1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.1:
6 * New ``start'' command.
8 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
10 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
12 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
13 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
14 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
16 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
17 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
18 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
19 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
20 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
21 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
22 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
23 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
24 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
26 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
28 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
29 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
30 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
31 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
32 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
34 These fixes were tested on i386 GNU/Linux systems that include a 2.4
37 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
39 * New native configurations
41 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
42 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
43 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
44 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
45 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
46 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
47 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
49 * REMOVED configurations and files
51 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
52 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
53 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
54 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
55 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
56 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
57 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
58 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
59 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
61 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
63 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
65 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
67 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
68 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
69 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
70 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
73 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
75 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
76 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
77 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
78 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
79 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
80 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
83 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
85 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
87 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
88 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
89 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
91 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
93 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
94 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
96 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
98 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
99 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
100 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
102 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
104 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
105 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
107 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
109 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
110 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
111 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
113 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
115 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
116 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
117 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
119 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
121 * Removed --with-mmalloc
123 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
124 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
126 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
128 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
129 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
130 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
131 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
133 * Revised SPARC target
135 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
136 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
137 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
138 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
139 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
143 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
144 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
145 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
148 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
150 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
151 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
154 * C++ nested types and namespaces
156 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
157 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
158 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
159 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
160 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
161 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
162 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
163 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
164 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
166 * New native configurations
168 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
169 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
170 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
171 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
172 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
174 * New debugging protocols
176 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
178 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
180 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
181 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
182 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
184 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
186 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
187 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
188 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
191 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
192 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
193 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
194 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
195 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
196 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
197 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
198 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
199 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
201 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
203 * REMOVED configurations and files
205 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
206 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
207 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
208 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
209 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
210 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
211 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
212 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
213 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
214 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
215 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
216 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
217 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
218 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
219 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
220 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
221 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
223 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
227 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
230 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
232 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
233 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
234 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
237 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
238 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
243 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
244 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
245 remote protocol documentation for details.
247 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
249 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
250 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
251 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
254 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
256 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
257 per-thread variables.
259 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
261 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
262 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
264 * Separate debug info.
266 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
267 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
268 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
269 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
270 and optional debug files.
272 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
274 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
275 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
278 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
279 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
283 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
284 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
285 considered "useable".
287 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
289 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
290 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
293 * GDB supports logging output to a file
295 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
296 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
298 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
300 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
301 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
304 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
306 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
307 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
311 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
312 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
313 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
314 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
315 data, for more informative profiling results.
317 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
319 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
320 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
321 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
323 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
326 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
327 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
328 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
329 in a subsequent -var-update.
331 * New native configurations.
333 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
335 * Multi-arched targets.
337 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
338 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
340 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
342 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
343 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
344 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
347 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
348 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
349 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
350 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
351 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
352 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
353 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
354 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
355 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
356 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
357 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
358 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
360 * REMOVED configurations and files
363 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
364 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
365 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
366 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
367 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
368 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
370 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
371 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
372 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
373 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
374 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
375 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
377 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
379 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
380 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
381 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
382 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
383 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
385 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
387 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
389 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
390 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
391 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
392 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
393 shared libs like mad''.
395 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
397 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
398 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
399 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
400 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
402 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
404 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
405 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
408 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
409 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
411 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
412 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
414 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
415 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
416 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
417 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
419 * Multi-arched targets.
421 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
422 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
424 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
425 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
426 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
430 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
433 * New native configurations
435 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
436 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
437 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
438 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
440 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
442 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
443 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
444 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
447 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
448 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
449 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
450 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
451 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
452 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
453 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
454 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
455 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
456 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
458 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
459 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
463 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
465 * REMOVED configurations and files
467 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
468 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
469 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
470 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
471 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
473 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
475 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
477 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
478 commands. The default is 1024.
480 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
482 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
484 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
486 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
487 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
488 from a file into memory (restore).
490 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
492 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
493 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
494 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
496 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
504 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
505 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
506 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
508 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
509 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
510 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
512 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
513 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
514 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
516 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
517 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
518 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
520 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
522 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
524 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
525 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
526 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
527 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
528 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
529 (notably embedded) targets.
