4122 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4123
4124 * New commands
4125
4126 set substitute-path
4127 unset substitute-path
4128 show substitute-path
4129 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4130 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4131 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4132 between compilation and debugging.
4133
4134 set trace-commands
4135 show trace-commands
4136 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4137 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4138 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4139
4140 * REMOVED features
4141
4142 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4143
4144 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4145 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4146
4147 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4148
4149 * New remote packets
4150
4151 qSupported:
4152 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4153 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4154 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4155 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4156 target.
4157
4158 qXfer:auxv:read:
4159 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4160 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4161
4162 qXfer:memory-map:read:
4163 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4164 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4165
4166 vFlashErase:
4167 vFlashWrite:
4168 vFlashDone:
4169 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4170
4171 * Removed remote packets
4172
4173 qPart:auxv:read:
4174 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4175 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4176
4177 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
4178
4179 * New targets
4180
4181 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4182
4183 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4184
4185 * New commands
4186
4187 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
4188 only if it doesn't already have a value.
4189
4190 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
4191
4192 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
4193
4194 restart <n> Return the program state to a
4195 previously saved state.
4196
4197 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
4198
4199 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
4200
4201 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
4202 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
4203
4204 info forks List forks of the user program that
4205 are available to be debugged.
4206
4207 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
4208 forks of the user program that are
4209 available to be debugged.
4210
4211 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4212 that are available to be debugged (and
4213 kill the forked process).
4214
4215 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4216 that are available to be debugged (and
4217 allow the process to continue).
4218
4219 * New architecture
4220
4221 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
4222
4223 * Improved Windows host support
4224
4225 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
4226 native console support, and remote communications using either
4227 network sockets or serial ports.
4228
4229 * Improved Modula-2 language support
4230
4231 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
4232 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
4233 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
4234 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
4235 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
4236 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
4237
4238 * REMOVED features
4239
4240 The ARM rdi-share module.
4241
4242 The Netware NLM debug server.
4243
4244 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
4245
4246 * New native configurations
4247
4248 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
4249 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
4250
4251 * New targets
4252
4253 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4254
4255 * New command line options
4256
4257 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
4258 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
4259 the child (debugged) program exited with.
4260 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
4261 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
4262 specified multiple times and in conjunction
4263 with the --command (-x) option.
4264
4265 * Deprecated commands removed
4266
4267 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
4268 removed:
4269
4270 Command Replacement
4271 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
4272 othernames set arm disassembler
4273 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
4274 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
4275 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
4276 regs info registers
4277
4278 * New BSD user-level threads support
4279
4280 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
4281 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
4282 configurations are:
4283
4284 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4285 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
4286 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
4287
4288 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
4289 are not yet supported.
4290
4291 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
4292 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
4293
4294 * REMOVED configurations and files
4295
4296 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
4297 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4298 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
4299
4300 * New "set print array-indexes" command
4301
4302 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
4303 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
4304 behavior.
4305
4306 * VAX floating point support
4307
4308 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
4309
4310 * User-defined command support
4311
4312 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
4313 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
4314 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
4315
4316 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
4317
4318 * New command line option
4319
4320 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
4321 debugging.
4322
4323 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
4324
4325 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
4326 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
4327 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
4328 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
4329 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
4330
4331 * Internationalization
4332
4333 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
4334 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
4335 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
4336
4337 * Ada
4338
4339 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
4340 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
4341 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
4342
4343 * New native configurations
4344
4345 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
4346
4347 * Remote 'p' packet
4348
4349 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
4350 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
4351
4352 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
4353
4354 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4355 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
4356 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
4357 i386 application).
4358
4359 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
4360 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
4361 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
4362 configurations:
4363
4364 hppa-*-hpux
4365 ia64-*-aix
4366 mips-*-irix*
4367 *-*-lynx
4368 mips-*-linux-gnu
4369 sds protocol
4370 xdr protocol
4371 powerpc bdm protocol
4372
4373 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4374 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
4375
4376 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4377
4378 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4379 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4380 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4381 permanently REMOVED.
4382
4383 h8300-*-*
4384 mcore-*-*
4385 mn10300-*-*
4386 ns32k-*-*
4387 sh64-*-*
4388 v850-*-*
4389
4390 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
4391
4392 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
4393
4394 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
4395 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
4396 been fixed.
4397
4398 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
4399
4400 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
4401 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
4402 IRIX long double values).
4403
4404 * VAX and "next"
4405
4406 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
4407 command. This problem has been fixed.
4408
4409 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
4410
4411 * Fix for ``many threads''
4412
4413 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
4414 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
4415 error message:
4416
4417 ptrace: No such process.
4418 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
4419
4420 This problem has been fixed.
4421
4422 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
4423
4424 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
4425 GDB to dump core).
4426
4427 * New ``start'' command.
4428
4429 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
4430
4431 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
4432
4433 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
4434 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
4435 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
4436
4437 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4438 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
4439 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
4440 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
4441 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
4442 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4443 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
4444 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
4445 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4446
4447 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
4448
4449 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
4450 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
4451 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
4452 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
4453 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
4454
4455 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
4456 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
4457 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
4458
4459 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
4460
4461 * New native configurations
4462
4463 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
4464 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
4465 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
4466 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
4467 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
4468 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
4469 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
4470
4471 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
4472
4473 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4474 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
4475 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
4476 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
4477 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
4478 work, was also included.
4479
4480 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
4481 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
4482
4483 h8300-*-*
4484 mcore-*-*
4485 mn10300-*-*
4486 ns32k-*-*
4487 sh64-*-*
4488 v850-*-*
4489 xstormy16-*-*
4490
4491 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4492 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
4493
4494 * REMOVED configurations and files
4495
4496 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4497 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4498 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4499 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4500 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4501 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4502 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4503 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4504 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4505 sonymips mips-sony-*
4506 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4507
4508 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
4509
4510 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
4511
4512 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
4513 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
4514 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
4515 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
4516 with GDB".
4517
4518 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
4519
4520 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
4521 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
4522 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
4523 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
4524 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
4525 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
4526 are created.
4527
4528 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
4529
4530 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
4531
4532 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
4533 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
4534 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
4535
4536 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
4537
4538 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
4539 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
4540
4541 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
4542
4543 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
4544 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
4545 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
4546
4547 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
4548
4549 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
4550 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
4551
4552 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
4553
4554 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
4555 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
4556 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
4557
4558 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
4559
4560 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
4561 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
4562 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
4563
4564 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
4565
4566 * Removed --with-mmalloc
4567
4568 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
4569 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
4570
4571 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
4572
4573 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
4574 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
4575 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
4576 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
4577
4578 * Revised SPARC target
4579
4580 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
4581 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
4582 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
4583 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
4584 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
4585
4586 * New C++ demangler
4587
4588 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
4589 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
4590 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
4591 programs.
4592
4593 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4594
4595 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
4596 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
4597 encountered these.
4598
4599 * C++ nested types and namespaces
4600
4601 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
4602 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
4603 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
4604 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
4605 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
4606 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
4607 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
4608 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
4609 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
4610
4611 * New native configurations
4612
4613 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
4614 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4615 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
4616 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4617 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
4618
4619 * New debugging protocols
4620
4621 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
4622
4623 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
4624
4625 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
4626 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
4627 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
4628
4629 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4630
4631 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4632 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4633 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4634 permanently REMOVED.
4635
4636 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4637 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4638 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4639 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4640 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4641 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4642 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4643 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4644 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4645 sonymips mips-sony-*
4646 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4647
4648 * REMOVED configurations and files
4649
4650 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4651 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4652 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4653 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4654 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4655 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4656 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4657 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4658 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4659 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4660 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4661 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4662 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4663 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
4664 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4665 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4666 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4667
4668 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
4669
4670 * Objective-C
4671
4672 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
4673 integrated into GDB.
4674
4675 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
4676
4677 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
4678 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
4679 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
4680 backtraces.
4681
4682 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
4683 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
4684 DWARF 2 CFI support.
4685
4686 * Hosted file I/O.
4687
4688 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
4689 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
4690 remote protocol documentation for details.
4691
4692 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
4693
4694 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
4695 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
4696 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
4697 ppc32 on ppc64).
4698
4699 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
4700
4701 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
4702 per-thread variables.
4703
4704 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
4705
4706 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
4707 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
4708
4709 * Separate debug info.
4710
4711 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
4712 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
4713 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
4714 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
4715 and optional debug files.
4716
4717 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4718
4719 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
4720 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
4721 debugger.
4722
4723 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
4724 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
4725
4726 * Java
4727
4728 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
4729 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
4730 considered "useable".
4731
4732 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
4733
4734 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
4735 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
4736 kernel.
4737
4738 * GDB supports logging output to a file
4739
4740 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4741 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
4742
4743 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4744
4745 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4746 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4747 command.
4748
4749 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
4750
4751 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4752 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4753
4754 * Profiling support
4755
4756 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4757 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4758 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4759 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4760 data, for more informative profiling results.
4761
4762 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4763
4764 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4765 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
4766 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
4767
4768 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4769 removed.
4770
4771 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4772 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4773 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4774 in a subsequent -var-update.
4775
4776 * New native configurations.
4777
4778 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4779
4780 * Multi-arched targets.
4781
4782 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
4783 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4784
4785 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4786
4787 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4788 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4789 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4790 permanently REMOVED.
4791
4792 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4793 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4794 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4795 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4796 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4797 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4798 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4799 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4800 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4801 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4802 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4803 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4804
4805 * REMOVED configurations and files
4806
4807 V850EA ISA
4808 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4809 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4810 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4811 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4812 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4813 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4814 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4815 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4816 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4817 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4818 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4819 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4820 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4821
4822 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
4823
4824 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
4825 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
4826 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
4827 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
4828 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
4829
4830 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
4831
4832 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
4833
4834 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
4835 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
4836 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
4837 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
4838 shared libs like mad''.
4839
4840 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
4841
4842 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
4843 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
4844 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
4845 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
4846
4847 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
4848
4849 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
4850 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
4851 they expand.
4852
4853 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
4854 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
4855
4856 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
4857 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
4858
4859 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
4860 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
4861 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
4862 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
4863
4864 * Multi-arched targets.
4865
4866 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
4867 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
4868 NEC V850 v850-*-*
4869 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
4870 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
4871 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4872
4873 * New targets.
4874
4875 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
4876
4877
4878 * New native configurations
4879
4880 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
4881 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
4882 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
4883 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
4884
4885 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4886
4887 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4888 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4889 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4890 permanently REMOVED.
4891
4892 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4893 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4894 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4895 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4896 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4897 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4898 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4899 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4900 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4901 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4902 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4903 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4904 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4905
4906 * OBSOLETE languages
4907
4908 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
4909
4910 * REMOVED configurations and files
4911
4912 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4913 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4914 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4915 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4916 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4917
4918 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4919
4920 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
4921
4922 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
4923 commands. The default is 1024.
4924
4925 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
4926
4927 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
4928
4929 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
4930
4931 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
4932 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
4933 from a file into memory (restore).
4934
4935 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
4936
4937 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
4938 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
4939 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
4940
4941 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
4942
4943 * New targets.
4944
4945 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
4946
4947 * Bug fixes
4948
4949 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
4950 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
4951 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
4952
4953 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
4954 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
4955 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
4956
4957 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
4958 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
4959 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
4960
4961 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
4962 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
4963 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
4964
4965 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
4966
4967 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
4968
4969 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
4970 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
4971 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
4972 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
4973 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
4974 (notably embedded) targets.
4975
4976 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
4977
4978 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
4979 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
4980 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
4981 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
4982
4983 * New command line option
4984
4985 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
4986
4987 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4988
4989 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
4990 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
4991 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
4992 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
4993 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
4994 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
4995 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
4996 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
4997 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
4998 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
4999
5000 * Changes in ARM configurations.
5001
5002 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5003 configuration is fully multi-arch.
5004
5005 * New native configurations
5006
5007 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5008 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5009 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5010 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5011
5012 * New targets
5013
5014 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5015
5016 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5017
5018 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5019 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5020 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5021 permanently REMOVED.
5022
5023 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5024 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5025 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5026 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5027 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5028
5029 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5030
5031 * REMOVED configurations and files
5032
5033 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5034 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5035 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5036 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5037 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5038 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5039 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5040 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5041 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5042 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5043 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5044 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5045 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5046
5047 * Changes to command line processing
5048
5049 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5050 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5051
5052 * Changes to key bindings
5053
5054 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5055
5056 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5057
5058 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5059
5060 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5061 corrupted.
5062
5063 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5064
5065 Numerous documentation fixes.
5066
5067 Numerous testsuite fixes.
5068
5069 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5070
5071 * New native configurations
5072
5073 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5074 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5075 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5076 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5077 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5078 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5079
5080 * New targets
5081
5082 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5083 CRIS cris-axis
5084 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5085
5086 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5087
5088 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5089 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5090 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5091 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5092 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5093 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5094 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5095 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5096 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5097 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5098 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5099 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5100 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5101 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5102
5103 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5104 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5105
5106 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5107 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5108 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5109 permanently REMOVED.
5110
5111 * REMOVED configurations and files
5112
5113 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5114 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5115 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5116 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5117 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5118 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
5119
5120 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5121
5122 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5123 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5124 present.
5125
5126 * Other news:
5127
5128 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5129
5130 * The MI enabled by default.
5131
5132 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5133 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5134 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5135 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5136 which is now deprecated.
5137
5138 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5139
5140 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5141 main features are supported:
5142
5143 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5144
5145 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5146 extension;
5147
5148 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5149
5150 - a Pascal expression parser.
5151
5152 However, some important features are not yet supported.
5153
5154 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5155
5156 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5157
5158 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5159 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5160
5161 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5162
5163 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5164
5165 * Changes in completion.
5166
5167 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5168 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5169 users expect at the shell prompt.
5170
5171 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5172 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5173 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5174 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5175 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5176 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5177 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5178
5179 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5180
5181 * New platform-independent commands:
5182
5183 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5184 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5185 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5186
5187 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
5188
5189 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
5190 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
5191 many threads as your system allows you to have.
5192
5193 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
5194
5195 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
5196 multi-threaded programs though.
5197
5198 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
5199
5200 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
5201
5202 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
5203 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
5204 supported.)
5205
5206 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
5207
5208 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
5209 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
5210 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
5211 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
5212 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
5213 registers.
5214
5215 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
5216 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
5217 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
5218
5219 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
5220
5221 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
5222 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
5223
5224 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
5225 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
5226 IDT.
5227
5228 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
5229 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
5230 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
5231 a given linear address.
5232
5233 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
5234 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
5235 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
5236
5237 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
5238
5239 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
5240
5241 * Changes in documentation.
5242
5243 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
5244 Documentation License.
5245
5246 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5247 manual.
5248
5249 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
5250
5251 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5252 manual.
5253
5254 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
5255 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
5256 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
5257
5258 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
5259
5260 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
5261 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
5262 contents of this file.
5263
5264 * gdba.el deleted
5265
5266 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
5267
5268 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
5269
5270 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
5271
5272 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
5273 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
5274 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
5275 greater level of detail.
5276
5277 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
5278
5279 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
5280 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
5281 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
5282 written.
5283
5284 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
5285
5286 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
5287 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
5288 machines ``out of the box''.
5289
5290 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
5291 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
5292 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
5293 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
5294 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
5295
5296 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
5297 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
5298 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
5299 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
5300 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
5301
5302 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
5303 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
5304 also works.
5305
5306 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
5307 GDB.
5308
5309 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
5310 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
5311 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
5312 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
5313
5314 * New native configurations
5315
5316 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
5317 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5318
5319 * New targets
5320
5321 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
5322 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
5323 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
5324 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5325
5326 * OBSOLETE configurations
5327
5328 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5329 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5330 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5331 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5332 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5333
5334 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5335 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5336 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5337 be permanently REMOVED.
5338
5339 * Gould support removed
5340
5341 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
5342
5343 * New features for SVR4
5344
5345 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
5346 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
5347 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
5348
5349 * Many C++ enhancements
5350
5351 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
5352 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
5353
5354 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
5355
5356 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
5357 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
5358 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
5359 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
5360
5361 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
5362 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
5363
5364 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
5365
5366 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
5367 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
5368 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
5369
5370 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
5371 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
5372
5373 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
5374
5375 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
5376 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
5377 include ``set remote P-packet''.
5378
5379 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
5380
5381 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
5382 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
5383 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
5384
5385 * ``apropos'' command added.
5386
5387 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
5388 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
5389 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
5390
5391 * New MI interface
5392
5393 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
5394 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
5395 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
5396 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
5397 enabled by configuring with:
5398
5399 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
5400
5401 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
5402
5403 * New native configurations
5404
5405 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
5406 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
5407 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
5408
5409 * New targets
5410
5411 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5412 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
5413 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5414
5415 * OBSOLETE configurations
5416
5417 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
5418
5419 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5420 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5421 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5422 be permanently REMOVED.
5423
5424 * ANSI/ISO C
5425
5426 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
5427 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
5428 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
5429 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
5430 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
5431 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
5432 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
5433 already.
5434
5435 * Readline 2.2
5436
5437 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
5438
5439 * set extension-language
5440
5441 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
5442 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
5443 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
5444 set extension-language .c c++
5445 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
5446 and their associated languages.
5447
5448 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
5449
5450 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
5451 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
5452 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
5453
5454 set processor NAME
5455
5456 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
5457 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
5458
5459 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
5460 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
5461 403 IBM PowerPC 403
5462 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
5463 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
5464 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
5465 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
5466 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
5467 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
5468 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
5469 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
5470
5471 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
5472 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
5473 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
5474 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
5475
5476 * HP-UX support
5477
5478 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
5479 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
5480 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
5481 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
5482 for xdb and dbx commands.
5483
5484 * Catchpoints
5485
5486 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
5487 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
5488 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
5489
5490 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
5491 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
5492 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
5493
5494 * Debugging across forks
5495
5496 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
5497 in the inferior.
5498
5499 * TUI
5500
5501 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
5502 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
5503 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
5504
5505 * GDB remote protocol additions
5506
5507 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
5508 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
5509 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
5510 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
5511
5512 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
5513 full 64-bit address. The command
5514
5515 set remoteaddresssize 32
5516
5517 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
5518 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
5519 will be discarded.
5520
5521 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
5522 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
5523
5524 maint packet heythere
5525
5526 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
5527 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
5528 time.
5529
5530 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
5531 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
5532 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
5533
5534 * Tracing can collect general expressions
5535
5536 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
5537 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
5538 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
5539
5540 * mask-address variable for Mips
5541
5542 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
5543 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
5544 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
5545
5546 * Higher serial baud rates
5547
5548 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
5549 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
5550 to achieve all of these rates.)
5551
5552 * i960 simulator
5553
5554 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
5555 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
5556
5557
5558 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
5559
5560 * New native configurations
5561
5562 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
5563 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
5564 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5565 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5566 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5567 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
5568 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
5569
5570 * New targets
5571
5572 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5573 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
5574 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5575 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
5576 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
5577 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
5578 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
5579 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
5580 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5581 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5582 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
5583
5584 * New debugging protocols
5585
5586 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
5587 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
5588 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
5589 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5590 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5591 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5592
5593 * DWARF 2
5594
5595 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
5596 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
5597 information.
5598
5599 * Java frontend
5600
5601 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
5602 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
5603
5604 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
5605
5606 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
5607 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
5608 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
5609
5610 * Live range splitting
5611
5612 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
5613 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
5614 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
5615
5616 * Hurd support
5617
5618 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
5619 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
5620
5621 * ARM Thumb support
5622
5623 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
5624 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
5625 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
5626 accordingly.
5627
5628 * MIPS16 support
5629
5630 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
5631 instruction set.
5632
5633 * Overlay support
5634
5635 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
5636 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
5637 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
5638 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
5639 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
5640 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
5641
5642 * info symbol
5643
5644 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
5645 the symbol at the specified address.
5646
5647 * Trace support
5648
5649 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
5650 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
5651 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
5652 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
5653 file tracepoint.c for more details.
5654
5655 * MIPS simulator
5656
5657 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
5658 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
5659 of most MIPS variants.
5660
5661 * Sparc simulator
5662
5663 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
5664 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
5665 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
5666
5667 * set architecture
5668
5669 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
5670 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
5671 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
5672 the possible architectures.
5673
5674 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
5675
5676 * New native configurations
5677
5678 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
5679 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
5680 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
5681 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
5682 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5683 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
5684
5685 * New targets
5686
5687 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
5688 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5689 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
5690 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
5691 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
5692 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
5693 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5694
5695 * PowerPC simulator
5696
5697 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
5698 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
5699 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
5700 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
5701 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
5702
5703 * Solaris 2.5
5704
5705 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
5706
5707 * Windows 95/NT native
5708
5709 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
5710 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
5711 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
5712 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
5713 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
5714
5715 * dont-repeat command
5716
5717 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
5718 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
5719 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
5720 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
5721
5722 * Send break instead of ^C
5723
5724 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
5725 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
5726 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
5727
5728 * Remote protocol timeout
5729
5730 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
5731 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
5732 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
5733
5734 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
5735
5736 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
5737 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
5738 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
5739 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
5740 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5741
5742 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5743 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5744 automatically on hpux10.
5745
5746 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5747
5748 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5749
5750 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5751
5752 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5753 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5754 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5755 every character. The default value is 1050.
5756
5757 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5758
5759 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5760 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5761 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5762 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5763 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5764 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5765
5766 * Speedups for remote debugging
5767
5768 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5769 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5770 and more efficient S-record downloading.
5771
5772 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5773
5774 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5775 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5776
5777 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
5778
5779 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
5780
5781 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
5782 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
5783
5784 * Remote targets use caching
5785
5786 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
5787 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
5788 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
5789 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
5790 off' turns the the data cache off.
5791
5792 * Remote targets may have threads
5793
5794 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
5795 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
5796 gdb/remote.c for details.
5797
5798 * NetROM support
5799
5800 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
5801 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
5802 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
5803 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
5804 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
5805 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
5806 sequence is something like
5807
5808 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
5809 load <prog>
5810 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
5811
5812 * Macintosh host
5813
5814 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
5815 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
5816 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
5817 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
5818 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
5819 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
5820 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
5821 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
5822
5823 * Autoconf
5824
5825 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
5826 but does simplify configuration and building.
5827
5828 * hpux10
5829
5830 GDB now supports hpux10.
5831
5832 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
5833
5834 * New native configurations
5835
5836 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
5837 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
5838 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
5839 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
5840
5841 * New targets
5842
5843 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5844 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
5845 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
5846 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
5847 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5848
5849 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
5850
5851 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
5852 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
5853 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
5854 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
5855 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
5856
5857 * Arguments to user-defined commands
5858
5859 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
5860 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
5861 trivial example:
5862 define adder
5863 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
5864
5865 To execute the command use:
5866 adder 1 2 3
5867
5868 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
5869 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
5870 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
5871
5872 * New `if' and `while' commands
5873
5874 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
5875 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
5876 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
5877 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
5878 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
5879 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
5880 if the expression is zero.
5881
5882 * Fortran source language mode
5883
5884 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
5885 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
5886 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
5887 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
5888 Fortran compilers.
5889
5890 * Better HPUX support
5891
5892 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
5893 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
5894 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
5895 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
5896 that behavior do the following before running the program:
5897
5898 adb -w a.out
5899 __dld_flags?W 0x5
5900 control-d
5901
5902 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
5903 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
5904
5905 adb -w a.out
5906 __dld_flags?W 0x4
5907 control-d
5908
5909 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
5910 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
5911 external linkage.
5912
5913 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
5914 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
5915
5916 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
5917
5918 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
5919 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
5920 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
5921 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
5922 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
5923 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
5924
5925 * New DOS host serial code
5926
5927 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
5928 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
5929 a PC's serial port.
5930
5931 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
5932
5933 * New "complete" command
5934
5935 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
5936 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
5937
5938 * Trailing space optional in prompt
5939
5940 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
5941 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
5942
5943 * Breakpoint hit counts
5944
5945 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
5946 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
5947 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
5948 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
5949 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
5950 that breakpoint.
5951
5952 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
5953
5954 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
5955 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
5956 arrays actually contain only short strings.
5957
5958 * Shared library breakpoints
5959
5960 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
5961 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
5962
5963 * Hardware watchpoints
5964
5965 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
5966 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
5967
5968 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
5969
5970 * Annotations
5971
5972 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
5973 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
5974
5975 * Improved Irix 5 support
5976
5977 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
5978
5979 * Improved HPPA support
5980
5981 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
5982
5983 * New native configurations
5984
5985 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
5986 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5987 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
5988 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
5989
5990 * New targets
5991
5992 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5993 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
5994 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
5995
5996 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
5997
5998 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
5999 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6000
6001 * Fixes
6002
6003 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6004 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6005
6006 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6007
6008 * Irix 5 is now supported
6009
6010 * HPPA support
6011
6012 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6013 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6014 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6015 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6016 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6017
6018
6019 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6020
6021 * User visible changes:
6022
6023 * Remote Debugging
6024
6025 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6026 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6027 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6028 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6029 debugging info for the mips target).
6030
6031 * DEC Alpha native support
6032
6033 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6034 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6035 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6036 Alpha-specific notes.
6037
6038 * Preliminary thread implementation
6039
6040 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6041
6042 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
6043
6044 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6045 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6046 for details).
6047
6048 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6049
6050 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6051 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6052 call methods, ...etc.
6053
6054 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6055
6056 * User visible changes:
6057
6058 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6059 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6060 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6061 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6062
6063 Filename completion now works.
6064
6065 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6066 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6067 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6068
6069 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6070 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6071 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6072 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6073 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6074
6075 * DEC alpha support
6076
6077 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6078 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6079
6080
6081 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6082
6083 * Testsuite
6084
6085 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6086 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6087 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6088
6089 * C++ demangling
6090
6091 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6092 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6093 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6094 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6095 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6096
6097 * Simulators
6098
6099 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6100 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6101 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6102
6103 * New targets supported
6104
6105 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6106 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6107 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6108 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6109 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6110
6111 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6112 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6113 GO32 memory extender.
6114
6115 * New remote protocols
6116
6117 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6118
6119 * New source languages supported
6120
6121 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6122 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6123 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6124
6125
6126 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6127
6128 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6129
6130 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6131 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6132 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6133 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6134 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6135 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6136
6137 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6138
6139 * Faster and better demangling
6140
6141 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6142 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6143 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6144 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6145 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6146 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6147 symbol lookups.
6148
6149 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6150 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6151 compiler does not actually implement.
6152
6153 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6154
6155 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6156 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6157 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6158 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6159 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6160 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6161 fix.
6162
6163 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6164 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6165
6166 * Improved configure script
6167
6168 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6169 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6170 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6171 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6172
6173 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6174 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6175 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6176 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6177 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6178 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6179
6180 * Documentation improvements
6181
6182 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6183 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6184 before submitting changes.
6185
6186 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
6187 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
6188 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
6189 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
6190 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
6191
6192 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
6193 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
6194 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
6195 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
6196 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
6197 around this problem.
6198
6199 * New features
6200
6201 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
6202 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
6203 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
6204 the target program.
6205
6206 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
6207 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
6208
6209 * New native hosts supported
6210
6211 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
6212 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
6213
6214 * New targets supported
6215
6216 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
6217
6218 * New file formats supported
6219
6220 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
6221 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
6222
6223 * Major bug fixes
6224
6225 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
6226
6227 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
6228 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
6229
6230 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
6231 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
6232 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
6233
6234 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
6235 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
6236
6237 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
6238 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
6239 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
6240 libraries.
6241
6242 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
6243 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
6244 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
6245 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
6246 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
6247
6248 * Internal improvements
6249
6250 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
6251 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
6252
6253 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
6254 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
6255 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
6256 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
6257 shared code that handles any of them.
6258
6259 * New command line options
6260
6261 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
6262
6263 * Mmalloc licensing
6264
6265 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
6266 General Public License.
6267
6268 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
6269
6270 * Host/native/target split
6271
6272 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
6273 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
6274 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
6275 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
6276 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
6277
6278 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
6279 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
6280 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
6281 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
6282 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
6283 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
6284 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
6285
6286 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
6287 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
6288 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
6289
6290 * New hosts supported
6291
6292 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
6293 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6294 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
6295
6296 * New targets supported
6297
6298 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6299 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
6300
6301 * New native hosts supported
6302
6303 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6304 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
6305 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
6306
6307 * New file formats supported
6308
6309 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
6310 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
6311 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
6312
6313 * New commands
6314
6315 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
6316 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
6317 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
6318
6319 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
6320
6321 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
6322 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
6323 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
6324 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
6325
6326 * C++ improvements
6327
6328 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
6329 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
6330 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
6331
6332 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
6333
6334 * Major bug fixes
6335
6336 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
6337 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
6338 by the compiler.
6339
6340 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
6341 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
6342
6343 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
6344 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
6345 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
6346 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
6347 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
6348 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
6349
6350 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
6351 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
6352 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
6353 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
6354
6355 * AMD 29k support
6356
6357 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
6358 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
6359 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
6360 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
6361 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
6362
6363 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
6364 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
6365 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
6366 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
6367
6368 * Remote interfaces
6369
6370 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
6371 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
6372 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
6373 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
6374 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
6375 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
6376 each instruction being stepped through.
6377
6378 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
6379 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
6380
6381 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
6382 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
6383 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
6384 processor with a serial port.
6385
6386 * Configuration
6387
6388 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
6389 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
6390 supported, and what files each one uses.
6391
6392 * Library changes
6393
6394 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
6395 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
6396 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
6397 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
6398
6399 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
6400 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
6401 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
6402 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
6403
6404 * Documentation
6405
6406 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
6407 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
6408 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
6409 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
6410 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
6411 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
6412
6413 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
6414
6415
6416 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
6417
6418 * Better support for C++ function names
6419
6420 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
6421 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
6422 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
6423 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
6424 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
6425
6426 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
6427 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
6428 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
6429 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
6430 for the list of formats.
6431
6432 * G++ symbol mangling problem
6433
6434 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
6435 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
6436 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
6437 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
6438 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
6439 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
6440 this problem.)
6441
6442 * New 'maintenance' command
6443
6444 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
6445 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
6446 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
6447
6448 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
6449 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
6450 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
6451 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
6452 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
6453 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
6454
6455 The following commands are new:
6456
6457 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
6458 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
6459 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
6460
6461 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
6462
6463 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
6464 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
6465 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
6466 read after argv processing.
6467
6468 * New hosts supported
6469
6470 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
6471
6472 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
6473
6474 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
6475 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
6476 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
6477 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
6478 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
6479 It costs extra.
6480
6481 * New targets supported
6482
6483 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6484
6485 * More smarts about finding #include files
6486
6487 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
6488 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
6489 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
6490 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
6491 the one that contains your sources.
6492
6493 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
6494 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
6495 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
6496
6497 * Interesting infernals change
6498
6499 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
6500 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
6501 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
6502 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
6503
6504 * Bug fixes (of course!)
6505
6506 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
6507 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
6508 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
6509
6510 See the ChangeLog for details.
6511
6512 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
6513
6514 * New machines supported (host and target)
6515
6516 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
6517
6518 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6519
6520 * New malloc package
6521
6522 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
6523 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
6524 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
6525 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
6526 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
6527 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
6528
6529 * info proc
6530
6531 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
6532 'help info proc' for details.
6533
6534 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
6535
6536 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
6537 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
6538 possible.
6539
6540 * File name changes for MS-DOS
6541
6542 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
6543 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
6544 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
6545 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
6546 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
6547 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
6548
6549 * Cross byte order fixes
6550
6551 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
6552 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
6553
6554 * New -mapped and -readnow options
6555
6556 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
6557 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
6558 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
6559 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
6560 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
6561 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
6562 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
6563 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
6564 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
6565 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
6566
6567 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
6568 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
6569 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
6570 slower, but makes future operations faster.
6571
6572 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
6573 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
6574 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
6575 use is:
6576
6577 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
6578
6579 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
6580 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
6581 shared across multiple host platforms.
6582
6583 * longjmp() handling
6584
6585 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
6586 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
6587 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
6588 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
6589
6590 * Solaris 2.0
6591
6592 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
6593 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
6594 reading symbols.
6595
6596 * Bug fixes
6597
6598 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
6599 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
6600 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
6601
6602 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
6603
6604 * New machines supported (host and target)
6605
6606 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6607 (except core files)
6608 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
6609 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
6610
6611 * New machines supported (target)
6612
6613 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6614
6615 * C++ support
6616
6617 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
6618 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
6619 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
6620
6621 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
6622 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
6623 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
6624 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
6625 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
6626 released.
6627
6628 * New features for SVR4
6629
6630 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
6631 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
6632 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
6633
6634 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
6635 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
6636 it prints the address mappings of the process.
6637
6638 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
6639 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
6640
6641 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
6642
6643 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
6644 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
6645 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
6646 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
6647 same code linked statically.
6648
6649 * New Getopt
6650
6651 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
6652 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
6653 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
6654 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
6655 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
6656 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
6657
6658 * Bugs fixed
6659
6660 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6661 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6662 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6663
6664
6665 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
6666
6667 * New machines supported (host and target)
6668
6669 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
6670 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
6671 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6672
6673 * Almost SCO Unix support
6674
6675 We had hoped to support:
6676 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6677 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
6678 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
6679 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
6680
6681 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
6682
6683 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
6684 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
6685 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
6686 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
6687 reqired (if any).
6688
6689 * New Readline
6690
6691 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
6692 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
6693 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
6694
6695 * Bugs fixed
6696
6697 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6698 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6699 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6700
6701 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
6702
6703 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
6704 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
6705 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
6706
6707 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
6708 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
6709 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
6710 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
6711 version 2.
6712
6713 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
6714 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
6715 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
6716 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
6717 situation somewhat.
6718
6719 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
6720 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
6721 methods.
6722
6723 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
6724 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
6725 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
6726
6727
6728 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
6729
6730 * Improved configuration
6731
6732 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
6733 Porting BFD is simpler.
6734
6735 * Stepping improved
6736
6737 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
6738 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
6739 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
6740 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6741
6742 * Bug fixing
6743
6744 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6745
6746 * New host supported (not target)
6747
6748 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6749
6750
6751 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6752
6753 * Multiple source language support
6754
6755 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6756 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6757 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6758 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6759 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6760 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6761
6762 * GDB and Modula-2
6763
6764 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6765 currently under development at the State University of New York at
6766 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6767 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6768
6769 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6770 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6771 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6772
6773 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6774 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
6775
6776 * set write on/off
6777
6778 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
6779 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
6780 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
6781 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
6782 effect immediately.
6783
6784 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
6785
6786 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
6787 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
6788 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
6789 examining core files.
6790
6791 * set listsize
6792
6793 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
6794 The default is 10.
6795
6796 * New machines supported (host and target)
6797
6798 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6799 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
6800 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
6801
6802 * New hosts supported (not targets)
6803
6804 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
6805
6806 * New targets supported (not hosts)
6807
6808 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6809 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6810 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
6811
6812 * New remote interfaces
6813
6814 AMD 29000 Adapt
6815 AMD 29000 Minimon
6816
6817
6818 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
6819
6820 * New Facilities
6821
6822 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
6823
6824 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
6825 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
6826 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
6827 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
6828 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
6829 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
6830 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
6831 stub on the target system.
6832
6833 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
6834
6835 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
6836 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
6837 object file types such as a.out and coff.
6838
6839 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
6840 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
6841
6842
6843 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
6844
6845 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
6846 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
6847
6848 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
6849 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
6850 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
6851
6852 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
6853 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
6854 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
6855 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
6856
6857 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
6858 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
6859 it is already running. Default is ON.
6860
6861 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
6862 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
6863 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
6864 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
6865 Default is ON.
6866
6867 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
6868 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
6869 or the value of the environment variable
6870 GDBHISTFILE.
6871
6872 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
6873 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
6874 HISTSIZE.
6875
6876 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
6877 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
6878 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
6879
6880 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
6881 history expansion will be performed on
6882 command line input. The default is OFF.
6883
6884 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
6885 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
6886 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
6887
6888 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
6889 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
6890 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6891 variable TERM.
6892
6893 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
6894 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
6895 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6896 variable TERM.
6897
6898 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
6899 ``set width'' instead.
6900
6901 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
6902 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
6903 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
6904 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
6905
6906 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
6907 is OFF.
6908
6909 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
6910 "raw" form if off.
6911
6912 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
6913 like instructions.
6914
6915 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
6916
6917
6918 * Support for Epoch Environment.
6919
6920 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
6921 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
6922 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
6923 window.
6924
6925
6926 * Support for Shared Libraries
6927
6928 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
6929 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
6930 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
6931 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
6932 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
6933 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
6934 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
6935 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
6936
6937 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
6938 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
6939 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
6940
6941 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
6942
6943
6944 * Watchpoints
6945
6946 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
6947 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
6948 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
6949 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
6950 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
6951 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
6952
6953 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
6954
6955 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
6956
6957 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6958 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6959 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6960
6961
6962 * C++ multiple inheritance
6963
6964 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
6965 for C++ programs.
6966
6967 * C++ exception handling
6968
6969 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
6970 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
6971 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
6972 handler's context).
6973
6974 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
6975 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
6976 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
6977
6978 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
6979 current stack frame.
6980
6981
6982 * Minor command changes
6983
6984 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
6985 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
6986 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
6987
6988 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
6989 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
6990 frames without printing.
6991
6992 * New directory command
6993
6994 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
6995 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
6996 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
6997 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
6998 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
6999
7000 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7001
7002 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7003 for more details.
7004
7005 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7006 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7007 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7008 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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