1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.0:
6 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
8 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
9 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
10 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
12 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
14 * GDB supports logging output to a file
16 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
17 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
19 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
21 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
22 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
25 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
27 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
28 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
32 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
33 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
34 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
35 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
36 data, for more informative profiling results.
38 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
40 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
41 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
42 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
44 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
47 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
48 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
49 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
50 in a subsequent -var-update.
52 * New native configurations.
54 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
56 * Multi-arched targets.
58 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
59 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
61 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
63 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
64 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
65 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
68 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
69 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
70 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
71 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
72 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
73 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
74 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
75 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
76 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
77 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
78 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
79 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
81 * REMOVED configurations and files
84 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
85 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
86 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
87 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
88 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
89 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
91 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
92 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
93 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
94 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
95 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
96 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
98 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
100 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
101 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
102 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
103 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
104 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
106 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
108 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
110 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
111 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
112 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
113 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
114 shared libs like mad''.
116 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
118 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
119 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
120 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
121 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
123 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
125 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
126 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
129 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
130 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
132 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
133 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
135 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
136 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
137 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
138 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
140 * Multi-arched targets.
142 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
143 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
145 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
146 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
147 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
151 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
154 * New native configurations
156 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
157 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
158 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
159 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
161 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
163 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
164 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
165 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
168 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
169 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
170 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
171 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
172 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
173 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
174 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
175 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
176 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
177 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
179 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
180 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
184 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
186 * REMOVED configurations and files
188 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
189 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
190 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
191 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
192 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
194 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
196 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
198 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
199 commands. The default is 1024.
201 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
203 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
205 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
207 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
208 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
209 from a file into memory (restore).
211 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
213 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
214 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
215 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
217 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
225 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
226 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
227 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
229 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
230 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
231 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
233 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
234 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
235 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
237 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
238 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
239 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
241 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
243 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
245 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
246 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
247 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
248 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
249 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
250 (notably embedded) targets.
252 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
254 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
255 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
256 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
257 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
259 * New command line option
261 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
263 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
265 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
266 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
267 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
268 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
269 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
270 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
271 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
272 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
273 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
274 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
276 * Changes in ARM configurations.
278 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
279 configuration is fully multi-arch.
281 * New native configurations
283 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
284 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
285 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
286 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
290 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
292 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
294 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
295 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
296 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
299 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
300 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
301 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
302 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
303 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
305 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
307 * REMOVED configurations and files
309 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
311 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
312 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
313 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
314 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
315 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
316 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
317 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
318 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
319 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
320 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
321 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
323 * Changes to command line processing
325 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
326 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
328 * Changes to key bindings
330 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
332 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
334 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
336 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
339 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
341 Numerous documentation fixes.
343 Numerous testsuite fixes.
345 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
347 * New native configurations
349 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
350 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
351 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
352 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
354 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
358 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
360 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
362 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
364 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
365 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
366 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
367 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
368 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
370 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
371 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
372 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
373 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
374 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
375 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
376 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
377 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
379 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
380 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
382 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
383 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
384 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
387 * REMOVED configurations and files
389 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
390 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
392 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
396 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
398 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
399 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
404 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
406 * The MI enabled by default.
408 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
409 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
410 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
411 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
412 which is now deprecated.
414 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
416 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
417 main features are supported:
419 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
421 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
424 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
426 - a Pascal expression parser.
428 However, some important features are not yet supported.
430 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
432 - there are some problems with boolean types;
434 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
435 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
437 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
439 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
441 * Changes in completion.
443 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
444 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
445 users expect at the shell prompt.
447 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
448 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
449 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
450 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
451 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
452 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
453 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
455 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
457 * New platform-independent commands:
459 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
460 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
461 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
463 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
465 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
466 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
467 many threads as your system allows you to have.
469 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
471 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
472 multi-threaded programs though.
474 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
476 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
478 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
479 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
482 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
484 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
485 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
486 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
487 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
488 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
491 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
492 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
493 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
495 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
497 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
498 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
500 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
501 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
504 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
505 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
506 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
507 a given linear address.
509 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
510 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
511 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
513 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
515 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
517 * Changes in documentation.
519 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
520 Documentation License.
522 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
525 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
527 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
530 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
531 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
532 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
534 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
536 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
537 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
538 contents of this file.
542 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
544 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
546 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
548 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
549 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
550 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
551 greater level of detail.
553 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
555 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
556 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
557 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
560 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
562 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
563 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
564 machines ``out of the box''.
566 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
567 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
568 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
569 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
570 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
572 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
573 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
574 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
575 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
576 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
578 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
579 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
582 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
585 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
586 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
587 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
588 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
590 * New native configurations
592 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
593 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
597 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
598 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
599 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
600 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
602 * OBSOLETE configurations
604 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
605 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
607 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
610 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
611 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
612 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
613 be permanently REMOVED.
615 * Gould support removed
617 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
619 * New features for SVR4
621 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
622 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
623 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
625 * Many C++ enhancements
627 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
628 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
630 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
632 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
633 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
634 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
635 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
637 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
638 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
640 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
642 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
643 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
644 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
646 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
647 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
649 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
651 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
652 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
653 include ``set remote P-packet''.
655 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
657 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
658 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
659 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
661 * ``apropos'' command added.
663 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
664 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
665 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
669 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
670 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
671 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
672 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
673 enabled by configuring with:
675 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
677 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
679 * New native configurations
681 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
682 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
683 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
687 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
688 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
689 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
691 * OBSOLETE configurations
693 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
695 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
696 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
697 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
698 be permanently REMOVED.
702 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
703 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
704 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
705 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
706 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
707 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
708 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
713 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
715 * set extension-language
717 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
718 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
719 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
720 set extension-language .c c++
721 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
722 and their associated languages.
724 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
726 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
727 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
728 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
732 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
733 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
735 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
736 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
738 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
739 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
740 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
741 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
742 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
743 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
744 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
745 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
747 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
748 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
749 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
750 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
754 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
755 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
756 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
757 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
758 for xdb and dbx commands.
762 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
763 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
764 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
766 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
767 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
768 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
770 * Debugging across forks
772 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
777 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
778 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
779 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
781 * GDB remote protocol additions
783 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
784 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
785 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
786 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
788 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
789 full 64-bit address. The command
791 set remoteaddresssize 32
793 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
794 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
797 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
798 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
800 maint packet heythere
802 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
803 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
806 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
807 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
808 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
810 * Tracing can collect general expressions
812 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
813 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
814 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
816 * mask-address variable for Mips
818 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
819 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
820 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
822 * Higher serial baud rates
824 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
825 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
826 to achieve all of these rates.)
830 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
831 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
834 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
836 * New native configurations
838 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
839 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
840 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
841 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
842 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
843 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
844 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
848 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
849 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
850 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
851 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
852 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
853 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
854 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
855 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
856 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
857 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
858 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
860 * New debugging protocols
862 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
863 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
864 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
865 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
866 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
867 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
871 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
872 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
877 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
878 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
880 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
882 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
883 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
884 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
886 * Live range splitting
888 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
889 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
890 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
894 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
895 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
899 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
900 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
901 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
906 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
911 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
912 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
913 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
914 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
915 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
916 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
920 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
921 the symbol at the specified address.
925 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
926 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
927 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
928 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
929 file tracepoint.c for more details.
933 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
934 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
935 of most MIPS variants.
939 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
940 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
941 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
945 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
946 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
947 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
948 the possible architectures.
950 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
952 * New native configurations
954 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
955 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
956 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
957 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
958 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
959 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
963 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
964 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
965 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
966 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
967 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
969 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
973 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
974 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
975 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
976 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
977 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
981 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
983 * Windows 95/NT native
985 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
986 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
987 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
988 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
989 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
991 * dont-repeat command
993 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
994 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
995 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
996 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
998 * Send break instead of ^C
1000 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1001 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1002 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1004 * Remote protocol timeout
1006 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1007 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1008 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1010 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1012 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1013 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1014 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1015 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1016 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1018 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1019 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1020 automatically on hpux10.
1022 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1024 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1026 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1028 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1029 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1030 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1031 every character. The default value is 1050.
1033 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1035 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1036 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1037 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1038 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1039 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1040 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1042 * Speedups for remote debugging
1044 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1045 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1046 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1048 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1050 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1051 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1053 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1055 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1057 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1058 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1060 * Remote targets use caching
1062 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1063 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1064 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1065 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1066 off' turns the the data cache off.
1068 * Remote targets may have threads
1070 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1071 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1072 gdb/remote.c for details.
1076 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1077 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1078 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1079 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1080 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1081 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1082 sequence is something like
1084 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1086 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1090 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1091 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1092 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1093 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1094 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1095 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1096 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1097 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1101 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1102 but does simplify configuration and building.
1106 GDB now supports hpux10.
1108 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1110 * New native configurations
1112 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1113 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1114 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1115 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1119 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1120 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1121 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1122 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1125 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1127 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1128 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1129 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1130 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1131 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1133 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1135 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1136 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1139 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1141 To execute the command use:
1144 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1145 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1146 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1148 * New `if' and `while' commands
1150 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1151 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1152 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1153 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1154 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1155 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1156 if the expression is zero.
1158 * Fortran source language mode
1160 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1161 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1162 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1163 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1166 * Better HPUX support
1168 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1169 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1170 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1171 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1172 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1178 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1179 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1185 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1186 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1189 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1190 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1192 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1194 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1195 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1196 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1197 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1198 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1199 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1201 * New DOS host serial code
1203 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1204 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1207 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1209 * New "complete" command
1211 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1212 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1214 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1216 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1217 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1219 * Breakpoint hit counts
1221 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1222 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1223 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1224 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1225 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1228 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1230 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1231 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1232 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1234 * Shared library breakpoints
1236 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1237 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1239 * Hardware watchpoints
1241 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1242 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1244 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1248 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1249 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1251 * Improved Irix 5 support
1253 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1255 * Improved HPPA support
1257 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1259 * New native configurations
1261 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1262 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1263 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1264 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1268 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1269 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1272 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1274 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1275 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1279 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1280 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1282 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1284 * Irix 5 is now supported
1288 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1289 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1290 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1291 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1292 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1295 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1297 * User visible changes:
1301 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1302 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1303 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1304 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1305 debugging info for the mips target).
1307 * DEC Alpha native support
1309 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1310 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1311 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1312 Alpha-specific notes.
1314 * Preliminary thread implementation
1316 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1318 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1320 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1321 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1324 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1326 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1327 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1328 call methods, ...etc.
1330 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1332 * User visible changes:
1334 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1335 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1336 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1337 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1339 Filename completion now works.
1341 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1342 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1343 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1345 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1346 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1347 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1348 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1349 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1353 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1354 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1357 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1361 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1362 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1363 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1367 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1368 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1369 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1370 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1371 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1375 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1376 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1377 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1379 * New targets supported
1381 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1382 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1383 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1384 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1385 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1387 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1388 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1389 GO32 memory extender.
1391 * New remote protocols
1393 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1395 * New source languages supported
1397 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1398 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1399 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1402 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1404 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1406 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1407 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1408 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1409 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1410 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1411 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1413 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1415 * Faster and better demangling
1417 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1418 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1419 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1420 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1421 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1422 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1425 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1426 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1427 compiler does not actually implement.
1429 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1431 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1432 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1433 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1434 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1435 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1436 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1439 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1440 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1442 * Improved configure script
1444 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1445 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1446 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1447 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1449 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1450 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1451 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1452 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1453 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1454 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1456 * Documentation improvements
1458 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1459 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1460 before submitting changes.
1462 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1463 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1464 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1465 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1466 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1468 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1469 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1470 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1471 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1472 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1473 around this problem.
1477 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1478 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1479 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1482 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1483 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1485 * New native hosts supported
1487 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1488 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1490 * New targets supported
1492 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1494 * New file formats supported
1496 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1497 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1501 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1503 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1504 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1506 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1507 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1508 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1510 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1511 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1513 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1514 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1515 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1518 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1519 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1520 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1521 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1522 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1524 * Internal improvements
1526 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1527 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1529 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1530 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1531 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1532 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1533 shared code that handles any of them.
1535 * New command line options
1537 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1541 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1542 General Public License.
1544 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1546 * Host/native/target split
1548 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1549 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1550 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1551 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1552 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1554 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1555 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1556 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1557 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1558 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1559 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1560 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1562 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1563 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1564 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1566 * New hosts supported
1568 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1569 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1570 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1572 * New targets supported
1574 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1575 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1577 * New native hosts supported
1579 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1580 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1581 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1583 * New file formats supported
1585 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1586 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1587 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1591 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1592 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1593 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1595 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1597 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1598 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1599 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1600 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1604 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1605 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1606 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1608 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1612 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1613 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1616 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1617 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1619 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1620 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1621 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1622 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1623 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1624 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1626 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1627 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1628 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1629 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1633 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1634 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1635 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1636 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1637 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1639 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1640 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1641 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1642 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1646 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1647 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1648 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1649 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1650 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1651 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1652 each instruction being stepped through.
1654 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1655 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1657 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1658 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1659 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1660 processor with a serial port.
1664 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1665 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1666 supported, and what files each one uses.
1670 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1671 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1672 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1673 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1675 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1676 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1677 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1678 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1682 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1683 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1684 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1685 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1686 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1687 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1689 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1692 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1694 * Better support for C++ function names
1696 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1697 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1698 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1699 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1700 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1702 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1703 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1704 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1705 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1706 for the list of formats.
1708 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1710 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1711 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1712 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1713 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1714 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1715 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1718 * New 'maintenance' command
1720 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1721 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1722 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1724 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1725 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1726 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1727 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1728 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1729 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1731 The following commands are new:
1733 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1734 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1735 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1737 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1739 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1740 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1741 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1742 read after argv processing.
1744 * New hosts supported
1746 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1748 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1750 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1751 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1752 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1753 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1754 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1757 * New targets supported
1759 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1761 * More smarts about finding #include files
1763 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1764 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1765 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1766 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1767 the one that contains your sources.
1769 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1770 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1771 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1773 * Interesting infernals change
1775 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1776 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1777 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1778 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1780 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1782 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1783 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1784 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1786 See the ChangeLog for details.
1788 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1790 * New machines supported (host and target)
1792 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1794 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1796 * New malloc package
1798 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1799 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1800 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1801 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1802 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1803 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1807 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1808 'help info proc' for details.
1810 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1812 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1813 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1816 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1818 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1819 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1820 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1821 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1822 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1823 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1825 * Cross byte order fixes
1827 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1828 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1830 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1832 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1833 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1834 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1835 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1836 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1837 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1838 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1839 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1840 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1841 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1843 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1844 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1845 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1846 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1848 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1849 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1850 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1853 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1855 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1856 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1857 shared across multiple host platforms.
1859 * longjmp() handling
1861 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1862 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1863 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1864 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1868 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1869 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1874 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1875 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1876 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1878 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1880 * New machines supported (host and target)
1882 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1884 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1885 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1887 * New machines supported (target)
1889 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1893 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1894 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1895 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1897 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1898 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1899 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1900 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1901 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1904 * New features for SVR4
1906 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1907 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1908 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1910 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1911 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1912 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1914 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1915 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1917 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1919 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1920 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1921 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1922 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1923 same code linked statically.
1927 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1928 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1929 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1930 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1931 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1932 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1936 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1937 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1938 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1941 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1943 * New machines supported (host and target)
1945 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1946 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1947 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1949 * Almost SCO Unix support
1951 We had hoped to support:
1952 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1953 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1954 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1955 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1957 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1959 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1960 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1961 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1962 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1967 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1968 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1969 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1973 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1974 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1975 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1977 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1979 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1980 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1981 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1983 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1984 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1985 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1986 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1989 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1990 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1991 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1992 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1995 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1996 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1999 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2000 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2001 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2004 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2006 * Improved configuration
2008 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2009 Porting BFD is simpler.
2013 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2014 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2015 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2016 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2020 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2022 * New host supported (not target)
2024 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2027 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2029 * Multiple source language support
2031 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2032 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2033 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2034 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2035 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2036 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2040 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2041 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2042 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2043 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2045 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2046 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2047 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2049 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2050 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2054 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2055 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2056 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2057 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2060 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2062 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2063 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2064 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2065 examining core files.
2069 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2072 * New machines supported (host and target)
2074 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2075 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2076 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2078 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2080 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2082 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2084 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2085 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2086 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2088 * New remote interfaces
2094 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2098 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2100 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2101 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2102 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2103 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2104 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2105 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2106 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2107 stub on the target system.
2109 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2111 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2112 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2113 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2115 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2116 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2119 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2121 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2122 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2124 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2125 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2126 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2128 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2129 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2130 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2131 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2133 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2134 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2135 it is already running. Default is ON.
2137 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2138 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2139 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2140 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2143 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2144 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2145 or the value of the environment variable
2148 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2149 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2152 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2153 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2154 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2156 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2157 history expansion will be performed on
2158 command line input. The default is OFF.
2160 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2161 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2162 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2164 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2165 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2166 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2169 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2170 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2171 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2174 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2175 ``set width'' instead.
2177 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2178 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2179 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2180 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2182 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2185 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2188 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2191 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2194 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2196 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2197 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2198 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2202 * Support for Shared Libraries
2204 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2205 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2206 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2207 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2208 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2209 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2210 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2211 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2213 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2214 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2215 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2217 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2222 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2223 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2224 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2225 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2226 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2227 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2229 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2231 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2233 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2234 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2235 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2238 * C++ multiple inheritance
2240 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2243 * C++ exception handling
2245 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2246 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2247 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2250 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2251 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2252 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2254 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2255 current stack frame.
2258 * Minor command changes
2260 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2261 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2262 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2264 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2265 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2266 frames without printing.
2268 * New directory command
2270 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2271 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2272 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2273 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2274 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2276 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2278 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2281 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2282 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2283 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2284 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob