1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * Process record and replay
8 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
9 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
10 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
13 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
14 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
15 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
18 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
19 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
22 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
23 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
24 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
25 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
26 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
27 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
28 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
29 the installation instructions for more information.
31 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
32 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
33 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
34 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
36 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
37 now complete on file names.
39 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
40 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
41 For instance, consider:
43 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
44 # struct example variable;
47 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
48 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
50 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
51 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
53 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
54 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
57 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
59 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
64 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
67 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
68 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
69 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
72 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
73 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
76 Obtains additional operating system information
80 Read or write additional signal information.
82 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
84 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
85 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
86 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
88 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
91 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
92 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
94 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
95 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
96 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
98 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
99 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
101 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
103 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
105 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
106 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
108 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
109 list of section offsets.
111 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
112 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
113 have also been fixed.
115 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
116 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
117 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
119 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
122 template<typename T> class C { };
125 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
127 ptype C<char const *>
129 ptype C<const char *>
132 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
134 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
135 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
137 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
138 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
139 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
141 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
142 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
144 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
147 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
148 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
150 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
151 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
156 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
157 available is determined at configure time.
159 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
161 * Ada tasking support
163 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
167 Print the list of Ada tasks.
169 Print detailed information about task number N.
171 Print the task number of the current task.
173 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
175 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
176 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
178 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
180 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
181 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
182 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
183 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
184 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
185 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
188 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
190 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
192 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
194 maint set python print-stack
195 maint show python print-stack
196 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
199 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
204 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
208 Show operating system information about processes.
211 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
214 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
217 Detach from inferior number NUM.
220 Kill inferior number NUM.
224 set sh calling-convention
225 show sh calling-convention
226 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
228 set print symbol-loading
229 show print symbol-loading
230 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
234 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
236 set disassemble-next-line
237 show disassemble-next-line
238 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
241 set remote noack-packet
242 show remote noack-packet
243 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
244 under "New remote packets."
246 set remote query-attached-packet
247 show remote query-attached-packet
248 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
250 set remote read-siginfo-object
251 show remote read-siginfo-object
252 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
255 set remote write-siginfo-object
256 show remote write-siginfo-object
257 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
260 set displaced-stepping
261 show displaced-stepping
262 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
263 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
264 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
268 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
270 maint set internal-error
271 maint show internal-error
272 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
274 maint set internal-warning
275 maint show internal-warning
276 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
281 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
283 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
284 show multiple-symbols
285 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
286 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
287 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
289 set breakpoint always-inserted
290 show breakpoint always-inserted
291 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
292 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
293 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
295 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
296 show arm fallback-mode
297 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
299 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
300 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
301 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
302 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
304 set disable-randomization
305 show disable-randomization
306 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
307 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
308 multiple debugging sessions.
312 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
317 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
318 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
319 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
320 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
322 set target-wide-charset
323 show target-wide-charset
324 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
325 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
327 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
329 set tcp connect-timeout
330 show tcp connect-timeout
331 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
332 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
333 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
335 set libthread-db-search-path
336 show libthread-db-search-path
337 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
340 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
341 show schedule-multiple
342 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
348 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
349 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
350 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
354 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
355 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
356 alias for the `fork' command.
359 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
360 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
361 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
364 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
365 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
366 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
370 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
371 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
372 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
375 * New native configurations
377 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
379 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
383 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
384 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
385 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
387 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
388 (mingw32ce) debugging.
394 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
396 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
398 * New native configurations
400 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
401 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
405 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
406 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
408 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
410 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
411 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
412 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
413 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
415 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
416 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
418 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
421 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
422 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
423 and in inlined functions.
425 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
426 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
427 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
429 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
431 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
432 registers on PowerPC targets.
434 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
435 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
437 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
438 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
440 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
441 extended-remote mode.
443 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
444 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
445 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
446 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
448 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
449 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
450 target architectures.
452 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
453 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
454 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
455 stored in two consecutive float registers.
457 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
460 * Improved support for debugging Ada
461 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
463 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
464 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
465 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
466 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
468 - Improved command completion in Ada
471 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
476 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
477 show print frame-arguments
478 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
479 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
484 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
491 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
500 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
503 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
507 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
509 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
511 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
512 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
513 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
515 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
516 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
517 -Bsymbolic linker option.
519 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
520 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
523 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
524 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
526 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
527 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
529 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
531 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
532 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
533 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
535 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
536 automatically displayed as character or string data.
538 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
539 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
542 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
543 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
544 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
546 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
549 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
550 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
551 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
553 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
555 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
557 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
558 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
559 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
561 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
562 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
564 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
565 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
566 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
567 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
568 Windows and SymbianOS).
570 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
571 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
573 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
574 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
580 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
581 when debugging using remote targets.
583 set mem inaccessible-by-default
584 show mem inaccessible-by-default
585 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
586 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
587 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
588 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
589 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
591 set breakpoint auto-hw
592 show breakpoint auto-hw
593 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
594 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
595 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
596 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
597 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
598 including "next" and "finish".
601 catch exception unhandled
602 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
605 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
609 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
610 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
611 an alias to "set sysroot".
614 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
615 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
618 * New native configurations
620 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
625 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
626 not query the target for its built-in description.
630 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
631 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
632 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
637 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
638 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
641 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
646 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
647 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
649 qXfer:libraries:read:
650 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
651 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
652 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
653 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
657 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
666 i[34567]86-*-netware*
667 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
668 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
670 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
673 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
674 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
683 * Other removed features
690 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
697 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
702 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
703 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
708 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
709 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
711 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
713 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
714 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
715 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
716 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
720 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
721 in debugging information.
725 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
726 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
728 set mips stack-arg-size
729 set mips saved-gpreg-size
731 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
733 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
738 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
740 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
741 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
742 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
744 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
745 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
748 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
749 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
751 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
752 stub provides the required support.
754 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
755 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
760 unset substitute-path
762 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
763 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
764 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
765 between compilation and debugging.
769 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
770 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
771 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
775 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
777 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
778 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
780 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
785 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
786 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
787 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
788 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
792 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
793 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
795 qXfer:memory-map:read:
796 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
797 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
802 Erase and program a flash memory device.
804 * Removed remote packets
807 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
808 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
810 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
814 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
816 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
820 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
821 only if it doesn't already have a value.
823 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
825 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
827 restart <n> Return the program state to a
828 previously saved state.
830 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
832 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
834 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
835 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
837 info forks List forks of the user program that
838 are available to be debugged.
840 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
841 forks of the user program that are
842 available to be debugged.
844 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
845 that are available to be debugged (and
846 kill the forked process).
848 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
849 that are available to be debugged (and
850 allow the process to continue).
854 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
856 * Improved Windows host support
858 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
859 native console support, and remote communications using either
860 network sockets or serial ports.
862 * Improved Modula-2 language support
864 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
865 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
866 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
867 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
868 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
869 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
873 The ARM rdi-share module.
875 The Netware NLM debug server.
877 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
879 * New native configurations
881 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
882 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
886 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
888 * New command line options
890 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
891 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
892 the child (debugged) program exited with.
893 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
894 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
895 specified multiple times and in conjunction
896 with the --command (-x) option.
898 * Deprecated commands removed
900 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
904 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
905 othernames set arm disassembler
906 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
907 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
908 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
911 * New BSD user-level threads support
913 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
914 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
917 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
918 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
919 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
921 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
922 are not yet supported.
924 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
925 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
927 * REMOVED configurations and files
929 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
930 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
931 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
933 * New "set print array-indexes" command
935 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
936 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
939 * VAX floating point support
941 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
943 * User-defined command support
945 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
946 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
947 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
949 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
951 * New command line option
953 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
956 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
958 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
959 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
960 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
961 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
962 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
964 * Internationalization
966 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
967 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
968 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
972 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
973 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
974 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
976 * New native configurations
978 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
982 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
983 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
985 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
987 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
988 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
989 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
992 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
993 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
994 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1004 powerpc bdm protocol
1006 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1007 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1009 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1011 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1012 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1013 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1014 permanently REMOVED.
1023 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1025 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1027 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1028 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1031 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1033 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1034 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1035 IRIX long double values).
1039 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1040 command. This problem has been fixed.
1042 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1044 * Fix for ``many threads''
1046 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1047 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1050 ptrace: No such process.
1051 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1053 This problem has been fixed.
1055 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1057 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1060 * New ``start'' command.
1062 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1064 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1066 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1067 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1068 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1070 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1071 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1072 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1073 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1074 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1075 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1076 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1077 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1078 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1080 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1082 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1083 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1084 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1085 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1086 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1088 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1089 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1090 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1092 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1094 * New native configurations
1096 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1097 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1098 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1099 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1100 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1101 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1102 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1104 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1106 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1107 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1108 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1109 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1110 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1111 work, was also included.
1113 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1114 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1124 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1125 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1127 * REMOVED configurations and files
1129 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1130 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1131 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1132 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1133 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1134 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1135 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1136 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1137 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1138 sonymips mips-sony-*
1139 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1141 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1143 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1145 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1146 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1147 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1148 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1151 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1153 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1154 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1155 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1156 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1157 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1158 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1161 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1163 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1165 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1166 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1167 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1169 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1171 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1172 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1174 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1176 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1177 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1178 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1180 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1182 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1183 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1185 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1187 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1188 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1189 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1191 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1193 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1194 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1195 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1197 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1199 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1201 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1202 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1204 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1206 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1207 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1208 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1209 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1211 * Revised SPARC target
1213 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1214 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1215 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1216 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1217 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1221 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1222 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1223 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1226 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1228 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1229 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1232 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1234 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1235 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1236 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1237 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1238 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1239 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1240 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1241 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1242 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1244 * New native configurations
1246 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1247 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1248 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1249 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1250 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1252 * New debugging protocols
1254 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1256 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1258 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1259 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1260 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1262 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1264 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1265 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1266 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1267 permanently REMOVED.
1269 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1270 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1271 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1272 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1273 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1274 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1275 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1276 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1277 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1278 sonymips mips-sony-*
1279 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1281 * REMOVED configurations and files
1283 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1284 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1285 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1286 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1287 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1288 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1289 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1290 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1291 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1292 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1293 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1294 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1295 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1296 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1297 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1298 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1299 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1301 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1305 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1306 integrated into GDB.
1308 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1310 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1311 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1312 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1315 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1316 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1317 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1321 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1322 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1323 remote protocol documentation for details.
1325 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1327 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1328 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1329 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1332 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1334 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1335 per-thread variables.
1337 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1339 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1340 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1342 * Separate debug info.
1344 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1345 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1346 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1347 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1348 and optional debug files.
1350 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1352 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1353 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1356 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1357 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1361 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1362 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1363 considered "useable".
1365 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1367 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1368 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1371 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1373 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1374 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1376 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1378 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1379 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1382 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1384 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1385 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1389 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1390 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1391 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1392 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1393 data, for more informative profiling results.
1395 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1397 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1398 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1399 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1401 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1404 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1405 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1406 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1407 in a subsequent -var-update.
1409 * New native configurations.
1411 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1413 * Multi-arched targets.
1415 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1416 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1418 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1420 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1421 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1422 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1423 permanently REMOVED.
1425 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1426 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1427 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1428 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1429 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1430 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1431 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1432 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1433 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1434 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1435 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1436 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1438 * REMOVED configurations and files
1441 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1442 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1443 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1444 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1445 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1446 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1448 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1449 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1450 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1451 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1452 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1453 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1455 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1457 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1458 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1459 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1460 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1461 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1463 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1465 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1467 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1468 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1469 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1470 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1471 shared libs like mad''.
1473 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1475 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1476 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1477 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1478 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1480 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1482 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1483 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1486 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1487 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1489 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1490 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1492 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1493 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1494 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1495 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1497 * Multi-arched targets.
1499 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1500 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1502 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1503 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1504 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1508 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1511 * New native configurations
1513 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1514 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1515 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1516 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1518 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1520 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1521 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1522 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1523 permanently REMOVED.
1525 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1526 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1527 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1528 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1529 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1530 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1531 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1532 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1533 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1534 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1536 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1537 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1539 * OBSOLETE languages
1541 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1543 * REMOVED configurations and files
1545 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1546 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1547 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1548 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1549 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1551 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1553 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1555 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1556 commands. The default is 1024.
1558 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1560 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1562 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1564 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1565 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1566 from a file into memory (restore).
1568 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1570 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1571 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1572 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1574 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1582 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1583 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1584 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1586 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1587 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1588 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1590 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1591 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1592 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1594 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1595 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1596 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1598 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1600 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1602 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1603 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1604 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1605 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1606 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1607 (notably embedded) targets.
1609 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1611 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1612 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1613 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1614 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1616 * New command line option
1618 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1620 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1622 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1623 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1624 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1625 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1626 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1627 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1628 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1629 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1630 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1631 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1633 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1635 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1636 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1638 * New native configurations
1640 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1641 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1642 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1643 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1647 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1649 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1651 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1652 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1653 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1654 permanently REMOVED.
1656 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1657 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1658 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1659 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1660 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1662 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1664 * REMOVED configurations and files
1666 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1668 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1669 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1670 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1671 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1672 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1673 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1674 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1675 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1676 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1677 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1678 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1680 * Changes to command line processing
1682 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1683 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1685 * Changes to key bindings
1687 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1689 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1691 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1693 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1696 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1698 Numerous documentation fixes.
1700 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1702 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1704 * New native configurations
1706 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1707 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1708 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1709 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1710 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1711 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1715 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1717 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1719 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1721 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1722 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1723 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1724 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1725 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1727 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1728 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1729 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1730 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1731 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1732 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1733 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1734 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1736 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1737 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1739 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1740 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1741 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1742 permanently REMOVED.
1744 * REMOVED configurations and files
1746 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1747 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1749 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1753 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1755 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1756 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1761 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1763 * The MI enabled by default.
1765 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1766 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1767 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1768 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1769 which is now deprecated.
1771 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1773 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1774 main features are supported:
1776 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1778 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1781 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1783 - a Pascal expression parser.
1785 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1787 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1789 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1791 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1792 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1794 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1796 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1798 * Changes in completion.
1800 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1801 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1802 users expect at the shell prompt.
1804 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1805 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1806 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1807 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1808 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1809 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1810 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1812 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1814 * New platform-independent commands:
1816 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1817 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1818 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1820 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1822 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1823 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1824 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1826 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1828 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1829 multi-threaded programs though.
1831 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1833 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1835 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1836 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1839 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1841 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1842 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1843 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1844 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1845 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1848 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1849 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1850 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1852 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1854 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1855 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1857 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1858 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1861 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1862 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1863 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1864 a given linear address.
1866 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1867 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1868 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1870 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1872 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1874 * Changes in documentation.
1876 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1877 Documentation License.
1879 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1882 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1884 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1887 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1888 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1889 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1891 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1893 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1894 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1895 contents of this file.
1899 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1901 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1903 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1905 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1906 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1907 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1908 greater level of detail.
1910 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1912 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1913 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1914 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1917 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1919 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1920 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1921 machines ``out of the box''.
1923 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1924 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1925 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1926 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1927 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1929 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1930 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1931 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1932 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1933 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1935 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1936 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1939 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1942 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1943 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1944 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1945 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1947 * New native configurations
1949 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1950 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1954 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1955 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1956 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1957 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1959 * OBSOLETE configurations
1961 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1962 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1964 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1967 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1968 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1969 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1970 be permanently REMOVED.
1972 * Gould support removed
1974 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1976 * New features for SVR4
1978 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1979 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1980 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1982 * Many C++ enhancements
1984 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1985 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1987 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1989 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1990 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1991 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1992 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1994 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1995 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1997 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1999 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2000 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2001 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2003 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2004 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2006 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2008 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2009 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2010 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2012 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2014 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2015 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2016 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2018 * ``apropos'' command added.
2020 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2021 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2022 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2026 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2027 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2028 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2029 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2030 enabled by configuring with:
2032 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2034 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2036 * New native configurations
2038 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2039 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2040 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2044 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2045 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2046 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2048 * OBSOLETE configurations
2050 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2052 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2053 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2054 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2055 be permanently REMOVED.
2059 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2060 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2061 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2062 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2063 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2064 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2065 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2070 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2072 * set extension-language
2074 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2075 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2076 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2077 set extension-language .c c++
2078 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2079 and their associated languages.
2081 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2083 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2084 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2085 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2089 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2090 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2092 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2093 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2095 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2096 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2097 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2098 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2099 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2100 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2101 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2102 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2104 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2105 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2106 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2107 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2111 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2112 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2113 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2114 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2115 for xdb and dbx commands.
2119 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2120 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2121 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2123 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2124 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2125 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2127 * Debugging across forks
2129 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2134 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2135 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2136 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2138 * GDB remote protocol additions
2140 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2141 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2142 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2143 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2145 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2146 full 64-bit address. The command
2148 set remoteaddresssize 32
2150 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2151 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2154 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2155 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2157 maint packet heythere
2159 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2160 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2163 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2164 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2165 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2167 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2169 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2170 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2171 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2173 * mask-address variable for Mips
2175 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2176 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2177 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2179 * Higher serial baud rates
2181 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2182 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2183 to achieve all of these rates.)
2187 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2188 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2191 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2193 * New native configurations
2195 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2196 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2197 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2198 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2199 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2200 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2201 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2205 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2206 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2207 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2208 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2209 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2210 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2211 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2212 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2213 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2214 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2215 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2217 * New debugging protocols
2219 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2220 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2221 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2222 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2223 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2224 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2228 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2229 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2234 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2235 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2237 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2239 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2240 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2241 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2243 * Live range splitting
2245 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2246 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2247 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2251 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2252 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2256 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2257 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2258 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2263 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2268 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2269 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2270 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2271 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2272 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2273 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2277 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2278 the symbol at the specified address.
2282 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2283 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2284 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2285 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2286 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2290 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2291 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2292 of most MIPS variants.
2296 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2297 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2298 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2302 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2303 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2304 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2305 the possible architectures.
2307 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2309 * New native configurations
2311 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2312 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2313 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2314 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2315 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2316 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2320 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2321 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2322 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2323 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2324 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2326 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2330 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2331 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2332 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2333 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2334 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2338 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2340 * Windows 95/NT native
2342 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2343 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2344 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2345 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2346 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2348 * dont-repeat command
2350 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2351 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2352 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2353 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2355 * Send break instead of ^C
2357 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2358 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2359 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2361 * Remote protocol timeout
2363 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2364 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2365 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2367 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2369 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2370 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2371 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2372 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2373 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2375 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2376 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2377 automatically on hpux10.
2379 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2381 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2383 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2385 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2386 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2387 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2388 every character. The default value is 1050.
2390 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2392 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2393 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2394 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2395 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2396 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2397 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2399 * Speedups for remote debugging
2401 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2402 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2403 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2405 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2407 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2408 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2410 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2412 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2414 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2415 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2417 * Remote targets use caching
2419 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2420 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2421 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2422 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2423 off' turns the the data cache off.
2425 * Remote targets may have threads
2427 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2428 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2429 gdb/remote.c for details.
2433 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2434 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2435 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2436 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2437 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2438 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2439 sequence is something like
2441 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2443 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2447 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2448 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2449 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2450 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2451 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2452 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2453 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2454 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2458 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2459 but does simplify configuration and building.
2463 GDB now supports hpux10.
2465 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2467 * New native configurations
2469 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2470 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2471 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2472 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2476 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2477 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2478 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2479 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2482 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2484 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2485 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2486 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2487 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2488 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2490 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2492 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2493 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2496 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2498 To execute the command use:
2501 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2502 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2503 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2505 * New `if' and `while' commands
2507 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2508 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2509 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2510 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2511 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2512 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2513 if the expression is zero.
2515 * Fortran source language mode
2517 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2518 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2519 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2520 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2523 * Better HPUX support
2525 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2526 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2527 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2528 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2529 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2535 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2536 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2542 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2543 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2546 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2547 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2549 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2551 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2552 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2553 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2554 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2555 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2556 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2558 * New DOS host serial code
2560 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2561 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2564 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2566 * New "complete" command
2568 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2569 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2571 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2573 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2574 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2576 * Breakpoint hit counts
2578 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2579 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2580 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2581 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2582 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2585 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2587 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2588 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2589 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2591 * Shared library breakpoints
2593 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2594 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2596 * Hardware watchpoints
2598 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2599 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2601 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2605 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2606 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2608 * Improved Irix 5 support
2610 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2612 * Improved HPPA support
2614 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2616 * New native configurations
2618 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2619 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2620 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2621 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2625 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2626 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2629 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2631 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2632 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2636 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2637 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2639 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2641 * Irix 5 is now supported
2645 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2646 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2647 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2648 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2649 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2652 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2654 * User visible changes:
2658 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2659 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2660 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2661 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2662 debugging info for the mips target).
2664 * DEC Alpha native support
2666 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2667 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2668 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2669 Alpha-specific notes.
2671 * Preliminary thread implementation
2673 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2675 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2677 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2678 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2681 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2683 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2684 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2685 call methods, ...etc.
2687 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2689 * User visible changes:
2691 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2692 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2693 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2694 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2696 Filename completion now works.
2698 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2699 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2700 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2702 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2703 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2704 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2705 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2706 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2710 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2711 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2714 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2718 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2719 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2720 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2724 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2725 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2726 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2727 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2728 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2732 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2733 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2734 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2736 * New targets supported
2738 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2739 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2740 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2741 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2742 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2744 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2745 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2746 GO32 memory extender.
2748 * New remote protocols
2750 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2752 * New source languages supported
2754 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2755 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2756 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2759 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2761 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2763 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2764 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2765 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2766 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2767 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2768 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2770 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2772 * Faster and better demangling
2774 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2775 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2776 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2777 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2778 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2779 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2782 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2783 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2784 compiler does not actually implement.
2786 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2788 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2789 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2790 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2791 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2792 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2793 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2796 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2797 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2799 * Improved configure script
2801 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2802 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2803 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2804 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2806 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2807 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2808 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2809 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2810 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2811 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2813 * Documentation improvements
2815 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2816 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2817 before submitting changes.
2819 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2820 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2821 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2822 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2823 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2825 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2826 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2827 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2828 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2829 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2830 around this problem.
2834 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2835 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2836 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2839 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2840 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2842 * New native hosts supported
2844 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2845 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2847 * New targets supported
2849 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2851 * New file formats supported
2853 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2854 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2858 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2860 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2861 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2863 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2864 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2865 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2867 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2868 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2870 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2871 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2872 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2875 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2876 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2877 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2878 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2879 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2881 * Internal improvements
2883 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2884 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2886 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2887 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2888 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2889 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2890 shared code that handles any of them.
2892 * New command line options
2894 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2898 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2899 General Public License.
2901 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2903 * Host/native/target split
2905 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2906 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2907 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2908 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2909 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2911 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2912 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2913 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2914 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2915 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2916 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2917 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2919 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2920 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2921 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2923 * New hosts supported
2925 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2926 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2927 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2929 * New targets supported
2931 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2932 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2934 * New native hosts supported
2936 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2937 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2938 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2940 * New file formats supported
2942 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2943 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2944 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2948 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2949 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2950 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2952 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2954 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2955 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2956 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2957 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2961 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2962 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2963 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2965 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2969 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2970 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2973 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2974 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2976 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2977 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2978 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2979 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2980 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2981 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2983 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2984 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2985 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2986 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2990 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2991 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2992 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2993 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2994 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2996 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2997 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2998 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2999 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3003 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3004 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3005 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3006 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3007 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3008 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3009 each instruction being stepped through.
3011 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3012 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3014 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3015 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3016 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3017 processor with a serial port.
3021 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3022 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3023 supported, and what files each one uses.
3027 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3028 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3029 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3030 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3032 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3033 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3034 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3035 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3039 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3040 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3041 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3042 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3043 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3044 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3046 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3049 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3051 * Better support for C++ function names
3053 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3054 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3055 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3056 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3057 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3059 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3060 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3061 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3062 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3063 for the list of formats.
3065 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3067 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3068 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3069 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3070 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3071 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3072 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3075 * New 'maintenance' command
3077 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3078 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3079 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3081 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3082 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3083 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3084 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3085 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3086 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3088 The following commands are new:
3090 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3091 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3092 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3094 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3096 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3097 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3098 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3099 read after argv processing.
3101 * New hosts supported
3103 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3105 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3107 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3108 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3109 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3110 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3111 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3114 * New targets supported
3116 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3118 * More smarts about finding #include files
3120 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3121 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3122 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3123 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3124 the one that contains your sources.
3126 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3127 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3128 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3130 * Interesting infernals change
3132 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3133 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3134 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3135 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3137 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3139 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3140 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3141 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3143 See the ChangeLog for details.
3145 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3147 * New machines supported (host and target)
3149 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3151 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3153 * New malloc package
3155 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3156 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3157 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3158 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3159 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3160 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3164 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3165 'help info proc' for details.
3167 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3169 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3170 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3173 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3175 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3176 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3177 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3178 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3179 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3180 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3182 * Cross byte order fixes
3184 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3185 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3187 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3189 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3190 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3191 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3192 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3193 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3194 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3195 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3196 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3197 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3198 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3200 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3201 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3202 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3203 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3205 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3206 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3207 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3210 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3212 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3213 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3214 shared across multiple host platforms.
3216 * longjmp() handling
3218 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3219 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3220 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3221 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3225 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3226 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3231 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3232 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3233 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3235 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3237 * New machines supported (host and target)
3239 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3241 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3242 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3244 * New machines supported (target)
3246 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3250 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3251 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3252 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3254 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3255 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3256 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3257 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3258 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3261 * New features for SVR4
3263 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3264 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3265 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3267 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3268 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3269 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3271 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3272 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3274 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3276 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3277 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3278 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3279 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3280 same code linked statically.
3284 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3285 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3286 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3287 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3288 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3289 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3293 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3294 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3295 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3298 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3300 * New machines supported (host and target)
3302 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3303 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3304 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3306 * Almost SCO Unix support
3308 We had hoped to support:
3309 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3310 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3311 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3312 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3314 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3316 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3317 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3318 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3319 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3324 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3325 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3326 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3330 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3331 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3332 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3334 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3336 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3337 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3338 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3340 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3341 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3342 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3343 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3346 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3347 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3348 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3349 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3352 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3353 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3356 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3357 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3358 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3361 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3363 * Improved configuration
3365 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3366 Porting BFD is simpler.
3370 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3371 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3372 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3373 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3377 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3379 * New host supported (not target)
3381 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3384 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3386 * Multiple source language support
3388 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3389 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3390 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3391 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3392 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3393 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3397 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3398 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3399 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3400 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3402 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3403 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3404 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3406 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3407 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3411 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3412 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3413 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3414 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3417 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3419 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3420 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3421 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3422 examining core files.
3426 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3429 * New machines supported (host and target)
3431 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3432 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3433 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3435 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3437 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3439 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3441 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3442 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3443 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3445 * New remote interfaces
3451 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3455 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3457 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3458 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3459 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3460 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3461 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3462 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3463 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3464 stub on the target system.
3466 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3468 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3469 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3470 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3472 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3473 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3476 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3478 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3479 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3481 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3482 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3483 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3485 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3486 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3487 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3488 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3490 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3491 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3492 it is already running. Default is ON.
3494 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3495 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3496 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3497 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3500 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3501 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3502 or the value of the environment variable
3505 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3506 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3509 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3510 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3511 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3513 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3514 history expansion will be performed on
3515 command line input. The default is OFF.
3517 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3518 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3519 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3521 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3522 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3523 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3526 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3527 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3528 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3531 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3532 ``set width'' instead.
3534 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3535 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3536 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3537 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3539 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3542 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3545 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3548 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3551 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3553 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3554 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3555 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3559 * Support for Shared Libraries
3561 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3562 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3563 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3564 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3565 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3566 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3567 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3568 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3570 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3571 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3572 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3574 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3579 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3580 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3581 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3582 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3583 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3584 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3586 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3588 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3590 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3591 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3592 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3595 * C++ multiple inheritance
3597 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3600 * C++ exception handling
3602 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3603 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3604 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3607 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3608 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3609 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3611 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3612 current stack frame.
3615 * Minor command changes
3617 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3618 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3619 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3621 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3622 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3623 frames without printing.
3625 * New directory command
3627 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3628 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3629 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3630 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3631 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3633 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3635 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3638 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3639 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3640 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3641 where the program that you are debugging will run.