1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.1
6 * X86 general purpose registers
8 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
9 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
10 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
11 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
12 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
16 ** The GDB Python API now has access to symbols, symbol tables, and
19 ** New methods gdb.target_charset and gdb.target_wide_charset.
23 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
25 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
31 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
32 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
33 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
34 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
35 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
39 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
40 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
45 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
46 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
50 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
55 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
58 * Multi-program debugging.
60 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
61 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
62 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
63 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
64 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
65 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
66 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
67 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
69 * New tracing features
71 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
73 ** Trace state variables
75 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
76 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
77 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
78 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
79 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
80 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
81 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
82 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
83 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
84 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
88 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
89 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
90 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
91 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
92 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
93 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
94 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
95 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
96 the regular trace command.
98 ** Disconnected tracing
100 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
101 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
102 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
103 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
104 connection is lost unexpectedly.
108 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
109 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
110 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
111 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
112 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
113 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
119 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
120 the arguments to be comma-separated.
123 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
124 which only declare a variable are not shown.
127 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
128 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
131 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
132 "set script-extension" (see below).
134 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
136 record save [<FILENAME>]
137 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
138 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
140 record restore <FILENAME>
141 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
142 earlier time, for replay debugging.
144 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
147 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
148 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
154 maint info program-spaces
155 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
157 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
158 show remote interrupt-sequence
159 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
160 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
161 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
162 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
163 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
165 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
166 show remote interrupt-on-connect
167 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
168 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
171 set remotebreak [on | off]
173 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
175 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
176 Create or modify a trace state variable.
179 List trace state variables and their values.
181 delete tvariable $NAME ...
182 Delete one or more trace state variables.
185 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
186 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
188 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
189 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
191 * New expression syntax
193 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
194 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
198 set follow-exec-mode new|same
199 show follow-exec-mode
200 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
201 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
202 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
204 set default-collect EXPR, ...
206 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
207 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
208 such as registers or a critical global variable.
210 set disconnected-tracing
211 show disconnected-tracing
212 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
213 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
216 set script-extension off|soft|strict
217 show script-extension
218 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
219 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
220 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
221 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
223 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
225 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
226 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
227 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
228 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
229 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
230 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
231 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
234 * Python API Improvements
236 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
237 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
238 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
240 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
241 `is_base_class' attribute.
243 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
245 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
246 evaluate an expression.
251 Define a trace state variable.
254 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
257 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
260 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
264 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
266 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
267 much more reliable. In particular:
268 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
269 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
270 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
271 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
272 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
273 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
274 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
275 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
276 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
277 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
278 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
279 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
280 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
281 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
282 non-threaded programs.
284 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
285 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
286 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
289 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
291 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
292 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
293 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
294 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
295 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
297 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
298 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
299 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
300 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
301 for tracepoint actions.
303 * "disassemble" command with a /r modifier, print the raw instructions
304 in hex as well as in symbolic form.
306 * Process record and replay
308 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
309 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
310 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
313 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
314 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
315 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
318 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
319 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
322 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
323 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
324 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
325 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
326 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
327 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
328 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
329 the installation instructions for more information.
331 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
332 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
333 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
334 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
336 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
337 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
339 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
340 now complete on file names.
342 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
343 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
344 For instance, consider:
346 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
347 # struct example variable;
350 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
351 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
353 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
354 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
356 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
357 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
360 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
361 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
362 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
364 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
365 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
366 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
367 and simulator targets may also provide them.
372 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
375 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
376 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
377 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
380 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
381 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
384 Obtains additional operating system information
388 Read or write additional signal information.
390 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
392 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
393 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
394 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
396 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
399 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
400 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
402 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
403 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
404 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
406 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
407 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
409 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
411 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
413 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
414 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
416 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
417 list of section offsets.
419 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
420 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
421 have also been fixed.
423 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
424 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
425 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
427 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
430 template<typename T> class C { };
433 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
435 ptype C<char const *>
437 ptype C<const char *>
440 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
442 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
443 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
445 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
446 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
447 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
449 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
450 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
452 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
455 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
456 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
458 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
459 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
464 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
465 available is determined at configure time.
467 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
469 * Ada tasking support
471 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
475 Print the list of Ada tasks.
477 Print detailed information about task number N.
479 Print the task number of the current task.
481 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
483 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
484 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
486 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
488 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
489 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
490 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
491 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
492 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
493 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
496 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
497 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
500 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
501 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
502 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
503 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
506 * Multi-architecture debugging.
508 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
509 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
510 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
511 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
512 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
514 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
515 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
516 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
517 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
518 --enable-targets configure option.
520 * Non-stop mode debugging.
522 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
523 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
524 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
525 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
526 section in the user manual for more information.
528 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
529 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
530 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
531 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
532 extensions on linux targets.
534 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
536 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
537 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
538 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
539 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
540 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
541 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
542 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
543 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
544 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
546 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
548 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
550 maint set python print-stack
551 maint show python print-stack
552 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
555 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
560 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
564 Show operating system information about processes.
567 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
570 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
573 Detach from inferior number NUM.
576 Kill inferior number NUM.
581 show spu stop-on-load
582 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
584 set spu auto-flush-cache
585 show spu auto-flush-cache
586 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
587 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
589 set sh calling-convention
590 show sh calling-convention
591 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
595 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
597 set disassemble-next-line
598 show disassemble-next-line
599 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
602 set remote noack-packet
603 show remote noack-packet
604 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
605 under "New remote packets."
607 set remote query-attached-packet
608 show remote query-attached-packet
609 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
611 set remote read-siginfo-object
612 show remote read-siginfo-object
613 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
616 set remote write-siginfo-object
617 show remote write-siginfo-object
618 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
621 set remote reverse-continue
622 show remote reverse-continue
623 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
625 set remote reverse-step
626 show remote reverse-step
627 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
629 set displaced-stepping
630 show displaced-stepping
631 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
632 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
633 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
637 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
639 maint set internal-error
640 maint show internal-error
641 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
643 maint set internal-warning
644 maint show internal-warning
645 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
650 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
652 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
653 show multiple-symbols
654 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
655 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
656 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
658 set breakpoint always-inserted
659 show breakpoint always-inserted
660 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
661 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
662 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
664 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
665 show arm fallback-mode
666 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
668 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
669 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
670 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
671 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
673 set disable-randomization
674 show disable-randomization
675 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
676 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
677 multiple debugging sessions.
681 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
686 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
687 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
688 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
689 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
691 set target-wide-charset
692 show target-wide-charset
693 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
694 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
696 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
698 set tcp connect-timeout
699 show tcp connect-timeout
700 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
701 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
702 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
704 set libthread-db-search-path
705 show libthread-db-search-path
706 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
709 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
710 show schedule-multiple
711 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
716 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
717 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
718 affecting correctness.
720 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
721 show interactive-mode
722 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
723 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
724 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
725 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
726 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
731 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
732 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
733 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
737 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
738 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
739 alias for the `fork' command.
742 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
743 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
744 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
747 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
748 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
749 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
753 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
754 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
755 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
758 * New native configurations
760 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
762 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
766 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
767 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
768 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
771 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
772 (mingw32ce) debugging.
778 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
780 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
782 * New native configurations
784 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
785 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
789 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
790 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
792 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
794 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
795 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
796 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
797 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
799 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
800 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
802 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
805 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
806 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
807 and in inlined functions.
809 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
810 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
811 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
813 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
815 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
816 registers on PowerPC targets.
818 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
819 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
821 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
822 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
824 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
825 extended-remote mode.
827 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
828 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
829 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
830 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
832 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
833 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
834 target architectures.
836 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
837 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
838 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
839 stored in two consecutive float registers.
841 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
844 * Improved support for debugging Ada
845 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
847 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
848 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
849 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
850 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
852 - Improved command completion in Ada
855 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
860 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
861 show print frame-arguments
862 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
863 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
868 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
875 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
884 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
887 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
891 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
893 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
895 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
896 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
897 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
899 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
900 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
901 -Bsymbolic linker option.
903 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
904 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
907 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
908 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
910 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
911 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
913 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
915 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
916 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
917 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
919 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
920 automatically displayed as character or string data.
922 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
923 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
926 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
927 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
928 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
930 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
933 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
934 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
935 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
937 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
939 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
941 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
942 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
943 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
945 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
946 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
948 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
949 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
950 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
951 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
952 Windows and SymbianOS).
954 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
955 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
957 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
958 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
964 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
965 when debugging using remote targets.
967 set mem inaccessible-by-default
968 show mem inaccessible-by-default
969 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
970 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
971 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
972 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
973 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
975 set breakpoint auto-hw
976 show breakpoint auto-hw
977 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
978 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
979 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
980 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
981 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
982 including "next" and "finish".
985 catch exception unhandled
986 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
989 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
993 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
994 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
995 an alias to "set sysroot".
998 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
999 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1002 * New native configurations
1004 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1007 unset tdesc filename
1009 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1010 not query the target for its built-in description.
1014 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1015 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1016 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1018 * New remote packets
1021 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1022 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1024 qXfer:features:read:
1025 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1030 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1031 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1033 qXfer:libraries:read:
1034 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1035 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1036 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1037 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1041 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1049 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1050 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1051 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1052 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1054 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1057 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1058 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1067 * Other removed features
1074 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1081 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1086 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1087 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1092 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1093 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1095 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1097 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1098 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1099 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1100 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1102 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1104 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1105 in debugging information.
1109 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1110 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1112 set mips stack-arg-size
1113 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1115 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1117 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1122 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1124 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1125 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1126 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1128 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1129 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1132 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1133 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1135 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1136 stub provides the required support.
1138 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1139 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1144 unset substitute-path
1145 show substitute-path
1146 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1147 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1148 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1149 between compilation and debugging.
1153 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1154 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1155 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1159 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1161 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1162 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1164 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1166 * New remote packets
1169 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1170 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1171 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1172 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1176 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1177 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1179 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1180 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1181 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1186 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1188 * Removed remote packets
1191 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1192 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1194 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1198 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1200 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1204 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1205 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1207 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1209 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1211 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1212 previously saved state.
1214 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1216 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1218 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1219 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1221 info forks List forks of the user program that
1222 are available to be debugged.
1224 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1225 forks of the user program that are
1226 available to be debugged.
1228 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1229 that are available to be debugged (and
1230 kill the forked process).
1232 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1233 that are available to be debugged (and
1234 allow the process to continue).
1238 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1240 * Improved Windows host support
1242 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1243 native console support, and remote communications using either
1244 network sockets or serial ports.
1246 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1248 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1249 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1250 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1251 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1252 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1253 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1257 The ARM rdi-share module.
1259 The Netware NLM debug server.
1261 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1263 * New native configurations
1265 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1266 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1270 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1272 * New command line options
1274 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1275 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1276 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1277 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1278 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1279 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1280 with the --command (-x) option.
1282 * Deprecated commands removed
1284 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1288 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1289 othernames set arm disassembler
1290 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1291 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1292 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1295 * New BSD user-level threads support
1297 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1298 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1301 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1302 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1303 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1305 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1306 are not yet supported.
1308 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1309 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1311 * REMOVED configurations and files
1313 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1314 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1315 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1317 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1319 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1320 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1323 * VAX floating point support
1325 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1327 * User-defined command support
1329 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1330 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1331 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1333 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1335 * New command line option
1337 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1340 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1342 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1343 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1344 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1345 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1346 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1348 * Internationalization
1350 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1351 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1352 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1356 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1357 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1358 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1360 * New native configurations
1362 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1366 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1367 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1369 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1371 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1372 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1373 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1376 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1377 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1378 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1388 powerpc bdm protocol
1390 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1391 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1393 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1395 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1396 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1397 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1398 permanently REMOVED.
1407 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1409 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1411 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1412 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1415 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1417 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1418 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1419 IRIX long double values).
1423 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1424 command. This problem has been fixed.
1426 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1428 * Fix for ``many threads''
1430 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1431 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1434 ptrace: No such process.
1435 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1437 This problem has been fixed.
1439 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1441 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1444 * New ``start'' command.
1446 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1448 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1450 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1451 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1452 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1454 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1455 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1456 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1457 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1458 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1459 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1460 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1461 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1462 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1464 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1466 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1467 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1468 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1469 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1470 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1472 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1473 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1474 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1476 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1478 * New native configurations
1480 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1481 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1482 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1483 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1484 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1485 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1486 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1488 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1490 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1491 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1492 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1493 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1494 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1495 work, was also included.
1497 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1498 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1508 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1509 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1511 * REMOVED configurations and files
1513 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1514 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1515 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1516 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1517 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1518 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1519 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1520 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1521 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1522 sonymips mips-sony-*
1523 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1525 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1527 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1529 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1530 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1531 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1532 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1535 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1537 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1538 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1539 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1540 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1541 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1542 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1545 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1547 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1549 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1550 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1551 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1553 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1555 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1556 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1558 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1560 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1561 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1562 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1564 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1566 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1567 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1569 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1571 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1572 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1573 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1575 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1577 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1578 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1579 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1581 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1583 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1585 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1586 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1588 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1590 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1591 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1592 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1593 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1595 * Revised SPARC target
1597 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1598 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1599 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1600 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1601 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1605 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1606 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1607 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1610 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1612 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1613 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1616 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1618 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1619 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1620 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1621 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1622 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1623 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1624 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1625 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1626 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1628 * New native configurations
1630 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1631 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1632 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1633 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1634 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1636 * New debugging protocols
1638 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1640 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1642 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1643 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1644 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1646 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1648 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1649 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1650 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1651 permanently REMOVED.
1653 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1654 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1655 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1656 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1657 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1658 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1659 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1660 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1661 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1662 sonymips mips-sony-*
1663 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1665 * REMOVED configurations and files
1667 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1668 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1669 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1670 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1671 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1672 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1673 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1674 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1675 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1676 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1677 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1678 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1679 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1680 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1681 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1682 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1683 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1685 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1689 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1690 integrated into GDB.
1692 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1694 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1695 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1696 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1699 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1700 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1701 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1705 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1706 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1707 remote protocol documentation for details.
1709 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1711 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1712 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1713 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1716 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1718 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1719 per-thread variables.
1721 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1723 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1724 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1726 * Separate debug info.
1728 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1729 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1730 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1731 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1732 and optional debug files.
1734 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1736 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1737 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1740 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1741 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1745 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1746 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1747 considered "useable".
1749 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1751 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1752 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1755 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1757 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1758 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1760 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1762 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1763 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1766 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1768 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1769 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1773 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1774 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1775 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1776 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1777 data, for more informative profiling results.
1779 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1781 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1782 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1783 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1785 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1788 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1789 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1790 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1791 in a subsequent -var-update.
1793 * New native configurations.
1795 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1797 * Multi-arched targets.
1799 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1800 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1802 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1804 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1805 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1806 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1807 permanently REMOVED.
1809 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1810 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1811 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1812 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1813 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1814 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1815 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1816 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1817 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1818 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1819 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1820 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1822 * REMOVED configurations and files
1825 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1826 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1827 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1828 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1829 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1830 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1832 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1833 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1834 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1835 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1836 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1837 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1839 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1841 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1842 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1843 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1844 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1845 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1847 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1849 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1851 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1852 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1853 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1854 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1855 shared libs like mad''.
1857 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1859 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1860 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1861 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1862 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1864 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1866 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1867 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1870 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1871 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1873 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1874 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1876 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1877 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1878 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1879 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1881 * Multi-arched targets.
1883 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1884 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1886 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1887 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1888 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1892 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1895 * New native configurations
1897 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1898 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1899 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1900 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1902 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1904 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1905 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1906 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1907 permanently REMOVED.
1909 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1910 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1911 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1912 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1913 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1914 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1915 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1916 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1917 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1918 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1920 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1921 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1923 * OBSOLETE languages
1925 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1927 * REMOVED configurations and files
1929 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1930 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1931 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1932 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1933 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1935 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1937 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1939 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1940 commands. The default is 1024.
1942 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1944 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1946 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1948 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1949 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1950 from a file into memory (restore).
1952 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1954 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1955 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1956 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1958 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1966 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1967 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1968 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1970 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1971 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1972 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1974 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1975 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1976 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1978 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1979 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1980 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1982 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1984 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1986 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1987 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1988 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1989 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1990 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1991 (notably embedded) targets.
1993 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1995 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1996 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1997 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1998 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2000 * New command line option
2002 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2004 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2006 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2007 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2008 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2009 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2010 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2011 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2012 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2013 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2014 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2015 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2017 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2019 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2020 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2022 * New native configurations
2024 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2025 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2026 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2027 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2031 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2033 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2035 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2036 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2037 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2038 permanently REMOVED.
2040 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2041 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2042 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2043 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2044 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2046 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2048 * REMOVED configurations and files
2050 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2052 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2053 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2054 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2055 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2056 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2057 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2058 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2059 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2060 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2061 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2062 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2064 * Changes to command line processing
2066 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2067 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2069 * Changes to key bindings
2071 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2073 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2075 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2077 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2080 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2082 Numerous documentation fixes.
2084 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2086 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2088 * New native configurations
2090 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2091 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2092 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2093 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2094 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2095 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2099 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2101 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2103 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2105 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2106 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2107 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2108 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2109 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2111 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2112 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2113 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2114 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2115 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2116 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2117 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2118 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2120 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2121 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2123 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2124 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2125 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2126 permanently REMOVED.
2128 * REMOVED configurations and files
2130 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2131 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2133 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2137 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2139 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2140 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2145 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2147 * The MI enabled by default.
2149 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2150 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2151 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2152 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2153 which is now deprecated.
2155 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2157 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2158 main features are supported:
2160 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2162 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2165 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2167 - a Pascal expression parser.
2169 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2171 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2173 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2175 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2176 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2178 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2180 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2182 * Changes in completion.
2184 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2185 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2186 users expect at the shell prompt.
2188 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2189 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2190 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2191 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2192 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2193 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2194 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2196 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2198 * New platform-independent commands:
2200 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2201 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2202 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2204 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2206 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2207 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2208 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2210 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2212 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2213 multi-threaded programs though.
2215 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2217 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2219 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2220 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2223 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2225 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2226 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2227 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2228 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2229 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2232 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2233 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2234 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2236 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2238 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2239 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2241 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2242 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2245 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2246 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2247 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2248 a given linear address.
2250 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2251 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2252 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2254 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2256 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2258 * Changes in documentation.
2260 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2261 Documentation License.
2263 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2266 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2268 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2271 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2272 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2273 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2275 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2277 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2278 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2279 contents of this file.
2283 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2285 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2287 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2289 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2290 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2291 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2292 greater level of detail.
2294 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2296 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2297 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2298 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2301 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2303 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2304 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2305 machines ``out of the box''.
2307 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2308 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2309 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2310 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2311 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2313 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2314 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2315 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2316 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2317 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2319 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2320 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2323 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2326 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2327 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2328 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2329 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2331 * New native configurations
2333 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2334 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2338 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2339 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2340 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2341 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2343 * OBSOLETE configurations
2345 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2346 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2348 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2351 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2352 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2353 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2354 be permanently REMOVED.
2356 * Gould support removed
2358 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2360 * New features for SVR4
2362 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2363 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2364 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2366 * Many C++ enhancements
2368 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2369 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2371 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2373 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2374 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2375 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2376 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2378 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2379 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2381 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2383 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2384 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2385 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2387 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2388 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2390 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2392 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2393 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2394 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2396 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2398 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2399 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2400 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2402 * ``apropos'' command added.
2404 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2405 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2406 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2410 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2411 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2412 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2413 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2414 enabled by configuring with:
2416 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2418 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2420 * New native configurations
2422 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2423 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2424 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2428 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2429 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2430 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2432 * OBSOLETE configurations
2434 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2436 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2437 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2438 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2439 be permanently REMOVED.
2443 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2444 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2445 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2446 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2447 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2448 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2449 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2454 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2456 * set extension-language
2458 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2459 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2460 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2461 set extension-language .c c++
2462 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2463 and their associated languages.
2465 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2467 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2468 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2469 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2473 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2474 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2476 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2477 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2479 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2480 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2481 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2482 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2483 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2484 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2485 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2486 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2488 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2489 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2490 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2491 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2495 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2496 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2497 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2498 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2499 for xdb and dbx commands.
2503 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2504 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2505 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2507 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2508 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2509 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2511 * Debugging across forks
2513 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2518 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2519 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2520 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2522 * GDB remote protocol additions
2524 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2525 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2526 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2527 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2529 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2530 full 64-bit address. The command
2532 set remoteaddresssize 32
2534 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2535 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2538 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2539 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2541 maint packet heythere
2543 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2544 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2547 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2548 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2549 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2551 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2553 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2554 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2555 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2557 * mask-address variable for Mips
2559 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2560 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2561 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2563 * Higher serial baud rates
2565 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2566 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2567 to achieve all of these rates.)
2571 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2572 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2575 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2577 * New native configurations
2579 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2580 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2581 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2582 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2583 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2584 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2585 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2589 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2590 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2591 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2592 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2593 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2594 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2595 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2596 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2597 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2598 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2599 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2601 * New debugging protocols
2603 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2604 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2605 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2606 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2607 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2608 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2612 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2613 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2618 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2619 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2621 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2623 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2624 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2625 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2627 * Live range splitting
2629 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2630 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2631 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2635 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2636 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2640 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2641 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2642 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2647 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2652 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2653 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2654 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2655 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2656 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2657 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2661 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2662 the symbol at the specified address.
2666 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2667 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2668 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2669 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2670 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2674 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2675 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2676 of most MIPS variants.
2680 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2681 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2682 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2686 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2687 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2688 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2689 the possible architectures.
2691 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2693 * New native configurations
2695 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2696 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2697 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2698 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2699 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2700 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2704 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2705 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2706 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2707 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2708 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2710 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2714 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2715 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2716 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2717 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2718 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2722 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2724 * Windows 95/NT native
2726 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2727 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2728 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2729 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2730 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2732 * dont-repeat command
2734 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2735 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2736 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2737 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2739 * Send break instead of ^C
2741 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2742 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2743 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2745 * Remote protocol timeout
2747 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2748 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2749 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2751 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2753 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2754 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2755 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2756 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2757 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2759 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2760 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2761 automatically on hpux10.
2763 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2765 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2767 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2769 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2770 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2771 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2772 every character. The default value is 1050.
2774 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2776 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2777 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2778 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2779 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2780 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2781 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2783 * Speedups for remote debugging
2785 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2786 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2787 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2789 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2791 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2792 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2794 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2796 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2798 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2799 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2801 * Remote targets use caching
2803 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2804 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2805 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2806 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2807 off' turns the the data cache off.
2809 * Remote targets may have threads
2811 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2812 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2813 gdb/remote.c for details.
2817 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2818 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2819 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2820 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2821 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2822 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2823 sequence is something like
2825 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2827 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2831 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2832 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2833 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2834 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2835 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2836 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2837 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2838 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2842 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2843 but does simplify configuration and building.
2847 GDB now supports hpux10.
2849 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2851 * New native configurations
2853 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2854 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2855 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2856 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2860 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2861 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2862 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2863 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2866 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2868 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2869 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2870 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2871 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2872 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2874 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2876 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2877 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2880 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2882 To execute the command use:
2885 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2886 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2887 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2889 * New `if' and `while' commands
2891 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2892 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2893 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2894 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2895 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2896 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2897 if the expression is zero.
2899 * Fortran source language mode
2901 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2902 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2903 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2904 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2907 * Better HPUX support
2909 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2910 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2911 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2912 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2913 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2919 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2920 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2926 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2927 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2930 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2931 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2933 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2935 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2936 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2937 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2938 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2939 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2940 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2942 * New DOS host serial code
2944 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2945 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2948 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2950 * New "complete" command
2952 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2953 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2955 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2957 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2958 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2960 * Breakpoint hit counts
2962 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2963 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2964 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2965 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2966 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2969 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2971 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2972 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2973 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2975 * Shared library breakpoints
2977 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2978 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2980 * Hardware watchpoints
2982 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2983 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2985 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2989 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2990 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2992 * Improved Irix 5 support
2994 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2996 * Improved HPPA support
2998 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3000 * New native configurations
3002 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3003 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3004 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3005 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3009 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3010 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3013 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3015 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3016 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3020 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3021 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3023 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3025 * Irix 5 is now supported
3029 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3030 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3031 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3032 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3033 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3036 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3038 * User visible changes:
3042 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3043 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3044 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3045 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3046 debugging info for the mips target).
3048 * DEC Alpha native support
3050 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3051 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3052 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3053 Alpha-specific notes.
3055 * Preliminary thread implementation
3057 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3059 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3061 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3062 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3065 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3067 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3068 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3069 call methods, ...etc.
3071 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3073 * User visible changes:
3075 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3076 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3077 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3078 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3080 Filename completion now works.
3082 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3083 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3084 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3086 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3087 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3088 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3089 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3090 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3094 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3095 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3098 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3102 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3103 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3104 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3108 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3109 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3110 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3111 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3112 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3116 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3117 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3118 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3120 * New targets supported
3122 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3123 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3124 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3125 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3126 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3128 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3129 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3130 GO32 memory extender.
3132 * New remote protocols
3134 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3136 * New source languages supported
3138 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3139 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3140 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3143 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3145 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3147 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3148 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3149 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3150 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3151 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3152 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3154 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3156 * Faster and better demangling
3158 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3159 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3160 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3161 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3162 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3163 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3166 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3167 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3168 compiler does not actually implement.
3170 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3172 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3173 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3174 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3175 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3176 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3177 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3180 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3181 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3183 * Improved configure script
3185 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3186 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3187 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3188 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3190 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3191 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3192 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3193 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3194 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3195 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3197 * Documentation improvements
3199 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3200 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3201 before submitting changes.
3203 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3204 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3205 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3206 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3207 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3209 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3210 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3211 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3212 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3213 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3214 around this problem.
3218 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3219 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3220 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3223 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3224 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3226 * New native hosts supported
3228 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3229 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3231 * New targets supported
3233 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3235 * New file formats supported
3237 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3238 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3242 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3244 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3245 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3247 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3248 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3249 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3251 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3252 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3254 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3255 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3256 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3259 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3260 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3261 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3262 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3263 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3265 * Internal improvements
3267 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3268 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3270 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3271 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3272 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3273 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3274 shared code that handles any of them.
3276 * New command line options
3278 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3282 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3283 General Public License.
3285 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3287 * Host/native/target split
3289 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3290 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3291 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3292 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3293 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3295 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3296 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3297 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3298 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3299 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3300 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3301 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3303 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3304 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3305 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3307 * New hosts supported
3309 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3310 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3311 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3313 * New targets supported
3315 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3316 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3318 * New native hosts supported
3320 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3321 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3322 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3324 * New file formats supported
3326 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3327 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3328 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3332 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3333 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3334 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3336 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3338 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3339 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3340 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3341 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3345 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3346 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3347 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3349 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3353 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3354 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3357 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3358 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3360 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3361 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3362 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3363 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3364 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3365 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3367 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3368 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3369 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3370 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3374 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3375 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3376 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3377 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3378 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3380 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3381 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3382 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3383 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3387 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3388 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3389 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3390 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3391 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3392 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3393 each instruction being stepped through.
3395 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3396 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3398 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3399 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3400 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3401 processor with a serial port.
3405 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3406 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3407 supported, and what files each one uses.
3411 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3412 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3413 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3414 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3416 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3417 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3418 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3419 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3423 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3424 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3425 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3426 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3427 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3428 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3430 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3433 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3435 * Better support for C++ function names
3437 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3438 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3439 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3440 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3441 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3443 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3444 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3445 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3446 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3447 for the list of formats.
3449 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3451 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3452 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3453 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3454 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3455 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3456 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3459 * New 'maintenance' command
3461 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3462 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3463 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3465 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3466 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3467 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3468 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3469 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3470 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3472 The following commands are new:
3474 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3475 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3476 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3478 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3480 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3481 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3482 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3483 read after argv processing.
3485 * New hosts supported
3487 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3489 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3491 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3492 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3493 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3494 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3495 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3498 * New targets supported
3500 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3502 * More smarts about finding #include files
3504 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3505 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3506 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3507 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3508 the one that contains your sources.
3510 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3511 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3512 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3514 * Interesting infernals change
3516 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3517 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3518 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3519 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3521 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3523 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3524 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3525 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3527 See the ChangeLog for details.
3529 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3531 * New machines supported (host and target)
3533 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3535 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3537 * New malloc package
3539 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3540 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3541 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3542 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3543 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3544 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3548 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3549 'help info proc' for details.
3551 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3553 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3554 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3557 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3559 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3560 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3561 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3562 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3563 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3564 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3566 * Cross byte order fixes
3568 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3569 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3571 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3573 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3574 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3575 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3576 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3577 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3578 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3579 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3580 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3581 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3582 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3584 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3585 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3586 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3587 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3589 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3590 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3591 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3594 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3596 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3597 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3598 shared across multiple host platforms.
3600 * longjmp() handling
3602 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3603 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3604 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3605 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3609 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3610 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3615 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3616 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3617 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3619 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3621 * New machines supported (host and target)
3623 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3625 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3626 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3628 * New machines supported (target)
3630 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3634 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3635 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3636 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3638 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3639 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3640 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3641 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3642 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3645 * New features for SVR4
3647 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3648 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3649 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3651 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3652 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3653 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3655 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3656 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3658 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3660 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3661 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3662 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3663 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3664 same code linked statically.
3668 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3669 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3670 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3671 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3672 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3673 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3677 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3678 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3679 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3682 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3684 * New machines supported (host and target)
3686 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3687 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3688 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3690 * Almost SCO Unix support
3692 We had hoped to support:
3693 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3694 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3695 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3696 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3698 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3700 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3701 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3702 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3703 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3708 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3709 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3710 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3714 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3715 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3716 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3718 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3720 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3721 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3722 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3724 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3725 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3726 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3727 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3730 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3731 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3732 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3733 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3736 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3737 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3740 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3741 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3742 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3745 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3747 * Improved configuration
3749 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3750 Porting BFD is simpler.
3754 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3755 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3756 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3757 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3761 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3763 * New host supported (not target)
3765 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3768 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3770 * Multiple source language support
3772 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3773 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3774 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3775 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3776 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3777 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3781 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3782 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3783 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3784 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3786 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3787 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3788 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3790 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3791 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3795 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3796 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3797 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3798 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3801 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3803 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3804 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3805 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3806 examining core files.
3810 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3813 * New machines supported (host and target)
3815 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3816 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3817 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3819 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3821 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3823 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3825 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3826 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3827 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3829 * New remote interfaces
3835 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3839 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3841 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3842 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3843 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3844 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3845 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3846 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3847 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3848 stub on the target system.
3850 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3852 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3853 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3854 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3856 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3857 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3860 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3862 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3863 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3865 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3866 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3867 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3869 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3870 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3871 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3872 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3874 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3875 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3876 it is already running. Default is ON.
3878 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3879 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3880 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3881 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3884 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3885 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3886 or the value of the environment variable
3889 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3890 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3893 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3894 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3895 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3897 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3898 history expansion will be performed on
3899 command line input. The default is OFF.
3901 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3902 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3903 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3905 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3906 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3907 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3910 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3911 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3912 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3915 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3916 ``set width'' instead.
3918 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3919 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3920 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3921 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3923 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3926 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3929 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3932 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3935 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3937 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3938 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3939 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3943 * Support for Shared Libraries
3945 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3946 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3947 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3948 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3949 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3950 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3951 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3952 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3954 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3955 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3956 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3958 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3963 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3964 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3965 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3966 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3967 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3968 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3970 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3972 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3974 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3975 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3976 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3979 * C++ multiple inheritance
3981 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3984 * C++ exception handling
3986 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3987 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3988 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3991 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3992 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3993 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3995 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3996 current stack frame.
3999 * Minor command changes
4001 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4002 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4003 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4005 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4006 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4007 frames without printing.
4009 * New directory command
4011 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4012 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4013 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4014 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4015 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4017 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4019 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4022 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4023 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4024 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4025 where the program that you are debugging will run.