1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
7 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
8 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
9 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
10 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
12 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
13 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
14 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
15 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
16 for tracepoint actions.
18 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
19 in hex as well as in symbolic form."
21 * Process record and replay
23 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
24 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
25 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
28 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
29 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
30 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
33 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
34 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
37 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
38 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
39 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
40 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
41 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
42 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
43 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
44 the installation instructions for more information.
46 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
47 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
48 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
49 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
51 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
52 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
54 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
55 now complete on file names.
57 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
58 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
59 For instance, consider:
61 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
62 # struct example variable;
65 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
66 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
68 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
69 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
71 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
72 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
75 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
76 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
77 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
79 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
80 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
81 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
82 and simulator targets may also provide them.
87 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
90 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
91 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
92 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
95 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
96 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
99 Obtains additional operating system information
103 Read or write additional signal information.
105 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
107 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
108 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
109 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
111 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
114 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
115 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
117 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
118 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
119 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
121 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
122 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
124 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
126 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
128 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
129 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
131 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
132 list of section offsets.
134 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
135 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
136 have also been fixed.
138 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
139 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
140 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
142 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
145 template<typename T> class C { };
148 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
150 ptype C<char const *>
152 ptype C<const char *>
155 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
157 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
158 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
160 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
161 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
162 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
164 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
165 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
167 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
170 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
171 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
173 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
174 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
179 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
180 available is determined at configure time.
182 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
184 * Ada tasking support
186 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
190 Print the list of Ada tasks.
192 Print detailed information about task number N.
194 Print the task number of the current task.
196 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
198 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
199 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
201 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
203 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
204 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
205 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
206 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
207 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
208 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
211 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
212 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
215 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
216 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
217 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
218 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
221 * Multi-architecture debugging.
223 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
224 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
225 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
226 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
227 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
229 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
230 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
231 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
232 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
233 --enable-targets configure option.
235 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
237 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
238 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
239 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
240 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
241 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
242 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
243 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
244 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
245 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
247 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
249 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
251 maint set python print-stack
252 maint show python print-stack
253 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
256 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
261 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
265 Show operating system information about processes.
268 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
271 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
274 Detach from inferior number NUM.
277 Kill inferior number NUM.
282 show spu stop-on-load
283 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
285 set spu auto-flush-cache
286 show spu auto-flush-cache
287 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
288 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
290 set sh calling-convention
291 show sh calling-convention
292 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
296 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
298 set disassemble-next-line
299 show disassemble-next-line
300 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
303 set remote noack-packet
304 show remote noack-packet
305 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
306 under "New remote packets."
308 set remote query-attached-packet
309 show remote query-attached-packet
310 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
312 set remote read-siginfo-object
313 show remote read-siginfo-object
314 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
317 set remote write-siginfo-object
318 show remote write-siginfo-object
319 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
322 set remote reverse-continue
323 show remote reverse-continue
324 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
326 set remote reverse-step
327 show remote reverse-step
328 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
330 set displaced-stepping
331 show displaced-stepping
332 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
333 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
334 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
338 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
340 maint set internal-error
341 maint show internal-error
342 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
344 maint set internal-warning
345 maint show internal-warning
346 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
351 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
353 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
354 show multiple-symbols
355 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
356 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
357 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
359 set breakpoint always-inserted
360 show breakpoint always-inserted
361 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
362 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
363 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
365 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
366 show arm fallback-mode
367 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
369 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
370 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
371 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
372 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
374 set disable-randomization
375 show disable-randomization
376 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
377 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
378 multiple debugging sessions.
382 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
387 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
388 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
389 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
390 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
392 set target-wide-charset
393 show target-wide-charset
394 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
395 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
397 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
399 set tcp connect-timeout
400 show tcp connect-timeout
401 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
402 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
403 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
405 set libthread-db-search-path
406 show libthread-db-search-path
407 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
410 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
411 show schedule-multiple
412 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
417 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
418 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
419 affecting correctness.
421 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
422 show interactive-mode
423 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
424 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
425 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
426 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
427 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
432 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
433 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
434 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
438 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
439 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
440 alias for the `fork' command.
443 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
444 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
445 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
448 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
449 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
450 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
454 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
455 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
456 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
459 * New native configurations
461 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
463 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
467 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
468 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
469 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
472 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
473 (mingw32ce) debugging.
479 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
481 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
483 * New native configurations
485 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
486 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
490 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
491 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
493 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
495 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
496 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
497 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
498 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
500 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
501 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
503 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
506 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
507 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
508 and in inlined functions.
510 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
511 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
512 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
514 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
516 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
517 registers on PowerPC targets.
519 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
520 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
522 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
523 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
525 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
526 extended-remote mode.
528 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
529 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
530 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
531 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
533 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
534 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
535 target architectures.
537 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
538 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
539 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
540 stored in two consecutive float registers.
542 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
545 * Improved support for debugging Ada
546 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
548 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
549 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
550 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
551 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
553 - Improved command completion in Ada
556 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
561 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
562 show print frame-arguments
563 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
564 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
569 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
576 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
585 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
588 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
592 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
594 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
596 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
597 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
598 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
600 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
601 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
602 -Bsymbolic linker option.
604 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
605 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
608 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
609 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
611 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
612 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
614 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
616 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
617 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
618 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
620 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
621 automatically displayed as character or string data.
623 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
624 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
627 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
628 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
629 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
631 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
634 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
635 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
636 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
638 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
640 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
642 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
643 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
644 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
646 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
647 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
649 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
650 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
651 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
652 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
653 Windows and SymbianOS).
655 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
656 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
658 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
659 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
665 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
666 when debugging using remote targets.
668 set mem inaccessible-by-default
669 show mem inaccessible-by-default
670 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
671 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
672 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
673 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
674 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
676 set breakpoint auto-hw
677 show breakpoint auto-hw
678 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
679 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
680 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
681 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
682 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
683 including "next" and "finish".
686 catch exception unhandled
687 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
690 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
694 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
695 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
696 an alias to "set sysroot".
699 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
700 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
703 * New native configurations
705 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
710 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
711 not query the target for its built-in description.
715 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
716 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
717 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
722 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
723 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
726 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
731 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
732 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
734 qXfer:libraries:read:
735 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
736 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
737 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
738 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
742 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
751 i[34567]86-*-netware*
752 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
753 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
755 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
758 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
759 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
768 * Other removed features
775 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
782 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
787 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
788 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
793 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
794 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
796 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
798 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
799 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
800 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
801 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
805 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
806 in debugging information.
810 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
811 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
813 set mips stack-arg-size
814 set mips saved-gpreg-size
816 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
818 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
823 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
825 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
826 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
827 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
829 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
830 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
833 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
834 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
836 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
837 stub provides the required support.
839 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
840 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
845 unset substitute-path
847 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
848 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
849 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
850 between compilation and debugging.
854 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
855 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
856 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
860 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
862 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
863 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
865 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
870 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
871 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
872 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
873 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
877 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
878 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
880 qXfer:memory-map:read:
881 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
882 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
887 Erase and program a flash memory device.
889 * Removed remote packets
892 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
893 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
895 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
899 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
901 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
905 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
906 only if it doesn't already have a value.
908 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
910 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
912 restart <n> Return the program state to a
913 previously saved state.
915 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
917 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
919 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
920 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
922 info forks List forks of the user program that
923 are available to be debugged.
925 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
926 forks of the user program that are
927 available to be debugged.
929 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
930 that are available to be debugged (and
931 kill the forked process).
933 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
934 that are available to be debugged (and
935 allow the process to continue).
939 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
941 * Improved Windows host support
943 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
944 native console support, and remote communications using either
945 network sockets or serial ports.
947 * Improved Modula-2 language support
949 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
950 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
951 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
952 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
953 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
954 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
958 The ARM rdi-share module.
960 The Netware NLM debug server.
962 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
964 * New native configurations
966 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
967 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
971 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
973 * New command line options
975 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
976 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
977 the child (debugged) program exited with.
978 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
979 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
980 specified multiple times and in conjunction
981 with the --command (-x) option.
983 * Deprecated commands removed
985 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
989 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
990 othernames set arm disassembler
991 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
992 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
993 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
996 * New BSD user-level threads support
998 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
999 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1002 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1003 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1004 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1006 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1007 are not yet supported.