531 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
533 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
534 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
535 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
536 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
538 * New command line option
540 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
542 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
544 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
545 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
546 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
547 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
548 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
549 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
550 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
551 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
552 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
553 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
555 * Changes in ARM configurations.
557 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
558 configuration is fully multi-arch.
560 * New native configurations
562 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
563 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
564 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
565 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
569 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
571 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
573 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
574 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
575 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
578 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
579 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
580 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
581 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
582 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
584 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
586 * REMOVED configurations and files
588 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
590 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
591 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
592 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
593 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
594 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
595 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
596 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
597 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
598 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
599 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
600 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
602 * Changes to command line processing
604 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
605 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
607 * Changes to key bindings
609 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
611 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
613 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
615 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
618 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
620 Numerous documentation fixes.
622 Numerous testsuite fixes.
624 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
626 * New native configurations
628 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
629 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
630 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
631 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
633 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
637 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
639 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
641 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
643 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
644 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
645 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
646 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
647 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
649 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
650 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
651 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
652 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
653 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
654 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
655 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
656 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
658 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
659 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
661 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
662 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
663 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
666 * REMOVED configurations and files
668 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
669 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
671 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
675 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
677 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
678 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
683 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
685 * The MI enabled by default.
687 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
688 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
689 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
690 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
691 which is now deprecated.
693 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
695 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
696 main features are supported:
698 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
700 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
703 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
705 - a Pascal expression parser.
707 However, some important features are not yet supported.
709 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
711 - there are some problems with boolean types;
713 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
714 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
716 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
718 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
720 * Changes in completion.
722 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
723 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
724 users expect at the shell prompt.
726 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
727 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
728 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
729 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
730 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
731 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
732 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
734 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
736 * New platform-independent commands:
738 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
739 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
740 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
742 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
744 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
745 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
746 many threads as your system allows you to have.
748 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
750 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
751 multi-threaded programs though.
753 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
755 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
757 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
758 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
761 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
763 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
764 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
765 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
766 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
767 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
770 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
771 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
772 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
774 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
776 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
777 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
779 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
780 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
783 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
784 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
785 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
786 a given linear address.
788 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
789 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
790 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
792 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
794 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
796 * Changes in documentation.
798 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
799 Documentation License.
801 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
804 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
806 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
809 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
810 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
811 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
813 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
815 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
816 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
817 contents of this file.
821 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
823 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
825 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
827 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
828 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
829 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
830 greater level of detail.
832 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
834 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
835 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
836 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
839 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
841 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
842 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
843 machines ``out of the box''.
845 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
846 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
847 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
848 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
849 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
851 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
852 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
853 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
854 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
855 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
857 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
858 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
861 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
864 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
865 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
866 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
867 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
869 * New native configurations
871 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
872 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
876 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
877 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
878 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
879 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
881 * OBSOLETE configurations
883 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
884 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
886 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
889 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
890 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
891 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
892 be permanently REMOVED.
894 * Gould support removed
896 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
898 * New features for SVR4
900 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
901 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
902 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
904 * Many C++ enhancements
906 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
907 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
909 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
911 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
912 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
913 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
914 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
916 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
917 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
919 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
921 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
922 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
923 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
925 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
926 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
928 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
930 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
931 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
932 include ``set remote P-packet''.
934 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
936 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
937 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
938 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
940 * ``apropos'' command added.
942 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
943 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
944 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
948 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
949 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
950 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
951 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
952 enabled by configuring with:
954 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
956 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
958 * New native configurations
960 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
961 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
962 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
966 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
967 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
968 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
970 * OBSOLETE configurations
972 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
974 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
975 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
976 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
977 be permanently REMOVED.
981 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
982 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
983 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
984 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
985 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
986 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
987 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
992 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
994 * set extension-language
996 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
997 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
998 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
999 set extension-language .c c++
1000 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1001 and their associated languages.
1003 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1005 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1006 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1007 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1011 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1012 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1014 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1015 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1017 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1018 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1019 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1020 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1021 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1022 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1023 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1024 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1026 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1027 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1028 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1029 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1033 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1034 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1035 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1036 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1037 for xdb and dbx commands.
1041 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1042 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1043 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1045 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1046 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1047 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1049 * Debugging across forks
1051 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1056 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1057 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1058 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1060 * GDB remote protocol additions
1062 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1063 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1064 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1065 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1067 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1068 full 64-bit address. The command
1070 set remoteaddresssize 32
1072 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1073 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1076 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1077 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1079 maint packet heythere
1081 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1082 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1085 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1086 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1087 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1089 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1091 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1092 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1093 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1095 * mask-address variable for Mips
1097 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1098 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1099 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1101 * Higher serial baud rates
1103 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1104 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1105 to achieve all of these rates.)
1109 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1110 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1113 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1115 * New native configurations
1117 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1118 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1119 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1120 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1121 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1122 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1123 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1127 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1128 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1129 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1130 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1131 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1132 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1133 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1134 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1135 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1136 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1137 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1139 * New debugging protocols
1141 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1142 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1143 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1144 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1145 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1146 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1150 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1151 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1156 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1157 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1159 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1161 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1162 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1163 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1165 * Live range splitting
1167 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1168 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1169 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1173 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1174 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1178 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1179 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1180 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1185 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1190 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1191 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1192 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1193 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1194 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1195 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1199 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1200 the symbol at the specified address.
1204 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1205 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1206 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1207 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1208 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1212 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1213 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1214 of most MIPS variants.
1218 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1219 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1220 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1224 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1225 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1226 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1227 the possible architectures.
1229 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1231 * New native configurations
1233 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1234 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1235 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1236 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1237 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1238 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1242 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1243 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1244 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1245 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1246 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1248 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1252 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1253 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1254 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1255 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1256 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1260 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1262 * Windows 95/NT native
1264 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1265 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1266 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1267 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1268 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1270 * dont-repeat command
1272 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1273 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1274 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1275 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1277 * Send break instead of ^C
1279 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1280 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1281 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1283 * Remote protocol timeout
1285 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1286 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1287 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1289 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1291 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1292 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1293 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1294 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1295 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1297 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1298 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1299 automatically on hpux10.
1301 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1303 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1305 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1307 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1308 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1309 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1310 every character. The default value is 1050.
1312 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1314 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1315 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1316 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1317 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1318 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1319 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1321 * Speedups for remote debugging
1323 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1324 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1325 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1327 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1329 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1330 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1332 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1334 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1336 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1337 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1339 * Remote targets use caching
1341 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1342 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1343 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1344 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1345 off' turns the the data cache off.
1347 * Remote targets may have threads
1349 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1350 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1351 gdb/remote.c for details.
1355 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1356 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1357 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1358 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1359 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1360 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1361 sequence is something like
1363 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1365 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1369 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1370 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1371 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1372 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1373 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1374 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1375 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1376 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1380 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1381 but does simplify configuration and building.
1385 GDB now supports hpux10.
1387 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1389 * New native configurations
1391 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1392 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1393 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1394 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1398 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1399 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1400 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1401 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1404 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1406 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1407 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1408 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1409 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1410 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1412 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1414 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1415 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1418 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1420 To execute the command use:
1423 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1424 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1425 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1427 * New `if' and `while' commands
1429 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1430 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1431 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1432 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1433 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1434 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1435 if the expression is zero.
1437 * Fortran source language mode
1439 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1440 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1441 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1442 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1445 * Better HPUX support
1447 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1448 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1449 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1450 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1451 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1457 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1458 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1464 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1465 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1468 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1469 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1471 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1473 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1474 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1475 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1476 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1477 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1478 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1480 * New DOS host serial code
1482 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1483 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1486 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1488 * New "complete" command
1490 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1491 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1493 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1495 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1496 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1498 * Breakpoint hit counts
1500 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1501 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1502 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1503 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1504 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1507 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1509 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1510 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1511 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1513 * Shared library breakpoints
1515 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1516 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1518 * Hardware watchpoints
1520 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1521 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1523 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1527 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1528 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1530 * Improved Irix 5 support
1532 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1534 * Improved HPPA support
1536 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1538 * New native configurations
1540 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1541 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1542 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1543 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1547 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1548 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1551 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1553 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1554 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1558 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1559 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1561 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1563 * Irix 5 is now supported
1567 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1568 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1569 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1570 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1571 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1574 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1576 * User visible changes:
1580 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1581 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1582 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1583 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1584 debugging info for the mips target).
1586 * DEC Alpha native support
1588 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1589 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1590 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1591 Alpha-specific notes.
1593 * Preliminary thread implementation
1595 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1597 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1599 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1600 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1603 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1605 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1606 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1607 call methods, ...etc.
1609 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1611 * User visible changes:
1613 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1614 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1615 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1616 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1618 Filename completion now works.
1620 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1621 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1622 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1624 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1625 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1626 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1627 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1628 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1632 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1633 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1636 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1640 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1641 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1642 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1646 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1647 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1648 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1649 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1650 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1654 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1655 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1656 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1658 * New targets supported
1660 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1661 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1662 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1663 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1664 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1666 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1667 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1668 GO32 memory extender.
1670 * New remote protocols
1672 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1674 * New source languages supported
1676 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1677 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1678 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1681 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1683 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1685 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1686 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1687 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1688 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1689 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1690 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1692 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1694 * Faster and better demangling
1696 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1697 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1698 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1699 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1700 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1701 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1704 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1705 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1706 compiler does not actually implement.
1708 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1710 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1711 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1712 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1713 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1714 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1715 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1718 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1719 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1721 * Improved configure script
1723 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1724 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1725 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1726 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1728 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1729 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1730 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1731 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1732 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1733 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1735 * Documentation improvements
1737 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1738 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1739 before submitting changes.
1741 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1742 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1743 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1744 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1745 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1747 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1748 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1749 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1750 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1751 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1752 around this problem.
1756 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1757 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1758 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1761 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1762 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1764 * New native hosts supported
1766 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1767 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1769 * New targets supported
1771 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1773 * New file formats supported
1775 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1776 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1780 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1782 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1783 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1785 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1786 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1787 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1789 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1790 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1792 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1793 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1794 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1797 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1798 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1799 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1800 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1801 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1803 * Internal improvements
1805 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1806 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1808 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1809 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1810 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1811 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1812 shared code that handles any of them.
1814 * New command line options
1816 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1820 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1821 General Public License.
1823 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1825 * Host/native/target split
1827 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1828 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1829 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1830 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1831 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1833 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1834 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1835 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1836 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1837 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1838 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1839 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1841 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1842 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1843 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1845 * New hosts supported
1847 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1848 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1849 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1851 * New targets supported
1853 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1854 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1856 * New native hosts supported
1858 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1859 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1860 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1862 * New file formats supported
1864 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1865 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1866 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1870 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1871 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1872 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1874 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1876 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1877 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1878 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1879 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1883 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1884 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1885 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1887 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1891 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1892 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1895 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1896 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1898 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1899 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1900 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1901 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1902 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1903 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1905 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1906 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1907 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1908 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1912 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1913 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1914 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1915 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1916 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1918 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1919 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1920 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1921 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1925 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1926 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1927 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1928 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1929 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1930 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1931 each instruction being stepped through.
1933 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1934 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1936 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1937 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1938 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1939 processor with a serial port.
1943 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1944 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1945 supported, and what files each one uses.
1949 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1950 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1951 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1952 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1954 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1955 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1956 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1957 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1961 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1962 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1963 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1964 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1965 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1966 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1968 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1971 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1973 * Better support for C++ function names
1975 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1976 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1977 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1978 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1979 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1981 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1982 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1983 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1984 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1985 for the list of formats.
1987 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1989 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1990 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1991 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1992 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1993 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1994 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1997 * New 'maintenance' command
1999 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2000 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2001 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2003 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2004 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2005 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2006 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2007 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2008 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2010 The following commands are new:
2012 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2013 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2014 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2016 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2018 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2019 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2020 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2021 read after argv processing.
2023 * New hosts supported
2025 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2027 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2029 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2030 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2031 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2032 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2033 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2036 * New targets supported
2038 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2040 * More smarts about finding #include files
2042 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2043 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2044 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2045 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2046 the one that contains your sources.
2048 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2049 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2050 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2052 * Interesting infernals change
2054 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2055 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2056 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2057 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2059 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2061 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2062 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2063 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2065 See the ChangeLog for details.
2067 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2069 * New machines supported (host and target)
2071 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2073 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2075 * New malloc package
2077 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2078 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2079 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2080 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2081 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2082 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2086 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2087 'help info proc' for details.
2089 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2091 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2092 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2095 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2097 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2098 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2099 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2100 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2101 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2102 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2104 * Cross byte order fixes
2106 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2107 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2109 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2111 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2112 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2113 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2114 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2115 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2116 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2117 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2118 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2119 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2120 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2122 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2123 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2124 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2125 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2127 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2128 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2129 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2132 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2134 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2135 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2136 shared across multiple host platforms.
2138 * longjmp() handling
2140 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2141 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2142 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2143 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2147 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2148 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2153 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2154 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2155 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2157 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2159 * New machines supported (host and target)
2161 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2163 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2164 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2166 * New machines supported (target)
2168 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2172 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2173 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2174 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2176 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2177 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2178 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2179 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2180 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2183 * New features for SVR4
2185 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2186 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2187 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2189 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2190 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2191 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2193 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2194 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2196 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2198 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2199 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2200 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2201 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2202 same code linked statically.
2206 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2207 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2208 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2209 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2210 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2211 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2215 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2216 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2217 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2220 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2222 * New machines supported (host and target)
2224 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2225 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2226 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2228 * Almost SCO Unix support
2230 We had hoped to support:
2231 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2232 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2233 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2234 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2236 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2238 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2239 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2240 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2241 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2246 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2247 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2248 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2252 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2253 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2254 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2256 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2258 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2259 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2260 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2262 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2263 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2264 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2265 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2268 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2269 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2270 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2271 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2274 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2275 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2278 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2279 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2280 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2283 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2285 * Improved configuration
2287 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2288 Porting BFD is simpler.
2292 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2293 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2294 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2295 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2299 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2301 * New host supported (not target)
2303 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2306 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2308 * Multiple source language support
2310 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2311 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2312 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2313 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2314 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2315 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2319 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2320 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2321 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2322 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2324 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2325 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2326 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2328 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2329 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2333 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2334 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2335 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2336 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2339 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2341 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2342 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2343 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2344 examining core files.
2348 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2351 * New machines supported (host and target)
2353 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2354 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2355 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2357 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2359 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2361 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2363 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2364 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2365 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2367 * New remote interfaces
2373 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2377 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2379 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2380 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2381 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2382 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2383 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2384 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2385 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2386 stub on the target system.
2388 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2390 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2391 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2392 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2394 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2395 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2398 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2400 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2401 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2403 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2404 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2405 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2407 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2408 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2409 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2410 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2412 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2413 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2414 it is already running. Default is ON.
2416 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2417 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2418 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2419 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2422 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2423 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2424 or the value of the environment variable
2427 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2428 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2431 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2432 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2433 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2435 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2436 history expansion will be performed on
2437 command line input. The default is OFF.
2439 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2440 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2441 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2443 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2444 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2445 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2448 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2449 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2450 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2453 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2454 ``set width'' instead.
2456 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2457 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2458 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2459 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2461 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2464 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2467 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2470 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2473 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2475 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2476 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2477 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2481 * Support for Shared Libraries
2483 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2484 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2485 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2486 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2487 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2488 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2489 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2490 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2492 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2493 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2494 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2496 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2501 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2502 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2503 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2504 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2505 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2506 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2508 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2510 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2512 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2513 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2514 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2517 * C++ multiple inheritance
2519 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2522 * C++ exception handling
2524 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2525 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2526 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2529 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2530 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2531 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2533 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2534 current stack frame.
2537 * Minor command changes
2539 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2540 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2541 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2543 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2544 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2545 frames without printing.
2547 * New directory command
2549 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2550 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2551 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2552 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2553 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2555 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2557 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2560 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2561 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2562 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2563 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob