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