1009 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1010 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1012 * REMOVED configurations and files
1014 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1015 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1016 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1018 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1020 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1021 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1024 * VAX floating point support
1026 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1028 * User-defined command support
1030 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1031 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1032 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1034 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1036 * New command line option
1038 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1041 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1043 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1044 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1045 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1046 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1047 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1049 * Internationalization
1051 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1052 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1053 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1057 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1058 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1059 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1061 * New native configurations
1063 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1067 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1068 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1070 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1072 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1073 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1074 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1077 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1078 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1079 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1089 powerpc bdm protocol
1091 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1092 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1094 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1096 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1097 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1098 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1099 permanently REMOVED.
1108 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1110 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1112 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1113 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1116 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1118 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1119 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1120 IRIX long double values).
1124 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1125 command. This problem has been fixed.
1127 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1129 * Fix for ``many threads''
1131 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1132 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1135 ptrace: No such process.
1136 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1138 This problem has been fixed.
1140 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1142 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1145 * New ``start'' command.
1147 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1149 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1151 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1152 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1153 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1155 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1156 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1157 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1158 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1159 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1160 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1161 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1162 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1163 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1165 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1167 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1168 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1169 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1170 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1171 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1173 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1174 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1175 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1177 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1179 * New native configurations
1181 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1182 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1183 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1184 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1185 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1186 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1187 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1189 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1191 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1192 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1193 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1194 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1195 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1196 work, was also included.
1198 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1199 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1209 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1210 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1212 * REMOVED configurations and files
1214 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1215 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1216 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1217 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1218 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1219 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1220 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1221 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1222 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1223 sonymips mips-sony-*
1224 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1226 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1228 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1230 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1231 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1232 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1233 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1236 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1238 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1239 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1240 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1241 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1242 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1243 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1246 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1248 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1250 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1251 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1252 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1254 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1256 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1257 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1259 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1261 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1262 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1263 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1265 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1267 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1268 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1270 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1272 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1273 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1274 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1276 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1278 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1279 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1280 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1282 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1284 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1286 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1287 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1289 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1291 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1292 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1293 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1294 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1296 * Revised SPARC target
1298 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1299 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1300 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1301 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1302 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1306 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1307 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1308 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1311 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1313 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1314 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1317 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1319 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1320 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1321 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1322 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1323 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1324 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1325 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1326 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1327 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1329 * New native configurations
1331 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1332 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1333 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1334 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1335 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1337 * New debugging protocols
1339 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1341 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1343 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1344 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1345 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1347 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1349 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1350 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1351 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1352 permanently REMOVED.
1354 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1355 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1356 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1357 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1358 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1359 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1360 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1361 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1362 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1363 sonymips mips-sony-*
1364 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1366 * REMOVED configurations and files
1368 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1369 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1370 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1371 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1372 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1373 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1374 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1375 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1376 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1377 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1378 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1379 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1380 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1381 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1382 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1383 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1384 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1386 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1390 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1391 integrated into GDB.
1393 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1395 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1396 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1397 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1400 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1401 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1402 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1406 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1407 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1408 remote protocol documentation for details.
1410 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1412 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1413 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1414 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1417 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1419 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1420 per-thread variables.
1422 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1424 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1425 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1427 * Separate debug info.
1429 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1430 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1431 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1432 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1433 and optional debug files.
1435 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1437 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1438 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1441 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1442 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1446 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1447 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1448 considered "useable".
1450 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1452 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1453 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1456 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1458 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1459 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1461 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1463 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1464 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1467 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1469 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1470 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1474 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1475 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1476 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1477 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1478 data, for more informative profiling results.
1480 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1482 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1483 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1484 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1486 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1489 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1490 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1491 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1492 in a subsequent -var-update.
1494 * New native configurations.
1496 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1498 * Multi-arched targets.
1500 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1501 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1503 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1505 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1506 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1507 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1508 permanently REMOVED.
1510 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1511 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1512 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1513 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1514 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1515 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1516 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1517 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1518 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1519 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1520 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1521 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1523 * REMOVED configurations and files
1526 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1527 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1528 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1529 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1530 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1531 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1533 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1534 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1535 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1536 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1537 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1538 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1540 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1542 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1543 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1544 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1545 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1546 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1548 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1550 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1552 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1553 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1554 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1555 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1556 shared libs like mad''.
1558 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1560 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1561 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1562 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1563 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1565 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1567 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1568 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1571 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1572 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1574 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1575 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1577 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1578 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1579 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1580 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1582 * Multi-arched targets.
1584 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1585 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1587 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1588 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1589 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1593 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1596 * New native configurations
1598 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1599 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1600 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1601 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1603 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1605 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1606 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1607 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1608 permanently REMOVED.
1610 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1611 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1612 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1613 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1614 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1615 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1616 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1617 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1618 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1619 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1621 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1622 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1624 * OBSOLETE languages
1626 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1628 * REMOVED configurations and files
1630 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1631 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1632 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1633 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1634 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1636 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1638 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1640 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1641 commands. The default is 1024.
1643 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1645 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1647 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1649 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1650 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1651 from a file into memory (restore).
1653 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1655 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1656 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1657 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1659 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1667 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1668 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1669 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1671 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1672 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1673 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1675 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1676 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1677 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1679 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1680 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1681 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1683 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1685 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1687 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1688 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1689 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1690 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1691 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1692 (notably embedded) targets.
1694 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1696 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1697 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1698 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1699 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1701 * New command line option
1703 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1705 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1707 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1708 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1709 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1710 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1711 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1712 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1713 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1714 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1715 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1716 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1718 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1720 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1721 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1723 * New native configurations
1725 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1726 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1727 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1728 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1732 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1734 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1736 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1737 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1738 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1739 permanently REMOVED.
1741 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1742 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1743 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1744 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1745 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1747 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1749 * REMOVED configurations and files
1751 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1753 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1754 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1755 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1756 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1757 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1758 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1759 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1760 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1761 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1762 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1763 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1765 * Changes to command line processing
1767 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1768 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1770 * Changes to key bindings
1772 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1774 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1776 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1778 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1781 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1783 Numerous documentation fixes.
1785 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1787 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1789 * New native configurations
1791 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1792 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1793 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1794 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1795 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1796 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1800 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1802 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1804 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1806 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1807 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1808 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1809 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1810 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1812 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1813 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1814 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1815 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1816 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1817 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1818 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1819 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1821 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1822 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1824 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1825 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1826 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1827 permanently REMOVED.
1829 * REMOVED configurations and files
1831 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1832 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1834 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1838 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1840 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1841 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1846 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1848 * The MI enabled by default.
1850 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1851 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1852 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1853 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1854 which is now deprecated.
1856 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1858 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1859 main features are supported:
1861 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1863 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1866 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1868 - a Pascal expression parser.
1870 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1872 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1874 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1876 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1877 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1879 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1881 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1883 * Changes in completion.
1885 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1886 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1887 users expect at the shell prompt.
1889 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1890 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1891 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1892 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1893 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1894 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1895 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1897 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1899 * New platform-independent commands:
1901 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1902 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1903 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1905 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1907 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1908 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1909 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1911 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1913 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1914 multi-threaded programs though.
1916 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1918 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1920 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1921 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1924 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1926 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1927 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1928 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1929 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1930 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1933 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1934 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1935 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1937 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1939 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1940 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1942 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1943 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1946 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1947 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1948 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1949 a given linear address.
1951 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1952 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1953 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1955 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1957 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1959 * Changes in documentation.
1961 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1962 Documentation License.
1964 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1967 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1969 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1972 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1973 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1974 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1976 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1978 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1979 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1980 contents of this file.
1984 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1986 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1988 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1990 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1991 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1992 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1993 greater level of detail.
1995 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1997 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1998 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1999 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2002 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2004 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2005 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2006 machines ``out of the box''.
2008 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2009 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2010 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2011 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2012 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2014 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2015 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2016 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2017 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2018 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2020 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2021 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2024 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2027 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2028 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2029 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2030 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2032 * New native configurations
2034 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2035 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2039 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2040 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2041 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2042 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2044 * OBSOLETE configurations
2046 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2047 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2049 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2052 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2053 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2054 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2055 be permanently REMOVED.
2057 * Gould support removed
2059 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2061 * New features for SVR4
2063 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2064 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2065 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2067 * Many C++ enhancements
2069 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2070 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2072 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2074 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2075 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2076 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2077 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2079 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2080 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2082 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2084 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2085 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2086 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2088 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2089 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2091 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2093 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2094 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2095 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2097 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2099 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2100 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2101 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2103 * ``apropos'' command added.
2105 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2106 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2107 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2111 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2112 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2113 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2114 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2115 enabled by configuring with:
2117 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2119 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2121 * New native configurations
2123 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2124 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2125 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2129 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2130 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2131 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2133 * OBSOLETE configurations
2135 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2137 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2138 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2139 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2140 be permanently REMOVED.
2144 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2145 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2146 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2147 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2148 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2149 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2150 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2155 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2157 * set extension-language
2159 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2160 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2161 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2162 set extension-language .c c++
2163 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2164 and their associated languages.
2166 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2168 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2169 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2170 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2174 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2175 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2177 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2178 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2180 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2181 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2182 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2183 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2184 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2185 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2186 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2187 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2189 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2190 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2191 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2192 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2196 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2197 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2198 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2199 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2200 for xdb and dbx commands.
2204 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2205 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2206 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2208 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2209 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2210 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2212 * Debugging across forks
2214 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2219 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2220 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2221 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2223 * GDB remote protocol additions
2225 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2226 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2227 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2228 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2230 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2231 full 64-bit address. The command
2233 set remoteaddresssize 32
2235 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2236 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2239 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2240 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2242 maint packet heythere
2244 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2245 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2248 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2249 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2250 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2252 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2254 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2255 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2256 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2258 * mask-address variable for Mips
2260 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2261 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2262 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2264 * Higher serial baud rates
2266 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2267 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2268 to achieve all of these rates.)
2272 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2273 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2276 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2278 * New native configurations
2280 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2281 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2282 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2283 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2284 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2285 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2286 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2290 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2291 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2292 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2293 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2294 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2295 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2296 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2297 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2298 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2299 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2300 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2302 * New debugging protocols
2304 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2305 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2306 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2307 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2308 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2309 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2313 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2314 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2319 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2320 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2322 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2324 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2325 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2326 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2328 * Live range splitting
2330 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2331 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2332 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2336 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2337 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2341 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2342 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2343 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2348 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2353 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2354 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2355 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2356 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2357 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2358 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2362 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2363 the symbol at the specified address.
2367 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2368 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2369 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2370 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2371 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2375 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2376 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2377 of most MIPS variants.
2381 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2382 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2383 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2387 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2388 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2389 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2390 the possible architectures.
2392 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2394 * New native configurations
2396 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2397 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2398 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2399 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2400 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2401 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2405 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2406 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2407 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2408 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2409 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2411 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2415 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2416 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2417 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2418 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2419 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2423 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2425 * Windows 95/NT native
2427 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2428 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2429 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2430 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2431 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2433 * dont-repeat command
2435 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2436 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2437 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2438 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2440 * Send break instead of ^C
2442 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2443 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2444 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2446 * Remote protocol timeout
2448 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2449 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2450 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2452 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2454 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2455 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2456 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2457 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2458 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2460 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2461 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2462 automatically on hpux10.
2464 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2466 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2468 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2470 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2471 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2472 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2473 every character. The default value is 1050.
2475 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2477 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2478 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2479 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2480 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2481 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2482 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2484 * Speedups for remote debugging
2486 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2487 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2488 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2490 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2492 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2493 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2495 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2497 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2499 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2500 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2502 * Remote targets use caching
2504 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2505 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2506 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2507 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2508 off' turns the the data cache off.
2510 * Remote targets may have threads
2512 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2513 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2514 gdb/remote.c for details.
2518 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2519 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2520 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2521 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2522 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2523 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2524 sequence is something like
2526 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2528 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2532 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2533 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2534 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2535 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2536 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2537 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2538 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2539 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2543 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2544 but does simplify configuration and building.
2548 GDB now supports hpux10.
2550 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2552 * New native configurations
2554 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2555 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2556 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2557 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2561 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2562 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2563 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2564 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2567 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2569 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2570 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2571 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2572 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2573 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2575 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2577 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2578 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2581 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2583 To execute the command use:
2586 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2587 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2588 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2590 * New `if' and `while' commands
2592 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2593 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2594 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2595 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2596 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2597 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2598 if the expression is zero.
2600 * Fortran source language mode
2602 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2603 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2604 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2605 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2608 * Better HPUX support
2610 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2611 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2612 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2613 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2614 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2620 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2621 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2627 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2628 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2631 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2632 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2634 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2636 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2637 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2638 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2639 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2640 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2641 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2643 * New DOS host serial code
2645 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2646 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2649 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2651 * New "complete" command
2653 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2654 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2656 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2658 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2659 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2661 * Breakpoint hit counts
2663 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2664 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2665 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2666 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2667 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2670 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2672 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2673 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2674 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2676 * Shared library breakpoints
2678 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2679 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2681 * Hardware watchpoints
2683 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2684 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2686 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2690 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2691 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2693 * Improved Irix 5 support
2695 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2697 * Improved HPPA support
2699 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2701 * New native configurations
2703 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2704 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2705 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2706 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2710 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2711 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2714 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2716 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2717 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2721 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2722 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2724 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2726 * Irix 5 is now supported
2730 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2731 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2732 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2733 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2734 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2737 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2739 * User visible changes:
2743 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2744 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2745 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2746 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2747 debugging info for the mips target).
2749 * DEC Alpha native support
2751 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2752 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2753 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2754 Alpha-specific notes.
2756 * Preliminary thread implementation
2758 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2760 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2762 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2763 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2766 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2768 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2769 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2770 call methods, ...etc.
2772 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2774 * User visible changes:
2776 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2777 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2778 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2779 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2781 Filename completion now works.
2783 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2784 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2785 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2787 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2788 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2789 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2790 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2791 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2795 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2796 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2799 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2803 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2804 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2805 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2809 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2810 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2811 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2812 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2813 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2817 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2818 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2819 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2821 * New targets supported
2823 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2824 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2825 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2826 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2827 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2829 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2830 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2831 GO32 memory extender.
2833 * New remote protocols
2835 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2837 * New source languages supported
2839 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2840 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2841 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2844 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2846 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2848 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2849 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2850 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2851 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2852 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2853 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2855 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2857 * Faster and better demangling
2859 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2860 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2861 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2862 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2863 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2864 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2867 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2868 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2869 compiler does not actually implement.
2871 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2873 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2874 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2875 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2876 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2877 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2878 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2881 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2882 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2884 * Improved configure script
2886 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2887 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2888 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2889 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2891 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2892 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2893 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2894 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2895 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2896 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2898 * Documentation improvements
2900 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2901 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2902 before submitting changes.
2904 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2905 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2906 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2907 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2908 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2910 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2911 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2912 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2913 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2914 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2915 around this problem.
2919 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2920 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2921 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2924 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2925 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2927 * New native hosts supported
2929 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2930 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2932 * New targets supported
2934 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2936 * New file formats supported
2938 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2939 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2943 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2945 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2946 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2948 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2949 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2950 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2952 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2953 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2955 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2956 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2957 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2960 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2961 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2962 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2963 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2964 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2966 * Internal improvements
2968 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2969 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2971 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2972 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2973 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2974 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2975 shared code that handles any of them.
2977 * New command line options
2979 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2983 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2984 General Public License.
2986 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2988 * Host/native/target split
2990 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2991 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2992 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2993 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2994 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2996 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2997 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2998 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2999 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3000 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3001 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3002 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3004 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3005 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3006 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3008 * New hosts supported
3010 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3011 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3012 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3014 * New targets supported
3016 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3017 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3019 * New native hosts supported
3021 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3022 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3023 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3025 * New file formats supported
3027 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3028 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3029 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3033 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3034 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3035 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3037 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3039 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3040 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3041 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3042 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3046 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3047 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3048 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3050 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3054 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3055 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3058 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3059 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3061 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3062 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3063 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3064 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3065 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3066 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3068 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3069 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3070 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3071 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3075 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3076 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3077 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3078 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3079 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3081 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3082 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3083 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3084 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3088 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3089 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3090 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3091 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3092 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3093 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3094 each instruction being stepped through.
3096 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3097 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3099 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3100 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3101 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3102 processor with a serial port.
3106 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3107 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3108 supported, and what files each one uses.
3112 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3113 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3114 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3115 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3117 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3118 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3119 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3120 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3124 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3125 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3126 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3127 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3128 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3129 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3131 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3134 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3136 * Better support for C++ function names
3138 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3139 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3140 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3141 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3142 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3144 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3145 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3146 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3147 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3148 for the list of formats.
3150 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3152 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3153 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3154 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3155 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3156 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3157 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3160 * New 'maintenance' command
3162 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3163 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3164 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3166 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3167 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3168 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3169 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3170 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3171 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3173 The following commands are new:
3175 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3176 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3177 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3179 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3181 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3182 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3183 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3184 read after argv processing.
3186 * New hosts supported
3188 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3190 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3192 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3193 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3194 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3195 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3196 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3199 * New targets supported
3201 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3203 * More smarts about finding #include files
3205 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3206 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3207 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3208 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3209 the one that contains your sources.
3211 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3212 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3213 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3215 * Interesting infernals change
3217 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3218 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3219 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3220 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3222 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3224 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3225 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3226 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3228 See the ChangeLog for details.
3230 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3232 * New machines supported (host and target)
3234 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3236 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3238 * New malloc package
3240 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3241 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3242 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3243 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3244 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3245 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3249 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3250 'help info proc' for details.
3252 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3254 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3255 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3258 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3260 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3261 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3262 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3263 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3264 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3265 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3267 * Cross byte order fixes
3269 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3270 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3272 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3274 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3275 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3276 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3277 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3278 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3279 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3280 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3281 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3282 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3283 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3285 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3286 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3287 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3288 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3290 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3291 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3292 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3295 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3297 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3298 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3299 shared across multiple host platforms.
3301 * longjmp() handling
3303 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3304 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3305 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3306 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3310 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3311 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3316 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3317 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3318 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3320 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3322 * New machines supported (host and target)
3324 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3326 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3327 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3329 * New machines supported (target)
3331 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3335 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3336 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3337 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3339 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3340 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3341 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3342 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3343 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3346 * New features for SVR4
3348 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3349 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3350 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3352 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3353 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3354 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3356 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3357 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3359 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3361 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3362 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3363 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3364 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3365 same code linked statically.
3369 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3370 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3371 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3372 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3373 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3374 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3378 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3379 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3380 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3383 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3385 * New machines supported (host and target)
3387 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3388 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3389 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3391 * Almost SCO Unix support
3393 We had hoped to support:
3394 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3395 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3396 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3397 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3399 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3401 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3402 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3403 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3404 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3409 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3410 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3411 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3415 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3416 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3417 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3419 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3421 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3422 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3423 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3425 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3426 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3427 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3428 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3431 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3432 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3433 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3434 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3437 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3438 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3441 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3442 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3443 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3446 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3448 * Improved configuration
3450 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3451 Porting BFD is simpler.
3455 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3456 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3457 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3458 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3462 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3464 * New host supported (not target)
3466 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3469 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3471 * Multiple source language support
3473 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3474 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3475 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3476 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3477 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3478 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3482 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3483 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3484 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3485 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3487 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3488 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3489 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3491 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3492 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3496 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3497 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3498 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3499 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3502 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3504 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3505 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3506 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3507 examining core files.
3511 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3514 * New machines supported (host and target)
3516 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3517 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3518 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3520 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3522 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3524 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3526 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3527 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3528 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3530 * New remote interfaces
3536 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3540 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3542 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3543 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3544 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3545 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3546 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3547 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3548 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3549 stub on the target system.
3551 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3553 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3554 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3555 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3557 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3558 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3561 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3563 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3564 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3566 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3567 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3568 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3570 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3571 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3572 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3573 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3575 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3576 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3577 it is already running. Default is ON.
3579 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3580 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3581 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3582 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3585 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3586 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3587 or the value of the environment variable
3590 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3591 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3594 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3595 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3596 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3598 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3599 history expansion will be performed on
3600 command line input. The default is OFF.
3602 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3603 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3604 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3606 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3607 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3608 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3611 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3612 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3613 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3616 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3617 ``set width'' instead.
3619 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3620 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3621 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3622 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3624 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3627 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3630 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3633 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3636 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3638 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3639 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3640 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3644 * Support for Shared Libraries
3646 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3647 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3648 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3649 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3650 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3651 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3652 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3653 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3655 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3656 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3657 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3659 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3664 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3665 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3666 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3667 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3668 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3669 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3671 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3673 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3675 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3676 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3677 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3680 * C++ multiple inheritance
3682 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3685 * C++ exception handling
3687 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3688 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3689 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3692 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3693 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3694 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3696 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3697 current stack frame.
3700 * Minor command changes
3702 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3703 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3704 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3706 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3707 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3708 frames without printing.
3710 * New directory command
3712 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3713 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3714 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3715 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3716 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3718 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3720 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3723 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3724 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3725 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3726 where the program that you are debugging will run.