Allow larger regblock sizes when saving tracefiles
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 8.2
5
6 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
7 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
8 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
9
10 * New commands
11
12 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
13 Apply a command to some frames.
14 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
15 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
16
17 taas COMMAND
18 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
19 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
20
21 faas COMMAND
22 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
23 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
24
25 tfaas COMMAND
26 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
27 output).
28 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
29
30 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
31 maint show dwarf unwinders
32 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
33
34 * Changed commands
35
36 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
37 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
38 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
39 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
40
41 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
42
43 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
44 for the MIPS target.
45
46 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
47 offset to all sections.
48
49 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
50 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
51 address of individual sections using '-s'.
52
53 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
54 (address of the text section).
55
56 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
57 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
58 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
59 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
60 default.
61
62 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
63 for the rest of the current command.
64
65 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
66 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
67
68 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
69 files created on FreeBSD systems.
70
71 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
72 alignof.
73
74 * New commands
75
76 set debug fbsd-nat
77 show debug fbsd-nat
78 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
79
80 set|show varsize-limit
81 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
82 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
83 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
84
85 set|show record btrace cpu
86 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
87 branch trace decode.
88
89 maint check libthread-db
90 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
91 library
92
93 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
94 maint show check-libthread-db
95 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
96 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
97 perform such checks.
98
99 * Python API
100
101 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
102
103 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
104 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
105
106 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
107
108 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
109 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
110 of convenience variables.
111
112 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
113 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
114 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
115
116 * New targets
117
118 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
119
120 * Removed targets and native configurations
121
122 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
123 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
124 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
125 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
126
127 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
128
129 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
130 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
131 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
132 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
133 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
134 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
135 reported.
136
137 * Configure changes
138
139 --enable-codesign=CERT
140 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
141 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
142 gdb to work properly.
143
144 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
145 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
146
147 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
148
149 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
150 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
151 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
152
153 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
154 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
155
156 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
157 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
158 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
159 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
160 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
161
162 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
163 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
164 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
165 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
166
167 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
168 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
169
170 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
171 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
172 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
173
174 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
175 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
176 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
177
178 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
179 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
180 environment" command.
181
182 * Completion improvements
183
184 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
185 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
186 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
187 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
188 correctly:
189
190 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
191 (gdb) b function(int)
192
193 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
194 C++ anonymous namespaces:
195
196 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
197 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
198 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
199 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
200
201 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
202 completion support, that better understands what you're
203 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
204 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
205 setting a breakpoint.
206
207 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
208
209 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
210
211 * New command line options (gcore)
212
213 -a
214 Dump all memory mappings.
215
216 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
217
218 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
219 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
220 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
221
222 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
223
224 A::B::func()
225 B::func()
226
227 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
228 on both symbols.
229
230 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
231 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
232 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
233 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
234 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
235 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
236 a breakpoint from Python.
237
238 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
239
240 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
241 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
242 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
243
244 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
245
246 function[abi:cxx11](int)
247 ^^^^^^^^^^^
248
249 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
250 no tag, like:
251
252 (gdb) b function(int)
253
254 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
255
256 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
257
258 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
259
260 * Python Scripting
261
262 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
263 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
264 description of these.
265
266 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
267 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
268 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
269
270 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
271 manual for a further description of this feature.
272
273
274 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
275
276 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
277 specified initial working directory.
278
279 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
280 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
281
282 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
283 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
284
285 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
286 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
287
288 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
289 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
290 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
291 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
292 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
293
294 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
295 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
296 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
297
298 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
299 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
300 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
301 in the *stopped notification.
302
303 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
304 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
305
306 * New remote packets
307
308 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
309 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
310 the inferior when starting it.
311
312 QEnvironmentUnset
313 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
314 before starting the remote inferior.
315
316 QEnvironmentReset
317 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
318 user-set environment variables should be unset).
319
320 QStartupWithShell
321 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
322
323 QSetWorkingDir
324 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
325 working directory.
326
327 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
328 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
329
330 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
331 filter the tests to be run.
332
333 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
334 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
335
336 * New commands
337
338 set|show cwd
339 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
340
341 set|show compile-gcc
342 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
343 with the 'compile' commands.
344
345 set debug separate-debug-file
346 show debug separate-debug-file
347 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
348
349 set dump-excluded-mappings
350 show dump-excluded-mappings
351 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
352 dumped when generating a core file.
353
354 maint info selftests
355 List the registered selftests.
356
357 starti
358 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
359
360 set|show debug or1k
361 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
362
363 set|show print type nested-type-limit
364 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
365 type printer will show.
366
367 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
368 `o' for nexti.
369
370 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
371
372 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
373 'int'.
374
375 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
376 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
377 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
378 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
379
380 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
381 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
382 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
383 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
384 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
385 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
386
387 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
388 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
389 unless you tell it the variable's type:
390
391 (gdb) p var
392 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
393 (gdb) p (float) var
394 $3 = 3.14
395
396 * New native configurations
397
398 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
399 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
400
401 * New targets
402
403 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
404 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
405 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
406
407 * Removed targets and native configurations
408
409 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
410
411 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
412
413 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
414 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
415 available in future Intel CPUs.
416
417 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
418
419 * Python Scripting
420
421 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
422 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
423
424 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
425 instructions.
426
427 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
428
429 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
430
431 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
432 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
433 removed.
434
435 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
436
437 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
438 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
439
440 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
441
442 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
443 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
444 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
445 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
446 features.
447
448 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
449
450 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
451 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
452 debugger.
453
454 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
455
456 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
457 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
458
459 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
460
461 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
462
463 define mycommand
464 set $i = 0
465 while $i < $argc
466 eval "print $arg%d", $i
467 set $i = $i + 1
468 end
469 end
470
471 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
472
473 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
474 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
475
476 * New native configurations
477
478 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
479
480 * New targets
481
482 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
483 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
484
485 * Removed targets and native configurations
486
487 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
488 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
489
490 * New commands
491
492 flash-erase
493 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
494
495 maint print arc arc-instruction address
496 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
497
498 * New options
499
500 set disassembler-options
501 show disassembler-options
502 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
503 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
504 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
505 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
506 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
507
508 * New MI commands
509
510 -target-flash-erase
511 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
512 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
513
514 -file-list-shared-libraries
515 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
516 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
517
518 -catch-handlers
519 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
520 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
521
522 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
523
524 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
525
526 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
527 default. One must now explicitly configure with
528 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
529 option will be removed in a future release.
530
531 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
532 GDB connection.
533
534 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
535 memory backward from the given address. For example:
536
537 (gdb) bt
538 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
539 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
540 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
541 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
542 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
543 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
544 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
545 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
546 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
547
548 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
549 arrays of dynamic types.
550
551 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
552 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
553 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
554 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
555 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
556 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
557
558 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
559 descriptions.
560
561 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
562 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
563 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
564
565 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
566
567 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
568 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
569 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
570 signal received and code location.
571
572 For example:
573
574 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
575 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
576 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
577 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
578
579 * Rust language support.
580 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
581 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
582 Rust.
583
584 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
585
586 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
587 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
588 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
589 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
590 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
591 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
592 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
593 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
594 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
595 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
596 line.
597
598 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
599
600 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
601 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
602
603 * New commands
604
605 skip -file file
606 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
607 skip -function function
608 skip -rfunction regular-expression
609 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
610 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
611 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
612
613 maint info line-table REGEXP
614 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
615
616 maint selftest
617 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
618
619 new-ui INTERP TTY
620 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
621 using the TTY file for input/output.
622
623 * Python Scripting
624
625 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
626 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
627 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
628 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
629 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
630
631 signal-event EVENTID
632 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
633 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
634 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
635 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
636 signalling an event.
637
638 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
639 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
640 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
641
642 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
643 been removed:
644
645 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
646 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
647 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
648 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
649 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
650 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
651
652 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
653 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
654 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
655 bytecode into native code.
656
657 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
658 recording. For example:
659
660 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
661
662 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
663
664 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
665
666 * New targets
667
668 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
669
670 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
671
672 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
673
674 * Per-inferior thread numbers
675
676 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
677 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
678 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
679
680 (gdb) info threads
681 Id Target Id Frame
682 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
683 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
684 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
685 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
686
687 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
688 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
689 are no longer unique between inferiors.
690
691 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
692 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
693 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
694
695 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
696 IDs.
697
698 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
699 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
700
701 (gdb) thread 2.1
702 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
703 (gdb)
704
705 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
706 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
707 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
708 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
709 threads 2.*".
710
711 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
712 all threads.
713
714 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
715 the current thread.
716
717 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
718 current inferior.
719
720 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
721 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
722 example:
723
724 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
725 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
726
727 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
728
729 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
730
731 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
732 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
733
734 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
735 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
736 clients.
737
738 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
739 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
740 at the same time.
741
742 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
743 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
744 into native code.
745
746 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
747
748 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
749 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
750 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
751
752 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
753 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
754
755 * New commands
756
757 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
758 maint show target-non-stop
759 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
760 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
761 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
762
763 maint set bfd-sharing
764 maint show bfd-sharing
765 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
766
767 set debug bfd-cache
768 show debug bfd-cache
769 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
770
771 set debug fbsd-lwp
772 show debug fbsd-lwp
773 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
774
775 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
776 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
777 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
778
779 set remote thread-events
780 show remote thread-events
781 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
782
783 set ada print-signatures on|off
784 show ada print-signatures"
785 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
786 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
787
788 set max-value-size
789 show max-value-size
790 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
791 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
792 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
793
794 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
795 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
796 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
797 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
798 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
799 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
800
801 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
802 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
803
804 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
805 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
806
807 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
808
809 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
810 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
811 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
812 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
813 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
814 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
815
816 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
817 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
818
819 catch handlers
820 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
821
822 * New remote packets
823
824 exec stop reason
825 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
826
827 exec-events feature in qSupported
828 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
829 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
830 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
831 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
832
833 vCtrlC
834 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
835 non-stop mode.
836
837 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
838 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
839
840 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
841 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
842
843 QThreadEvents
844 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
845 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
846 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
847 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
848 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
849 stop for that same thread.
850
851 N stop reply
852 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
853 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
854 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
855
856 QCatchSyscalls
857 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
858 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
859
860 syscall_entry stop reason
861 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
862
863 syscall_return stop reason
864 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
865
866 * Extended-remote exec events
867
868 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
869 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
870 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
871
872 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
873 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
874 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
875
876 * Thread names in remote protocol
877
878 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
879 thread.
880
881 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
882
883 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
884 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
885 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
886 fork and exec catchpoints.
887
888 * Remote syscall events
889
890 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
891 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
892
893 set remote catch-syscall-packet
894 show remote catch-syscall-packet
895 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
896
897 * MI changes
898
899 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
900 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
901 left.
902
903 * Python Scripting
904
905 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
906 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
907 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
908 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
909 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
910 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
911
912 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
913
914 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
915 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
916 including advance SIMD instructions.
917
918 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
919
920 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
921 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
922 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
923 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
924 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
925 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
926 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
927
928 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
929 cpu information :
930 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
931
932 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
933 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
934 remote serial I/O.
935
936 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
937 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
938 and may include things like its command line arguments.
939
940 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
941 is now available on all platforms.
942
943 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
944 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
945 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
946 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
947 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
948 backward compatibility.
949
950 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
951 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
952 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
953 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
954
955 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
956 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
957 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
958 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
959 packets" below.
960
961 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
962
963 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
964
965 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
966 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
967 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
968 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
969 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
970 See "New remote packets" below.
971
972 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
973 available register groups, including target specific groups.
974
975 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
976 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
977 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
978 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
979 are ignored.
980
981 * Guile Scripting
982
983 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
984
985 * Python Scripting
986
987 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
988 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
989 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
990 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
991 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
992 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
993 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
994 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
995 "const" version of the value respectively.
996
997 * New commands
998
999 maint print symbol-cache
1000 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1001
1002 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1003 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1004
1005 maint flush-symbol-cache
1006 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1007
1008 record btrace bts
1009 record bts
1010 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1011
1012 compile print
1013 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1014
1015 tui enable
1016 tui disable
1017 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1018
1019 show mpx bound
1020 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
1021 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
1022
1023 record btrace pt
1024 record pt
1025 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
1026
1027 maint info btrace
1028 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1029
1030 maint btrace packet-history
1031 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1032
1033 maint btrace clear-packet-history
1034 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1035
1036 maint btrace clear
1037 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1038 anew by the next "record" command.
1039
1040 * New options
1041
1042 set debug dwarf-die
1043 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1044 show debug dwarf-die
1045 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1046
1047 set debug dwarf-read
1048 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1049 show debug dwarf-read
1050 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1051
1052 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1053 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1054 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1055 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1056
1057 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1058 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1059 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1060 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1061
1062 set debug dwarf-line
1063 show debug dwarf-line
1064 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1065
1066 set max-completions
1067 show max-completions
1068 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1069 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1070 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1071 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1072
1073 set history remove-duplicates
1074 show history remove-duplicates
1075 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1076
1077 maint set symbol-cache-size
1078 maint show symbol-cache-size
1079 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1080
1081 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1082 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1083 BTS format.
1084 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1085 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1086
1087 set debug linux-namespaces
1088 show debug linux-namespaces
1089 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1090
1091 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1092 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1093 Intel Processor Trace format.
1094 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1095 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1096
1097 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1098 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1099 packet history.
1100
1101 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1102 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1103
1104 * Python/Guile scripting
1105
1106 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1107 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1108
1109 * New remote packets
1110
1111 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1112 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1113
1114 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1115 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1116
1117 Qbtrace:pt
1118 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1119 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1120 qSupported query.
1121
1122 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1123 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1124 Trace format.
1125
1126 swbreak stop reason
1127 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1128 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1129 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1130 mode operation.
1131
1132 hwbreak stop reason
1133 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1134 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1135
1136 vFile:fstat:
1137 Return information about files on the remote system.
1138
1139 qXfer:exec-file:read
1140 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1141 create a process running on the remote system.
1142
1143 vFile:setfs:
1144 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1145 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1146 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1147 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1148
1149 fork stop reason
1150 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1151
1152 vfork stop reason
1153 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1154
1155 vforkdone stop reason
1156 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1157 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1158
1159 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1160 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1161 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1162 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1163 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1164 whether these features are enabled.
1165
1166 * Extended-remote fork events
1167
1168 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1169 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1170 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1171 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1172
1173 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1174 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1175 the btrace record target.
1176 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1177
1178 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1179 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1180
1181 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1182 targets.
1183
1184 * Removed command line options
1185
1186 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1187
1188 * Removed targets and native configurations
1189
1190 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1191 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1192
1193 * New configure options
1194
1195 --with-intel-pt
1196 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1197 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1198
1199 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1200 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1201 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1202 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1203
1204 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1205
1206 * Python Scripting
1207
1208 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1209
1210 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
1211
1212 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1213
1214 * Python Scripting
1215
1216 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1217 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1218 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1219 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1220 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1221 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1222 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1223 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1224 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1225 selecting a new file to debug.
1226 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1227 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1228
1229 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1230 inferior.
1231
1232 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1233 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1234 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1235 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1236
1237 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1238
1239 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1240 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1241 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1242 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1243
1244 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1245 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1246 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1247 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1248 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1249 interface with this new feature are:
1250
1251 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1252 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1253
1254 * New commands
1255
1256 demangle [-l language] [--] name
1257 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1258 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1259 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1260 as "maint demangler-warning".
1261
1262 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1263 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1264
1265 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1266 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1267 scripts.
1268
1269 maint print user-registers
1270 List all currently available "user" registers.
1271
1272 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1273 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1274 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1275
1276 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1277 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1278 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
1279 provided.
1280
1281 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
1282 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
1283 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
1284 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
1285 at resume time.
1286
1287 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
1288 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
1289 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
1290 switched threads meanwhile.
1291
1292 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
1293
1294 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
1295 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
1296 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
1297 is now the default mode.
1298
1299 * New options
1300
1301 set debug symbol-lookup
1302 show debug symbol-lookup
1303 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
1304
1305 * MI changes
1306
1307 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
1308 inferiors that have exited.
1309
1310 * New targets
1311
1312 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
1313
1314 * Removed targets
1315
1316 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1317
1318 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
1319 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
1320 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
1321 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
1322 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
1323
1324 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1325 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1326 its alias "share", instead.
1327
1328 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
1329
1330 * New command line options
1331
1332 -D data-directory
1333 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
1334
1335 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
1336 as specified in ISO C99.
1337
1338 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
1339 with or without disassembly.
1340
1341 * Guile scripting
1342
1343 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
1344 available is determined at configure time.
1345 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
1346 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
1347
1348 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1349
1350 guile [code]
1351 gu [code]
1352 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
1353
1354 guile-repl
1355 gr
1356 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
1357
1358 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
1359 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
1360
1361 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
1362 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
1363
1364 * New options
1365
1366 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
1367 show print symbol-loading
1368 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
1369 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
1370 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
1371 becomes less useful.
1372
1373 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
1374 show guile print-stack
1375 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
1376
1377 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
1378 show auto-load guile-scripts
1379 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
1380
1381 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
1382 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
1383 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
1384 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
1385 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
1386 usage of this option.
1387
1388 set auto-connect-native-target
1389
1390 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
1391 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
1392 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
1393
1394 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
1395 show record btrace replay-memory-access
1396 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
1397
1398 maint set target-async (on|off)
1399 maint show target-async
1400 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
1401 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
1402 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
1403 occurring only in synchronous mode.
1404
1405 set mi-async (on|off)
1406 show mi-async
1407 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
1408 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
1409
1410 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
1411 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
1412
1413 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
1414 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
1415 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
1416 "set target-async on" command.
1417
1418 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1419
1420 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
1421 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
1422 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
1423 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
1424 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
1425
1426 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
1427 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
1428 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
1429
1430 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
1431 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
1432 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
1433 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
1434 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
1435 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
1436 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
1437
1438 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
1439 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
1440
1441 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
1442 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
1443 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
1444
1445 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
1446 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
1447 memory or registers.
1448
1449 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
1450
1451 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
1452 remote. It now works with all targets.
1453
1454 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
1455 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
1456 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
1457 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
1458 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
1459 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
1460 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
1461 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
1462 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
1463 target-stack".
1464
1465 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
1466 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
1467 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
1468
1469 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
1470
1471 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
1472 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
1473 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
1474
1475 * New remote packets
1476
1477 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
1478 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
1479 branch trace incrementally.
1480
1481 * Python Scripting
1482
1483 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
1484 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
1485 available.
1486 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
1487 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
1488 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
1489 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
1490 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
1491
1492 * New targets
1493 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
1494
1495 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1496 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1497 its alias "share", instead.
1498
1499 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
1500 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
1501 instead.
1502
1503 * MI changes
1504
1505 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
1506 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
1507 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
1508 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
1509 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
1510 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
1511 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
1512 commands and CLI execution commands.
1513
1514 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
1515
1516 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
1517 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
1518 recording has been added.
1519
1520 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1521
1522 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
1523 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
1524
1525 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
1526 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
1527 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
1528 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
1529 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
1530 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
1531 "void".
1532
1533 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
1534
1535 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
1536
1537 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
1538 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
1539 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
1540 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
1541
1542 (gdb) p $rax
1543 $1 = <not saved>
1544
1545 (gdb) info registers rax
1546 rax <not saved>
1547
1548 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
1549 "*value not available*".
1550
1551 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
1552 to binaries.
1553
1554 * Python scripting
1555
1556 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
1557 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
1558 ** Line tables representation has been added.
1559 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
1560 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
1561 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1562
1563 * New targets
1564
1565 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
1566 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
1567 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
1568
1569 * Removed native configurations
1570
1571 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
1572 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
1573
1574 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1575 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1576 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
1577 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
1578 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1579 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1580 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
1581
1582 * New commands:
1583 catch rethrow
1584 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
1585 maint check-psymtabs
1586 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
1587 maint check-symtabs
1588 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
1589 maint expand-symtabs
1590 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
1591
1592 show configuration
1593 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1594
1595 maint set|show per-command
1596 maint set|show per-command space
1597 maint set|show per-command time
1598 maint set|show per-command symtab
1599 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
1600
1601 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
1602 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
1603 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
1604 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
1605 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
1606
1607 info exceptions
1608 info exceptions REGEXP
1609 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
1610 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
1611 are listed.
1612
1613 * New options
1614
1615 set debug symfile off|on
1616 show debug symfile
1617 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
1618 symbol tables within those files
1619
1620 set print raw frame-arguments
1621 show print raw frame-arguments
1622 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
1623 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
1624
1625 set remote trace-status-packet
1626 show remote trace-status-packet
1627 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
1628
1629 set debug nios2
1630 show debug nios2
1631 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
1632
1633 set range-stepping
1634 show range-stepping
1635 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
1636
1637 set startup-with-shell
1638 show startup-with-shell
1639 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
1640 directly.
1641
1642 set code-cache
1643 show code-cache
1644 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
1645 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
1646
1647 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
1648 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
1649 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
1650 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
1651 "set height 0".
1652
1653 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
1654 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
1655 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
1656
1657 * New command-line options
1658 --configuration
1659 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
1660
1661 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
1662 buffer in Common Trace Format.
1663
1664 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
1665 GDB command gcore.
1666
1667 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
1668
1669 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
1670 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
1671
1672 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
1673 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
1674
1675 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
1676 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
1677 due to an uncaught signal.
1678
1679 * MI changes
1680
1681 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
1682 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
1683 command, which should contain "language-option".
1684
1685 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
1686 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
1687
1688 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
1689 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
1690 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
1691 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1692 "undefined-command-error-code".
1693
1694 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
1695 Trace Format now.
1696
1697 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
1698
1699 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
1700 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
1701 are displayed.
1702
1703 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
1704 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
1705
1706 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
1707 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
1708 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
1709
1710 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
1711 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
1712 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
1713 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
1714 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
1715 "exec-run-start-option".
1716
1717 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
1718 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
1719
1720 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
1721 the new "info exceptions" command.
1722
1723 * New system-wide configuration scripts
1724 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
1725 configuration scripts for the following systems:
1726 ** ElinOS
1727 ** Wind River Linux
1728
1729 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
1730 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
1731 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
1732 below.
1733
1734 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
1735 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
1736
1737 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
1738 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
1739 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
1740
1741 * New remote packets
1742
1743 vCont;r
1744
1745 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
1746 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
1747 involvemement at each single-step.
1748
1749 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
1750 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
1751 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
1752 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
1753 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
1754 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
1755 speedup.
1756
1757 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1758
1759 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
1760 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
1761
1762 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
1763 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
1764 trace state variables.
1765
1766 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
1767 target.
1768
1769 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
1770 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
1771
1772 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
1773
1774 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
1775 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
1776 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
1777 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1778
1779 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
1780
1781 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
1782 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
1783 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
1784 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
1785
1786 set|show record full insn-number-max
1787 set|show record full stop-at-limit
1788 set|show record full memory-query
1789
1790 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
1791 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
1792 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
1793 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
1794 This new recording method can be enabled using:
1795
1796 record btrace
1797
1798 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
1799 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
1800
1801 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
1802 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
1803 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
1804
1805 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
1806 instruction granularity
1807
1808 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
1809 function granularity
1810
1811 * New native configurations
1812
1813 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
1814 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
1815 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1816 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
1817
1818 * New targets
1819
1820 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
1821 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
1822 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
1823 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
1824 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
1825
1826 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
1827 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
1828 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
1829 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
1830 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
1831 --data-directory command-line option.
1832
1833 * New command line options:
1834
1835 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1836 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1837
1838 * Removed command line options
1839
1840 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1841 Emacs.
1842
1843 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1844 type formatting.
1845
1846 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1847
1848 * Python scripting
1849
1850 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1851
1852 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1853
1854 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1855
1856 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1857
1858 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1859 of architecture in the Python API.
1860
1861 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1862 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1863
1864 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1865
1866 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1867 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1868 ** $_strlen(str)
1869 ** $_regex(str, regex)
1870
1871 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
1872 given an argument.
1873
1874 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
1875 default for GCC since November 2000.
1876
1877 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
1878
1879 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
1880 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
1881
1882 * New configure options
1883
1884 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
1885 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
1886 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
1887 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
1888 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
1889 options allow the user to override that default.
1890 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
1891 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
1892 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
1893
1894 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1895
1896 catch signal
1897 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
1898 conditions to be attached.
1899
1900 maint info bfds
1901 List the BFDs known to GDB.
1902
1903 python-interactive [command]
1904 pi [command]
1905 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
1906 and print the result of expressions.
1907
1908 py [command]
1909 "py" is a new alias for "python".
1910
1911 enable type-printer [name]...
1912 disable type-printer [name]...
1913 Enable or disable type printers.
1914
1915 * Removed commands
1916
1917 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
1918 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
1919 instead.
1920
1921 * New options
1922
1923 set print type methods (on|off)
1924 show print type methods
1925 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
1926 The default is to show them.
1927
1928 set print type typedefs (on|off)
1929 show print type typedefs
1930 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
1931 The default is to show them.
1932
1933 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
1934 show filename-display
1935 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
1936 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
1937
1938 set trace-buffer-size
1939 show trace-buffer-size
1940 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
1941
1942 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
1943 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
1944 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
1945
1946 set debug aarch64
1947 show debug aarch64
1948 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
1949 The default is off.
1950
1951 set debug coff-pe-read
1952 show debug coff-pe-read
1953 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
1954 exported symbols.
1955
1956 set debug mach-o
1957 show debug mach-o
1958 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
1959 processing.
1960
1961 set debug notification
1962 show debug notification
1963 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
1964
1965 * MI changes
1966
1967 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
1968 "=cmd-param-changed".
1969 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
1970 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
1971 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
1972 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
1973 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
1974 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
1975 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
1976 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
1977 "=memory-changed".
1978 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
1979 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
1980 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
1981 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
1982 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
1983 library load/unload events.
1984 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
1985 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
1986 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
1987 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
1988 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
1989 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
1990 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
1991 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
1992
1993 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
1994 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
1995 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
1996 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
1997
1998 * New remote packets
1999
2000 QTBuffer:size
2001 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2002 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2003
2004 Qbtrace:bts
2005 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2006 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2007 qSupported query.
2008
2009 Qbtrace:off
2010 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2011 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2012
2013 qXfer:btrace:read
2014 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2015 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2016
2017 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
2018
2019 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2020 for more x32 ABI info.
2021
2022 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2023
2024 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2025
2026 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2027 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2028 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2029 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2030 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2031 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2032 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2033 "info os msg" lists message queues
2034 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2035
2036 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2037 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2038 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2039 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2040 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2041 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2042
2043 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2044 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2045 record/replay support.
2046
2047 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2048
2049 * Python scripting
2050
2051 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2052 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
2053
2054 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2055
2056 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2057 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2058
2059 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2060
2061 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2062 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2063
2064 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2065 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2066 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2067 symbol's value.
2068
2069 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2070 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2071
2072 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2073 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2074 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2075
2076 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2077 object associated with a PC value.
2078
2079 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2080 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2081
2082 * Go language support.
2083 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2084 language.
2085
2086 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2087 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2088
2089 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2090 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2091
2092 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2093 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2094 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2095 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2096 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2097 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
2098
2099 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2100 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2101 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2102 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2103
2104 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2105 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2106
2107 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2108 since December 2007.
2109
2110 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2111 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2112 command does. For instance:
2113
2114 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2115
2116 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2117 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2118 created, using the "condition" command.
2119
2120 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2121 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2122
2123 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2124
2125 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2126 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2127 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2128 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2129 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2130 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2131 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2132 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2133
2134 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2135 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2136 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2137 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2138 the .gdb_index section.
2139
2140 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2141
2142 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2143 target.
2144
2145 * MI changes
2146
2147 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2148
2149 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2150
2151 * New commands
2152
2153 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2154 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2155 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2156
2157 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2158 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2159
2160 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2161 several hits.
2162
2163 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2164 C++ and Java objects.
2165
2166 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2167 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2168 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2169 configured with '--with-python'.
2170
2171 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2172 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2173 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2174 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2175 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2176 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2177 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2178
2179 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2180 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2181 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2182 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2183
2184 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2185 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2186 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2187 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2188
2189 ** "set print symbol"
2190 "show print symbol"
2191 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2192 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2193 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2194
2195 * Deprecated commands
2196
2197 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2198 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2199
2200 * New targets
2201
2202 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2203 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2204
2205 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2206 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2207 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2208 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2209 evaluates to true.
2210
2211 * New options
2212
2213 set mips compression
2214 show mips compression
2215 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2216 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2217 mips16
2218 micromips
2219 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2220
2221 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2222 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2223 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2224 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2225 available mode.
2226 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2227 target.
2228
2229 set auto-load off
2230 Disable auto-loading globally.
2231
2232 show auto-load
2233 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2234
2235 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2236 show auto-load gdb-scripts
2237 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2238
2239 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2240 show auto-load python-scripts
2241 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2242
2243 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2244 show auto-load local-gdbinit
2245 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2246
2247 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2248 show auto-load libthread-db
2249 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2250
2251 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2252 show auto-load scripts-directory
2253 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2254 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2255 of the directories listed by this option.
2256 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2257
2258 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2259 show auto-load safe-path
2260 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2261 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2262
2263 set debug auto-load on|off
2264 show debug auto-load
2265 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2266
2267 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
2268 show dprintf-style
2269 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2270 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2271 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2272 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
2273
2274 set dprintf-function <expr>
2275 show dprintf-function
2276 set dprintf-channel <expr>
2277 show dprintf-channel
2278 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
2279 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
2280
2281 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
2282 show disconnected-dprintf
2283 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
2284 after GDB disconnects.
2285
2286 * New configure options
2287
2288 --with-auto-load-dir
2289 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
2290 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
2291 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
2292 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
2293 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
2294
2295 --with-auto-load-safe-path
2296 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
2297 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
2298
2299 --without-auto-load-safe-path
2300 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
2301 security feature.
2302
2303 * New remote packets
2304
2305 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
2306
2307 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
2308 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
2309 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
2310 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
2311
2312 QProgramSignals:
2313
2314 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
2315 program without GDB involvement.
2316
2317 * New command line options
2318
2319 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
2320 before loading inferior.
2321 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
2322 execute it before loading inferior.
2323
2324 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
2325
2326 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
2327 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
2328 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
2329 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
2330 inferior changes.
2331
2332 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
2333 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
2334
2335 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
2336 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
2337 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
2338 target hardware watchpoint.
2339
2340 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
2341 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
2342 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
2343 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
2344
2345 * Python scripting
2346
2347 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
2348 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
2349 existing one.
2350
2351 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
2352 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
2353 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
2354 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
2355 now "message", which just prints the error message without
2356 the stack trace.
2357
2358 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
2359 Python API.
2360
2361 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
2362 modules library. This module provides functionality for
2363 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
2364 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
2365 corresponding value.
2366
2367 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
2368 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
2369 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
2370 on GDB start-up.
2371
2372 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
2373 static_block will return the global and static blocks
2374 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
2375 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
2376
2377 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
2378
2379 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
2380 "gdb.breakpoints".
2381
2382 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
2383 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
2384 available in the CLI.
2385
2386 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
2387 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
2388 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
2389 "some_type.items()".
2390
2391 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
2392 new object file.
2393
2394 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
2395 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
2396 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
2397 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
2398 any anonymous fields.
2399
2400 * MI changes
2401
2402 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
2403 "solib-event".
2404
2405 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
2406 "=breakpoint-modified".
2407
2408 ** New command -ada-task-info.
2409
2410 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
2411 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
2412 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
2413 lives.
2414
2415 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
2416 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
2417 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
2418 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
2419 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
2420
2421 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
2422 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
2423
2424 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
2425 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
2426 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
2427 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
2428 use this option to specify where to find it.
2429
2430 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2431 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
2432 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
2433 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
2434 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
2435 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2436 section in the user manual for more details.
2437
2438 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
2439 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
2440 become available after that.
2441
2442 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
2443
2444 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
2445 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
2446 gcc version 4.7.
2447
2448 * New commands
2449
2450 !SHELL COMMAND
2451 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
2452 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
2453
2454 * Changed commands
2455
2456 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
2457 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
2458 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
2459
2460 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
2461 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
2462 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
2463
2464 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
2465 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
2466 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
2467 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
2468 name starts with a hyphen.
2469
2470 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
2471 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
2472 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
2473 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
2474 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
2475 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
2476 number of bytes that will be collected.
2477
2478 tstart [NOTES]
2479 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
2480 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
2481 setting the variable trace-notes.
2482
2483 tstop [NOTES]
2484 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
2485 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
2486 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
2487 trace-stop-notes.
2488
2489 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
2490 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
2491 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
2492 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
2493 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
2494 is running.
2495
2496 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
2497 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
2498 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
2499
2500 * New options
2501
2502 set debug dwarf2-read
2503 show debug dwarf2-read
2504 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
2505 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
2506
2507 set debug symtab-create
2508 show debug symtab-create
2509 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
2510 creation. The default is off.
2511
2512 set extended-prompt
2513 show extended-prompt
2514 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
2515 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
2516 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
2517 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
2518 prompt is displayed.
2519
2520 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
2521 show print entry-values
2522 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
2523 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
2524 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
2525
2526 set debug entry-values
2527 show debug entry-values
2528 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
2529 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
2530
2531 set basenames-may-differ
2532 show basenames-may-differ
2533 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
2534 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
2535 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
2536 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
2537 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
2538 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
2539 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
2540 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
2541
2542 set trace-user
2543 show trace-user
2544 set trace-notes
2545 show trace-notes
2546 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
2547 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
2548 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
2549 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
2550
2551 set trace-stop-notes
2552 show trace-stop-notes
2553 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
2554 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
2555 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
2556 started by someone else.
2557
2558 * New remote packets
2559
2560 QTEnable
2561
2562 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2563
2564 QTDisable
2565
2566 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
2567
2568 QTNotes
2569
2570 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
2571
2572 qTP
2573
2574 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
2575
2576 qTMinFTPILen
2577
2578 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
2579 be placed.
2580
2581 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
2582 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
2583
2584 * New targets
2585
2586 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
2587
2588 * New Simulators
2589
2590 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2591
2592 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
2593
2594 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
2595
2596 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
2597
2598 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
2599 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
2600 matches the given regular expression.
2601
2602 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
2603
2604 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
2605 dumping the instruction opcodes.
2606
2607 * New command line options
2608
2609 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
2610 This is mostly for testing purposes.
2611
2612 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
2613 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
2614
2615 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
2616 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
2617 source path list instead of augmenting it.
2618
2619 * GDB now understands thread names.
2620
2621 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
2622 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
2623
2624 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
2625 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
2626
2627 * OpenCL C
2628 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
2629 has been integrated into GDB.
2630
2631 * Python scripting
2632
2633 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
2634 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
2635 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
2636
2637 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2638 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
2639 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
2640 and allows for more dynamic content.
2641
2642 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
2643 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
2644 have an is_valid method.
2645
2646 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
2647 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
2648 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
2649
2650 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
2651
2652 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
2653 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
2654 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
2655 that function like so:
2656
2657 result = some_value (10,20)
2658
2659 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
2660 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
2661 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
2662
2663 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
2664 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
2665 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
2666 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
2667 New function: register_pretty_printer.
2668
2669 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
2670 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
2671
2672 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
2673
2674 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
2675 selected thread.
2676
2677 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
2678 holds the thread's name.
2679
2680 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
2681 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
2682 occurring in the process being debugged.
2683 The following events are currently supported:
2684 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
2685 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
2686 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
2687
2688 * C++ Improvements:
2689
2690 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
2691 instantiation. For example, if you have:
2692
2693 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
2694
2695 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
2696 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
2697 was added to GCC 4.5.
2698
2699 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
2700 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
2701 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
2702 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
2703 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
2704 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
2705
2706 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
2707 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
2708 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
2709 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
2710 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
2711
2712 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
2713 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
2714 execution to a label.
2715
2716 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
2717 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
2718 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
2719 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
2720
2721 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
2722 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
2723 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
2724 of scope.
2725
2726 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
2727
2728 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
2729 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
2730 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
2731 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
2732 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
2733 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
2734
2735 (gdb) info threads
2736 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
2737
2738 While now you see this:
2739
2740 (gdb) info threads
2741 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
2742
2743 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
2744 dumps.
2745
2746 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
2747 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
2748 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
2749 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
2750
2751 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
2752 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
2753 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
2754 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
2755 section in the user manual for more details.
2756
2757 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2758
2759 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
2760 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
2761
2762 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
2763
2764 * New native configurations
2765
2766 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2767
2768 * New targets:
2769
2770 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
2771
2772 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
2773 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
2774 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
2775 in the GDB user manual.
2776
2777 * Guile support was removed.
2778
2779 * New features in the GNU simulator
2780
2781 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
2782
2783 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
2784
2785 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
2786
2787 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
2788
2789 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
2790 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
2791 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
2792 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
2793 was always disabled for such configurations.
2794
2795 * C++ Improvements:
2796
2797 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
2798
2799 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
2800 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
2801 For example:
2802 namespace A
2803 {
2804 class B { };
2805 void foo (B) { }
2806 }
2807 ...
2808 A::B b
2809 foo(b)
2810 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
2811 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
2812 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
2813
2814 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
2815
2816 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
2817 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
2818 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
2819 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
2820 entry.
2821 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
2822 mentioned flavors of operators.
2823
2824 ** static const class members
2825
2826 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
2827 class definition has been fixed.
2828
2829 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
2830
2831 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
2832 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2833 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2834 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2835 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2836 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2837
2838 * Static tracepoints
2839
2840 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2841 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2842 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2843 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2844 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2845 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2846 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2847 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2848 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2849 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2850 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2851 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2852 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2853 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2854 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2855 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2856 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2857 the "New remote packets" section below.
2858
2859 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2860
2861 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2862 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2863 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2864 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2865
2866 * Observer mode
2867
2868 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2869 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
2870 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
2871 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
2872 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
2873 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
2874 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
2875
2876 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
2877 current thread.
2878
2879 * New remote packets
2880
2881 qGetTIBAddr
2882
2883 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
2884
2885 qRelocInsn
2886
2887 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
2888 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
2889 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
2890 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
2891 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
2892 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
2893
2894 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
2895
2896 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
2897
2898 qTSTMat
2899
2900 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
2901 program.
2902
2903 qXfer:statictrace:read
2904
2905 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
2906 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
2907 to gdb's qSupported query.
2908
2909 QAllow
2910
2911 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
2912
2913 QTDPsrc
2914
2915 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
2916 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
2917
2918 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
2919 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
2920 a directory.
2921
2922 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2923
2924 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
2925 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
2926 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
2927 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
2928
2929 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
2930 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
2931 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
2932 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
2933 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
2934 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
2935 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
2936
2937 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
2938 for static tracepoints support.
2939
2940 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
2941
2942 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
2943 it understands register description.
2944
2945 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
2946
2947 * X86 general purpose registers
2948
2949 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
2950 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
2951 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
2952 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
2953 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
2954
2955 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
2956 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
2957 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
2958 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
2959 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
2960 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
2961
2962 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
2963 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
2964 in the specified file.
2965
2966 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
2967 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
2968 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
2969 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
2970 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
2971 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
2972 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
2973 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
2974 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
2975 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
2976
2977 * New commands
2978
2979 eval template, expressions...
2980 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
2981 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
2982
2983 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
2984 show target-file-system-kind
2985 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
2986 names.
2987
2988 save breakpoints <filename>
2989 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
2990 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
2991 definitions, use the `source' command.
2992
2993 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
2994 is now deprecated.
2995
2996 info static-tracepoint-markers
2997 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
2998
2999 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3000 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3001 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3002
3003 set observer on|off
3004 show observer
3005 Enable and disable observer mode.
3006
3007 set may-write-registers on|off
3008 set may-write-memory on|off
3009 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3010 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3011 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3012 set may-interrupt on|off
3013 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3014 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3015 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3016 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3017 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3018 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3019 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3020
3021 set record memory-query on|off
3022 show record memory-query
3023 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3024 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3025
3026 * Changed commands
3027
3028 disassemble
3029 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3030
3031 * Python scripting
3032
3033 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3034 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3035 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3036 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3037 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3038
3039 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3040 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3041 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3042 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3043
3044 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3045 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3046
3047 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3048
3049 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3050
3051 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3052
3053 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3054 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3055 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3056
3057 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3058 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3059 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3060 regular breakpoints.
3061
3062 * New targets
3063
3064 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3065
3066 * D language support.
3067 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3068 language.
3069
3070 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3071 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3072 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3073 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3074 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3075
3076 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3077 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3078 conditions of the form:
3079
3080 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3081
3082 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3083 interface mentioned above.
3084
3085 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
3086
3087 * C++ Improvements
3088
3089 ** Namespace Support
3090
3091 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3092 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3093 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3094 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3095 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3096
3097 ** Bug Fixes
3098
3099 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3100 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3101 qualified name.
3102
3103 ** Cast Operators
3104
3105 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3106 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3107
3108 * New targets
3109
3110 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3111 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
3112
3113 * New Simulators
3114
3115 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3116 Renesas RX rx
3117
3118 * Multi-program debugging.
3119
3120 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3121 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3122 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3123 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3124 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3125 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3126 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3127 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3128
3129 * New tracing features
3130
3131 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3132
3133 ** Trace state variables
3134
3135 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3136 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3137 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3138 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3139 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3140 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3141 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3142 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3143 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3144 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3145
3146 ** Fast tracepoints
3147
3148 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3149 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3150 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3151 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3152 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3153 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3154 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3155 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3156 the regular trace command.
3157
3158 ** Disconnected tracing
3159
3160 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3161 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3162 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3163 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3164 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3165
3166 ** Trace files
3167
3168 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3169 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3170 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3171 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3172 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3173 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3174 <name>".
3175
3176 ** Circular trace buffer
3177
3178 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3179 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3180 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3181 not be available for all target agents.
3182
3183 * Changed commands
3184
3185 disassemble
3186 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3187 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3188
3189 info variables
3190 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3191 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3192
3193 source
3194 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3195 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3196 support.
3197
3198 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3199 "set script-extension" (see below).
3200
3201 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3202
3203 record save [<FILENAME>]
3204 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3205 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3206
3207 record restore <FILENAME>
3208 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3209 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3210
3211 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3212 Add a new inferior.
3213
3214 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3215 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3216 inferior has loaded.
3217
3218 remove-inferior ID
3219 Remove an inferior.
3220
3221 maint info program-spaces
3222 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3223
3224 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3225 show remote interrupt-sequence
3226 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3227 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3228 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3229 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3230 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3231
3232 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3233 show remote interrupt-on-connect
3234 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3235 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3236 Linux kernel.
3237
3238 set remotebreak [on | off]
3239 show remotebreak
3240 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3241
3242 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3243 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3244
3245 info tvariables
3246 List trace state variables and their values.
3247
3248 delete tvariable $NAME ...
3249 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3250
3251 teval EXPR, ...
3252 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3253 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3254
3255 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3256 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3257
3258 * New expression syntax
3259
3260 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3261 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3262
3263 * New options
3264
3265 set follow-exec-mode new|same
3266 show follow-exec-mode
3267 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3268 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3269 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3270
3271 set default-collect EXPR, ...
3272 show default-collect
3273 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3274 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3275 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3276
3277 set disconnected-tracing
3278 show disconnected-tracing
3279 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
3280 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
3281 upon disconnection.
3282
3283 set circular-trace-buffer
3284 show circular-trace-buffer
3285 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
3286 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
3287 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
3288 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
3289
3290 set script-extension off|soft|strict
3291 show script-extension
3292 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
3293 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
3294 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
3295 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
3296 evaluation failed.
3297 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
3298
3299 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
3300 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
3301 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
3302 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
3303 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
3304 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
3305 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
3306 is on.
3307
3308 * Python API Improvements
3309
3310 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
3311 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
3312 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
3313
3314 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
3315 `is_base_class' attribute.
3316
3317 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
3318
3319 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
3320 evaluate an expression.
3321
3322 * New remote packets
3323
3324 QTDV
3325 Define a trace state variable.
3326
3327 qTV
3328 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
3329
3330 QTDisconnected
3331 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
3332
3333 QTBuffer:circular
3334 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
3335
3336 qTfP, qTsP
3337 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
3338
3339 * Bug fixes
3340
3341 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
3342
3343 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
3344 much more reliable. In particular:
3345 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
3346 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
3347 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
3348 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
3349 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
3350 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
3351 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
3352 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
3353 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
3354 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
3355 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
3356 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
3357 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
3358 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
3359 non-threaded programs.
3360
3361 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
3362 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
3363 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
3364 executable program.
3365
3366 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
3367
3368 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
3369 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
3370 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
3371 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
3372 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
3373
3374 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
3375 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
3376 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
3377 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
3378 for tracepoint actions.
3379
3380 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
3381 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
3382 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
3383
3384 * Process record and replay
3385
3386 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
3387 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
3388 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
3389 execute commands.
3390
3391 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
3392 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
3393 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
3394 reverse execution.
3395
3396 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
3397 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
3398 2.6.28 or later.
3399
3400 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
3401 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
3402 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
3403 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
3404 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
3405 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
3406 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
3407 the installation instructions for more information.
3408
3409 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
3410 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
3411 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
3412 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
3413
3414 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
3415 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
3416
3417 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
3418 now complete on file names.
3419
3420 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
3421 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
3422 For instance, consider:
3423
3424 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
3425 # struct example variable;
3426 (gdb) p variable.
3427
3428 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
3429 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
3430
3431 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
3432 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
3433
3434 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
3435 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
3436 macros.
3437
3438 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
3439 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
3440 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
3441
3442 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
3443 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
3444 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
3445 and simulator targets may also provide them.
3446
3447 * New remote packets
3448
3449 qSearch:memory:
3450 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3451
3452 QStartNoAckMode
3453 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
3454 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
3455 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
3456
3457 vKill
3458 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
3459 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
3460
3461 qXfer:osdata:read
3462 Obtains additional operating system information
3463
3464 qXfer:siginfo:read
3465 qXfer:siginfo:write
3466 Read or write additional signal information.
3467
3468 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
3469
3470 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
3471 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
3472 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
3473
3474 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
3475 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
3476
3477 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
3478 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
3479 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
3480
3481 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
3482 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
3483
3484 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
3485
3486 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
3487
3488 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
3489 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
3490
3491 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
3492 list of section offsets.
3493
3494 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
3495 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
3496 have also been fixed.
3497
3498 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
3499 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
3500 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
3501
3502 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
3503 example, given:
3504
3505 template<typename T> class C { };
3506 C<char const *> c;
3507
3508 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
3509
3510 ptype C<char const *>
3511 ptype C<char const*>
3512 ptype C<const char *>
3513 ptype C<const char*>
3514
3515 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
3516
3517 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
3518 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3519
3520 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
3521 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3522 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
3523
3524 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
3525 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
3526
3527 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
3528 gdbserver.
3529
3530 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
3531 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
3532
3533 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
3534 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
3535 as appropriate.
3536
3537 * Python scripting
3538
3539 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
3540 available is determined at configure time.
3541
3542 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
3543
3544 * Ada tasking support
3545
3546 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
3547 been introduced:
3548
3549 info tasks
3550 Print the list of Ada tasks.
3551 info task N
3552 Print detailed information about task number N.
3553 task
3554 Print the task number of the current task.
3555 task N
3556 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
3557
3558 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
3559 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
3560
3561 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
3562
3563 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
3564 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
3565 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
3566 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
3567 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
3568 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
3569 below.
3570
3571 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
3572 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
3573 information.
3574
3575 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
3576 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
3577 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
3578 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
3579 more information.
3580
3581 * Multi-architecture debugging.
3582
3583 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
3584 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
3585 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
3586 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
3587 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
3588
3589 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
3590 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
3591 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
3592 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
3593 --enable-targets configure option.
3594
3595 * Non-stop mode debugging.
3596
3597 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
3598 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
3599 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
3600 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
3601 section in the user manual for more information.
3602
3603 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
3604 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
3605 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
3606 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
3607 extensions on linux targets.
3608
3609 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3610
3611 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
3612 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
3613 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
3614 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
3615 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
3616 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
3617 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
3618 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
3619 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
3620
3621 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
3622 val1 [, val2, ...]
3623 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
3624
3625 maint set python print-stack
3626 maint show python print-stack
3627 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
3628
3629 python [CODE]
3630 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
3631
3632 macro define
3633 macro list
3634 macro undef
3635 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
3636 interactively.
3637
3638 info os processes
3639 Show operating system information about processes.
3640
3641 info inferiors
3642 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
3643
3644 inferior NUM
3645 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
3646
3647 detach inferior NUM
3648 Detach from inferior number NUM.
3649
3650 kill inferior NUM
3651 Kill inferior number NUM.
3652
3653 * New options
3654
3655 set spu stop-on-load
3656 show spu stop-on-load
3657 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3658
3659 set spu auto-flush-cache
3660 show spu auto-flush-cache
3661 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
3662 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
3663
3664 set sh calling-convention
3665 show sh calling-convention
3666 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
3667
3668 set debug timestamp
3669 show debug timestamp
3670 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
3671
3672 set disassemble-next-line
3673 show disassemble-next-line
3674 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
3675 the debuggee stops.
3676
3677 set remote noack-packet
3678 show remote noack-packet
3679 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
3680 under "New remote packets."
3681
3682 set remote query-attached-packet
3683 show remote query-attached-packet
3684 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
3685
3686 set remote read-siginfo-object
3687 show remote read-siginfo-object
3688 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
3689 packet.
3690
3691 set remote write-siginfo-object
3692 show remote write-siginfo-object
3693 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
3694 packet.
3695
3696 set remote reverse-continue
3697 show remote reverse-continue
3698 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
3699
3700 set remote reverse-step
3701 show remote reverse-step
3702 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
3703
3704 set displaced-stepping
3705 show displaced-stepping
3706 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
3707 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
3708 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
3709
3710 set debug displaced
3711 show debug displaced
3712 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
3713
3714 maint set internal-error
3715 maint show internal-error
3716 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
3717
3718 maint set internal-warning
3719 maint show internal-warning
3720 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
3721
3722 set exec-wrapper
3723 show exec-wrapper
3724 unset exec-wrapper
3725 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
3726
3727 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
3728 show multiple-symbols
3729 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
3730 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
3731 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
3732
3733 set breakpoint always-inserted
3734 show breakpoint always-inserted
3735 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
3736 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
3737 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
3738
3739 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3740 show arm fallback-mode
3741 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
3742 show arm force-mode
3743 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
3744 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
3745 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
3746 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
3747
3748 set disable-randomization
3749 show disable-randomization
3750 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
3751 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
3752 multiple debugging sessions.
3753
3754 set non-stop
3755 show non-stop
3756 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
3757 a breakpoint.
3758
3759 set target-async
3760 show target-async
3761 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
3762 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
3763 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
3764 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
3765
3766 set target-wide-charset
3767 show target-wide-charset
3768 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
3769 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
3770
3771 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
3772 show tcp auto-retry
3773 set tcp connect-timeout
3774 show tcp connect-timeout
3775 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
3776 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
3777 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
3778
3779 set libthread-db-search-path
3780 show libthread-db-search-path
3781 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
3782 libthread_db.
3783
3784 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
3785 show schedule-multiple
3786 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
3787 the current process.
3788
3789 set stack-cache
3790 show stack-cache
3791 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
3792 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
3793 affecting correctness.
3794
3795 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
3796 show interactive-mode
3797 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
3798 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
3799 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
3800 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
3801 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
3802
3803 * Removed commands
3804
3805 info forks
3806 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
3807 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
3808 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
3809 command.
3810
3811 fork NUM
3812 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
3813 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
3814 alias for the `fork' command.
3815
3816 process PID
3817 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
3818 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
3819 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
3820
3821 delete fork NUM
3822 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
3823 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
3824 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
3825 fork' command.
3826
3827 detach fork NUM
3828 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
3829 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
3830 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
3831 fork' command.
3832
3833 * New native configurations
3834
3835 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3836
3837 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3838
3839 * New targets
3840
3841 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
3842 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
3843 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
3844 S+core 3 score-*-*
3845
3846 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3847 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3848
3849 * Removed commands
3850
3851 catch load
3852 catch unload
3853 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3854
3855 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
3856
3857 * New native configurations
3858
3859 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
3860 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
3861
3862 * New targets
3863
3864 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
3865 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
3866
3867 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3868
3869 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
3870 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
3871 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
3872 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
3873
3874 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
3875 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
3876
3877 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
3878 is resolved.
3879
3880 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
3881 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
3882 and in inlined functions.
3883
3884 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
3885 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
3886 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
3887
3888 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
3889
3890 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
3891 registers on PowerPC targets.
3892
3893 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
3894 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
3895
3896 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
3897 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
3898
3899 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
3900 extended-remote mode.
3901
3902 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
3903 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
3904 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
3905 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
3906
3907 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
3908 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
3909 target architectures.
3910
3911 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
3912 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
3913 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
3914 stored in two consecutive float registers.
3915
3916 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
3917 breakpoints now.
3918
3919 * Improved support for debugging Ada
3920 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
3921 include:
3922 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
3923 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
3924 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
3925 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
3926 of an assignment
3927 - Improved command completion in Ada
3928 - Several bug fixes
3929
3930 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
3931 process.
3932
3933 * New commands
3934
3935 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
3936 show print frame-arguments
3937 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
3938 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
3939
3940 remote put
3941 remote get
3942 remote delete
3943 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3944
3945 * New MI commands
3946
3947 -target-file-put
3948 -target-file-get
3949 -target-file-delete
3950 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3951
3952 * New remote packets
3953
3954 vFile:open:
3955 vFile:close:
3956 vFile:pread:
3957 vFile:pwrite:
3958 vFile:unlink:
3959 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
3960
3961 vAttach
3962 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
3963 mode.
3964
3965 vRun
3966 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
3967
3968 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
3969
3970 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
3971 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
3972 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
3973
3974 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
3975 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
3976 -Bsymbolic linker option.
3977
3978 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
3979 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
3980 is not supported.
3981
3982 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
3983 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
3984
3985 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
3986 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
3987
3988 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
3989
3990 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
3991 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
3992 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
3993
3994 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
3995 automatically displayed as character or string data.
3996
3997 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
3998 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
3999 as strings.
4000
4001 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4002 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
4003 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
4004
4005 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4006 iWMMXt coprocessor.
4007
4008 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4009 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4010 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4011
4012 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4013
4014 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4015
4016 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4017 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4018 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4019
4020 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4021 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4022
4023 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4024 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4025 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4026 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4027 Windows and SymbianOS).
4028
4029 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4030 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
4031
4032 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4033 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
4034
4035 * New commands
4036
4037 set remoteflow
4038 show remoteflow
4039 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4040 when debugging using remote targets.
4041
4042 set mem inaccessible-by-default
4043 show mem inaccessible-by-default
4044 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4045 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4046 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4047 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4048 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4049
4050 set breakpoint auto-hw
4051 show breakpoint auto-hw
4052 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4053 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4054 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4055 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4056 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4057 including "next" and "finish".
4058
4059 catch exception
4060 catch exception unhandled
4061 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4062
4063 catch assert
4064 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4065
4066 set sysroot
4067 show sysroot
4068 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4069 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4070 an alias to "set sysroot".
4071
4072 info spu
4073 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4074 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4075 architecture.
4076
4077 * New native configurations
4078
4079 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4080
4081 set tdesc filename
4082 unset tdesc filename
4083 show tdesc filename
4084 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4085 not query the target for its built-in description.
4086
4087 * New targets
4088
4089 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4090 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4091 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4092
4093 * New remote packets
4094
4095 QPassSignals:
4096 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4097 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4098
4099 qXfer:features:read:
4100 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4101 features.
4102
4103 qXfer:spu:read:
4104 qXfer:spu:write:
4105 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4106 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4107
4108 qXfer:libraries:read:
4109 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4110 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4111 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4112 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4113
4114 * Removed targets
4115
4116 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4117
4118 alpha*-*-osf1*
4119 alpha*-*-osf2*
4120 d10v-*-*
4121 hppa*-*-hiux*
4122 i[34567]86-ncr-*
4123 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
4124 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4125 i[34567]86-*-netware*
4126 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4127 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4128 i[34567]86-*-sco*
4129 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4130 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
4131 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
4132 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4133 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4134 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
4135 i[34567]86-*-isc*
4136 m68*-cisco*-*
4137 m68*-tandem-*
4138 mips*-*-pe
4139 rs6000-*-lynxos*
4140 sh*-*-pe
4141
4142 * Other removed features
4143
4144 target abug
4145 target cpu32bug
4146 target est
4147 target rom68k
4148
4149 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4150
4151 target hms
4152 target e7000
4153 target sh3
4154 target sh3e
4155
4156 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4157 H8/300.
4158
4159 target ocd
4160
4161 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4162 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4163 interfaces.
4164
4165 DWARF 1 support
4166
4167 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4168 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4169
4170 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4171
4172 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4173 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4174 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4175 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4176
4177 MIPS ".pdr" sections
4178
4179 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4180 in debugging information.
4181
4182 Scheme support
4183
4184 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4185 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4186
4187 set mips stack-arg-size
4188 set mips saved-gpreg-size
4189
4190 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4191
4192 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
4193
4194 * New targets
4195
4196 Xtensa xtensa-elf
4197 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4198
4199 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4200 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4201 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4202
4203 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4204 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4205 supported.
4206
4207 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4208 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4209
4210 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4211 stub provides the required support.
4212
4213 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4214 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4215
4216 * New commands
4217
4218 set substitute-path
4219 unset substitute-path
4220 show substitute-path
4221 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4222 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4223 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4224 between compilation and debugging.
4225
4226 set trace-commands
4227 show trace-commands
4228 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4229 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4230 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4231
4232 * REMOVED features
4233
4234 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4235
4236 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4237 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4238
4239 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4240
4241 * New remote packets
4242
4243 qSupported:
4244 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4245 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4246 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4247 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4248 target.
4249
4250 qXfer:auxv:read:
4251 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4252 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4253
4254 qXfer:memory-map:read:
4255 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4256 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4257
4258 vFlashErase:
4259 vFlashWrite:
4260 vFlashDone:
4261 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4262
4263 * Removed remote packets
4264
4265 qPart:auxv:read:
4266 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4267 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4268
4269 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
4270
4271 * New targets
4272
4273 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4274
4275 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4276
4277 * New commands
4278
4279 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
4280 only if it doesn't already have a value.
4281
4282 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
4283
4284 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
4285
4286 restart <n> Return the program state to a
4287 previously saved state.
4288
4289 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
4290
4291 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
4292
4293 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
4294 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
4295
4296 info forks List forks of the user program that
4297 are available to be debugged.
4298
4299 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
4300 forks of the user program that are
4301 available to be debugged.
4302
4303 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4304 that are available to be debugged (and
4305 kill the forked process).
4306
4307 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4308 that are available to be debugged (and
4309 allow the process to continue).
4310
4311 * New architecture
4312
4313 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
4314
4315 * Improved Windows host support
4316
4317 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
4318 native console support, and remote communications using either
4319 network sockets or serial ports.
4320
4321 * Improved Modula-2 language support
4322
4323 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
4324 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
4325 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
4326 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
4327 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
4328 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
4329
4330 * REMOVED features
4331
4332 The ARM rdi-share module.
4333
4334 The Netware NLM debug server.
4335
4336 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
4337
4338 * New native configurations
4339
4340 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
4341 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
4342
4343 * New targets
4344
4345 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4346
4347 * New command line options
4348
4349 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
4350 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
4351 the child (debugged) program exited with.
4352 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
4353 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
4354 specified multiple times and in conjunction
4355 with the --command (-x) option.
4356
4357 * Deprecated commands removed
4358
4359 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
4360 removed:
4361
4362 Command Replacement
4363 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
4364 othernames set arm disassembler
4365 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
4366 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
4367 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
4368 regs info registers
4369
4370 * New BSD user-level threads support
4371
4372 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
4373 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
4374 configurations are:
4375
4376 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4377 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
4378 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
4379
4380 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
4381 are not yet supported.
4382
4383 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
4384 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
4385
4386 * REMOVED configurations and files
4387
4388 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
4389 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4390 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
4391
4392 * New "set print array-indexes" command
4393
4394 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
4395 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
4396 behavior.
4397
4398 * VAX floating point support
4399
4400 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
4401
4402 * User-defined command support
4403
4404 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
4405 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
4406 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
4407
4408 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
4409
4410 * New command line option
4411
4412 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
4413 debugging.
4414
4415 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
4416
4417 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
4418 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
4419 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
4420 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
4421 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
4422
4423 * Internationalization
4424
4425 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
4426 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
4427 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
4428
4429 * Ada
4430
4431 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
4432 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
4433 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
4434
4435 * New native configurations
4436
4437 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
4438
4439 * Remote 'p' packet
4440
4441 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
4442 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
4443
4444 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
4445
4446 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4447 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
4448 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
4449 i386 application).
4450
4451 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
4452 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
4453 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
4454 configurations:
4455
4456 hppa-*-hpux
4457 ia64-*-aix
4458 mips-*-irix*
4459 *-*-lynx
4460 mips-*-linux-gnu
4461 sds protocol
4462 xdr protocol
4463 powerpc bdm protocol
4464
4465 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4466 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
4467
4468 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4469
4470 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4471 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4472 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4473 permanently REMOVED.
4474
4475 h8300-*-*
4476 mcore-*-*
4477 mn10300-*-*
4478 ns32k-*-*
4479 sh64-*-*
4480 v850-*-*
4481
4482 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
4483
4484 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
4485
4486 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
4487 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
4488 been fixed.
4489
4490 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
4491
4492 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
4493 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
4494 IRIX long double values).
4495
4496 * VAX and "next"
4497
4498 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
4499 command. This problem has been fixed.
4500
4501 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
4502
4503 * Fix for ``many threads''
4504
4505 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
4506 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
4507 error message:
4508
4509 ptrace: No such process.
4510 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
4511
4512 This problem has been fixed.
4513
4514 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
4515
4516 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
4517 GDB to dump core).
4518
4519 * New ``start'' command.
4520
4521 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
4522
4523 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
4524
4525 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
4526 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
4527 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
4528
4529 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4530 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
4531 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
4532 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
4533 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
4534 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4535 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
4536 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
4537 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4538
4539 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
4540
4541 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
4542 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
4543 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
4544 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
4545 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
4546
4547 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
4548 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
4549 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
4550
4551 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
4552
4553 * New native configurations
4554
4555 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
4556 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
4557 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
4558 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
4559 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
4560 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
4561 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
4562
4563 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
4564
4565 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
4566 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
4567 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
4568 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
4569 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
4570 work, was also included.
4571
4572 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
4573 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
4574
4575 h8300-*-*
4576 mcore-*-*
4577 mn10300-*-*
4578 ns32k-*-*
4579 sh64-*-*
4580 v850-*-*
4581 xstormy16-*-*
4582
4583 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
4584 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
4585
4586 * REMOVED configurations and files
4587
4588 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4589 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4590 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4591 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4592 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4593 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4594 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4595 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4596 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4597 sonymips mips-sony-*
4598 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4599
4600 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
4601
4602 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
4603
4604 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
4605 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
4606 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
4607 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
4608 with GDB".
4609
4610 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
4611
4612 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
4613 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
4614 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
4615 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
4616 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
4617 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
4618 are created.
4619
4620 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
4621
4622 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
4623
4624 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
4625 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
4626 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
4627
4628 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
4629
4630 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
4631 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
4632
4633 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
4634
4635 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
4636 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
4637 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
4638
4639 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
4640
4641 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
4642 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
4643
4644 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
4645
4646 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
4647 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
4648 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
4649
4650 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
4651
4652 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
4653 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
4654 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
4655
4656 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
4657
4658 * Removed --with-mmalloc
4659
4660 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
4661 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
4662
4663 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
4664
4665 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
4666 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
4667 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
4668 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
4669
4670 * Revised SPARC target
4671
4672 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
4673 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
4674 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
4675 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
4676 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
4677
4678 * New C++ demangler
4679
4680 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
4681 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
4682 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
4683 programs.
4684
4685 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4686
4687 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
4688 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
4689 encountered these.
4690
4691 * C++ nested types and namespaces
4692
4693 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
4694 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
4695 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
4696 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
4697 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
4698 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
4699 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
4700 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
4701 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
4702
4703 * New native configurations
4704
4705 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
4706 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
4707 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
4708 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
4709 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
4710
4711 * New debugging protocols
4712
4713 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
4714
4715 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
4716
4717 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
4718 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
4719 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
4720
4721 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4722
4723 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4724 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4725 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4726 permanently REMOVED.
4727
4728 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
4729 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
4730 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
4731 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
4732 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
4733 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
4734 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
4735 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
4736 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
4737 sonymips mips-sony-*
4738 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
4739
4740 * REMOVED configurations and files
4741
4742 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4743 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4744 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4745 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4746 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4747 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4748 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4749 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4750 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4751 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4752 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4753 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4754 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4755 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
4756 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4757 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4758 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4759
4760 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
4761
4762 * Objective-C
4763
4764 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
4765 integrated into GDB.
4766
4767 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
4768
4769 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
4770 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
4771 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
4772 backtraces.
4773
4774 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
4775 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
4776 DWARF 2 CFI support.
4777
4778 * Hosted file I/O.
4779
4780 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
4781 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
4782 remote protocol documentation for details.
4783
4784 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
4785
4786 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
4787 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
4788 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
4789 ppc32 on ppc64).
4790
4791 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
4792
4793 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
4794 per-thread variables.
4795
4796 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
4797
4798 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
4799 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
4800
4801 * Separate debug info.
4802
4803 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
4804 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
4805 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
4806 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
4807 and optional debug files.
4808
4809 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
4810
4811 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
4812 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
4813 debugger.
4814
4815 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
4816 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
4817
4818 * Java
4819
4820 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
4821 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
4822 considered "useable".
4823
4824 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
4825
4826 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
4827 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
4828 kernel.
4829
4830 * GDB supports logging output to a file
4831
4832 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4833 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
4834
4835 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4836
4837 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4838 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4839 command.
4840
4841 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
4842
4843 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4844 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4845
4846 * Profiling support
4847
4848 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4849 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4850 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4851 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4852 data, for more informative profiling results.
4853
4854 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4855
4856 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4857 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
4858 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
4859
4860 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4861 removed.
4862
4863 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4864 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4865 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4866 in a subsequent -var-update.
4867
4868 * New native configurations.
4869
4870 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4871
4872 * Multi-arched targets.
4873
4874 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
4875 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4876
4877 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4878
4879 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4880 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4881 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4882 permanently REMOVED.
4883
4884 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4885 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4886 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4887 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4888 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4889 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4890 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4891 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4892 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4893 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4894 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4895 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4896
4897 * REMOVED configurations and files
4898
4899 V850EA ISA
4900 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4901 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4902 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4903 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4904 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4905 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4906 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4907 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4908 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4909 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4910 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4911 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4912 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4913
4914 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
4915
4916 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
4917 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
4918 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
4919 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
4920 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
4921
4922 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
4923
4924 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
4925
4926 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
4927 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
4928 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
4929 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
4930 shared libs like mad''.
4931
4932 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
4933
4934 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
4935 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
4936 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
4937 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
4938
4939 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
4940
4941 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
4942 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
4943 they expand.
4944
4945 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
4946 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
4947
4948 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
4949 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
4950
4951 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
4952 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
4953 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
4954 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
4955
4956 * Multi-arched targets.
4957
4958 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
4959 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
4960 NEC V850 v850-*-*
4961 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
4962 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
4963 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4964
4965 * New targets.
4966
4967 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
4968
4969
4970 * New native configurations
4971
4972 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
4973 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
4974 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
4975 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
4976
4977 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4978
4979 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4980 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4981 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4982 permanently REMOVED.
4983
4984 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4985 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4986 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4987 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4988 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4989 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4990 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4991 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4992 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4993 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4994 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4995 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4996 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4997
4998 * OBSOLETE languages
4999
5000 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5001
5002 * REMOVED configurations and files
5003
5004 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5005 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5006 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5007 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5008 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5009
5010 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5011
5012 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5013
5014 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5015 commands. The default is 1024.
5016
5017 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5018
5019 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5020
5021 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5022
5023 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5024 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5025 from a file into memory (restore).
5026
5027 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5028
5029 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5030 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5031 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5032
5033 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5034
5035 * New targets.
5036
5037 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
5038
5039 * Bug fixes
5040
5041 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5042 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5043 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5044
5045 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5046 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5047 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5048
5049 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5050 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5051 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5052
5053 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5054 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5055 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5056
5057 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5058
5059 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5060
5061 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5062 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5063 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5064 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5065 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5066 (notably embedded) targets.
5067
5068 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5069
5070 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5071 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5072 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5073 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5074
5075 * New command line option
5076
5077 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5078
5079 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5080
5081 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5082 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5083 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5084 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5085 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5086 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5087 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5088 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5089 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5090 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5091
5092 * Changes in ARM configurations.
5093
5094 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5095 configuration is fully multi-arch.
5096
5097 * New native configurations
5098
5099 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5100 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5101 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5102 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5103
5104 * New targets
5105
5106 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5107
5108 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5109
5110 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5111 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5112 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5113 permanently REMOVED.
5114
5115 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5116 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5117 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5118 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5119 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5120
5121 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5122
5123 * REMOVED configurations and files
5124
5125 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5126 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5127 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5128 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5129 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5130 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5131 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5132 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5133 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5134 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5135 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5136 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5137 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5138
5139 * Changes to command line processing
5140
5141 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5142 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5143
5144 * Changes to key bindings
5145
5146 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5147
5148 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5149
5150 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5151
5152 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5153 corrupted.
5154
5155 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5156
5157 Numerous documentation fixes.
5158
5159 Numerous testsuite fixes.
5160
5161 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5162
5163 * New native configurations
5164
5165 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5166 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5167 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5168 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5169 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5170 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5171
5172 * New targets
5173
5174 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5175 CRIS cris-axis
5176 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5177
5178 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5179
5180 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5181 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5182 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5183 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5184 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5185 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5186 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5187 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5188 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5189 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5190 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5191 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5192 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5193 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5194
5195 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5196 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5197
5198 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5199 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5200 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5201 permanently REMOVED.
5202
5203 * REMOVED configurations and files
5204
5205 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5206 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5207 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5208 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5209 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5210 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
5211
5212 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5213
5214 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5215 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5216 present.
5217
5218 * Other news:
5219
5220 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5221
5222 * The MI enabled by default.
5223
5224 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5225 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5226 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5227 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5228 which is now deprecated.
5229
5230 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5231
5232 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5233 main features are supported:
5234
5235 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5236
5237 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5238 extension;
5239
5240 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5241
5242 - a Pascal expression parser.
5243
5244 However, some important features are not yet supported.
5245
5246 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5247
5248 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5249
5250 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5251 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5252
5253 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5254
5255 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5256
5257 * Changes in completion.
5258
5259 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5260 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5261 users expect at the shell prompt.
5262
5263 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5264 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5265 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5266 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5267 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5268 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5269 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5270
5271 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5272
5273 * New platform-independent commands:
5274
5275 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5276 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5277 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5278
5279 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
5280
5281 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
5282 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
5283 many threads as your system allows you to have.
5284
5285 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
5286
5287 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
5288 multi-threaded programs though.
5289
5290 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
5291
5292 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
5293
5294 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
5295 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
5296 supported.)
5297
5298 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
5299
5300 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
5301 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
5302 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
5303 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
5304 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
5305 registers.
5306
5307 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
5308 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
5309 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
5310
5311 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
5312
5313 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
5314 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
5315
5316 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
5317 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
5318 IDT.
5319
5320 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
5321 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
5322 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
5323 a given linear address.
5324
5325 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
5326 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
5327 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
5328
5329 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
5330
5331 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
5332
5333 * Changes in documentation.
5334
5335 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
5336 Documentation License.
5337
5338 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5339 manual.
5340
5341 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
5342
5343 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5344 manual.
5345
5346 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
5347 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
5348 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
5349
5350 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
5351
5352 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
5353 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
5354 contents of this file.
5355
5356 * gdba.el deleted
5357
5358 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
5359
5360 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
5361
5362 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
5363
5364 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
5365 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
5366 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
5367 greater level of detail.
5368
5369 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
5370
5371 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
5372 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
5373 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
5374 written.
5375
5376 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
5377
5378 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
5379 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
5380 machines ``out of the box''.
5381
5382 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
5383 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
5384 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
5385 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
5386 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
5387
5388 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
5389 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
5390 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
5391 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
5392 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
5393
5394 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
5395 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
5396 also works.
5397
5398 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
5399 GDB.
5400
5401 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
5402 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
5403 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
5404 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
5405
5406 * New native configurations
5407
5408 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
5409 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5410
5411 * New targets
5412
5413 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
5414 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
5415 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
5416 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5417
5418 * OBSOLETE configurations
5419
5420 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5421 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5422 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5423 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5424 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5425
5426 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5427 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5428 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5429 be permanently REMOVED.
5430
5431 * Gould support removed
5432
5433 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
5434
5435 * New features for SVR4
5436
5437 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
5438 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
5439 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
5440
5441 * Many C++ enhancements
5442
5443 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
5444 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
5445
5446 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
5447
5448 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
5449 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
5450 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
5451 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
5452
5453 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
5454 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
5455
5456 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
5457
5458 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
5459 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
5460 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
5461
5462 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
5463 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
5464
5465 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
5466
5467 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
5468 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
5469 include ``set remote P-packet''.
5470
5471 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
5472
5473 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
5474 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
5475 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
5476
5477 * ``apropos'' command added.
5478
5479 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
5480 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
5481 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
5482
5483 * New MI interface
5484
5485 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
5486 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
5487 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
5488 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
5489 enabled by configuring with:
5490
5491 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
5492
5493 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
5494
5495 * New native configurations
5496
5497 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
5498 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
5499 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
5500
5501 * New targets
5502
5503 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5504 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
5505 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5506
5507 * OBSOLETE configurations
5508
5509 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
5510
5511 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
5512 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
5513 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
5514 be permanently REMOVED.
5515
5516 * ANSI/ISO C
5517
5518 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
5519 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
5520 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
5521 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
5522 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
5523 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
5524 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
5525 already.
5526
5527 * Readline 2.2
5528
5529 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
5530
5531 * set extension-language
5532
5533 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
5534 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
5535 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
5536 set extension-language .c c++
5537 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
5538 and their associated languages.
5539
5540 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
5541
5542 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
5543 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
5544 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
5545
5546 set processor NAME
5547
5548 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
5549 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
5550
5551 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
5552 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
5553 403 IBM PowerPC 403
5554 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
5555 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
5556 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
5557 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
5558 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
5559 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
5560 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
5561 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
5562
5563 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
5564 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
5565 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
5566 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
5567
5568 * HP-UX support
5569
5570 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
5571 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
5572 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
5573 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
5574 for xdb and dbx commands.
5575
5576 * Catchpoints
5577
5578 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
5579 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
5580 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
5581
5582 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
5583 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
5584 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
5585
5586 * Debugging across forks
5587
5588 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
5589 in the inferior.
5590
5591 * TUI
5592
5593 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
5594 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
5595 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
5596
5597 * GDB remote protocol additions
5598
5599 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
5600 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
5601 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
5602 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
5603
5604 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
5605 full 64-bit address. The command
5606
5607 set remoteaddresssize 32
5608
5609 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
5610 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
5611 will be discarded.
5612
5613 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
5614 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
5615
5616 maint packet heythere
5617
5618 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
5619 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
5620 time.
5621
5622 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
5623 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
5624 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
5625
5626 * Tracing can collect general expressions
5627
5628 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
5629 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
5630 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
5631
5632 * mask-address variable for Mips
5633
5634 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
5635 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
5636 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
5637
5638 * Higher serial baud rates
5639
5640 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
5641 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
5642 to achieve all of these rates.)
5643
5644 * i960 simulator
5645
5646 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
5647 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
5648
5649
5650 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
5651
5652 * New native configurations
5653
5654 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
5655 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
5656 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5657 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
5658 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5659 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
5660 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
5661
5662 * New targets
5663
5664 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5665 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
5666 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5667 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
5668 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
5669 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
5670 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
5671 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
5672 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5673 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5674 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
5675
5676 * New debugging protocols
5677
5678 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
5679 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
5680 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
5681 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5682 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5683 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
5684
5685 * DWARF 2
5686
5687 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
5688 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
5689 information.
5690
5691 * Java frontend
5692
5693 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
5694 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
5695
5696 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
5697
5698 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
5699 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
5700 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
5701
5702 * Live range splitting
5703
5704 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
5705 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
5706 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
5707
5708 * Hurd support
5709
5710 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
5711 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
5712
5713 * ARM Thumb support
5714
5715 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
5716 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
5717 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
5718 accordingly.
5719
5720 * MIPS16 support
5721
5722 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
5723 instruction set.
5724
5725 * Overlay support
5726
5727 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
5728 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
5729 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
5730 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
5731 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
5732 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
5733
5734 * info symbol
5735
5736 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
5737 the symbol at the specified address.
5738
5739 * Trace support
5740
5741 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
5742 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
5743 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
5744 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
5745 file tracepoint.c for more details.
5746
5747 * MIPS simulator
5748
5749 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
5750 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
5751 of most MIPS variants.
5752
5753 * Sparc simulator
5754
5755 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
5756 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
5757 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
5758
5759 * set architecture
5760
5761 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
5762 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
5763 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
5764 the possible architectures.
5765
5766 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
5767
5768 * New native configurations
5769
5770 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
5771 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
5772 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
5773 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
5774 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5775 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
5776
5777 * New targets
5778
5779 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
5780 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5781 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
5782 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
5783 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
5784 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
5785 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5786
5787 * PowerPC simulator
5788
5789 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
5790 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
5791 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
5792 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
5793 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
5794
5795 * Solaris 2.5
5796
5797 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
5798
5799 * Windows 95/NT native
5800
5801 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
5802 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
5803 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
5804 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
5805 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
5806
5807 * dont-repeat command
5808
5809 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
5810 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
5811 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
5812 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
5813
5814 * Send break instead of ^C
5815
5816 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
5817 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
5818 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
5819
5820 * Remote protocol timeout
5821
5822 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
5823 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
5824 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
5825
5826 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
5827
5828 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
5829 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
5830 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
5831 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
5832 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5833
5834 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5835 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5836 automatically on hpux10.
5837
5838 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5839
5840 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5841
5842 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5843
5844 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5845 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5846 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5847 every character. The default value is 1050.
5848
5849 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5850
5851 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5852 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5853 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5854 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5855 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5856 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5857
5858 * Speedups for remote debugging
5859
5860 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5861 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5862 and more efficient S-record downloading.
5863
5864 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5865
5866 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5867 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5868
5869 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
5870
5871 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
5872
5873 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
5874 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
5875
5876 * Remote targets use caching
5877
5878 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
5879 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
5880 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
5881 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
5882 off' turns the the data cache off.
5883
5884 * Remote targets may have threads
5885
5886 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
5887 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
5888 gdb/remote.c for details.
5889
5890 * NetROM support
5891
5892 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
5893 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
5894 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
5895 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
5896 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
5897 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
5898 sequence is something like
5899
5900 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
5901 load <prog>
5902 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
5903
5904 * Macintosh host
5905
5906 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
5907 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
5908 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
5909 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
5910 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
5911 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
5912 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
5913 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
5914
5915 * Autoconf
5916
5917 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
5918 but does simplify configuration and building.
5919
5920 * hpux10
5921
5922 GDB now supports hpux10.
5923
5924 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
5925
5926 * New native configurations
5927
5928 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
5929 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
5930 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
5931 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
5932
5933 * New targets
5934
5935 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5936 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
5937 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
5938 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
5939 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5940
5941 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
5942
5943 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
5944 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
5945 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
5946 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
5947 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
5948
5949 * Arguments to user-defined commands
5950
5951 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
5952 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
5953 trivial example:
5954 define adder
5955 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
5956
5957 To execute the command use:
5958 adder 1 2 3
5959
5960 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
5961 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
5962 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
5963
5964 * New `if' and `while' commands
5965
5966 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
5967 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
5968 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
5969 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
5970 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
5971 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
5972 if the expression is zero.
5973
5974 * Fortran source language mode
5975
5976 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
5977 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
5978 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
5979 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
5980 Fortran compilers.
5981
5982 * Better HPUX support
5983
5984 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
5985 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
5986 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
5987 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
5988 that behavior do the following before running the program:
5989
5990 adb -w a.out
5991 __dld_flags?W 0x5
5992 control-d
5993
5994 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
5995 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
5996
5997 adb -w a.out
5998 __dld_flags?W 0x4
5999 control-d
6000
6001 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6002 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6003 external linkage.
6004
6005 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6006 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6007
6008 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6009
6010 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6011 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6012 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6013 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6014 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6015 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6016
6017 * New DOS host serial code
6018
6019 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6020 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6021 a PC's serial port.
6022
6023 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6024
6025 * New "complete" command
6026
6027 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6028 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6029
6030 * Trailing space optional in prompt
6031
6032 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6033 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6034
6035 * Breakpoint hit counts
6036
6037 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6038 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6039 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6040 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6041 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6042 that breakpoint.
6043
6044 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6045
6046 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6047 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6048 arrays actually contain only short strings.
6049
6050 * Shared library breakpoints
6051
6052 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6053 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6054
6055 * Hardware watchpoints
6056
6057 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6058 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6059
6060 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6061
6062 * Annotations
6063
6064 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6065 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6066
6067 * Improved Irix 5 support
6068
6069 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6070
6071 * Improved HPPA support
6072
6073 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6074
6075 * New native configurations
6076
6077 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6078 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6079 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6080 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6081
6082 * New targets
6083
6084 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6085 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6086 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
6087
6088 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6089
6090 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6091 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6092
6093 * Fixes
6094
6095 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6096 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6097
6098 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6099
6100 * Irix 5 is now supported
6101
6102 * HPPA support
6103
6104 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6105 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6106 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6107 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6108 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6109
6110
6111 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6112
6113 * User visible changes:
6114
6115 * Remote Debugging
6116
6117 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6118 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6119 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6120 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6121 debugging info for the mips target).
6122
6123 * DEC Alpha native support
6124
6125 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6126 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6127 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6128 Alpha-specific notes.
6129
6130 * Preliminary thread implementation
6131
6132 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6133
6134 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
6135
6136 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6137 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6138 for details).
6139
6140 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6141
6142 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6143 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6144 call methods, ...etc.
6145
6146 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6147
6148 * User visible changes:
6149
6150 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6151 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6152 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6153 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6154
6155 Filename completion now works.
6156
6157 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6158 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6159 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6160
6161 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6162 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6163 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6164 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6165 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6166
6167 * DEC alpha support
6168
6169 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6170 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6171
6172
6173 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6174
6175 * Testsuite
6176
6177 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6178 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6179 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6180
6181 * C++ demangling
6182
6183 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6184 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6185 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6186 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6187 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6188
6189 * Simulators
6190
6191 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6192 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6193 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6194
6195 * New targets supported
6196
6197 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6198 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6199 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6200 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6201 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6202
6203 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6204 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6205 GO32 memory extender.
6206
6207 * New remote protocols
6208
6209 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6210
6211 * New source languages supported
6212
6213 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6214 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6215 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6216
6217
6218 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6219
6220 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6221
6222 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6223 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6224 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6225 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6226 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6227 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6228
6229 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6230
6231 * Faster and better demangling
6232
6233 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6234 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6235 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6236 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6237 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6238 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6239 symbol lookups.
6240
6241 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6242 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6243 compiler does not actually implement.
6244
6245 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6246
6247 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6248 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6249 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6250 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6251 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6252 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6253 fix.
6254
6255 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6256 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6257
6258 * Improved configure script
6259
6260 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6261 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6262 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6263 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6264
6265 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6266 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6267 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6268 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6269 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6270 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6271
6272 * Documentation improvements
6273
6274 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6275 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6276 before submitting changes.
6277
6278 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
6279 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
6280 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
6281 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
6282 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
6283
6284 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
6285 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
6286 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
6287 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
6288 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
6289 around this problem.
6290
6291 * New features
6292
6293 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
6294 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
6295 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
6296 the target program.
6297
6298 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
6299 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
6300
6301 * New native hosts supported
6302
6303 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
6304 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
6305
6306 * New targets supported
6307
6308 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
6309
6310 * New file formats supported
6311
6312 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
6313 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
6314
6315 * Major bug fixes
6316
6317 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
6318
6319 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
6320 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
6321
6322 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
6323 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
6324 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
6325
6326 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
6327 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
6328
6329 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
6330 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
6331 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
6332 libraries.
6333
6334 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
6335 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
6336 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
6337 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
6338 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
6339
6340 * Internal improvements
6341
6342 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
6343 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
6344
6345 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
6346 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
6347 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
6348 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
6349 shared code that handles any of them.
6350
6351 * New command line options
6352
6353 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
6354
6355 * Mmalloc licensing
6356
6357 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
6358 General Public License.
6359
6360 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
6361
6362 * Host/native/target split
6363
6364 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
6365 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
6366 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
6367 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
6368 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
6369
6370 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
6371 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
6372 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
6373 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
6374 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
6375 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
6376 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
6377
6378 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
6379 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
6380 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
6381
6382 * New hosts supported
6383
6384 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
6385 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6386 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
6387
6388 * New targets supported
6389
6390 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
6391 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
6392
6393 * New native hosts supported
6394
6395 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
6396 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
6397 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
6398
6399 * New file formats supported
6400
6401 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
6402 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
6403 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
6404
6405 * New commands
6406
6407 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
6408 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
6409 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
6410
6411 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
6412
6413 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
6414 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
6415 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
6416 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
6417
6418 * C++ improvements
6419
6420 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
6421 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
6422 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
6423
6424 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
6425
6426 * Major bug fixes
6427
6428 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
6429 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
6430 by the compiler.
6431
6432 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
6433 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
6434
6435 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
6436 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
6437 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
6438 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
6439 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
6440 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
6441
6442 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
6443 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
6444 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
6445 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
6446
6447 * AMD 29k support
6448
6449 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
6450 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
6451 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
6452 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
6453 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
6454
6455 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
6456 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
6457 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
6458 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
6459
6460 * Remote interfaces
6461
6462 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
6463 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
6464 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
6465 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
6466 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
6467 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
6468 each instruction being stepped through.
6469
6470 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
6471 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
6472
6473 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
6474 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
6475 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
6476 processor with a serial port.
6477
6478 * Configuration
6479
6480 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
6481 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
6482 supported, and what files each one uses.
6483
6484 * Library changes
6485
6486 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
6487 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
6488 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
6489 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
6490
6491 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
6492 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
6493 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
6494 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
6495
6496 * Documentation
6497
6498 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
6499 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
6500 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
6501 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
6502 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
6503 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
6504
6505 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
6506
6507
6508 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
6509
6510 * Better support for C++ function names
6511
6512 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
6513 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
6514 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
6515 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
6516 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
6517
6518 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
6519 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
6520 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
6521 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
6522 for the list of formats.
6523
6524 * G++ symbol mangling problem
6525
6526 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
6527 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
6528 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
6529 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
6530 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
6531 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
6532 this problem.)
6533
6534 * New 'maintenance' command
6535
6536 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
6537 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
6538 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
6539
6540 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
6541 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
6542 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
6543 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
6544 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
6545 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
6546
6547 The following commands are new:
6548
6549 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
6550 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
6551 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
6552
6553 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
6554
6555 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
6556 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
6557 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
6558 read after argv processing.
6559
6560 * New hosts supported
6561
6562 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
6563
6564 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
6565
6566 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
6567 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
6568 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
6569 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
6570 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
6571 It costs extra.
6572
6573 * New targets supported
6574
6575 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6576
6577 * More smarts about finding #include files
6578
6579 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
6580 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
6581 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
6582 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
6583 the one that contains your sources.
6584
6585 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
6586 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
6587 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
6588
6589 * Interesting infernals change
6590
6591 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
6592 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
6593 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
6594 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
6595
6596 * Bug fixes (of course!)
6597
6598 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
6599 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
6600 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
6601
6602 See the ChangeLog for details.
6603
6604 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
6605
6606 * New machines supported (host and target)
6607
6608 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
6609
6610 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
6611
6612 * New malloc package
6613
6614 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
6615 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
6616 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
6617 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
6618 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
6619 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
6620
6621 * info proc
6622
6623 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
6624 'help info proc' for details.
6625
6626 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
6627
6628 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
6629 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
6630 possible.
6631
6632 * File name changes for MS-DOS
6633
6634 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
6635 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
6636 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
6637 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
6638 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
6639 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
6640
6641 * Cross byte order fixes
6642
6643 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
6644 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
6645
6646 * New -mapped and -readnow options
6647
6648 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
6649 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
6650 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
6651 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
6652 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
6653 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
6654 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
6655 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
6656 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
6657 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
6658
6659 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
6660 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
6661 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
6662 slower, but makes future operations faster.
6663
6664 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
6665 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
6666 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
6667 use is:
6668
6669 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
6670
6671 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
6672 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
6673 shared across multiple host platforms.
6674
6675 * longjmp() handling
6676
6677 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
6678 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
6679 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
6680 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
6681
6682 * Solaris 2.0
6683
6684 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
6685 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
6686 reading symbols.
6687
6688 * Bug fixes
6689
6690 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
6691 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
6692 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
6693
6694 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
6695
6696 * New machines supported (host and target)
6697
6698 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6699 (except core files)
6700 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
6701 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
6702
6703 * New machines supported (target)
6704
6705 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6706
6707 * C++ support
6708
6709 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
6710 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
6711 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
6712
6713 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
6714 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
6715 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
6716 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
6717 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
6718 released.
6719
6720 * New features for SVR4
6721
6722 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
6723 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
6724 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
6725
6726 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
6727 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
6728 it prints the address mappings of the process.
6729
6730 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
6731 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
6732
6733 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
6734
6735 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
6736 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
6737 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
6738 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
6739 same code linked statically.
6740
6741 * New Getopt
6742
6743 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
6744 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
6745 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
6746 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
6747 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
6748 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
6749
6750 * Bugs fixed
6751
6752 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6753 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6754 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6755
6756
6757 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
6758
6759 * New machines supported (host and target)
6760
6761 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
6762 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
6763 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
6764
6765 * Almost SCO Unix support
6766
6767 We had hoped to support:
6768 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
6769 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
6770 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
6771 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
6772
6773 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
6774
6775 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
6776 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
6777 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
6778 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
6779 reqired (if any).
6780
6781 * New Readline
6782
6783 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
6784 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
6785 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
6786
6787 * Bugs fixed
6788
6789 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
6790 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
6791 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
6792
6793 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
6794
6795 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
6796 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
6797 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
6798
6799 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
6800 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
6801 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
6802 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
6803 version 2.
6804
6805 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
6806 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
6807 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
6808 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
6809 situation somewhat.
6810
6811 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
6812 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
6813 methods.
6814
6815 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
6816 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
6817 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
6818
6819
6820 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
6821
6822 * Improved configuration
6823
6824 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
6825 Porting BFD is simpler.
6826
6827 * Stepping improved
6828
6829 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
6830 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
6831 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
6832 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6833
6834 * Bug fixing
6835
6836 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6837
6838 * New host supported (not target)
6839
6840 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6841
6842
6843 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6844
6845 * Multiple source language support
6846
6847 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6848 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6849 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6850 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6851 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6852 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6853
6854 * GDB and Modula-2
6855
6856 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6857 currently under development at the State University of New York at
6858 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6859 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6860
6861 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6862 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6863 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6864
6865 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6866 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
6867
6868 * set write on/off
6869
6870 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
6871 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
6872 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
6873 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
6874 effect immediately.
6875
6876 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
6877
6878 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
6879 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
6880 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
6881 examining core files.
6882
6883 * set listsize
6884
6885 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
6886 The default is 10.
6887
6888 * New machines supported (host and target)
6889
6890 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6891 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
6892 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
6893
6894 * New hosts supported (not targets)
6895
6896 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
6897
6898 * New targets supported (not hosts)
6899
6900 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6901 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6902 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
6903
6904 * New remote interfaces
6905
6906 AMD 29000 Adapt
6907 AMD 29000 Minimon
6908
6909
6910 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
6911
6912 * New Facilities
6913
6914 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
6915
6916 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
6917 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
6918 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
6919 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
6920 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
6921 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
6922 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
6923 stub on the target system.
6924
6925 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
6926
6927 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
6928 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
6929 object file types such as a.out and coff.
6930
6931 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
6932 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
6933
6934
6935 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
6936
6937 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
6938 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
6939
6940 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
6941 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
6942 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
6943
6944 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
6945 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
6946 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
6947 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
6948
6949 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
6950 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
6951 it is already running. Default is ON.
6952
6953 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
6954 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
6955 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
6956 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
6957 Default is ON.
6958
6959 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
6960 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
6961 or the value of the environment variable
6962 GDBHISTFILE.
6963
6964 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
6965 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
6966 HISTSIZE.
6967
6968 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
6969 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
6970 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
6971
6972 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
6973 history expansion will be performed on
6974 command line input. The default is OFF.
6975
6976 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
6977 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
6978 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
6979
6980 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
6981 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
6982 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6983 variable TERM.
6984
6985 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
6986 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
6987 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6988 variable TERM.
6989
6990 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
6991 ``set width'' instead.
6992
6993 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
6994 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
6995 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
6996 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
6997
6998 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
6999 is OFF.
7000
7001 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7002 "raw" form if off.
7003
7004 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7005 like instructions.
7006
7007 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7008
7009
7010 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7011
7012 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7013 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7014 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7015 window.
7016
7017
7018 * Support for Shared Libraries
7019
7020 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7021 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7022 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7023 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7024 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7025 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7026 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7027 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7028
7029 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7030 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7031 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7032
7033 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7034
7035
7036 * Watchpoints
7037
7038 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7039 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7040 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7041 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7042 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7043 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7044
7045 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7046
7047 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7048
7049 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7050 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7051 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7052
7053
7054 * C++ multiple inheritance
7055
7056 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7057 for C++ programs.
7058
7059 * C++ exception handling
7060
7061 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7062 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7063 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7064 handler's context).
7065
7066 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7067 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7068 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7069
7070 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7071 current stack frame.
7072
7073
7074 * Minor command changes
7075
7076 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7077 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7078 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7079
7080 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7081 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7082 frames without printing.
7083
7084 * New directory command
7085
7086 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7087 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7088 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7089 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7090 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7091
7092 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7093
7094 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7095 for more details.
7096
7097 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7098 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7099 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7100 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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