1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.2:
6 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multithreaded applications on some targets
8 Support for multithreaded applications using LinuxThreads has been added
9 for arm*-*-linux*, i[3456]86-*-linux*, mips*-*-linux*, powerpc*-*-linux*,
12 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
14 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
15 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
18 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
19 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
20 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
21 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
23 Here are the new commands for working with macros:
25 ** macro expand EXPRESSION
27 Expand any macro invocations in expression, and show the result.
29 ** show macro MACRO-NAME
31 Show the definition of the macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was
34 * Multi-arched targets.
36 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
37 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
39 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
40 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
41 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
46 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
49 * New native configurations
51 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
52 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
53 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
54 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
56 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
58 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
59 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
60 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
63 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
65 * REMOVED configurations and files
67 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
68 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
69 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
70 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
71 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
73 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
75 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
77 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
78 commands. The default is 1024.
80 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
82 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
84 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
86 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
87 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
88 from a file into memory (restore).
90 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
92 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
94 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
95 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
96 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
97 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
98 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
99 (notably embedded) targets.
101 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
103 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
104 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
105 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
106 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
108 * New command line option
110 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
112 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
114 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
115 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
116 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
117 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
118 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
119 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
120 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
121 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
122 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
123 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
125 * Changes in ARM configurations.
127 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
128 configuration is fully multi-arch.
130 * New native configurations
132 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
133 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
134 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
135 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
139 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
141 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
143 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
144 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
145 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
148 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
149 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
150 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
151 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
152 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
154 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
156 * REMOVED configurations and files
158 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
160 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
161 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
162 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
163 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
164 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
165 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
166 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
167 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
168 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
169 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
170 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
172 * Changes to command line processing
174 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
175 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
177 * Changes to key bindings
179 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
181 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
183 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
185 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
188 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
190 Numerous documentation fixes.
192 Numerous testsuite fixes.
194 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
196 * New native configurations
198 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
199 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
200 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
201 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
203 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
207 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
209 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
211 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
213 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
214 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
215 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
216 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
217 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
219 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
220 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
221 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
222 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
223 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
224 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
225 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
226 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
228 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
229 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
231 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
232 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
233 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
236 * REMOVED configurations and files
238 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
239 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
241 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
245 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
247 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
248 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
253 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
255 * The MI enabled by default.
257 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
258 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
259 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
260 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
261 which is now deprecated.
263 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
265 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
266 main features are supported:
268 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
270 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
273 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
275 - a Pascal expression parser.
277 However, some important features are not yet supported.
279 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
281 - there are some problems with boolean types;
283 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
284 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
286 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
288 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
290 * Changes in completion.
292 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
293 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
294 users expect at the shell prompt.
296 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
297 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
298 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
299 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
300 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
301 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
302 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
304 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
306 * New platform-independent commands:
308 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
309 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
310 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
312 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
314 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
315 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
316 many threads as your system allows you to have.
318 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
320 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
321 multi-threaded programs though.
323 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
325 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
327 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
328 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
331 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
333 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
334 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
335 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
336 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
337 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
340 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
341 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
342 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
344 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
346 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
347 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
349 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
350 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
353 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
354 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
355 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
356 a given linear address.
358 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
359 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
360 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
362 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
364 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
366 * Changes in documentation.
368 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
369 Documentation License.
371 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
374 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
376 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
379 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
380 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
381 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
383 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
385 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
386 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
387 contents of this file.
391 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
393 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
395 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
397 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
398 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
399 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
400 greater level of detail.
402 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
404 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
405 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
406 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
409 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
411 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
412 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
413 machines ``out of the box''.
415 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
416 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
417 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
418 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
419 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
421 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
422 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
423 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
424 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
425 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
427 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
428 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
431 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
434 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
435 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
436 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
437 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
439 * New native configurations
441 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
442 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
446 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
447 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
448 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
449 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
451 * OBSOLETE configurations
453 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
454 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
456 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
459 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
460 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
461 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
462 be permanently REMOVED.
464 * Gould support removed
466 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
468 * New features for SVR4
470 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
471 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
472 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
474 * Many C++ enhancements
476 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
477 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
479 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
481 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
482 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
483 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
484 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
486 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
487 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
489 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
491 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
492 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
493 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
495 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
496 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
498 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
500 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
501 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
502 include ``set remote P-packet''.
504 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
506 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
507 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
508 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
510 * ``apropos'' command added.
512 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
513 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
514 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
518 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
519 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
520 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
521 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
522 enabled by configuring with:
524 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
526 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
528 * New native configurations
530 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
531 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
532 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
536 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
537 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
538 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
540 * OBSOLETE configurations
542 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
544 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
545 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
546 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
547 be permanently REMOVED.
551 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
552 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
553 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
554 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
555 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
556 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
557 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
562 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
564 * set extension-language
566 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
567 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
568 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
569 set extension-language .c c++
570 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
571 and their associated languages.
573 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
575 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
576 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
577 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
581 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
582 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
584 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
585 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
587 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
588 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
589 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
590 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
591 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
592 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
593 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
594 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
596 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
597 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
598 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
599 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
603 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
604 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
605 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
606 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
607 for xdb and dbx commands.
611 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
612 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
613 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
615 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
616 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
617 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
619 * Debugging across forks
621 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
626 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
627 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
628 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
630 * GDB remote protocol additions
632 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
633 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
634 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
635 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
637 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
638 full 64-bit address. The command
640 set remoteaddresssize 32
642 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
643 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
646 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
647 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
649 maint packet heythere
651 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
652 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
655 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
656 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
657 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
659 * Tracing can collect general expressions
661 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
662 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
663 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
665 * mask-address variable for Mips
667 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
668 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
669 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
671 * Higher serial baud rates
673 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
674 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
675 to achieve all of these rates.)
679 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
680 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
683 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
685 * New native configurations
687 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
688 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
689 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
690 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
691 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
692 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
693 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
697 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
698 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
699 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
700 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
701 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
702 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
703 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
704 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
705 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
706 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
707 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
709 * New debugging protocols
711 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
712 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
713 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
714 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
715 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
716 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
720 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
721 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
726 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
727 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
729 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
731 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
732 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
733 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
735 * Live range splitting
737 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
738 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
739 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
743 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
744 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
748 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
749 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
750 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
755 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
760 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
761 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
762 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
763 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
764 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
765 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
769 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
770 the symbol at the specified address.
774 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
775 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
776 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
777 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
778 file tracepoint.c for more details.
782 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
783 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
784 of most MIPS variants.
788 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
789 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
790 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
794 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
795 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
796 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
797 the possible architectures.
799 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
801 * New native configurations
803 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
804 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
805 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
806 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
807 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
808 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
812 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
813 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
814 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
815 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
816 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
818 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
822 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
823 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
824 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
825 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
826 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
830 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
832 * Windows 95/NT native
834 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
835 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
836 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
837 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
838 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
840 * dont-repeat command
842 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
843 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
844 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
845 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
847 * Send break instead of ^C
849 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
850 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
851 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
853 * Remote protocol timeout
855 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
856 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
857 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
859 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
861 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
862 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
863 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
864 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
865 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
867 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
868 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
869 automatically on hpux10.
871 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
873 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
875 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
877 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
878 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
879 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
880 every character. The default value is 1050.
882 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
884 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
885 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
886 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
887 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
888 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
889 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
891 * Speedups for remote debugging
893 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
894 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
895 and more efficient S-record downloading.
897 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
899 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
900 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
902 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
906 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
907 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
909 * Remote targets use caching
911 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
912 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
913 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
914 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
915 off' turns the the data cache off.
917 * Remote targets may have threads
919 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
920 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
921 gdb/remote.c for details.
925 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
926 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
927 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
928 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
929 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
930 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
931 sequence is something like
933 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
935 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
939 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
940 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
941 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
942 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
943 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
944 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
945 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
946 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
950 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
951 but does simplify configuration and building.
955 GDB now supports hpux10.
957 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
959 * New native configurations
961 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
962 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
963 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
964 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
968 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
969 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
970 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
971 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
974 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
976 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
977 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
978 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
979 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
980 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
982 * Arguments to user-defined commands
984 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
985 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
988 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
990 To execute the command use:
993 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
994 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
995 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
997 * New `if' and `while' commands
999 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1000 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1001 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1002 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1003 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1004 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1005 if the expression is zero.
1007 * Fortran source language mode
1009 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1010 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1011 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1012 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1015 * Better HPUX support
1017 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1018 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1019 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1020 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1021 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1027 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1028 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1034 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1035 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1038 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1039 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1041 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1043 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1044 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1045 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1046 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1047 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1048 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1050 * New DOS host serial code
1052 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1053 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1056 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1058 * New "complete" command
1060 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1061 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1063 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1065 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1066 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1068 * Breakpoint hit counts
1070 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1071 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1072 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1073 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1074 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1077 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1079 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1080 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1081 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1083 * Shared library breakpoints
1085 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1086 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1088 * Hardware watchpoints
1090 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1091 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1093 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1097 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1098 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1100 * Improved Irix 5 support
1102 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1104 * Improved HPPA support
1106 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1108 * New native configurations
1110 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1111 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1112 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1113 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1117 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1118 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1121 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1123 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1124 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1128 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1129 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1131 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1133 * Irix 5 is now supported
1137 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1138 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1139 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1140 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1141 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1144 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1146 * User visible changes:
1150 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1151 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1152 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1153 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1154 debugging info for the mips target).
1156 * DEC Alpha native support
1158 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1159 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1160 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1161 Alpha-specific notes.
1163 * Preliminary thread implementation
1165 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1167 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1169 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1170 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1173 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1175 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1176 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1177 call methods, ...etc.
1179 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1181 * User visible changes:
1183 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1184 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1185 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1186 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1188 Filename completion now works.
1190 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1191 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1192 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1194 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1195 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1196 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1197 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1198 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1202 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1203 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1206 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1210 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1211 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1212 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1216 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1217 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1218 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1219 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1220 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1224 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1225 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1226 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1228 * New targets supported
1230 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1231 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1232 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1233 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1234 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1236 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1237 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1238 GO32 memory extender.
1240 * New remote protocols
1242 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1244 * New source languages supported
1246 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1247 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1248 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1251 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1253 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1255 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1256 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1257 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1258 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1259 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1260 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1262 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1264 * Faster and better demangling
1266 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1267 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1268 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1269 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1270 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1271 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1274 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1275 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1276 compiler does not actually implement.
1278 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1280 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1281 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1282 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1283 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1284 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1285 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1288 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1289 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1291 * Improved configure script
1293 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1294 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1295 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1296 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1298 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1299 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1300 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1301 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1302 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1303 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1305 * Documentation improvements
1307 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1308 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1309 before submitting changes.
1311 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1312 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1313 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1314 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1315 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1317 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1318 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1319 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1320 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1321 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1322 around this problem.
1326 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1327 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1328 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1331 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1332 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1334 * New native hosts supported
1336 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1337 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1339 * New targets supported
1341 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1343 * New file formats supported
1345 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1346 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1350 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1352 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1353 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1355 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1356 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1357 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1359 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1360 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1362 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1363 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1364 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1367 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1368 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1369 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1370 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1371 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1373 * Internal improvements
1375 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1376 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1378 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1379 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1380 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1381 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1382 shared code that handles any of them.
1384 * New command line options
1386 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1390 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1391 General Public License.
1393 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1395 * Host/native/target split
1397 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1398 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1399 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1400 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1401 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1403 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1404 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1405 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1406 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1407 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1408 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1409 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1411 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1412 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1413 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1415 * New hosts supported
1417 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1418 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1419 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1421 * New targets supported
1423 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1424 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1426 * New native hosts supported
1428 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1429 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1430 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1432 * New file formats supported
1434 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1435 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1436 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1440 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1441 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1442 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1444 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1446 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1447 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1448 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1449 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1453 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1454 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1455 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1457 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1461 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1462 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1465 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1466 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1468 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1469 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1470 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1471 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1472 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1473 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1475 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1476 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1477 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1478 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1482 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1483 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1484 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1485 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1486 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1488 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1489 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1490 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1491 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1495 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1496 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1497 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1498 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1499 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1500 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1501 each instruction being stepped through.
1503 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1504 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1506 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1507 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1508 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1509 processor with a serial port.
1513 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1514 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1515 supported, and what files each one uses.
1519 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1520 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1521 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1522 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1524 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1525 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1526 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1527 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1531 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1532 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1533 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1534 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1535 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1536 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1538 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1541 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1543 * Better support for C++ function names
1545 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1546 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1547 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1548 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1549 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1551 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1552 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1553 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1554 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1555 for the list of formats.
1557 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1559 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1560 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1561 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1562 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1563 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1564 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1567 * New 'maintenance' command
1569 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1570 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1571 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1573 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1574 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1575 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1576 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1577 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1578 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1580 The following commands are new:
1582 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1583 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1584 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1586 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1588 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1589 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1590 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1591 read after argv processing.
1593 * New hosts supported
1595 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1597 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1599 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1600 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1601 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1602 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1603 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1606 * New targets supported
1608 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1610 * More smarts about finding #include files
1612 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1613 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1614 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1615 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1616 the one that contains your sources.
1618 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1619 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1620 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1622 * Interesting infernals change
1624 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1625 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1626 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1627 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1629 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1631 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1632 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1633 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1635 See the ChangeLog for details.
1637 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1639 * New machines supported (host and target)
1641 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1643 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1645 * New malloc package
1647 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1648 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1649 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1650 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1651 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1652 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1656 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1657 'help info proc' for details.
1659 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1661 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1662 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1665 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1667 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1668 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1669 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1670 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1671 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1672 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1674 * Cross byte order fixes
1676 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1677 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1679 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1681 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1682 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1683 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1684 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1685 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1686 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1687 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1688 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1689 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1690 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1692 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1693 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1694 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1695 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1697 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1698 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1699 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1702 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1704 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1705 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1706 shared across multiple host platforms.
1708 * longjmp() handling
1710 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1711 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1712 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1713 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1717 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1718 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1723 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1724 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1725 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1727 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1729 * New machines supported (host and target)
1731 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1733 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1734 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1736 * New machines supported (target)
1738 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1742 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1743 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1744 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1746 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1747 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1748 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1749 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1750 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1753 * New features for SVR4
1755 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1756 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1757 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1759 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1760 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1761 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1763 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1764 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1766 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1768 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1769 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1770 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1771 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1772 same code linked statically.
1776 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1777 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1778 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1779 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1780 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1781 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1785 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1786 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1787 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1790 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1792 * New machines supported (host and target)
1794 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1795 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1796 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1798 * Almost SCO Unix support
1800 We had hoped to support:
1801 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1802 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1803 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1804 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1806 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1808 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1809 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1810 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1811 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1816 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1817 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1818 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1822 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1823 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1824 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1826 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1828 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1829 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1830 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1832 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1833 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1834 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1835 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1838 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1839 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1840 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1841 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1844 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1845 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1848 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1849 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1850 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1853 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1855 * Improved configuration
1857 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1858 Porting BFD is simpler.
1862 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1863 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1864 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1865 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1869 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1871 * New host supported (not target)
1873 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1876 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1878 * Multiple source language support
1880 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1881 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1882 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1883 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1884 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1885 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1889 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1890 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1891 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1892 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1894 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1895 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1896 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1898 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1899 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1903 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1904 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1905 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1906 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1909 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1911 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1912 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1913 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1914 examining core files.
1918 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1921 * New machines supported (host and target)
1923 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1924 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
1925 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
1927 * New hosts supported (not targets)
1929 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
1931 * New targets supported (not hosts)
1933 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1934 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1935 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
1937 * New remote interfaces
1943 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
1947 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
1949 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
1950 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
1951 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
1952 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
1953 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
1954 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
1955 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
1956 stub on the target system.
1958 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
1960 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
1961 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
1962 object file types such as a.out and coff.
1964 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
1965 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
1968 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
1970 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
1971 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
1973 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
1974 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
1975 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
1977 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
1978 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
1979 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
1980 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
1982 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
1983 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
1984 it is already running. Default is ON.
1986 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
1987 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
1988 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
1989 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
1992 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
1993 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
1994 or the value of the environment variable
1997 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
1998 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2001 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2002 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2003 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2005 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2006 history expansion will be performed on
2007 command line input. The default is OFF.
2009 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2010 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2011 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2013 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2014 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2015 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2018 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2019 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2020 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2023 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2024 ``set width'' instead.
2026 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2027 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2028 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2029 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2031 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2034 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2037 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2040 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2043 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2045 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2046 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2047 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2051 * Support for Shared Libraries
2053 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2054 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2055 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2056 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2057 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2058 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2059 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2060 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2062 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2063 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2064 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2066 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2071 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2072 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2073 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2074 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2075 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2076 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2078 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2080 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2082 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2083 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2084 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2087 * C++ multiple inheritance
2089 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2092 * C++ exception handling
2094 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2095 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2096 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2099 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2100 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2101 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2103 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2104 current stack frame.
2107 * Minor command changes
2109 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2110 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2111 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2113 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2114 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2115 frames without printing.
2117 * New directory command
2119 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2120 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2121 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2122 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2123 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2125 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2127 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2130 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2131 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2132 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2133 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob