1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.1
8 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
10 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
11 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
21 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
22 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
23 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
25 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
27 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
28 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
29 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
30 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
32 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
33 mentioned flavors of operators.
35 ** static const class members
37 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
38 class definition has been fixed.
40 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
42 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
43 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
44 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
45 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
46 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
47 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
51 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
52 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
53 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
54 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
55 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
56 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
57 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
58 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
59 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
60 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
61 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
62 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
63 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
64 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
65 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
66 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
67 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
68 the "New remote packets" section below.
74 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
78 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
79 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
80 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
81 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
82 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
83 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
87 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
91 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
94 qXfer:statictrace:read
96 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
97 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
98 to gdb's qSupported query.
100 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
101 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
104 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
106 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
107 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
108 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
109 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
111 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
112 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
113 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
114 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
115 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
116 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
117 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
119 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
120 for static tracepoints support.
122 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
124 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
125 it understands register description.
127 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
129 * X86 general purpose registers
131 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
132 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
133 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
134 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
135 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
137 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
138 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
139 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
140 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
141 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
142 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
144 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
145 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
146 in the specified file.
148 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
149 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
150 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
151 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
152 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
153 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
154 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
155 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
156 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
157 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
161 eval template, expressions...
162 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
163 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
165 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
166 show target-file-system-kind
167 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
170 save breakpoints <filename>
171 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
172 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
173 definitions, use the `source' command.
175 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
178 info static-tracepoint-markers
179 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
181 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
182 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
183 function, line, address, or marker ID.
187 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
188 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
189 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
190 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
191 GDB using Python' in the manual.
193 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
194 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
195 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
196 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
198 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
199 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
201 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
203 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
205 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
207 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
208 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
209 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
211 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
212 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
213 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
218 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
220 * D language support.
221 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
224 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
230 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
231 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
232 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
233 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
234 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
238 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
239 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
244 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
245 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
249 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
254 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
257 * Multi-program debugging.
259 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
260 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
261 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
262 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
263 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
264 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
265 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
266 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
268 * New tracing features
270 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
272 ** Trace state variables
274 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
275 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
276 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
277 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
278 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
279 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
280 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
281 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
282 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
283 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
287 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
288 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
289 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
290 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
291 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
292 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
293 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
294 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
295 the regular trace command.
297 ** Disconnected tracing
299 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
300 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
301 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
302 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
303 connection is lost unexpectedly.
307 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
308 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
309 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
310 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
311 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
312 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
315 ** Circular trace buffer
317 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
318 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
319 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
320 not be available for all target agents.
325 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
326 the arguments to be comma-separated.
329 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
330 which only declare a variable are not shown.
333 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
334 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
337 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
338 "set script-extension" (see below).
340 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
342 record save [<FILENAME>]
343 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
344 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
346 record restore <FILENAME>
347 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
348 earlier time, for replay debugging.
350 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
353 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
354 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
360 maint info program-spaces
361 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
363 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
364 show remote interrupt-sequence
365 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
366 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
367 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
368 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
369 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
371 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
372 show remote interrupt-on-connect
373 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
374 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
377 set remotebreak [on | off]
379 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
381 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
382 Create or modify a trace state variable.
385 List trace state variables and their values.
387 delete tvariable $NAME ...
388 Delete one or more trace state variables.
391 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
392 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
394 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
395 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
397 * New expression syntax
399 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
400 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
404 set follow-exec-mode new|same
405 show follow-exec-mode
406 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
407 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
408 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
410 set default-collect EXPR, ...
412 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
413 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
414 such as registers or a critical global variable.
416 set disconnected-tracing
417 show disconnected-tracing
418 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
419 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
422 set circular-trace-buffer
423 show circular-trace-buffer
424 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
425 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
426 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
427 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
429 set script-extension off|soft|strict
430 show script-extension
431 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
432 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
433 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
434 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
436 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
438 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
439 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
440 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
441 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
442 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
443 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
444 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
447 * Python API Improvements
449 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
450 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
451 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
453 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
454 `is_base_class' attribute.
456 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
458 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
459 evaluate an expression.
464 Define a trace state variable.
467 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
470 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
473 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
476 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
480 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
482 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
483 much more reliable. In particular:
484 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
485 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
486 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
487 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
488 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
489 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
490 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
491 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
492 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
493 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
494 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
495 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
496 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
497 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
498 non-threaded programs.
500 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
501 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
502 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
505 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
507 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
508 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
509 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
510 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
511 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
513 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
514 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
515 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
516 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
517 for tracepoint actions.
519 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
520 in hex as well as in symbolic form.
522 * Process record and replay
524 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
525 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
526 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
529 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
530 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
531 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
534 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
535 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
538 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
539 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
540 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
541 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
542 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
543 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
544 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
545 the installation instructions for more information.
547 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
548 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
549 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
550 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
552 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
553 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
555 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
556 now complete on file names.
558 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
559 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
560 For instance, consider:
562 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
563 # struct example variable;
566 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
567 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
569 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
570 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
572 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
573 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
576 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
577 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
578 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
580 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
581 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
582 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
583 and simulator targets may also provide them.
588 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
591 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
592 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
593 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
596 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
597 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
600 Obtains additional operating system information
604 Read or write additional signal information.
606 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
608 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
609 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
610 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
612 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
615 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
616 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
618 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
619 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
620 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
622 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
623 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
625 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
627 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
629 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
630 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
632 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
633 list of section offsets.
635 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
636 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
637 have also been fixed.
639 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
640 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
641 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
643 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
646 template<typename T> class C { };
649 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
651 ptype C<char const *>
653 ptype C<const char *>
656 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
658 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
659 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
661 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
662 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
663 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
665 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
666 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
668 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
671 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
672 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
674 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
675 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
680 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
681 available is determined at configure time.
683 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
685 * Ada tasking support
687 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
691 Print the list of Ada tasks.
693 Print detailed information about task number N.
695 Print the task number of the current task.
697 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
699 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
700 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
702 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
704 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
705 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
706 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
707 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
708 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
709 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
712 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
713 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
716 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
717 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
718 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
719 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
722 * Multi-architecture debugging.
724 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
725 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
726 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
727 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
728 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
730 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
731 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
732 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
733 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
734 --enable-targets configure option.
736 * Non-stop mode debugging.
738 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
739 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
740 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
741 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
742 section in the user manual for more information.
744 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
745 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
746 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
747 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
748 extensions on linux targets.
750 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
752 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
753 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
754 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
755 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
756 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
757 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
758 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
759 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
760 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
762 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
764 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
766 maint set python print-stack
767 maint show python print-stack
768 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
771 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
776 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
780 Show operating system information about processes.
783 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
786 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
789 Detach from inferior number NUM.
792 Kill inferior number NUM.
797 show spu stop-on-load
798 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
800 set spu auto-flush-cache
801 show spu auto-flush-cache
802 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
803 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
805 set sh calling-convention
806 show sh calling-convention
807 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
811 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
813 set disassemble-next-line
814 show disassemble-next-line
815 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
818 set remote noack-packet
819 show remote noack-packet
820 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
821 under "New remote packets."
823 set remote query-attached-packet
824 show remote query-attached-packet
825 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
827 set remote read-siginfo-object
828 show remote read-siginfo-object
829 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
832 set remote write-siginfo-object
833 show remote write-siginfo-object
834 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
837 set remote reverse-continue
838 show remote reverse-continue
839 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
841 set remote reverse-step
842 show remote reverse-step
843 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
845 set displaced-stepping
846 show displaced-stepping
847 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
848 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
849 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
853 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
855 maint set internal-error
856 maint show internal-error
857 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
859 maint set internal-warning
860 maint show internal-warning
861 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
866 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
868 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
869 show multiple-symbols
870 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
871 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
872 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
874 set breakpoint always-inserted
875 show breakpoint always-inserted
876 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
877 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
878 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
880 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
881 show arm fallback-mode
882 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
884 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
885 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
886 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
887 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
889 set disable-randomization
890 show disable-randomization
891 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
892 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
893 multiple debugging sessions.
897 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
902 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
903 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
904 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
905 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
907 set target-wide-charset
908 show target-wide-charset
909 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
910 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
912 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
914 set tcp connect-timeout
915 show tcp connect-timeout
916 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
917 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
918 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
920 set libthread-db-search-path
921 show libthread-db-search-path
922 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
925 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
926 show schedule-multiple
927 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
932 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
933 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
934 affecting correctness.
936 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
937 show interactive-mode
938 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
939 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
940 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
941 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
942 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
947 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
948 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
949 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
953 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
954 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
955 alias for the `fork' command.
958 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
959 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
960 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
963 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
964 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
965 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
969 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
970 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
971 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
974 * New native configurations
976 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
978 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
982 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
983 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
984 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
987 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
988 (mingw32ce) debugging.
994 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
996 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
998 * New native configurations
1000 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
1001 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
1005 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
1006 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
1008 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1010 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1011 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1012 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1013 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1015 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1016 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1018 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
1021 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
1022 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1023 and in inlined functions.
1025 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1026 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1027 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1029 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1031 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1032 registers on PowerPC targets.
1034 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1035 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1037 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1038 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1040 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1041 extended-remote mode.
1043 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
1044 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1045 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1046 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
1048 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1049 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1050 target architectures.
1052 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1053 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1054 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1055 stored in two consecutive float registers.
1057 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1060 * Improved support for debugging Ada
1061 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1063 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1064 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1065 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1066 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1068 - Improved command completion in Ada
1071 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1076 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1077 show print frame-arguments
1078 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1079 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1084 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1091 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1093 * New remote packets
1100 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
1103 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1107 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1109 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
1111 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1112 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1113 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1115 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1116 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1117 -Bsymbolic linker option.
1119 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1120 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1123 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1124 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1126 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
1127 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
1129 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1131 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1132 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1133 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1135 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1136 automatically displayed as character or string data.
1138 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1139 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1142 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1143 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
1144 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
1146 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1149 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1150 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1151 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1153 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1155 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1157 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1158 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1159 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1161 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1162 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1164 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1165 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1166 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1167 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1168 Windows and SymbianOS).
1170 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1171 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
1173 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1174 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
1180 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1181 when debugging using remote targets.
1183 set mem inaccessible-by-default
1184 show mem inaccessible-by-default
1185 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1186 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1187 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1188 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1189 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1191 set breakpoint auto-hw
1192 show breakpoint auto-hw
1193 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1194 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1195 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1196 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1197 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1198 including "next" and "finish".
1201 catch exception unhandled
1202 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1205 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1209 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1210 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1211 an alias to "set sysroot".
1214 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1215 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1218 * New native configurations
1220 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1223 unset tdesc filename
1225 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1226 not query the target for its built-in description.
1230 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1231 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1232 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1234 * New remote packets
1237 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1238 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1240 qXfer:features:read:
1241 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1246 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1247 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1249 qXfer:libraries:read:
1250 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1251 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1252 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1253 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1257 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1265 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1266 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1267 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1268 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1270 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1273 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1274 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1283 * Other removed features
1290 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1297 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1302 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1303 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1308 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1309 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1311 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1313 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1314 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1315 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1316 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1318 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1320 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1321 in debugging information.
1325 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1326 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1328 set mips stack-arg-size
1329 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1331 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1333 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1338 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1340 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1341 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1342 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1344 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1345 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1348 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1349 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1351 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1352 stub provides the required support.
1354 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1355 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1360 unset substitute-path
1361 show substitute-path
1362 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1363 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1364 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1365 between compilation and debugging.
1369 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1370 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1371 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1375 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1377 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1378 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1380 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1382 * New remote packets
1385 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1386 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1387 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1388 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1392 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1393 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1395 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1396 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1397 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1402 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1404 * Removed remote packets
1407 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1408 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1410 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1414 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1416 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1420 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1421 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1423 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1425 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1427 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1428 previously saved state.
1430 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1432 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1434 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1435 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1437 info forks List forks of the user program that
1438 are available to be debugged.
1440 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1441 forks of the user program that are
1442 available to be debugged.
1444 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1445 that are available to be debugged (and
1446 kill the forked process).
1448 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1449 that are available to be debugged (and
1450 allow the process to continue).
1454 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1456 * Improved Windows host support
1458 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1459 native console support, and remote communications using either
1460 network sockets or serial ports.
1462 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1464 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1465 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1466 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1467 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1468 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1469 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1473 The ARM rdi-share module.
1475 The Netware NLM debug server.
1477 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1479 * New native configurations
1481 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1482 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1486 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1488 * New command line options
1490 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1491 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1492 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1493 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1494 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1495 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1496 with the --command (-x) option.
1498 * Deprecated commands removed
1500 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1504 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1505 othernames set arm disassembler
1506 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1507 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1508 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1511 * New BSD user-level threads support
1513 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1514 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1517 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1518 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1519 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1521 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1522 are not yet supported.
1524 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1525 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1527 * REMOVED configurations and files
1529 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1530 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1531 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1533 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1535 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1536 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1539 * VAX floating point support
1541 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1543 * User-defined command support
1545 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1546 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1547 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1549 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1551 * New command line option
1553 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1556 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1558 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1559 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1560 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1561 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1562 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1564 * Internationalization
1566 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1567 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1568 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1572 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1573 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1574 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1576 * New native configurations
1578 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1582 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1583 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1585 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1587 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1588 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1589 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1592 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1593 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1594 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1604 powerpc bdm protocol
1606 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1607 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1609 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1611 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1612 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1613 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1614 permanently REMOVED.
1623 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1625 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1627 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1628 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1631 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1633 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1634 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1635 IRIX long double values).
1639 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1640 command. This problem has been fixed.
1642 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1644 * Fix for ``many threads''
1646 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1647 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1650 ptrace: No such process.
1651 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1653 This problem has been fixed.
1655 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1657 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1660 * New ``start'' command.
1662 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1664 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1666 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1667 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1668 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1670 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1671 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1672 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1673 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1674 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1675 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1676 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1677 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1678 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1680 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1682 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1683 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1684 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1685 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1686 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1688 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1689 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1690 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1692 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1694 * New native configurations
1696 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1697 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1698 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1699 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1700 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1701 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1702 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1704 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1706 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1707 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1708 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1709 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1710 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1711 work, was also included.
1713 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1714 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1724 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1725 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1727 * REMOVED configurations and files
1729 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1730 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1731 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1732 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1733 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1734 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1735 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1736 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1737 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1738 sonymips mips-sony-*
1739 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1741 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1743 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1745 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1746 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1747 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1748 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1751 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1753 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1754 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1755 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1756 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1757 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1758 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1761 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1763 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1765 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1766 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1767 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1769 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1771 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1772 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1774 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1776 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1777 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1778 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1780 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1782 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1783 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1785 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1787 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1788 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1789 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1791 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1793 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1794 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1795 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1797 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1799 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1801 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1802 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1804 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1806 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1807 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1808 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1809 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1811 * Revised SPARC target
1813 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1814 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1815 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1816 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1817 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1821 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1822 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1823 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1826 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1828 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1829 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1832 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1834 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1835 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1836 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1837 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1838 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1839 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1840 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1841 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1842 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1844 * New native configurations
1846 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1847 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1848 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1849 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1850 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1852 * New debugging protocols
1854 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1856 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1858 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1859 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1860 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1862 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1864 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1865 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1866 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1867 permanently REMOVED.
1869 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1870 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1871 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1872 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1873 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1874 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1875 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1876 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1877 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1878 sonymips mips-sony-*
1879 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1881 * REMOVED configurations and files
1883 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1884 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1885 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1886 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1887 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1888 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1889 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1890 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1891 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1892 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1893 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1894 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1895 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1896 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1897 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1898 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1899 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1901 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1905 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1906 integrated into GDB.
1908 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1910 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1911 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1912 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1915 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1916 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1917 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1921 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1922 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1923 remote protocol documentation for details.
1925 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1927 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1928 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1929 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1932 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1934 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1935 per-thread variables.
1937 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1939 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1940 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1942 * Separate debug info.
1944 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1945 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1946 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1947 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1948 and optional debug files.
1950 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1952 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1953 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1956 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1957 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1961 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1962 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1963 considered "useable".
1965 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1967 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1968 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1971 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1973 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1974 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1976 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1978 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1979 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1982 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1984 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1985 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1989 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1990 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1991 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1992 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1993 data, for more informative profiling results.
1995 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1997 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1998 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1999 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
2001 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2004 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2005 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2006 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2007 in a subsequent -var-update.
2009 * New native configurations.
2011 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2013 * Multi-arched targets.
2015 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
2016 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2018 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2020 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2021 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2022 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2023 permanently REMOVED.
2025 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2026 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2027 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2028 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2029 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2030 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2031 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2032 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2033 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2034 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2035 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2036 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2038 * REMOVED configurations and files
2041 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2042 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2043 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2044 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2045 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2046 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2048 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2049 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2050 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2051 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2052 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2053 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2055 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
2057 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2058 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2059 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2060 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2061 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2063 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
2065 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2067 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2068 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2069 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2070 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2071 shared libs like mad''.
2073 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
2075 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2076 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2077 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2078 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
2080 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2082 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2083 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2086 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2087 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2089 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2090 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2092 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2093 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2094 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2095 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2097 * Multi-arched targets.
2099 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2100 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2102 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
2103 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2104 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2108 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2111 * New native configurations
2113 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
2114 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
2115 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
2116 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
2118 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2120 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2121 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2122 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2123 permanently REMOVED.
2125 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2126 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2127 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2128 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2129 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2130 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2131 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2132 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2133 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2134 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2136 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2137 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2139 * OBSOLETE languages
2141 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2143 * REMOVED configurations and files
2145 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2146 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2147 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2148 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2149 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2151 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2153 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2155 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2156 commands. The default is 1024.
2158 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2160 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2162 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2164 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2165 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2166 from a file into memory (restore).
2168 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2170 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2171 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2172 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2174 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2182 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2183 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2184 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2186 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2187 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2188 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2190 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2191 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2192 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2194 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2195 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2196 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2198 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
2200 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2202 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2203 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2204 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2205 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2206 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2207 (notably embedded) targets.
2209 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2211 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2212 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2213 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2214 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2216 * New command line option
2218 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2220 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2222 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2223 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2224 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2225 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2226 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2227 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2228 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2229 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2230 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2231 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2233 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2235 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2236 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2238 * New native configurations
2240 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2241 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2242 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2243 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2247 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2249 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2251 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2252 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2253 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2254 permanently REMOVED.
2256 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2257 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2258 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2259 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2260 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2262 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2264 * REMOVED configurations and files
2266 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2268 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2269 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2270 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2271 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2272 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2273 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2274 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2275 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2276 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2277 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2278 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2280 * Changes to command line processing
2282 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2283 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2285 * Changes to key bindings
2287 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2289 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2291 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2293 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2296 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2298 Numerous documentation fixes.
2300 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2302 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2304 * New native configurations
2306 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2307 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2308 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2309 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2310 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2311 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2315 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2317 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2319 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2321 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2322 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2323 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2324 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2325 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2327 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2328 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2329 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2330 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2331 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2332 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2333 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2334 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2336 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2337 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2339 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2340 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2341 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2342 permanently REMOVED.
2344 * REMOVED configurations and files
2346 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2347 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2349 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2353 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2355 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2356 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2361 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2363 * The MI enabled by default.
2365 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2366 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2367 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2368 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2369 which is now deprecated.
2371 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2373 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2374 main features are supported:
2376 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2378 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2381 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2383 - a Pascal expression parser.
2385 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2387 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2389 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2391 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2392 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2394 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2396 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2398 * Changes in completion.
2400 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2401 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2402 users expect at the shell prompt.
2404 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2405 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2406 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2407 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2408 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2409 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2410 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2412 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2414 * New platform-independent commands:
2416 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2417 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2418 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2420 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2422 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2423 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2424 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2426 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2428 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2429 multi-threaded programs though.
2431 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2433 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2435 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2436 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2439 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2441 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2442 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2443 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2444 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2445 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2448 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2449 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2450 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2452 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2454 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2455 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2457 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2458 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2461 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2462 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2463 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2464 a given linear address.
2466 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2467 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2468 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2470 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2472 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2474 * Changes in documentation.
2476 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2477 Documentation License.
2479 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2482 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2484 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2487 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2488 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2489 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2491 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2493 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2494 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2495 contents of this file.
2499 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2501 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2503 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2505 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2506 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2507 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2508 greater level of detail.
2510 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2512 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2513 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2514 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2517 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2519 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2520 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2521 machines ``out of the box''.
2523 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2524 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2525 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2526 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2527 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2529 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2530 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2531 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2532 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2533 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2535 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2536 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2539 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2542 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2543 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2544 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2545 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2547 * New native configurations
2549 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2550 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2554 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2555 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2556 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2557 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2559 * OBSOLETE configurations
2561 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2562 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2564 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2567 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2568 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2569 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2570 be permanently REMOVED.
2572 * Gould support removed
2574 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2576 * New features for SVR4
2578 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2579 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2580 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2582 * Many C++ enhancements
2584 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2585 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2587 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2589 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2590 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2591 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2592 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2594 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2595 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2597 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2599 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2600 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2601 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2603 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2604 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2606 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2608 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2609 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2610 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2612 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2614 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2615 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2616 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2618 * ``apropos'' command added.
2620 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2621 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2622 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2626 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2627 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2628 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2629 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2630 enabled by configuring with:
2632 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2634 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2636 * New native configurations
2638 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2639 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2640 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2644 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2645 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2646 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2648 * OBSOLETE configurations
2650 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2652 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2653 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2654 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2655 be permanently REMOVED.
2659 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2660 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2661 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2662 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2663 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2664 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2665 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2670 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2672 * set extension-language
2674 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2675 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2676 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2677 set extension-language .c c++
2678 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2679 and their associated languages.
2681 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2683 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2684 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2685 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2689 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2690 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2692 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2693 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2695 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2696 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2697 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2698 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2699 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2700 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2701 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2702 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2704 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2705 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2706 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2707 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2711 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2712 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2713 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2714 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2715 for xdb and dbx commands.
2719 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2720 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2721 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2723 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2724 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2725 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2727 * Debugging across forks
2729 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2734 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2735 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2736 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2738 * GDB remote protocol additions
2740 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2741 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2742 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2743 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2745 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2746 full 64-bit address. The command
2748 set remoteaddresssize 32
2750 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2751 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2754 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2755 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2757 maint packet heythere
2759 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2760 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2763 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2764 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2765 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2767 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2769 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2770 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2771 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2773 * mask-address variable for Mips
2775 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2776 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2777 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2779 * Higher serial baud rates
2781 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2782 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2783 to achieve all of these rates.)
2787 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2788 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2791 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2793 * New native configurations
2795 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2796 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2797 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2798 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2799 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2800 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2801 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2805 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2806 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2807 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2808 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2809 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2810 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2811 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2812 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2813 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2814 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2815 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2817 * New debugging protocols
2819 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2820 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2821 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2822 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2823 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2824 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2828 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2829 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2834 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2835 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2837 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2839 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2840 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2841 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2843 * Live range splitting
2845 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2846 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2847 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2851 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2852 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2856 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2857 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2858 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2863 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2868 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2869 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2870 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2871 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2872 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2873 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2877 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2878 the symbol at the specified address.
2882 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2883 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2884 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2885 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2886 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2890 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2891 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2892 of most MIPS variants.
2896 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2897 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2898 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2902 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2903 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2904 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2905 the possible architectures.
2907 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2909 * New native configurations
2911 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2912 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2913 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2914 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2915 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2916 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2920 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2921 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2922 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2923 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2924 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2926 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2930 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2931 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2932 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2933 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2934 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2938 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2940 * Windows 95/NT native
2942 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2943 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2944 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2945 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2946 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2948 * dont-repeat command
2950 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2951 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2952 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2953 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2955 * Send break instead of ^C
2957 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2958 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2959 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2961 * Remote protocol timeout
2963 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2964 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2965 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2967 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2969 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2970 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2971 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2972 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2973 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2975 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2976 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2977 automatically on hpux10.
2979 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2981 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2983 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2985 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2986 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2987 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2988 every character. The default value is 1050.
2990 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2992 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2993 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2994 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2995 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2996 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2997 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2999 * Speedups for remote debugging
3001 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3002 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3003 and more efficient S-record downloading.
3005 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3007 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3008 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3010 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3012 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
3014 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3015 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3017 * Remote targets use caching
3019 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3020 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3021 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3022 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3023 off' turns the the data cache off.
3025 * Remote targets may have threads
3027 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3028 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3029 gdb/remote.c for details.
3033 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3034 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3035 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3036 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3037 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3038 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3039 sequence is something like
3041 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3043 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3047 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3048 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3049 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3050 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3051 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3052 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3053 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3054 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3058 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3059 but does simplify configuration and building.
3063 GDB now supports hpux10.
3065 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3067 * New native configurations
3069 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3070 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3071 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3072 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3076 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3077 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3078 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3079 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3082 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3084 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3085 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3086 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3087 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3088 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3090 * Arguments to user-defined commands
3092 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3093 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3096 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3098 To execute the command use:
3101 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3102 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3103 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3105 * New `if' and `while' commands
3107 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3108 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3109 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3110 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3111 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3112 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3113 if the expression is zero.
3115 * Fortran source language mode
3117 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3118 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3119 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3120 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3123 * Better HPUX support
3125 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3126 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3127 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3128 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3129 that behavior do the following before running the program:
3135 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3136 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3142 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3143 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3146 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3147 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3149 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3151 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3152 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3153 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3154 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3155 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3156 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3158 * New DOS host serial code
3160 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3161 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3164 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3166 * New "complete" command
3168 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3169 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3171 * Trailing space optional in prompt
3173 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3174 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3176 * Breakpoint hit counts
3178 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3179 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3180 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3181 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3182 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3185 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3187 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3188 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3189 arrays actually contain only short strings.
3191 * Shared library breakpoints
3193 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3194 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3196 * Hardware watchpoints
3198 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3199 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3201 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
3205 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3206 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3208 * Improved Irix 5 support
3210 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3212 * Improved HPPA support
3214 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3216 * New native configurations
3218 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3219 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3220 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3221 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3225 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3226 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3229 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3231 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3232 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3236 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3237 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3239 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3241 * Irix 5 is now supported
3245 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3246 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3247 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3248 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3249 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3252 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3254 * User visible changes:
3258 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3259 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3260 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3261 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3262 debugging info for the mips target).
3264 * DEC Alpha native support
3266 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3267 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3268 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3269 Alpha-specific notes.
3271 * Preliminary thread implementation
3273 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3275 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3277 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3278 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3281 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3283 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3284 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3285 call methods, ...etc.
3287 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3289 * User visible changes:
3291 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3292 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3293 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3294 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3296 Filename completion now works.
3298 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3299 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3300 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3302 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3303 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3304 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3305 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3306 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3310 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3311 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3314 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3318 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3319 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3320 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3324 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3325 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3326 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3327 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3328 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3332 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3333 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3334 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3336 * New targets supported
3338 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3339 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3340 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3341 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3342 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3344 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3345 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3346 GO32 memory extender.
3348 * New remote protocols
3350 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3352 * New source languages supported
3354 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3355 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3356 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3359 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3361 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3363 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3364 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3365 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3366 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3367 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3368 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3370 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3372 * Faster and better demangling
3374 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3375 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3376 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3377 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3378 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3379 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3382 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3383 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3384 compiler does not actually implement.
3386 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3388 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3389 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3390 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3391 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3392 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3393 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3396 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3397 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3399 * Improved configure script
3401 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3402 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3403 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3404 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3406 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3407 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3408 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3409 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3410 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3411 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3413 * Documentation improvements
3415 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3416 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3417 before submitting changes.
3419 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3420 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3421 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3422 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3423 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3425 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3426 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3427 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3428 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3429 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3430 around this problem.
3434 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3435 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3436 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3439 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3440 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3442 * New native hosts supported
3444 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3445 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3447 * New targets supported
3449 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3451 * New file formats supported
3453 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3454 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3458 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3460 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3461 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3463 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3464 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3465 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3467 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3468 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3470 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3471 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3472 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3475 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3476 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3477 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3478 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3479 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3481 * Internal improvements
3483 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3484 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3486 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3487 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3488 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3489 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3490 shared code that handles any of them.
3492 * New command line options
3494 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3498 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3499 General Public License.
3501 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3503 * Host/native/target split
3505 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3506 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3507 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3508 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3509 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3511 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3512 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3513 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3514 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3515 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3516 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3517 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3519 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3520 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3521 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3523 * New hosts supported
3525 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3526 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3527 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3529 * New targets supported
3531 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3532 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3534 * New native hosts supported
3536 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3537 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3538 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3540 * New file formats supported
3542 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3543 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3544 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3548 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3549 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3550 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3552 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3554 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3555 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3556 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3557 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3561 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3562 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3563 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3565 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3569 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3570 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3573 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3574 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3576 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3577 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3578 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3579 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3580 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3581 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3583 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3584 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3585 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3586 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3590 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3591 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3592 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3593 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3594 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3596 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3597 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3598 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3599 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3603 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3604 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3605 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3606 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3607 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3608 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3609 each instruction being stepped through.
3611 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3612 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3614 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3615 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3616 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3617 processor with a serial port.
3621 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3622 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3623 supported, and what files each one uses.
3627 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3628 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3629 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3630 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3632 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3633 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3634 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3635 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3639 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3640 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3641 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3642 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3643 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3644 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3646 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3649 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3651 * Better support for C++ function names
3653 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3654 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3655 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3656 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3657 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3659 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3660 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3661 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3662 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3663 for the list of formats.
3665 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3667 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3668 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3669 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3670 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3671 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3672 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3675 * New 'maintenance' command
3677 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3678 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3679 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3681 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3682 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3683 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3684 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3685 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3686 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3688 The following commands are new:
3690 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3691 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3692 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3694 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3696 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3697 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3698 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3699 read after argv processing.
3701 * New hosts supported
3703 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3705 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3707 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3708 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3709 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3710 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3711 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3714 * New targets supported
3716 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3718 * More smarts about finding #include files
3720 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3721 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3722 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3723 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3724 the one that contains your sources.
3726 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3727 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3728 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3730 * Interesting infernals change
3732 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3733 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3734 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3735 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3737 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3739 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3740 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3741 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3743 See the ChangeLog for details.
3745 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3747 * New machines supported (host and target)
3749 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3751 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3753 * New malloc package
3755 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3756 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3757 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3758 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3759 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3760 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3764 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3765 'help info proc' for details.
3767 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3769 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3770 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3773 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3775 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3776 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3777 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3778 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3779 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3780 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3782 * Cross byte order fixes
3784 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3785 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3787 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3789 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3790 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3791 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3792 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3793 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3794 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3795 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3796 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3797 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3798 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3800 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3801 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3802 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3803 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3805 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3806 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3807 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3810 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3812 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3813 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3814 shared across multiple host platforms.
3816 * longjmp() handling
3818 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3819 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3820 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3821 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3825 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3826 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3831 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3832 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3833 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3835 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3837 * New machines supported (host and target)
3839 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3841 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3842 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3844 * New machines supported (target)
3846 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3850 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3851 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3852 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3854 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3855 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3856 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3857 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3858 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3861 * New features for SVR4
3863 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3864 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3865 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3867 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3868 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3869 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3871 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3872 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3874 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3876 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3877 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3878 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3879 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3880 same code linked statically.
3884 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3885 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3886 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3887 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3888 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3889 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3893 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3894 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3895 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3898 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3900 * New machines supported (host and target)
3902 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3903 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3904 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3906 * Almost SCO Unix support
3908 We had hoped to support:
3909 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3910 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3911 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3912 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3914 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3916 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3917 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3918 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3919 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3924 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3925 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3926 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3930 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3931 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3932 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3934 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3936 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3937 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3938 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3940 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3941 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3942 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3943 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3946 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3947 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3948 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3949 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3952 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3953 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3956 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3957 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3958 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3961 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3963 * Improved configuration
3965 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3966 Porting BFD is simpler.
3970 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3971 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3972 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3973 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3977 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3979 * New host supported (not target)
3981 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3984 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3986 * Multiple source language support
3988 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3989 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3990 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3991 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3992 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3993 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3997 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3998 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3999 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4000 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4002 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4003 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4004 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4006 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4007 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4011 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4012 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4013 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4014 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4017 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4019 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4020 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4021 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4022 examining core files.
4026 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4029 * New machines supported (host and target)
4031 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4032 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4033 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4035 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4037 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4039 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4041 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4042 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4043 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4045 * New remote interfaces
4051 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4055 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4057 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4058 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4059 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4060 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4061 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4062 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4063 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4064 stub on the target system.
4066 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4068 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4069 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4070 object file types such as a.out and coff.
4072 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4073 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4076 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4078 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4079 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4081 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4082 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4083 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4085 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4086 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4087 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4088 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4090 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4091 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4092 it is already running. Default is ON.
4094 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4095 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4096 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4097 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4100 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4101 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4102 or the value of the environment variable
4105 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4106 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4109 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4110 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4111 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4113 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4114 history expansion will be performed on
4115 command line input. The default is OFF.
4117 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4118 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4119 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4121 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4122 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4123 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4126 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4127 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4128 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4131 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4132 ``set width'' instead.
4134 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4135 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4136 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4137 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4139 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4142 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4145 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4148 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4151 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4153 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4154 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4155 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4159 * Support for Shared Libraries
4161 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4162 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4163 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4164 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4165 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4166 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4167 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4168 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4170 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4171 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4172 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4174 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4179 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4180 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4181 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4182 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4183 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4184 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4186 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4188 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4190 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4191 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4192 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4195 * C++ multiple inheritance
4197 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4200 * C++ exception handling
4202 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4203 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4204 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4207 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4208 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4209 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4211 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4212 current stack frame.
4215 * Minor command changes
4217 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4218 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4219 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4221 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4222 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4223 frames without printing.
4225 * New directory command
4227 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4228 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4229 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4230 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4231 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4233 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4235 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4238 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4239 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4240 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4241 where the program that you are debugging will run.