1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.0:
6 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
8 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
9 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
10 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
12 * REMOVED configurations and files
14 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
15 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
16 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
17 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
18 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
19 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
20 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
21 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
22 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
23 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
24 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
25 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
26 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
27 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
29 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
33 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
36 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
38 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
39 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
40 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
43 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
44 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
49 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
50 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
51 remote protocol documentation for details.
53 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
55 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
56 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
57 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
60 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
62 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
65 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
67 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
68 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
70 * Separate debug info.
72 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
73 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
74 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
75 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
76 and optional debug files.
78 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
80 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
81 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
84 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
85 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
89 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
90 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
93 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
95 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
96 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
99 * GDB supports logging output to a file
101 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
102 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
104 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
106 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
107 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
110 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
112 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
113 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
117 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
118 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
119 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
120 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
121 data, for more informative profiling results.
123 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
125 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
126 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
127 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
129 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
132 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
133 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
134 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
135 in a subsequent -var-update.
137 * New native configurations.
139 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
141 * Multi-arched targets.
143 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
144 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
146 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
148 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
149 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
150 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
153 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
154 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
155 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
156 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
157 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
158 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
159 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
160 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
161 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
162 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
163 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
164 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
166 * REMOVED configurations and files
169 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
170 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
171 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
172 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
173 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
174 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
176 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
177 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
178 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
179 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
180 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
181 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
183 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
185 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
186 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
187 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
188 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
189 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
191 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
193 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
195 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
196 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
197 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
198 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
199 shared libs like mad''.
201 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
203 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
204 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
205 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
206 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
208 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
210 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
211 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
214 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
215 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
217 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
218 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
220 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
221 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
222 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
223 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
225 * Multi-arched targets.
227 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
228 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
230 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
231 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
232 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
236 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
239 * New native configurations
241 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
242 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
243 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
244 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
246 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
248 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
249 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
250 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
253 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
254 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
255 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
256 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
257 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
258 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
259 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
260 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
261 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
262 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
264 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
265 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
269 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
271 * REMOVED configurations and files
273 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
274 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
275 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
276 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
277 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
279 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
281 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
283 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
284 commands. The default is 1024.
286 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
288 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
290 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
292 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
293 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
294 from a file into memory (restore).
296 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
298 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
299 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
300 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
302 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
310 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
311 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
312 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
314 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
315 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
316 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
318 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
319 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
320 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
322 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
323 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
324 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
326 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
328 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
330 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
331 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
332 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
333 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
334 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
335 (notably embedded) targets.
337 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
339 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
340 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
341 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
342 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
344 * New command line option
346 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
348 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
350 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
351 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
352 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
353 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
354 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
355 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
356 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
357 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
358 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
359 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
361 * Changes in ARM configurations.
363 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
364 configuration is fully multi-arch.
366 * New native configurations
368 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
369 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
370 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
371 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
375 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
377 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
379 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
380 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
381 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
384 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
385 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
386 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
387 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
388 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
390 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
392 * REMOVED configurations and files
394 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
396 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
397 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
398 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
399 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
400 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
401 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
402 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
403 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
404 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
405 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
406 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
408 * Changes to command line processing
410 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
411 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
413 * Changes to key bindings
415 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
417 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
419 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
421 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
424 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
426 Numerous documentation fixes.
428 Numerous testsuite fixes.
430 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
432 * New native configurations
434 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
435 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
436 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
437 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
439 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
443 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
445 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
447 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
449 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
450 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
451 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
452 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
453 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
455 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
456 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
457 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
458 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
459 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
460 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
461 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
462 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
464 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
465 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
467 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
468 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
469 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
472 * REMOVED configurations and files
474 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
475 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
477 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
481 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
483 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
484 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
489 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
491 * The MI enabled by default.
493 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
494 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
495 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
496 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
497 which is now deprecated.
499 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
501 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
502 main features are supported:
504 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
506 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
509 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
511 - a Pascal expression parser.
513 However, some important features are not yet supported.
515 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
517 - there are some problems with boolean types;
519 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
520 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
522 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
524 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
526 * Changes in completion.
528 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
529 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
530 users expect at the shell prompt.
532 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
533 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
534 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
535 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
536 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
537 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
538 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
540 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
542 * New platform-independent commands:
544 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
545 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
546 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
548 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
550 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
551 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
552 many threads as your system allows you to have.
554 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
556 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
557 multi-threaded programs though.
559 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
561 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
563 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
564 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
567 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
569 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
570 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
571 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
572 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
573 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
576 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
577 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
578 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
580 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
582 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
583 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
585 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
586 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
589 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
590 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
591 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
592 a given linear address.
594 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
595 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
596 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
598 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
600 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
602 * Changes in documentation.
604 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
605 Documentation License.
607 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
610 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
612 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
615 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
616 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
617 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
619 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
621 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
622 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
623 contents of this file.
627 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
629 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
631 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
633 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
634 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
635 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
636 greater level of detail.
638 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
640 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
641 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
642 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
645 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
647 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
648 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
649 machines ``out of the box''.
651 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
652 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
653 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
654 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
655 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
657 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
658 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
659 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
660 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
661 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
663 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
664 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
667 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
670 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
671 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
672 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
673 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
675 * New native configurations
677 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
678 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
682 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
683 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
684 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
685 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
687 * OBSOLETE configurations
689 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
690 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
692 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
695 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
696 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
697 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
698 be permanently REMOVED.
700 * Gould support removed
702 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
704 * New features for SVR4
706 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
707 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
708 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
710 * Many C++ enhancements
712 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
713 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
715 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
717 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
718 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
719 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
720 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
722 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
723 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
725 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
727 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
728 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
729 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
731 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
732 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
734 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
736 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
737 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
738 include ``set remote P-packet''.
740 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
742 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
743 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
744 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
746 * ``apropos'' command added.
748 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
749 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
750 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
754 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
755 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
756 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
757 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
758 enabled by configuring with:
760 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
762 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
764 * New native configurations
766 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
767 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
768 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
772 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
773 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
774 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
776 * OBSOLETE configurations
778 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
780 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
781 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
782 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
783 be permanently REMOVED.
787 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
788 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
789 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
790 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
791 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
792 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
793 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
798 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
800 * set extension-language
802 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
803 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
804 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
805 set extension-language .c c++
806 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
807 and their associated languages.
809 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
811 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
812 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
813 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
817 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
818 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
820 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
821 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
823 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
824 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
825 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
826 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
827 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
828 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
829 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
830 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
832 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
833 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
834 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
835 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
839 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
840 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
841 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
842 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
843 for xdb and dbx commands.
847 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
848 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
849 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
851 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
852 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
853 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
855 * Debugging across forks
857 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
862 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
863 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
864 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
866 * GDB remote protocol additions
868 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
869 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
870 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
871 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
873 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
874 full 64-bit address. The command
876 set remoteaddresssize 32
878 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
879 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
882 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
883 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
885 maint packet heythere
887 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
888 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
891 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
892 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
893 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
895 * Tracing can collect general expressions
897 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
898 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
899 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
901 * mask-address variable for Mips
903 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
904 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
905 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
907 * Higher serial baud rates
909 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
910 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
911 to achieve all of these rates.)
915 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
916 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
919 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
921 * New native configurations
923 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
924 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
925 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
926 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
927 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
928 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
929 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
933 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
934 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
935 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
936 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
937 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
938 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
939 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
940 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
941 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
942 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
943 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
945 * New debugging protocols
947 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
948 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
949 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
950 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
951 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
952 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
956 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
957 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
962 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
963 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
965 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
967 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
968 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
969 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
971 * Live range splitting
973 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
974 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
975 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
979 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
980 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
984 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
985 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
986 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
991 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
996 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
997 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
998 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
999 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1000 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1001 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1005 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1006 the symbol at the specified address.
1010 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1011 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1012 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1013 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1014 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1018 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1019 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1020 of most MIPS variants.
1024 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1025 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1026 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1030 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1031 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1032 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1033 the possible architectures.
1035 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1037 * New native configurations
1039 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1040 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1041 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1042 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1043 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1044 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1048 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1049 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1050 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1051 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1052 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1054 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1058 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1059 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1060 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1061 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1062 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1066 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1068 * Windows 95/NT native
1070 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1071 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1072 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1073 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1074 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1076 * dont-repeat command
1078 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1079 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1080 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1081 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1083 * Send break instead of ^C
1085 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1086 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1087 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1089 * Remote protocol timeout
1091 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1092 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1093 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1095 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1097 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1098 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1099 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1100 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1101 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1103 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1104 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1105 automatically on hpux10.
1107 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1109 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1111 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1113 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1114 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1115 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1116 every character. The default value is 1050.
1118 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1120 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1121 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1122 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1123 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1124 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1125 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1127 * Speedups for remote debugging
1129 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1130 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1131 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1133 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1135 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1136 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1138 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1140 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1142 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1143 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1145 * Remote targets use caching
1147 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1148 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1149 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1150 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1151 off' turns the the data cache off.
1153 * Remote targets may have threads
1155 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1156 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1157 gdb/remote.c for details.
1161 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1162 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1163 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1164 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1165 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1166 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1167 sequence is something like
1169 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1171 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1175 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1176 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1177 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1178 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1179 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1180 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1181 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1182 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1186 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1187 but does simplify configuration and building.
1191 GDB now supports hpux10.
1193 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1195 * New native configurations
1197 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1198 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1199 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1200 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1204 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1205 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1206 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1207 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1210 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1212 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1213 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1214 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1215 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1216 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1218 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1220 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1221 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1224 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1226 To execute the command use:
1229 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1230 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1231 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1233 * New `if' and `while' commands
1235 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1236 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1237 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1238 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1239 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1240 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1241 if the expression is zero.
1243 * Fortran source language mode
1245 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1246 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1247 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1248 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1251 * Better HPUX support
1253 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1254 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1255 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1256 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1257 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1263 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1264 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1270 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1271 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1274 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1275 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1277 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1279 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1280 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1281 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1282 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1283 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1284 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1286 * New DOS host serial code
1288 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1289 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1292 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1294 * New "complete" command
1296 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1297 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1299 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1301 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1302 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1304 * Breakpoint hit counts
1306 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1307 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1308 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1309 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1310 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1313 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1315 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1316 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1317 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1319 * Shared library breakpoints
1321 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1322 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1324 * Hardware watchpoints
1326 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1327 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1329 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1333 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1334 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1336 * Improved Irix 5 support
1338 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1340 * Improved HPPA support
1342 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1344 * New native configurations
1346 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1347 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1348 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1349 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1353 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1354 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1357 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1359 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1360 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1364 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1365 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1367 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1369 * Irix 5 is now supported
1373 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1374 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1375 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1376 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1377 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1380 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1382 * User visible changes:
1386 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1387 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1388 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1389 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1390 debugging info for the mips target).
1392 * DEC Alpha native support
1394 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1395 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1396 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1397 Alpha-specific notes.
1399 * Preliminary thread implementation
1401 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1403 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1405 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1406 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1409 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1411 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1412 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1413 call methods, ...etc.
1415 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1417 * User visible changes:
1419 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1420 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1421 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1422 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1424 Filename completion now works.
1426 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1427 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1428 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1430 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1431 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1432 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1433 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1434 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1438 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1439 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1442 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1446 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1447 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1448 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1452 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1453 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1454 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1455 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1456 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1460 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1461 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1462 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1464 * New targets supported
1466 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1467 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1468 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1469 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1470 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1472 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1473 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1474 GO32 memory extender.
1476 * New remote protocols
1478 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1480 * New source languages supported
1482 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1483 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1484 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1487 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1489 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1491 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1492 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1493 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1494 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1495 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1496 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1498 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1500 * Faster and better demangling
1502 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1503 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1504 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1505 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1506 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1507 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1510 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1511 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1512 compiler does not actually implement.
1514 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1516 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1517 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1518 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1519 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1520 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1521 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1524 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1525 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1527 * Improved configure script
1529 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1530 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1531 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1532 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1534 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1535 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1536 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1537 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1538 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1539 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1541 * Documentation improvements
1543 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1544 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1545 before submitting changes.
1547 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1548 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1549 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1550 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1551 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1553 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1554 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1555 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1556 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1557 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1558 around this problem.
1562 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1563 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1564 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1567 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1568 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1570 * New native hosts supported
1572 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1573 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1575 * New targets supported
1577 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1579 * New file formats supported
1581 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1582 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1586 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1588 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1589 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1591 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1592 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1593 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1595 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1596 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1598 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1599 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1600 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1603 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1604 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1605 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1606 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1607 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1609 * Internal improvements
1611 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1612 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1614 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1615 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1616 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1617 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1618 shared code that handles any of them.
1620 * New command line options
1622 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1626 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1627 General Public License.
1629 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1631 * Host/native/target split
1633 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1634 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1635 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1636 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1637 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1639 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1640 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1641 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1642 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1643 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1644 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1645 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1647 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1648 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1649 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1651 * New hosts supported
1653 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1654 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1655 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1657 * New targets supported
1659 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1660 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1662 * New native hosts supported
1664 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1665 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1666 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1668 * New file formats supported
1670 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1671 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1672 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1676 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1677 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1678 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1680 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1682 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1683 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1684 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1685 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1689 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1690 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1691 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1693 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1697 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1698 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1701 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1702 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1704 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1705 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1706 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1707 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1708 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1709 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1711 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1712 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1713 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1714 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1718 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1719 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1720 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1721 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1722 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1724 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1725 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1726 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1727 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1731 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1732 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1733 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1734 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1735 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1736 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1737 each instruction being stepped through.
1739 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1740 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1742 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1743 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1744 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1745 processor with a serial port.
1749 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1750 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1751 supported, and what files each one uses.
1755 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1756 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1757 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1758 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1760 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1761 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1762 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1763 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1767 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1768 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1769 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1770 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1771 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1772 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1774 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1777 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1779 * Better support for C++ function names
1781 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1782 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1783 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1784 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1785 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1787 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1788 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1789 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1790 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1791 for the list of formats.
1793 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1795 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1796 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1797 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1798 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1799 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1800 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1803 * New 'maintenance' command
1805 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1806 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1807 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1809 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1810 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1811 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1812 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1813 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1814 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1816 The following commands are new:
1818 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1819 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1820 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1822 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1824 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1825 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1826 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1827 read after argv processing.
1829 * New hosts supported
1831 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1833 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1835 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1836 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1837 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1838 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1839 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1842 * New targets supported
1844 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1846 * More smarts about finding #include files
1848 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1849 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1850 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1851 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1852 the one that contains your sources.
1854 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1855 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1856 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1858 * Interesting infernals change
1860 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1861 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1862 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1863 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1865 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1867 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1868 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1869 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1871 See the ChangeLog for details.
1873 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1875 * New machines supported (host and target)
1877 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1879 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1881 * New malloc package
1883 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1884 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1885 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1886 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1887 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1888 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1892 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1893 'help info proc' for details.
1895 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1897 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1898 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1901 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1903 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1904 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1905 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1906 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1907 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1908 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1910 * Cross byte order fixes
1912 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1913 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1915 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1917 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1918 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1919 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1920 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1921 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1922 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1923 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1924 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1925 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1926 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1928 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1929 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1930 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1931 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1933 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1934 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1935 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1938 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1940 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1941 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1942 shared across multiple host platforms.
1944 * longjmp() handling
1946 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1947 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1948 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1949 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1953 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1954 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1959 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1960 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1961 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1963 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1965 * New machines supported (host and target)
1967 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1969 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1970 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1972 * New machines supported (target)
1974 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1978 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1979 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1980 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1982 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1983 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1984 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1985 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1986 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1989 * New features for SVR4
1991 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1992 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1993 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1995 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1996 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1997 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1999 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2000 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2002 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2004 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2005 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2006 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2007 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2008 same code linked statically.
2012 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2013 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2014 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2015 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2016 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2017 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2021 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2022 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2023 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2026 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2028 * New machines supported (host and target)
2030 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2031 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2032 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2034 * Almost SCO Unix support
2036 We had hoped to support:
2037 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2038 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2039 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2040 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2042 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2044 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2045 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2046 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2047 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2052 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2053 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2054 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2058 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2059 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2060 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2062 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2064 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2065 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2066 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2068 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2069 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2070 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2071 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2074 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2075 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2076 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2077 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2080 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2081 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2084 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2085 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2086 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2089 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2091 * Improved configuration
2093 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2094 Porting BFD is simpler.
2098 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2099 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2100 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2101 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2105 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2107 * New host supported (not target)
2109 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2112 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2114 * Multiple source language support
2116 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2117 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2118 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2119 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2120 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2121 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2125 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2126 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2127 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2128 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2130 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2131 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2132 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2134 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2135 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2139 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2140 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2141 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2142 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2145 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2147 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2148 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2149 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2150 examining core files.
2154 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2157 * New machines supported (host and target)
2159 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2160 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2161 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2163 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2165 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2167 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2169 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2170 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2171 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2173 * New remote interfaces
2179 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2183 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2185 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2186 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2187 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2188 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2189 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2190 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2191 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2192 stub on the target system.
2194 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2196 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2197 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2198 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2200 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2201 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2204 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2206 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2207 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2209 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2210 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2211 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2213 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2214 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2215 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2216 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2218 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2219 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2220 it is already running. Default is ON.
2222 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2223 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2224 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2225 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2228 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2229 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2230 or the value of the environment variable
2233 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2234 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2237 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2238 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2239 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2241 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2242 history expansion will be performed on
2243 command line input. The default is OFF.
2245 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2246 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2247 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2249 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2250 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2251 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2254 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2255 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2256 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2259 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2260 ``set width'' instead.
2262 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2263 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2264 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2265 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2267 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2270 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2273 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2276 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2279 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2281 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2282 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2283 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2287 * Support for Shared Libraries
2289 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2290 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2291 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2292 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2293 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2294 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2295 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2296 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2298 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2299 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2300 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2302 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2307 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2308 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2309 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2310 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2311 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2312 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2314 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2316 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2318 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2319 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2320 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2323 * C++ multiple inheritance
2325 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2328 * C++ exception handling
2330 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2331 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2332 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2335 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2336 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2337 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2339 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2340 current stack frame.
2343 * Minor command changes
2345 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2346 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2347 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2349 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2350 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2351 frames without printing.
2353 * New directory command
2355 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2356 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2357 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2358 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2359 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2361 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2363 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2366 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2367 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2368 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2369 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob