linux-thread-db.c (record_thread): Return the created thread.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.10
5
6 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
7
8 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
9
10 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
11 when using the Intel(R) Processor Trace recording format.
12
13 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
14 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
15 clients.
16
17 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
18 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
19 at the same time.
20
21 * New commands
22
23 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
24 maint show target-non-stop
25 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
26 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
27 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
28
29 maint set bfd-sharing
30 maint show bfd-sharing
31 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
32
33 set debug bfd-cache
34 show debug bfd-cache
35 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
36
37 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
38 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
39 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
40
41 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
42 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
43 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
44 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
45 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
46 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
47
48 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
49 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
50
51 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
52
53 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
54 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
55 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
56 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
57 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
58 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
59
60 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
61 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
62
63 * New remote packets
64
65 exec stop reason
66 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
67
68 exec-events feature in qSupported
69 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
70 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
71 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
72 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
73
74 * Extended-remote exec events
75
76 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
77 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
78 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
79
80 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
81 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
82 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
83
84 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
85
86 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
87 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
88 including advance SIMD instructions.
89
90 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
91
92 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
93 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
94 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
95 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
96 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
97 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
98 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
99
100 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
101 cpu information :
102 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
103
104 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
105 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
106 remote serial I/O.
107
108 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
109 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
110 and may include things like its command line arguments.
111
112 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
113 is now available on all platforms.
114
115 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
116 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
117 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
118 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
119 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
120 backward compatibility.
121
122 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
123 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
124 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
125 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
126
127 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
128 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
129 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
130 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
131 packets" below.
132
133 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
134
135 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
136
137 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
138 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
139 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
140 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
141 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
142 See "New remote packets" below.
143
144 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
145 available register groups, including target specific groups.
146
147 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
148 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
149 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
150 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
151 are ignored.
152
153 * Guile Scripting
154
155 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
156
157 * Python Scripting
158
159 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
160 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
161 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
162 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
163 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
164 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
165 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
166 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
167 "const" version of the value respectively.
168
169 * New commands
170
171 maint print symbol-cache
172 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
173
174 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
175 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
176
177 maint flush-symbol-cache
178 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
179
180 record btrace bts
181 record bts
182 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
183
184 compile print
185 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
186
187 tui enable
188 tui disable
189 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
190
191 show mpx bound
192 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
193 Support for bound table investigation on Intel(R) MPX enabled applications.
194
195 record btrace pt
196 record pt
197 Start branch trace recording using Intel(R) Processor Trace format.
198
199 maint info btrace
200 Print information about branch tracing internals.
201
202 maint btrace packet-history
203 Print the raw branch tracing data.
204
205 maint btrace clear-packet-history
206 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
207
208 maint btrace clear
209 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
210 anew by the next "record" command.
211
212 * New options
213
214 set debug dwarf-die
215 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
216 show debug dwarf-die
217 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
218
219 set debug dwarf-read
220 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
221 show debug dwarf-read
222 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
223
224 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
225 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
226 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
227 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
228
229 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
230 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
231 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
232 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
233
234 set debug dwarf-line
235 show debug dwarf-line
236 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
237
238 set max-completions
239 show max-completions
240 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
241 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
242 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
243 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
244
245 set history remove-duplicates
246 show history remove-duplicates
247 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
248
249 maint set symbol-cache-size
250 maint show symbol-cache-size
251 Control the size of the symbol cache.
252
253 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
254 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
255 BTS format.
256 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
257 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
258
259 set debug linux-namespaces
260 show debug linux-namespaces
261 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
262
263 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
264 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
265 Intel(R) Processor Trace format.
266 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
267 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
268
269 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
270 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
271 packet history.
272
273 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
274 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
275
276 * Python/Guile scripting
277
278 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
279 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
280
281 * New remote packets
282
283 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
284 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
285
286 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
287 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
288
289 Qbtrace:pt
290 Enable Intel(R) Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
291 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
292 qSupported query.
293
294 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
295 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel(R) Processor
296 Trace format.
297
298 swbreak stop reason
299 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
300 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
301 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
302 mode operation.
303
304 hwbreak stop reason
305 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
306 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
307
308 vFile:fstat:
309 Return information about files on the remote system.
310
311 qXfer:exec-file:read
312 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
313 create a process running on the remote system.
314
315 vFile:setfs:
316 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
317 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
318 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
319 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
320
321 fork stop reason
322 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
323
324 vfork stop reason
325 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
326
327 vforkdone stop reason
328 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
329 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
330
331 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
332 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
333 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
334 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
335 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
336 whether these features are enabled.
337
338 * Extended-remote fork events
339
340 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
341 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
342 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
343 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
344
345 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
346 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
347 the btrace record target.
348 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
349
350 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
351 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
352
353 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
354 targets.
355
356 * Removed command line options
357
358 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
359
360 * Removed targets and native configurations
361
362 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
363 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
364
365 * New configure options
366
367 --with-intel-pt
368 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
369 Intel(R) Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
370
371 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
372 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
373 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
374 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
375
376 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
377
378 * Python Scripting
379
380 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
381
382 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
383
384 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
385
386 * Python Scripting
387
388 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
389 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
390 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
391 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
392 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
393 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
394 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
395 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
396 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
397 selecting a new file to debug.
398 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
399 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
400
401 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
402 inferior.
403
404 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
405 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
406 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
407 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
408
409 * New Python-based convenience functions:
410
411 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
412 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
413 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
414 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
415
416 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
417 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
418 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
419 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
420 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
421 interface with this new feature are:
422
423 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
424 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
425
426 * New commands
427
428 demangle [-l language] [--] name
429 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
430 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
431 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
432 as "maint demangler-warning".
433
434 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
435 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
436
437 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
438 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
439 scripts.
440
441 maint print user-registers
442 List all currently available "user" registers.
443
444 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
445 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
446 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
447
448 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
449 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
450 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
451 provided.
452
453 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
454 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
455 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
456 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
457 at resume time.
458
459 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
460 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
461 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
462 switched threads meanwhile.
463
464 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
465
466 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
467 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
468 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
469 is now the default mode.
470
471 * New options
472
473 set debug symbol-lookup
474 show debug symbol-lookup
475 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
476
477 * MI changes
478
479 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
480 inferiors that have exited.
481
482 * New targets
483
484 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
485
486 * Removed targets
487
488 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
489
490 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
491 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
492 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
493 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
494 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
495
496 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
497 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
498 its alias "share", instead.
499
500 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
501
502 * New command line options
503
504 -D data-directory
505 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
506
507 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
508 as specified in ISO C99.
509
510 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
511 with or without disassembly.
512
513 * Guile scripting
514
515 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
516 available is determined at configure time.
517 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
518 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
519
520 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
521
522 guile [code]
523 gu [code]
524 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
525
526 guile-repl
527 gr
528 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
529
530 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
531 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
532
533 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
534 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
535
536 * New options
537
538 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
539 show print symbol-loading
540 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
541 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
542 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
543 becomes less useful.
544
545 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
546 show guile print-stack
547 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
548
549 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
550 show auto-load guile-scripts
551 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
552
553 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
554 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
555 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
556 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
557 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
558 usage of this option.
559
560 set auto-connect-native-target
561
562 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
563 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
564 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
565
566 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
567 show record btrace replay-memory-access
568 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
569
570 maint set target-async (on|off)
571 maint show target-async
572 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
573 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
574 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
575 occurring only in synchronous mode.
576
577 set mi-async (on|off)
578 show mi-async
579 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
580 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
581
582 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
583 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
584
585 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
586 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
587 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
588 "set target-async on" command.
589
590 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
591
592 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
593 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
594 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
595 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
596 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
597
598 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
599 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
600 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
601
602 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
603 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
604 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
605 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
606 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
607 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
608 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
609
610 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
611 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
612
613 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
614 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
615 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
616
617 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
618 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
619 memory or registers.
620
621 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
622
623 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
624 remote. It now works with all targets.
625
626 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
627 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
628 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
629 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
630 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
631 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
632 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
633 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
634 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
635 target-stack".
636
637 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
638 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
639 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
640
641 * GDB now supports access to Intel(R) MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
642
643 * Support for Intel(R) AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
644 Support displaying and modifying Intel(R) AVX-512 registers
645 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
646
647 * New remote packets
648
649 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
650 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
651 branch trace incrementally.
652
653 * Python Scripting
654
655 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
656 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
657 available.
658 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
659 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
660 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
661 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
662 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
663
664 * New targets
665 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
666
667 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
668 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
669 its alias "share", instead.
670
671 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
672 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
673 instead.
674
675 * MI changes
676
677 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
678 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
679 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
680 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
681 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
682 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
683 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
684 commands and CLI execution commands.
685
686 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
687
688 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
689 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
690 recording has been added.
691
692 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
693
694 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
695 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
696
697 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
698 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
699 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
700 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
701 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
702 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
703 "void".
704
705 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
706
707 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
708
709 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
710 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
711 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
712 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
713
714 (gdb) p $rax
715 $1 = <not saved>
716
717 (gdb) info registers rax
718 rax <not saved>
719
720 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
721 "*value not available*".
722
723 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
724 to binaries.
725
726 * Python scripting
727
728 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
729 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
730 ** Line tables representation has been added.
731 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
732 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
733 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
734
735 * New targets
736
737 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
738 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
739 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
740
741 * Removed native configurations
742
743 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
744 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
745
746 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
747 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
748 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
749 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
750 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
751 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
752 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
753
754 * New commands:
755 catch rethrow
756 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
757 maint check-psymtabs
758 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
759 maint check-symtabs
760 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
761 maint expand-symtabs
762 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
763
764 show configuration
765 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
766
767 maint set|show per-command
768 maint set|show per-command space
769 maint set|show per-command time
770 maint set|show per-command symtab
771 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
772
773 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
774 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
775 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
776 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
777 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
778
779 info exceptions
780 info exceptions REGEXP
781 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
782 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
783 are listed.
784
785 * New options
786
787 set debug symfile off|on
788 show debug symfile
789 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
790 symbol tables within those files
791
792 set print raw frame-arguments
793 show print raw frame-arguments
794 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
795 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
796
797 set remote trace-status-packet
798 show remote trace-status-packet
799 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
800
801 set debug nios2
802 show debug nios2
803 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
804
805 set range-stepping
806 show range-stepping
807 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
808
809 set startup-with-shell
810 show startup-with-shell
811 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
812 directly.
813
814 set code-cache
815 show code-cache
816 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
817 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
818
819 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
820 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
821 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
822 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
823 "set height 0".
824
825 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
826 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
827 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
828
829 * New command-line options
830 --configuration
831 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
832
833 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
834 buffer in Common Trace Format.
835
836 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
837 GDB command gcore.
838
839 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
840
841 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
842 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
843
844 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
845 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
846
847 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
848 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
849 due to an uncaught signal.
850
851 * MI changes
852
853 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
854 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
855 command, which should contain "language-option".
856
857 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
858 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
859
860 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
861 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
862 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
863 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
864 "undefined-command-error-code".
865
866 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
867 Trace Format now.
868
869 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
870
871 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
872 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
873 are displayed.
874
875 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
876 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
877
878 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
879 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
880 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
881
882 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
883 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
884 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
885 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
886 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
887 "exec-run-start-option".
888
889 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
890 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
891
892 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
893 the new "info exceptions" command.
894
895 * New system-wide configuration scripts
896 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
897 configuration scripts for the following systems:
898 ** ElinOS
899 ** Wind River Linux
900
901 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
902 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
903 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
904 below.
905
906 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
907 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
908
909 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
910 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
911 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
912
913 * New remote packets
914
915 vCont;r
916
917 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
918 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
919 involvemement at each single-step.
920
921 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
922 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
923 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
924 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
925 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
926 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
927 speedup.
928
929 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
930
931 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
932 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
933
934 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
935 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
936 trace state variables.
937
938 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
939 target.
940
941 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
942 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
943
944 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
945
946 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
947 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
948 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
949 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
950
951 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
952
953 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
954 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
955 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
956 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
957
958 set|show record full insn-number-max
959 set|show record full stop-at-limit
960 set|show record full memory-query
961
962 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
963 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
964 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
965 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
966 This new recording method can be enabled using:
967
968 record btrace
969
970 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
971 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
972
973 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
974 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
975 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
976
977 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
978 instruction granularity
979
980 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
981 function granularity
982
983 * New native configurations
984
985 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
986 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
987 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
988 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
989
990 * New targets
991
992 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
993 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
994 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
995 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
996 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
997
998 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
999 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
1000 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
1001 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
1002 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
1003 --data-directory command-line option.
1004
1005 * New command line options:
1006
1007 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1008 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1009
1010 * Removed command line options
1011
1012 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1013 Emacs.
1014
1015 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1016 type formatting.
1017
1018 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1019
1020 * Python scripting
1021
1022 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1023
1024 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1025
1026 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1027
1028 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1029
1030 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1031 of architecture in the Python API.
1032
1033 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1034 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1035
1036 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1037
1038 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1039 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1040 ** $_strlen(str)
1041 ** $_regex(str, regex)
1042
1043 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
1044 given an argument.
1045
1046 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
1047 default for GCC since November 2000.
1048
1049 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
1050
1051 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
1052 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
1053
1054 * New configure options
1055
1056 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
1057 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
1058 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
1059 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
1060 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
1061 options allow the user to override that default.
1062 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
1063 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
1064 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
1065
1066 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1067
1068 catch signal
1069 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
1070 conditions to be attached.
1071
1072 maint info bfds
1073 List the BFDs known to GDB.
1074
1075 python-interactive [command]
1076 pi [command]
1077 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
1078 and print the result of expressions.
1079
1080 py [command]
1081 "py" is a new alias for "python".
1082
1083 enable type-printer [name]...
1084 disable type-printer [name]...
1085 Enable or disable type printers.
1086
1087 * Removed commands
1088
1089 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
1090 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
1091 instead.
1092
1093 * New options
1094
1095 set print type methods (on|off)
1096 show print type methods
1097 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
1098 The default is to show them.
1099
1100 set print type typedefs (on|off)
1101 show print type typedefs
1102 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
1103 The default is to show them.
1104
1105 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
1106 show filename-display
1107 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
1108 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
1109
1110 set trace-buffer-size
1111 show trace-buffer-size
1112 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
1113
1114 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
1115 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
1116 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
1117
1118 set debug aarch64
1119 show debug aarch64
1120 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
1121 The default is off.
1122
1123 set debug coff-pe-read
1124 show debug coff-pe-read
1125 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
1126 exported symbols.
1127
1128 set debug mach-o
1129 show debug mach-o
1130 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
1131 processing.
1132
1133 set debug notification
1134 show debug notification
1135 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
1136
1137 * MI changes
1138
1139 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
1140 "=cmd-param-changed".
1141 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
1142 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
1143 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
1144 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
1145 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
1146 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
1147 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
1148 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
1149 "=memory-changed".
1150 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
1151 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
1152 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
1153 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
1154 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
1155 library load/unload events.
1156 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
1157 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
1158 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
1159 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
1160 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
1161 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
1162 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
1163 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
1164
1165 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
1166 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
1167 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
1168 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
1169
1170 * New remote packets
1171
1172 QTBuffer:size
1173 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
1174 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1175
1176 Qbtrace:bts
1177 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
1178 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
1179 qSupported query.
1180
1181 Qbtrace:off
1182 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
1183 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1184
1185 qXfer:btrace:read
1186 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
1187 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1188
1189 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
1190
1191 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
1192 for more x32 ABI info.
1193
1194 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
1195
1196 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
1197
1198 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1199 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
1200 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
1201 "info os files" lists file descriptors
1202 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
1203 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
1204 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
1205 "info os msg" lists message queues
1206 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
1207
1208 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
1209 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
1210 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
1211 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
1212 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
1213 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
1214
1215 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
1216 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
1217 record/replay support.
1218
1219 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
1220
1221 * Python scripting
1222
1223 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
1224 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
1225
1226 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
1227
1228 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
1229 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
1230
1231 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
1232
1233 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
1234 the source at which the symbol was defined.
1235
1236 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
1237 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
1238 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
1239 symbol's value.
1240
1241 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
1242 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
1243
1244 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
1245 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
1246 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
1247
1248 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
1249 object associated with a PC value.
1250
1251 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
1252 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
1253
1254 * Go language support.
1255 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
1256 language.
1257
1258 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
1259 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
1260
1261 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
1262 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
1263
1264 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
1265 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
1266 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
1267 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
1268 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
1269 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
1270
1271 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
1272 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
1273 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
1274 build/libcpp/expr.c.
1275
1276 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
1277 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
1278
1279 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
1280 since December 2007.
1281
1282 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
1283 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
1284 command does. For instance:
1285
1286 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
1287
1288 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
1289 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
1290 created, using the "condition" command.
1291
1292 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
1293 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
1294
1295 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
1296
1297 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
1298 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
1299 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
1300 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
1301 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
1302 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
1303 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
1304 files with older .gdb_index sections.
1305
1306 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
1307 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
1308 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
1309 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
1310 the .gdb_index section.
1311
1312 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
1313
1314 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
1315 target.
1316
1317 * MI changes
1318
1319 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
1320
1321 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
1322
1323 * New commands
1324
1325 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1326 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1327 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
1328
1329 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
1330 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
1331
1332 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
1333 several hits.
1334
1335 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
1336 C++ and Java objects.
1337
1338 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
1339 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
1340 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
1341 configured with '--with-python'.
1342
1343 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
1344 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
1345 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
1346 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
1347 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
1348 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
1349 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
1350
1351 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
1352 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
1353 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
1354 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
1355
1356 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
1357 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
1358 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
1359 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
1360
1361 ** "set print symbol"
1362 "show print symbol"
1363 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
1364 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
1365 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
1366
1367 * Deprecated commands
1368
1369 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
1370 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
1371
1372 * New targets
1373
1374 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1375 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
1376
1377 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
1378 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
1379 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
1380 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
1381 evaluates to true.
1382
1383 * New options
1384
1385 set mips compression
1386 show mips compression
1387 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
1388 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
1389 mips16
1390 micromips
1391 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
1392
1393 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
1394 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
1395 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
1396 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
1397 available mode.
1398 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
1399 target.
1400
1401 set auto-load off
1402 Disable auto-loading globally.
1403
1404 show auto-load
1405 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
1406
1407 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
1408 show auto-load gdb-scripts
1409 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
1410
1411 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
1412 show auto-load python-scripts
1413 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
1414
1415 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
1416 show auto-load local-gdbinit
1417 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
1418
1419 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
1420 show auto-load libthread-db
1421 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
1422
1423 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1424 show auto-load scripts-directory
1425 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
1426 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
1427 of the directories listed by this option.
1428 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1429
1430 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1431 show auto-load safe-path
1432 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
1433 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1434
1435 set debug auto-load on|off
1436 show debug auto-load
1437 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1438
1439 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
1440 show dprintf-style
1441 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1442 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1443 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1444 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
1445
1446 set dprintf-function <expr>
1447 show dprintf-function
1448 set dprintf-channel <expr>
1449 show dprintf-channel
1450 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1451 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1452
1453 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1454 show disconnected-dprintf
1455 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1456 after GDB disconnects.
1457
1458 * New configure options
1459
1460 --with-auto-load-dir
1461 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1462 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1463 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1464 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1465 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
1466
1467 --with-auto-load-safe-path
1468 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
1469 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
1470
1471 --without-auto-load-safe-path
1472 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1473 security feature.
1474
1475 * New remote packets
1476
1477 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1478
1479 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1480 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
1481 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
1482 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
1483
1484 QProgramSignals:
1485
1486 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
1487 program without GDB involvement.
1488
1489 * New command line options
1490
1491 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
1492 before loading inferior.
1493 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
1494 execute it before loading inferior.
1495
1496 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
1497
1498 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
1499 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1500 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1501 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1502 inferior changes.
1503
1504 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1505 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1506
1507 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1508 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1509 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1510 target hardware watchpoint.
1511
1512 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1513 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1514 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1515 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1516
1517 * Python scripting
1518
1519 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
1520 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
1521 existing one.
1522
1523 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
1524 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1525 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1526 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1527 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1528 the stack trace.
1529
1530 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
1531 Python API.
1532
1533 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1534 modules library. This module provides functionality for
1535 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
1536 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1537 corresponding value.
1538
1539 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1540 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1541 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1542 on GDB start-up.
1543
1544 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1545 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1546 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1547 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1548
1549 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1550
1551 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1552 "gdb.breakpoints".
1553
1554 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1555 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1556 available in the CLI.
1557
1558 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1559 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1560 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1561 "some_type.items()".
1562
1563 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1564 new object file.
1565
1566 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1567 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1568 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1569 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1570 any anonymous fields.
1571
1572 * MI changes
1573
1574 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1575 "solib-event".
1576
1577 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1578 "=breakpoint-modified".
1579
1580 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1581
1582 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
1583 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
1584 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
1585 lives.
1586
1587 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
1588 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
1589 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
1590 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
1591 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
1592
1593 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
1594 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
1595
1596 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
1597 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
1598 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
1599 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
1600 use this option to specify where to find it.
1601
1602 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1603 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
1604 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
1605 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
1606 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
1607 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1608 section in the user manual for more details.
1609
1610 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
1611 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
1612 become available after that.
1613
1614 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
1615
1616 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
1617 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
1618 gcc version 4.7.
1619
1620 * New commands
1621
1622 !SHELL COMMAND
1623 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
1624 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
1625
1626 * Changed commands
1627
1628 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
1629 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
1630 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
1631
1632 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
1633 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
1634 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
1635
1636 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
1637 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
1638 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
1639 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
1640 name starts with a hyphen.
1641
1642 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
1643 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
1644 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
1645 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
1646 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
1647 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
1648 number of bytes that will be collected.
1649
1650 tstart [NOTES]
1651 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
1652 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
1653 setting the variable trace-notes.
1654
1655 tstop [NOTES]
1656 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
1657 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
1658 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
1659 trace-stop-notes.
1660
1661 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
1662 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
1663 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
1664 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
1665 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
1666 is running.
1667
1668 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
1669 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
1670 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
1671
1672 * New options
1673
1674 set debug dwarf2-read
1675 show debug dwarf2-read
1676 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
1677 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
1678
1679 set debug symtab-create
1680 show debug symtab-create
1681 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
1682 creation. The default is off.
1683
1684 set extended-prompt
1685 show extended-prompt
1686 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
1687 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
1688 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
1689 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
1690 prompt is displayed.
1691
1692 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
1693 show print entry-values
1694 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
1695 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
1696 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
1697
1698 set debug entry-values
1699 show debug entry-values
1700 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
1701 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
1702
1703 set basenames-may-differ
1704 show basenames-may-differ
1705 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
1706 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
1707 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
1708 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
1709 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
1710 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
1711 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
1712 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
1713
1714 set trace-user
1715 show trace-user
1716 set trace-notes
1717 show trace-notes
1718 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
1719 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
1720 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
1721 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
1722
1723 set trace-stop-notes
1724 show trace-stop-notes
1725 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
1726 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
1727 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
1728 started by someone else.
1729
1730 * New remote packets
1731
1732 QTEnable
1733
1734 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1735
1736 QTDisable
1737
1738 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1739
1740 QTNotes
1741
1742 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
1743
1744 qTP
1745
1746 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
1747
1748 qTMinFTPILen
1749
1750 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
1751 be placed.
1752
1753 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
1754 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
1755
1756 * New targets
1757
1758 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
1759
1760 * New Simulators
1761
1762 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1763
1764 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
1765
1766 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
1767
1768 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
1769
1770 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
1771 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
1772 matches the given regular expression.
1773
1774 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
1775
1776 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
1777 dumping the instruction opcodes.
1778
1779 * New command line options
1780
1781 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
1782 This is mostly for testing purposes.
1783
1784 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
1785 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
1786
1787 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
1788 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
1789 source path list instead of augmenting it.
1790
1791 * GDB now understands thread names.
1792
1793 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
1794 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
1795
1796 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
1797 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
1798
1799 * OpenCL C
1800 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
1801 has been integrated into GDB.
1802
1803 * Python scripting
1804
1805 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
1806 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
1807 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
1808
1809 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1810 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
1811 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
1812 and allows for more dynamic content.
1813
1814 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
1815 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
1816 have an is_valid method.
1817
1818 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1819 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
1820 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
1821
1822 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
1823
1824 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
1825 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
1826 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
1827 that function like so:
1828
1829 result = some_value (10,20)
1830
1831 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
1832 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
1833 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
1834
1835 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
1836 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
1837 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
1838 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
1839 New function: register_pretty_printer.
1840
1841 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
1842 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
1843
1844 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
1845
1846 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
1847 selected thread.
1848
1849 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
1850 holds the thread's name.
1851
1852 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
1853 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
1854 occurring in the process being debugged.
1855 The following events are currently supported:
1856 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
1857 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
1858 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
1859
1860 * C++ Improvements:
1861
1862 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
1863 instantiation. For example, if you have:
1864
1865 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
1866
1867 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
1868 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
1869 was added to GCC 4.5.
1870
1871 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
1872 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
1873 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
1874 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
1875 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
1876 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
1877
1878 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
1879 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
1880 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
1881 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
1882 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
1883
1884 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
1885 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
1886 execution to a label.
1887
1888 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
1889 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
1890 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
1891 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
1892
1893 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
1894 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
1895 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
1896 of scope.
1897
1898 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
1899
1900 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
1901 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
1902 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
1903 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
1904 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
1905 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
1906
1907 (gdb) info threads
1908 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1909
1910 While now you see this:
1911
1912 (gdb) info threads
1913 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1914
1915 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1916 dumps.
1917
1918 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1919 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1920 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1921 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1922
1923 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1924 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1925 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1926 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1927 section in the user manual for more details.
1928
1929 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1930
1931 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1932 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
1933
1934 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1935
1936 * New native configurations
1937
1938 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1939
1940 * New targets:
1941
1942 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1943
1944 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1945 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1946 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1947 in the GDB user manual.
1948
1949 * Guile support was removed.
1950
1951 * New features in the GNU simulator
1952
1953 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1954
1955 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1956
1957 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
1958
1959 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
1960
1961 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1962 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1963 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1964 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1965 was always disabled for such configurations.
1966
1967 * C++ Improvements:
1968
1969 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1970
1971 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1972 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1973 For example:
1974 namespace A
1975 {
1976 class B { };
1977 void foo (B) { }
1978 }
1979 ...
1980 A::B b
1981 foo(b)
1982 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1983 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1984 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1985
1986 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1987
1988 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1989 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1990 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1991 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1992 entry.
1993 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1994 mentioned flavors of operators.
1995
1996 ** static const class members
1997
1998 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1999 class definition has been fixed.
2000
2001 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
2002
2003 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
2004 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2005 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2006 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2007 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2008 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2009
2010 * Static tracepoints
2011
2012 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2013 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2014 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2015 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2016 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2017 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2018 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2019 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2020 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2021 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2022 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2023 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2024 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2025 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2026 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2027 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2028 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2029 the "New remote packets" section below.
2030
2031 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2032
2033 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2034 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2035 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2036 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2037
2038 * Observer mode
2039
2040 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2041 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
2042 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
2043 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
2044 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
2045 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
2046 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
2047
2048 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
2049 current thread.
2050
2051 * New remote packets
2052
2053 qGetTIBAddr
2054
2055 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
2056
2057 qRelocInsn
2058
2059 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
2060 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
2061 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
2062 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
2063 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
2064 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
2065
2066 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
2067
2068 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
2069
2070 qTSTMat
2071
2072 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
2073 program.
2074
2075 qXfer:statictrace:read
2076
2077 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
2078 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
2079 to gdb's qSupported query.
2080
2081 QAllow
2082
2083 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
2084
2085 QTDPsrc
2086
2087 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
2088 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
2089
2090 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
2091 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
2092 a directory.
2093
2094 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2095
2096 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
2097 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
2098 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
2099 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
2100
2101 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
2102 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
2103 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
2104 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
2105 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
2106 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
2107 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
2108
2109 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
2110 for static tracepoints support.
2111
2112 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
2113
2114 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
2115 it understands register description.
2116
2117 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
2118
2119 * X86 general purpose registers
2120
2121 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
2122 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
2123 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
2124 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
2125 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
2126
2127 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
2128 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
2129 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
2130 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
2131 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
2132 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
2133
2134 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
2135 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
2136 in the specified file.
2137
2138 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
2139 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
2140 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
2141 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
2142 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
2143 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
2144 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
2145 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
2146 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
2147 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
2148
2149 * New commands
2150
2151 eval template, expressions...
2152 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
2153 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
2154
2155 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
2156 show target-file-system-kind
2157 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
2158 names.
2159
2160 save breakpoints <filename>
2161 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
2162 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
2163 definitions, use the `source' command.
2164
2165 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
2166 is now deprecated.
2167
2168 info static-tracepoint-markers
2169 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
2170
2171 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
2172 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
2173 function, line, address, or marker ID.
2174
2175 set observer on|off
2176 show observer
2177 Enable and disable observer mode.
2178
2179 set may-write-registers on|off
2180 set may-write-memory on|off
2181 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
2182 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
2183 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
2184 set may-interrupt on|off
2185 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
2186 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
2187 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
2188 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
2189 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
2190 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
2191 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
2192
2193 set record memory-query on|off
2194 show record memory-query
2195 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
2196 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
2197
2198 * Changed commands
2199
2200 disassemble
2201 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
2202
2203 * Python scripting
2204
2205 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
2206 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
2207 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
2208 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
2209 GDB using Python' in the manual.
2210
2211 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
2212 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
2213 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
2214 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
2215
2216 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
2217 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
2218
2219 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
2220
2221 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
2222
2223 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
2224
2225 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
2226 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
2227 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
2228
2229 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
2230 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
2231 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
2232 regular breakpoints.
2233
2234 * New targets
2235
2236 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
2237
2238 * D language support.
2239 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
2240 language.
2241
2242 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
2243 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
2244 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
2245 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
2246 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
2247
2248 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
2249 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
2250 conditions of the form:
2251
2252 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
2253
2254 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
2255 interface mentioned above.
2256
2257 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
2258
2259 * C++ Improvements
2260
2261 ** Namespace Support
2262
2263 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
2264 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
2265 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
2266 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
2267 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
2268
2269 ** Bug Fixes
2270
2271 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
2272 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
2273 qualified name.
2274
2275 ** Cast Operators
2276
2277 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
2278 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
2279
2280 * New targets
2281
2282 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
2283 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2284
2285 * New Simulators
2286
2287 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
2288 Renesas RX rx
2289
2290 * Multi-program debugging.
2291
2292 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
2293 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
2294 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
2295 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
2296 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
2297 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
2298 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
2299 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
2300
2301 * New tracing features
2302
2303 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
2304
2305 ** Trace state variables
2306
2307 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
2308 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
2309 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
2310 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
2311 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
2312 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
2313 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
2314 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
2315 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
2316 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
2317
2318 ** Fast tracepoints
2319
2320 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
2321 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
2322 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
2323 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
2324 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
2325 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
2326 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
2327 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
2328 the regular trace command.
2329
2330 ** Disconnected tracing
2331
2332 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
2333 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
2334 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
2335 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
2336 connection is lost unexpectedly.
2337
2338 ** Trace files
2339
2340 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
2341 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
2342 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
2343 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
2344 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
2345 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
2346 <name>".
2347
2348 ** Circular trace buffer
2349
2350 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
2351 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
2352 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
2353 not be available for all target agents.
2354
2355 * Changed commands
2356
2357 disassemble
2358 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
2359 the arguments to be comma-separated.
2360
2361 info variables
2362 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
2363 which only declare a variable are not shown.
2364
2365 source
2366 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
2367 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
2368 support.
2369
2370 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
2371 "set script-extension" (see below).
2372
2373 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2374
2375 record save [<FILENAME>]
2376 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
2377 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
2378
2379 record restore <FILENAME>
2380 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
2381 earlier time, for replay debugging.
2382
2383 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
2384 Add a new inferior.
2385
2386 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
2387 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
2388 inferior has loaded.
2389
2390 remove-inferior ID
2391 Remove an inferior.
2392
2393 maint info program-spaces
2394 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
2395
2396 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
2397 show remote interrupt-sequence
2398 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
2399 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
2400 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
2401 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
2402 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
2403
2404 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
2405 show remote interrupt-on-connect
2406 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
2407 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
2408 Linux kernel.
2409
2410 set remotebreak [on | off]
2411 show remotebreak
2412 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
2413
2414 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
2415 Create or modify a trace state variable.
2416
2417 info tvariables
2418 List trace state variables and their values.
2419
2420 delete tvariable $NAME ...
2421 Delete one or more trace state variables.
2422
2423 teval EXPR, ...
2424 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
2425 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
2426
2427 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
2428 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
2429
2430 * New expression syntax
2431
2432 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
2433 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
2434
2435 * New options
2436
2437 set follow-exec-mode new|same
2438 show follow-exec-mode
2439 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2440 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2441 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2442
2443 set default-collect EXPR, ...
2444 show default-collect
2445 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2446 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2447 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2448
2449 set disconnected-tracing
2450 show disconnected-tracing
2451 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2452 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2453 upon disconnection.
2454
2455 set circular-trace-buffer
2456 show circular-trace-buffer
2457 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2458 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2459 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2460 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2461
2462 set script-extension off|soft|strict
2463 show script-extension
2464 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2465 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2466 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2467 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2468 evaluation failed.
2469 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2470
2471 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2472 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2473 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2474 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2475 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2476 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2477 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2478 is on.
2479
2480 * Python API Improvements
2481
2482 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
2483 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
2484 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
2485
2486 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
2487 `is_base_class' attribute.
2488
2489 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
2490
2491 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
2492 evaluate an expression.
2493
2494 * New remote packets
2495
2496 QTDV
2497 Define a trace state variable.
2498
2499 qTV
2500 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2501
2502 QTDisconnected
2503 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2504
2505 QTBuffer:circular
2506 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2507
2508 qTfP, qTsP
2509 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2510
2511 * Bug fixes
2512
2513 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2514
2515 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2516 much more reliable. In particular:
2517 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2518 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2519 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2520 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2521 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2522 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2523 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2524 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2525 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2526 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2527 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2528 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2529 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2530 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2531 non-threaded programs.
2532
2533 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2534 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2535 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2536 executable program.
2537
2538 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
2539
2540 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2541 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2542 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2543 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2544 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2545
2546 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2547 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2548 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2549 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2550 for tracepoint actions.
2551
2552 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2553 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2554 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
2555
2556 * Process record and replay
2557
2558 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2559 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2560 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2561 execute commands.
2562
2563 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2564 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2565 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2566 reverse execution.
2567
2568 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2569 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
2570 2.6.28 or later.
2571
2572 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2573 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2574 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2575 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2576 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2577 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2578 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2579 the installation instructions for more information.
2580
2581 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2582 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
2583 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
2584 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
2585
2586 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
2587 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
2588
2589 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
2590 now complete on file names.
2591
2592 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
2593 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
2594 For instance, consider:
2595
2596 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
2597 # struct example variable;
2598 (gdb) p variable.
2599
2600 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
2601 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
2602
2603 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
2604 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
2605
2606 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
2607 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
2608 macros.
2609
2610 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
2611 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
2612 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
2613
2614 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
2615 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
2616 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
2617 and simulator targets may also provide them.
2618
2619 * New remote packets
2620
2621 qSearch:memory:
2622 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2623
2624 QStartNoAckMode
2625 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
2626 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
2627 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
2628
2629 vKill
2630 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
2631 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
2632
2633 qXfer:osdata:read
2634 Obtains additional operating system information
2635
2636 qXfer:siginfo:read
2637 qXfer:siginfo:write
2638 Read or write additional signal information.
2639
2640 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
2641
2642 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
2643 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
2644 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
2645
2646 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
2647 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
2648
2649 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
2650 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
2651 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
2652
2653 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
2654 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
2655
2656 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
2657
2658 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
2659
2660 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
2661 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
2662
2663 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
2664 list of section offsets.
2665
2666 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
2667 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
2668 have also been fixed.
2669
2670 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
2671 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
2672 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
2673
2674 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
2675 example, given:
2676
2677 template<typename T> class C { };
2678 C<char const *> c;
2679
2680 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
2681
2682 ptype C<char const *>
2683 ptype C<char const*>
2684 ptype C<const char *>
2685 ptype C<const char*>
2686
2687 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
2688
2689 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
2690 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2691
2692 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
2693 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2694 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
2695
2696 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
2697 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
2698
2699 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
2700 gdbserver.
2701
2702 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
2703 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2704
2705 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
2706 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
2707 as appropriate.
2708
2709 * Python scripting
2710
2711 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
2712 available is determined at configure time.
2713
2714 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
2715
2716 * Ada tasking support
2717
2718 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
2719 been introduced:
2720
2721 info tasks
2722 Print the list of Ada tasks.
2723 info task N
2724 Print detailed information about task number N.
2725 task
2726 Print the task number of the current task.
2727 task N
2728 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
2729
2730 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
2731 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
2732
2733 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
2734
2735 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
2736 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
2737 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
2738 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
2739 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
2740 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
2741 below.
2742
2743 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
2744 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
2745 information.
2746
2747 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
2748 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
2749 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
2750 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
2751 more information.
2752
2753 * Multi-architecture debugging.
2754
2755 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
2756 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
2757 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
2758 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
2759 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
2760
2761 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
2762 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
2763 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
2764 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
2765 --enable-targets configure option.
2766
2767 * Non-stop mode debugging.
2768
2769 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
2770 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
2771 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
2772 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
2773 section in the user manual for more information.
2774
2775 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
2776 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
2777 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
2778 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
2779 extensions on linux targets.
2780
2781 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2782
2783 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
2784 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
2785 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
2786 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
2787 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
2788 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
2789 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
2790 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
2791 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
2792
2793 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
2794 val1 [, val2, ...]
2795 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2796
2797 maint set python print-stack
2798 maint show python print-stack
2799 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
2800
2801 python [CODE]
2802 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
2803
2804 macro define
2805 macro list
2806 macro undef
2807 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
2808 interactively.
2809
2810 info os processes
2811 Show operating system information about processes.
2812
2813 info inferiors
2814 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
2815
2816 inferior NUM
2817 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
2818
2819 detach inferior NUM
2820 Detach from inferior number NUM.
2821
2822 kill inferior NUM
2823 Kill inferior number NUM.
2824
2825 * New options
2826
2827 set spu stop-on-load
2828 show spu stop-on-load
2829 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2830
2831 set spu auto-flush-cache
2832 show spu auto-flush-cache
2833 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
2834 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2835
2836 set sh calling-convention
2837 show sh calling-convention
2838 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
2839
2840 set debug timestamp
2841 show debug timestamp
2842 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
2843
2844 set disassemble-next-line
2845 show disassemble-next-line
2846 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
2847 the debuggee stops.
2848
2849 set remote noack-packet
2850 show remote noack-packet
2851 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
2852 under "New remote packets."
2853
2854 set remote query-attached-packet
2855 show remote query-attached-packet
2856 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
2857
2858 set remote read-siginfo-object
2859 show remote read-siginfo-object
2860 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
2861 packet.
2862
2863 set remote write-siginfo-object
2864 show remote write-siginfo-object
2865 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
2866 packet.
2867
2868 set remote reverse-continue
2869 show remote reverse-continue
2870 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
2871
2872 set remote reverse-step
2873 show remote reverse-step
2874 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
2875
2876 set displaced-stepping
2877 show displaced-stepping
2878 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
2879 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
2880 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
2881
2882 set debug displaced
2883 show debug displaced
2884 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
2885
2886 maint set internal-error
2887 maint show internal-error
2888 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
2889
2890 maint set internal-warning
2891 maint show internal-warning
2892 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
2893
2894 set exec-wrapper
2895 show exec-wrapper
2896 unset exec-wrapper
2897 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2898
2899 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
2900 show multiple-symbols
2901 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
2902 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
2903 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
2904
2905 set breakpoint always-inserted
2906 show breakpoint always-inserted
2907 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
2908 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2909 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2910
2911 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2912 show arm fallback-mode
2913 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2914 show arm force-mode
2915 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2916 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2917 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2918 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2919
2920 set disable-randomization
2921 show disable-randomization
2922 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2923 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2924 multiple debugging sessions.
2925
2926 set non-stop
2927 show non-stop
2928 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2929 a breakpoint.
2930
2931 set target-async
2932 show target-async
2933 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2934 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2935 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2936 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2937
2938 set target-wide-charset
2939 show target-wide-charset
2940 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2941 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2942
2943 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2944 show tcp auto-retry
2945 set tcp connect-timeout
2946 show tcp connect-timeout
2947 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2948 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2949 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2950
2951 set libthread-db-search-path
2952 show libthread-db-search-path
2953 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2954 libthread_db.
2955
2956 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2957 show schedule-multiple
2958 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2959 the current process.
2960
2961 set stack-cache
2962 show stack-cache
2963 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2964 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2965 affecting correctness.
2966
2967 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2968 show interactive-mode
2969 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2970 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2971 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2972 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2973 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2974
2975 * Removed commands
2976
2977 info forks
2978 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2979 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2980 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2981 command.
2982
2983 fork NUM
2984 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2985 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2986 alias for the `fork' command.
2987
2988 process PID
2989 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2990 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2991 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2992
2993 delete fork NUM
2994 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2995 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2996 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2997 fork' command.
2998
2999 detach fork NUM
3000 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
3001 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
3002 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
3003 fork' command.
3004
3005 * New native configurations
3006
3007 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3008
3009 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3010
3011 * New targets
3012
3013 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
3014 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
3015 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
3016 S+core 3 score-*-*
3017
3018 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3019 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3020
3021 * Removed commands
3022
3023 catch load
3024 catch unload
3025 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3026
3027 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
3028
3029 * New native configurations
3030
3031 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
3032 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
3033
3034 * New targets
3035
3036 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
3037 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
3038
3039 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3040
3041 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
3042 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
3043 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
3044 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
3045
3046 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
3047 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
3048
3049 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
3050 is resolved.
3051
3052 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
3053 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
3054 and in inlined functions.
3055
3056 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
3057 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
3058 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
3059
3060 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
3061
3062 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
3063 registers on PowerPC targets.
3064
3065 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
3066 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
3067
3068 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
3069 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
3070
3071 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
3072 extended-remote mode.
3073
3074 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
3075 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
3076 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
3077 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
3078
3079 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
3080 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
3081 target architectures.
3082
3083 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
3084 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
3085 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
3086 stored in two consecutive float registers.
3087
3088 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
3089 breakpoints now.
3090
3091 * Improved support for debugging Ada
3092 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
3093 include:
3094 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
3095 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
3096 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
3097 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
3098 of an assignment
3099 - Improved command completion in Ada
3100 - Several bug fixes
3101
3102 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
3103 process.
3104
3105 * New commands
3106
3107 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
3108 show print frame-arguments
3109 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
3110 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
3111
3112 remote put
3113 remote get
3114 remote delete
3115 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3116
3117 * New MI commands
3118
3119 -target-file-put
3120 -target-file-get
3121 -target-file-delete
3122 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3123
3124 * New remote packets
3125
3126 vFile:open:
3127 vFile:close:
3128 vFile:pread:
3129 vFile:pwrite:
3130 vFile:unlink:
3131 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
3132
3133 vAttach
3134 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
3135 mode.
3136
3137 vRun
3138 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
3139
3140 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
3141
3142 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
3143 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
3144 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
3145
3146 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
3147 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
3148 -Bsymbolic linker option.
3149
3150 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
3151 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
3152 is not supported.
3153
3154 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
3155 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
3156
3157 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
3158 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
3159
3160 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
3161
3162 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
3163 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
3164 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
3165
3166 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
3167 automatically displayed as character or string data.
3168
3169 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
3170 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
3171 as strings.
3172
3173 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
3174 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
3175 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
3176
3177 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
3178 iWMMXt coprocessor.
3179
3180 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
3181 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
3182 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
3183
3184 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
3185
3186 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
3187
3188 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
3189 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
3190 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
3191
3192 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
3193 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
3194
3195 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
3196 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
3197 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
3198 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
3199 Windows and SymbianOS).
3200
3201 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
3202 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
3203
3204 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
3205 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
3206
3207 * New commands
3208
3209 set remoteflow
3210 show remoteflow
3211 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
3212 when debugging using remote targets.
3213
3214 set mem inaccessible-by-default
3215 show mem inaccessible-by-default
3216 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3217 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3218 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
3219 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
3220 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
3221
3222 set breakpoint auto-hw
3223 show breakpoint auto-hw
3224 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3225 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3226 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
3227 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
3228 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
3229 including "next" and "finish".
3230
3231 catch exception
3232 catch exception unhandled
3233 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
3234
3235 catch assert
3236 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
3237
3238 set sysroot
3239 show sysroot
3240 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
3241 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
3242 an alias to "set sysroot".
3243
3244 info spu
3245 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
3246 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
3247 architecture.
3248
3249 * New native configurations
3250
3251 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
3252
3253 set tdesc filename
3254 unset tdesc filename
3255 show tdesc filename
3256 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
3257 not query the target for its built-in description.
3258
3259 * New targets
3260
3261 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
3262 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
3263 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
3264
3265 * New remote packets
3266
3267 QPassSignals:
3268 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
3269 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
3270
3271 qXfer:features:read:
3272 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
3273 features.
3274
3275 qXfer:spu:read:
3276 qXfer:spu:write:
3277 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
3278 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
3279
3280 qXfer:libraries:read:
3281 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
3282 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
3283 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
3284 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
3285
3286 * Removed targets
3287
3288 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
3289
3290 alpha*-*-osf1*
3291 alpha*-*-osf2*
3292 d10v-*-*
3293 hppa*-*-hiux*
3294 i[34567]86-ncr-*
3295 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
3296 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
3297 i[34567]86-*-netware*
3298 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
3299 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
3300 i[34567]86-*-sco*
3301 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
3302 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
3303 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
3304 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
3305 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
3306 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
3307 i[34567]86-*-isc*
3308 m68*-cisco*-*
3309 m68*-tandem-*
3310 mips*-*-pe
3311 rs6000-*-lynxos*
3312 sh*-*-pe
3313
3314 * Other removed features
3315
3316 target abug
3317 target cpu32bug
3318 target est
3319 target rom68k
3320
3321 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
3322
3323 target hms
3324 target e7000
3325 target sh3
3326 target sh3e
3327
3328 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
3329 H8/300.
3330
3331 target ocd
3332
3333 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
3334 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
3335 interfaces.
3336
3337 DWARF 1 support
3338
3339 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
3340 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
3341
3342 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
3343
3344 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
3345 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
3346 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
3347 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
3348
3349 MIPS ".pdr" sections
3350
3351 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
3352 in debugging information.
3353
3354 Scheme support
3355
3356 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
3357 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
3358
3359 set mips stack-arg-size
3360 set mips saved-gpreg-size
3361
3362 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
3363
3364 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
3365
3366 * New targets
3367
3368 Xtensa xtensa-elf
3369 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
3370
3371 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
3372 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
3373 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
3374
3375 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
3376 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
3377 supported.
3378
3379 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
3380 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
3381
3382 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
3383 stub provides the required support.
3384
3385 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
3386 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
3387
3388 * New commands
3389
3390 set substitute-path
3391 unset substitute-path
3392 show substitute-path
3393 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
3394 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
3395 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
3396 between compilation and debugging.
3397
3398 set trace-commands
3399 show trace-commands
3400 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
3401 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
3402 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
3403
3404 * REMOVED features
3405
3406 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
3407
3408 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
3409 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
3410
3411 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
3412
3413 * New remote packets
3414
3415 qSupported:
3416 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
3417 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
3418 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
3419 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
3420 target.
3421
3422 qXfer:auxv:read:
3423 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
3424 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
3425
3426 qXfer:memory-map:read:
3427 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
3428 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
3429
3430 vFlashErase:
3431 vFlashWrite:
3432 vFlashDone:
3433 Erase and program a flash memory device.
3434
3435 * Removed remote packets
3436
3437 qPart:auxv:read:
3438 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3439 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3440
3441 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
3442
3443 * New targets
3444
3445 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3446
3447 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3448
3449 * New commands
3450
3451 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3452 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3453
3454 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3455
3456 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3457
3458 restart <n> Return the program state to a
3459 previously saved state.
3460
3461 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3462
3463 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3464
3465 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3466 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3467
3468 info forks List forks of the user program that
3469 are available to be debugged.
3470
3471 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3472 forks of the user program that are
3473 available to be debugged.
3474
3475 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3476 that are available to be debugged (and
3477 kill the forked process).
3478
3479 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3480 that are available to be debugged (and
3481 allow the process to continue).
3482
3483 * New architecture
3484
3485 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
3486
3487 * Improved Windows host support
3488
3489 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
3490 native console support, and remote communications using either
3491 network sockets or serial ports.
3492
3493 * Improved Modula-2 language support
3494
3495 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
3496 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
3497 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
3498 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
3499 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3500 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3501
3502 * REMOVED features
3503
3504 The ARM rdi-share module.
3505
3506 The Netware NLM debug server.
3507
3508 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
3509
3510 * New native configurations
3511
3512 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
3513 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3514
3515 * New targets
3516
3517 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3518
3519 * New command line options
3520
3521 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3522 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3523 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3524 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3525 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3526 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3527 with the --command (-x) option.
3528
3529 * Deprecated commands removed
3530
3531 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3532 removed:
3533
3534 Command Replacement
3535 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3536 othernames set arm disassembler
3537 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3538 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3539 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3540 regs info registers
3541
3542 * New BSD user-level threads support
3543
3544 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3545 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3546 configurations are:
3547
3548 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3549 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3550 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3551
3552 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3553 are not yet supported.
3554
3555 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3556 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3557
3558 * REMOVED configurations and files
3559
3560 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
3561 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3562 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
3563
3564 * New "set print array-indexes" command
3565
3566 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3567 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3568 behavior.
3569
3570 * VAX floating point support
3571
3572 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3573
3574 * User-defined command support
3575
3576 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3577 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3578 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3579
3580 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3581
3582 * New command line option
3583
3584 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
3585 debugging.
3586
3587 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
3588
3589 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
3590 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
3591 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
3592 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
3593 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
3594
3595 * Internationalization
3596
3597 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
3598 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
3599 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
3600
3601 * Ada
3602
3603 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
3604 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
3605 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
3606
3607 * New native configurations
3608
3609 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
3610
3611 * Remote 'p' packet
3612
3613 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
3614 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
3615
3616 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
3617
3618 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3619 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
3620 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
3621 i386 application).
3622
3623 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
3624 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
3625 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
3626 configurations:
3627
3628 hppa-*-hpux
3629 ia64-*-aix
3630 mips-*-irix*
3631 *-*-lynx
3632 mips-*-linux-gnu
3633 sds protocol
3634 xdr protocol
3635 powerpc bdm protocol
3636
3637 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3638 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
3639
3640 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3641
3642 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3643 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3644 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3645 permanently REMOVED.
3646
3647 h8300-*-*
3648 mcore-*-*
3649 mn10300-*-*
3650 ns32k-*-*
3651 sh64-*-*
3652 v850-*-*
3653
3654 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
3655
3656 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
3657
3658 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
3659 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
3660 been fixed.
3661
3662 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
3663
3664 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
3665 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
3666 IRIX long double values).
3667
3668 * VAX and "next"
3669
3670 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
3671 command. This problem has been fixed.
3672
3673 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
3674
3675 * Fix for ``many threads''
3676
3677 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
3678 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
3679 error message:
3680
3681 ptrace: No such process.
3682 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
3683
3684 This problem has been fixed.
3685
3686 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
3687
3688 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
3689 GDB to dump core).
3690
3691 * New ``start'' command.
3692
3693 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
3694
3695 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
3696
3697 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
3698 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
3699 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
3700
3701 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3702 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
3703 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
3704 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
3705 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
3706 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3707 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
3708 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
3709 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3710
3711 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
3712
3713 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
3714 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
3715 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
3716 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
3717 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
3718
3719 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
3720 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
3721 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3722
3723 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
3724
3725 * New native configurations
3726
3727 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
3728 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
3729 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
3730 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
3731 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
3732 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
3733 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
3734
3735 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
3736
3737 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3738 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
3739 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
3740 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
3741 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
3742 work, was also included.
3743
3744 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
3745 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
3746
3747 h8300-*-*
3748 mcore-*-*
3749 mn10300-*-*
3750 ns32k-*-*
3751 sh64-*-*
3752 v850-*-*
3753 xstormy16-*-*
3754
3755 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3756 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
3757
3758 * REMOVED configurations and files
3759
3760 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3761 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3762 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3763 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3764 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3765 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3766 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3767 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3768 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3769 sonymips mips-sony-*
3770 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3771
3772 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
3773
3774 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
3775
3776 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
3777 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
3778 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
3779 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
3780 with GDB".
3781
3782 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
3783
3784 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
3785 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
3786 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
3787 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
3788 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
3789 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
3790 are created.
3791
3792 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
3793
3794 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
3795
3796 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
3797 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
3798 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
3799
3800 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
3801
3802 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
3803 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
3804
3805 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
3806
3807 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
3808 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
3809 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
3810
3811 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
3812
3813 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
3814 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
3815
3816 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
3817
3818 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
3819 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
3820 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
3821
3822 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
3823
3824 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
3825 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
3826 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
3827
3828 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
3829
3830 * Removed --with-mmalloc
3831
3832 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
3833 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
3834
3835 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
3836
3837 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
3838 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
3839 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
3840 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
3841
3842 * Revised SPARC target
3843
3844 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
3845 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
3846 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
3847 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
3848 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
3849
3850 * New C++ demangler
3851
3852 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
3853 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
3854 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
3855 programs.
3856
3857 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3858
3859 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
3860 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
3861 encountered these.
3862
3863 * C++ nested types and namespaces
3864
3865 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
3866 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
3867 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
3868 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
3869 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
3870 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
3871 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
3872 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
3873 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
3874
3875 * New native configurations
3876
3877 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
3878 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3879 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
3880 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3881 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
3882
3883 * New debugging protocols
3884
3885 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
3886
3887 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
3888
3889 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
3890 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
3891 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
3892
3893 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3894
3895 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3896 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3897 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3898 permanently REMOVED.
3899
3900 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3901 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3902 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3903 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3904 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3905 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3906 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3907 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3908 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3909 sonymips mips-sony-*
3910 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3911
3912 * REMOVED configurations and files
3913
3914 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3915 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3916 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3917 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3918 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3919 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3920 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3921 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3922 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3923 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
3924 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3925 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3926 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3927 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3928 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
3929 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3930 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3931
3932 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3933
3934 * Objective-C
3935
3936 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3937 integrated into GDB.
3938
3939 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3940
3941 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3942 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3943 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3944 backtraces.
3945
3946 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3947 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3948 DWARF 2 CFI support.
3949
3950 * Hosted file I/O.
3951
3952 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3953 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3954 remote protocol documentation for details.
3955
3956 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
3957
3958 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3959 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3960 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3961 ppc32 on ppc64).
3962
3963 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3964
3965 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3966 per-thread variables.
3967
3968 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3969
3970 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3971 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3972
3973 * Separate debug info.
3974
3975 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3976 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3977 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3978 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3979 and optional debug files.
3980
3981 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3982
3983 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3984 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3985 debugger.
3986
3987 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3988 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3989
3990 * Java
3991
3992 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3993 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3994 considered "useable".
3995
3996 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3997
3998 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3999 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
4000 kernel.
4001
4002 * GDB supports logging output to a file
4003
4004 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4005 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
4006
4007 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4008
4009 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4010 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4011 command.
4012
4013 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
4014
4015 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4016 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4017
4018 * Profiling support
4019
4020 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4021 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4022 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4023 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4024 data, for more informative profiling results.
4025
4026 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4027
4028 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4029 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
4030 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
4031
4032 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4033 removed.
4034
4035 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4036 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4037 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4038 in a subsequent -var-update.
4039
4040 * New native configurations.
4041
4042 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4043
4044 * Multi-arched targets.
4045
4046 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
4047 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4048
4049 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4050
4051 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4052 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4053 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4054 permanently REMOVED.
4055
4056 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4057 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4058 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4059 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4060 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4061 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4062 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4063 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4064 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4065 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4066 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4067 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4068
4069 * REMOVED configurations and files
4070
4071 V850EA ISA
4072 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4073 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4074 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4075 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4076 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4077 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4078 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4079 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4080 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4081 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4082 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4083 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4084 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4085
4086 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
4087
4088 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
4089 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
4090 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
4091 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
4092 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
4093
4094 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
4095
4096 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
4097
4098 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
4099 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
4100 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
4101 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
4102 shared libs like mad''.
4103
4104 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
4105
4106 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
4107 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
4108 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
4109 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
4110
4111 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
4112
4113 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
4114 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
4115 they expand.
4116
4117 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
4118 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
4119
4120 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
4121 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
4122
4123 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
4124 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
4125 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
4126 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
4127
4128 * Multi-arched targets.
4129
4130 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
4131 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
4132 NEC V850 v850-*-*
4133 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
4134 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
4135 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4136
4137 * New targets.
4138
4139 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
4140
4141
4142 * New native configurations
4143
4144 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
4145 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
4146 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
4147 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
4148
4149 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4150
4151 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4152 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4153 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4154 permanently REMOVED.
4155
4156 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4157 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4158 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4159 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4160 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4161 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4162 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4163 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4164 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4165 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4166 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4167 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4168 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4169
4170 * OBSOLETE languages
4171
4172 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
4173
4174 * REMOVED configurations and files
4175
4176 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4177 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4178 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4179 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4180 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4181
4182 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4183
4184 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
4185
4186 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
4187 commands. The default is 1024.
4188
4189 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
4190
4191 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
4192
4193 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
4194
4195 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
4196 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
4197 from a file into memory (restore).
4198
4199 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
4200
4201 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
4202 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
4203 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
4204
4205 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
4206
4207 * New targets.
4208
4209 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
4210
4211 * Bug fixes
4212
4213 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
4214 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
4215 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
4216
4217 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
4218 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
4219 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
4220
4221 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
4222 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
4223 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
4224
4225 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
4226 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
4227 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
4228
4229 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
4230
4231 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
4232
4233 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
4234 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
4235 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
4236 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
4237 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
4238 (notably embedded) targets.
4239
4240 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
4241
4242 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
4243 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
4244 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
4245 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
4246
4247 * New command line option
4248
4249 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
4250
4251 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4252
4253 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
4254 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
4255 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
4256 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
4257 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
4258 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
4259 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
4260 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
4261 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
4262 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
4263
4264 * Changes in ARM configurations.
4265
4266 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
4267 configuration is fully multi-arch.
4268
4269 * New native configurations
4270
4271 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
4272 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
4273 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
4274 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
4275
4276 * New targets
4277
4278 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
4279
4280 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4281
4282 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4283 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4284 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4285 permanently REMOVED.
4286
4287 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4288 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4289 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4290 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4291 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4292
4293 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4294
4295 * REMOVED configurations and files
4296
4297 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4298 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4299 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4300 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4301 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4302 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4303 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4304 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4305 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4306 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4307 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4308 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4309 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
4310
4311 * Changes to command line processing
4312
4313 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
4314 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
4315
4316 * Changes to key bindings
4317
4318 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
4319
4320 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
4321
4322 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
4323
4324 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
4325 corrupted.
4326
4327 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
4328
4329 Numerous documentation fixes.
4330
4331 Numerous testsuite fixes.
4332
4333 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
4334
4335 * New native configurations
4336
4337 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
4338 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
4339 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
4340 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4341 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
4342 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
4343
4344 * New targets
4345
4346 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
4347 CRIS cris-axis
4348 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
4349
4350 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4351
4352 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
4353 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4354 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4355 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4356 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4357 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4358 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4359 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4360 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4361 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4362 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4363 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4364 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4365 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
4366
4367 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
4368 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
4369
4370 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4371 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4372 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4373 permanently REMOVED.
4374
4375 * REMOVED configurations and files
4376
4377 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4378 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4379 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
4380 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4381 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
4382 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
4383
4384 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
4385
4386 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
4387 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
4388 present.
4389
4390 * Other news:
4391
4392 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
4393
4394 * The MI enabled by default.
4395
4396 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
4397 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
4398 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
4399 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
4400 which is now deprecated.
4401
4402 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
4403
4404 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
4405 main features are supported:
4406
4407 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
4408
4409 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
4410 extension;
4411
4412 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
4413
4414 - a Pascal expression parser.
4415
4416 However, some important features are not yet supported.
4417
4418 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
4419
4420 - there are some problems with boolean types;
4421
4422 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
4423 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
4424
4425 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
4426
4427 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
4428
4429 * Changes in completion.
4430
4431 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
4432 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
4433 users expect at the shell prompt.
4434
4435 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
4436 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
4437 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4438 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4439 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4440 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4441 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4442
4443 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4444
4445 * New platform-independent commands:
4446
4447 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4448 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4449 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4450
4451 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4452
4453 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4454 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4455 many threads as your system allows you to have.
4456
4457 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4458
4459 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4460 multi-threaded programs though.
4461
4462 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
4463
4464 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4465
4466 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4467 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4468 supported.)
4469
4470 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4471
4472 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4473 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4474 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4475 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4476 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4477 registers.
4478
4479 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4480 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
4481 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
4482
4483 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
4484
4485 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
4486 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
4487
4488 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
4489 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
4490 IDT.
4491
4492 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
4493 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
4494 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
4495 a given linear address.
4496
4497 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
4498 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
4499 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4500
4501 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4502
4503 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4504
4505 * Changes in documentation.
4506
4507 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4508 Documentation License.
4509
4510 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4511 manual.
4512
4513 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4514
4515 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4516 manual.
4517
4518 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4519 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4520 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4521
4522 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4523
4524 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4525 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4526 contents of this file.
4527
4528 * gdba.el deleted
4529
4530 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
4531
4532 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
4533
4534 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4535
4536 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4537 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4538 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4539 greater level of detail.
4540
4541 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4542
4543 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4544 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4545 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4546 written.
4547
4548 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4549
4550 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4551 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4552 machines ``out of the box''.
4553
4554 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4555 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4556 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4557 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4558 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4559
4560 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4561 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4562 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4563 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4564 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4565
4566 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4567 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4568 also works.
4569
4570 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4571 GDB.
4572
4573 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4574 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4575 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4576 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4577
4578 * New native configurations
4579
4580 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
4581 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4582
4583 * New targets
4584
4585 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
4586 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
4587 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
4588 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4589
4590 * OBSOLETE configurations
4591
4592 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4593 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4594 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
4595 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4596 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
4597
4598 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4599 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4600 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4601 be permanently REMOVED.
4602
4603 * Gould support removed
4604
4605 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
4606
4607 * New features for SVR4
4608
4609 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
4610 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
4611 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
4612
4613 * Many C++ enhancements
4614
4615 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
4616 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
4617
4618 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
4619
4620 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
4621 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
4622 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
4623 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
4624
4625 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
4626 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
4627
4628 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
4629
4630 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
4631 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
4632 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
4633
4634 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
4635 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4636
4637 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
4638
4639 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
4640 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
4641 include ``set remote P-packet''.
4642
4643 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
4644
4645 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
4646 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
4647 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
4648
4649 * ``apropos'' command added.
4650
4651 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
4652 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
4653 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
4654
4655 * New MI interface
4656
4657 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
4658 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
4659 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
4660 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
4661 enabled by configuring with:
4662
4663 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
4664
4665 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
4666
4667 * New native configurations
4668
4669 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
4670 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
4671 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
4672
4673 * New targets
4674
4675 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4676 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
4677 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4678
4679 * OBSOLETE configurations
4680
4681 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
4682
4683 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4684 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4685 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4686 be permanently REMOVED.
4687
4688 * ANSI/ISO C
4689
4690 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
4691 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
4692 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
4693 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
4694 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
4695 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
4696 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
4697 already.
4698
4699 * Readline 2.2
4700
4701 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
4702
4703 * set extension-language
4704
4705 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
4706 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
4707 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
4708 set extension-language .c c++
4709 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
4710 and their associated languages.
4711
4712 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
4713
4714 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
4715 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
4716 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
4717
4718 set processor NAME
4719
4720 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
4721 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
4722
4723 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
4724 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
4725 403 IBM PowerPC 403
4726 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
4727 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
4728 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
4729 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
4730 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
4731 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
4732 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
4733 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
4734
4735 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
4736 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
4737 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
4738 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
4739
4740 * HP-UX support
4741
4742 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
4743 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
4744 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
4745 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
4746 for xdb and dbx commands.
4747
4748 * Catchpoints
4749
4750 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
4751 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
4752 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
4753
4754 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
4755 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
4756 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
4757
4758 * Debugging across forks
4759
4760 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
4761 in the inferior.
4762
4763 * TUI
4764
4765 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
4766 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
4767 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
4768
4769 * GDB remote protocol additions
4770
4771 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
4772 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
4773 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
4774 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
4775
4776 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
4777 full 64-bit address. The command
4778
4779 set remoteaddresssize 32
4780
4781 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
4782 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
4783 will be discarded.
4784
4785 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
4786 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
4787
4788 maint packet heythere
4789
4790 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
4791 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
4792 time.
4793
4794 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
4795 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
4796 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
4797
4798 * Tracing can collect general expressions
4799
4800 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
4801 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
4802 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
4803
4804 * mask-address variable for Mips
4805
4806 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
4807 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
4808 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
4809
4810 * Higher serial baud rates
4811
4812 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
4813 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
4814 to achieve all of these rates.)
4815
4816 * i960 simulator
4817
4818 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
4819 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
4820
4821
4822 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
4823
4824 * New native configurations
4825
4826 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
4827 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
4828 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4829 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4830 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4831 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
4832 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
4833
4834 * New targets
4835
4836 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4837 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
4838 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4839 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
4840 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
4841 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
4842 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
4843 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
4844 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4845 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4846 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
4847
4848 * New debugging protocols
4849
4850 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4851 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
4852 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
4853 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4854 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4855 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4856
4857 * DWARF 2
4858
4859 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
4860 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
4861 information.
4862
4863 * Java frontend
4864
4865 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
4866 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
4867
4868 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
4869
4870 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
4871 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
4872 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
4873
4874 * Live range splitting
4875
4876 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
4877 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
4878 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
4879
4880 * Hurd support
4881
4882 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
4883 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
4884
4885 * ARM Thumb support
4886
4887 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
4888 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
4889 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
4890 accordingly.
4891
4892 * MIPS16 support
4893
4894 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
4895 instruction set.
4896
4897 * Overlay support
4898
4899 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
4900 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
4901 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
4902 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
4903 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
4904 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
4905
4906 * info symbol
4907
4908 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4909 the symbol at the specified address.
4910
4911 * Trace support
4912
4913 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4914 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4915 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4916 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4917 file tracepoint.c for more details.
4918
4919 * MIPS simulator
4920
4921 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4922 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4923 of most MIPS variants.
4924
4925 * Sparc simulator
4926
4927 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4928 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4929 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4930
4931 * set architecture
4932
4933 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4934 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4935 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4936 the possible architectures.
4937
4938 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4939
4940 * New native configurations
4941
4942 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4943 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4944 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4945 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4946 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4947 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4948
4949 * New targets
4950
4951 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4952 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4953 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4954 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4955 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4956 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
4957 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4958
4959 * PowerPC simulator
4960
4961 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4962 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4963 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4964 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4965 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4966
4967 * Solaris 2.5
4968
4969 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4970
4971 * Windows 95/NT native
4972
4973 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4974 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4975 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4976 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4977 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4978
4979 * dont-repeat command
4980
4981 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4982 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4983 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4984 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4985
4986 * Send break instead of ^C
4987
4988 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4989 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4990 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4991
4992 * Remote protocol timeout
4993
4994 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4995 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4996 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4997
4998 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4999
5000 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
5001 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
5002 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
5003 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
5004 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5005
5006 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5007 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5008 automatically on hpux10.
5009
5010 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5011
5012 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5013
5014 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5015
5016 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5017 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5018 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5019 every character. The default value is 1050.
5020
5021 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5022
5023 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5024 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5025 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5026 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5027 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5028 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5029
5030 * Speedups for remote debugging
5031
5032 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5033 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5034 and more efficient S-record downloading.
5035
5036 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5037
5038 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5039 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5040
5041 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
5042
5043 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
5044
5045 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
5046 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
5047
5048 * Remote targets use caching
5049
5050 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
5051 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
5052 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
5053 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
5054 off' turns the the data cache off.
5055
5056 * Remote targets may have threads
5057
5058 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
5059 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
5060 gdb/remote.c for details.
5061
5062 * NetROM support
5063
5064 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
5065 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
5066 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
5067 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
5068 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
5069 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
5070 sequence is something like
5071
5072 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
5073 load <prog>
5074 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
5075
5076 * Macintosh host
5077
5078 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
5079 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
5080 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
5081 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
5082 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
5083 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
5084 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
5085 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
5086
5087 * Autoconf
5088
5089 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
5090 but does simplify configuration and building.
5091
5092 * hpux10
5093
5094 GDB now supports hpux10.
5095
5096 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
5097
5098 * New native configurations
5099
5100 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
5101 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
5102 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
5103 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
5104
5105 * New targets
5106
5107 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5108 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
5109 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
5110 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
5111 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5112
5113 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
5114
5115 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
5116 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
5117 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
5118 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
5119 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
5120
5121 * Arguments to user-defined commands
5122
5123 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
5124 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
5125 trivial example:
5126 define adder
5127 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
5128
5129 To execute the command use:
5130 adder 1 2 3
5131
5132 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
5133 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
5134 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
5135
5136 * New `if' and `while' commands
5137
5138 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
5139 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
5140 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
5141 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
5142 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
5143 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
5144 if the expression is zero.
5145
5146 * Fortran source language mode
5147
5148 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
5149 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
5150 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
5151 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
5152 Fortran compilers.
5153
5154 * Better HPUX support
5155
5156 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
5157 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
5158 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
5159 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
5160 that behavior do the following before running the program:
5161
5162 adb -w a.out
5163 __dld_flags?W 0x5
5164 control-d
5165
5166 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
5167 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
5168
5169 adb -w a.out
5170 __dld_flags?W 0x4
5171 control-d
5172
5173 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
5174 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
5175 external linkage.
5176
5177 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
5178 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
5179
5180 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
5181
5182 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
5183 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
5184 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
5185 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
5186 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
5187 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
5188
5189 * New DOS host serial code
5190
5191 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
5192 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
5193 a PC's serial port.
5194
5195 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
5196
5197 * New "complete" command
5198
5199 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
5200 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
5201
5202 * Trailing space optional in prompt
5203
5204 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
5205 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
5206
5207 * Breakpoint hit counts
5208
5209 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
5210 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
5211 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
5212 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
5213 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
5214 that breakpoint.
5215
5216 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
5217
5218 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
5219 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
5220 arrays actually contain only short strings.
5221
5222 * Shared library breakpoints
5223
5224 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
5225 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
5226
5227 * Hardware watchpoints
5228
5229 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
5230 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
5231
5232 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
5233
5234 * Annotations
5235
5236 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
5237 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
5238
5239 * Improved Irix 5 support
5240
5241 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
5242
5243 * Improved HPPA support
5244
5245 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
5246
5247 * New native configurations
5248
5249 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
5250 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5251 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
5252 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
5253
5254 * New targets
5255
5256 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5257 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
5258 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
5259
5260 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
5261
5262 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
5263 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
5264
5265 * Fixes
5266
5267 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
5268 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
5269
5270 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
5271
5272 * Irix 5 is now supported
5273
5274 * HPPA support
5275
5276 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
5277 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
5278 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
5279 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
5280 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
5281
5282
5283 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
5284
5285 * User visible changes:
5286
5287 * Remote Debugging
5288
5289 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
5290 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
5291 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
5292 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
5293 debugging info for the mips target).
5294
5295 * DEC Alpha native support
5296
5297 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
5298 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
5299 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
5300 Alpha-specific notes.
5301
5302 * Preliminary thread implementation
5303
5304 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
5305
5306 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
5307
5308 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
5309 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
5310 for details).
5311
5312 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
5313
5314 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
5315 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
5316 call methods, ...etc.
5317
5318 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
5319
5320 * User visible changes:
5321
5322 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
5323 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
5324 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
5325 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
5326
5327 Filename completion now works.
5328
5329 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
5330 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
5331 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
5332
5333 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
5334 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
5335 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
5336 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
5337 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
5338
5339 * DEC alpha support
5340
5341 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
5342 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
5343
5344
5345 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
5346
5347 * Testsuite
5348
5349 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
5350 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
5351 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
5352
5353 * C++ demangling
5354
5355 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
5356 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
5357 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
5358 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
5359 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
5360
5361 * Simulators
5362
5363 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
5364 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
5365 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
5366
5367 * New targets supported
5368
5369 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5370 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5371 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
5372 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5373 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
5374
5375 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
5376 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
5377 GO32 memory extender.
5378
5379 * New remote protocols
5380
5381 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
5382
5383 * New source languages supported
5384
5385 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
5386 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
5387 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
5388
5389
5390 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
5391
5392 * HP Precision Architecture supported
5393
5394 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
5395 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
5396 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
5397 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
5398 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
5399 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
5400
5401 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
5402
5403 * Faster and better demangling
5404
5405 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
5406 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
5407 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
5408 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
5409 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
5410 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
5411 symbol lookups.
5412
5413 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
5414 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
5415 compiler does not actually implement.
5416
5417 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
5418
5419 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
5420 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
5421 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
5422 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
5423 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
5424 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
5425 fix.
5426
5427 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
5428 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
5429
5430 * Improved configure script
5431
5432 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
5433 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
5434 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
5435 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
5436
5437 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5438 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5439 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5440 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5441 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5442 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5443
5444 * Documentation improvements
5445
5446 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5447 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5448 before submitting changes.
5449
5450 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5451 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5452 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5453 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5454 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5455
5456 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5457 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5458 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5459 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5460 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5461 around this problem.
5462
5463 * New features
5464
5465 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5466 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5467 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5468 the target program.
5469
5470 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5471 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5472
5473 * New native hosts supported
5474
5475 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5476 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5477
5478 * New targets supported
5479
5480 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
5481
5482 * New file formats supported
5483
5484 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
5485 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
5486
5487 * Major bug fixes
5488
5489 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
5490
5491 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
5492 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
5493
5494 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
5495 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
5496 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
5497
5498 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
5499 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5500
5501 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5502 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5503 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5504 libraries.
5505
5506 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5507 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5508 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5509 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5510 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5511
5512 * Internal improvements
5513
5514 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5515 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5516
5517 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5518 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5519 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5520 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5521 shared code that handles any of them.
5522
5523 * New command line options
5524
5525 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5526
5527 * Mmalloc licensing
5528
5529 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5530 General Public License.
5531
5532 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5533
5534 * Host/native/target split
5535
5536 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5537 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5538 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5539 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5540 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5541
5542 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5543 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5544 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5545 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5546 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5547 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5548 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5549
5550 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5551 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5552 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5553
5554 * New hosts supported
5555
5556 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5557 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5558 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5559
5560 * New targets supported
5561
5562 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5563 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5564
5565 * New native hosts supported
5566
5567 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5568 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5569 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5570
5571 * New file formats supported
5572
5573 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5574 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5575 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5576
5577 * New commands
5578
5579 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5580 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5581 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5582
5583 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5584
5585 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
5586 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
5587 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
5588 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
5589
5590 * C++ improvements
5591
5592 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
5593 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
5594 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
5595
5596 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5597
5598 * Major bug fixes
5599
5600 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
5601 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
5602 by the compiler.
5603
5604 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
5605 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
5606
5607 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
5608 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
5609 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
5610 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
5611 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
5612 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
5613
5614 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
5615 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
5616 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
5617 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
5618
5619 * AMD 29k support
5620
5621 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
5622 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
5623 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
5624 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
5625 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
5626
5627 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
5628 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
5629 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
5630 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
5631
5632 * Remote interfaces
5633
5634 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
5635 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
5636 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
5637 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
5638 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
5639 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
5640 each instruction being stepped through.
5641
5642 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
5643 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
5644
5645 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
5646 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
5647 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
5648 processor with a serial port.
5649
5650 * Configuration
5651
5652 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
5653 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
5654 supported, and what files each one uses.
5655
5656 * Library changes
5657
5658 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
5659 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
5660 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
5661 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
5662
5663 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
5664 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
5665 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
5666 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
5667
5668 * Documentation
5669
5670 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
5671 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
5672 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
5673 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
5674 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
5675 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
5676
5677 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
5678
5679
5680 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
5681
5682 * Better support for C++ function names
5683
5684 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
5685 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
5686 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
5687 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
5688 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
5689
5690 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
5691 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
5692 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
5693 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
5694 for the list of formats.
5695
5696 * G++ symbol mangling problem
5697
5698 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
5699 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
5700 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
5701 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
5702 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
5703 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
5704 this problem.)
5705
5706 * New 'maintenance' command
5707
5708 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
5709 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
5710 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
5711
5712 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
5713 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
5714 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
5715 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
5716 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
5717 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
5718
5719 The following commands are new:
5720
5721 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
5722 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
5723 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
5724
5725 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
5726
5727 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
5728 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
5729 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
5730 read after argv processing.
5731
5732 * New hosts supported
5733
5734 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
5735
5736 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
5737
5738 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
5739 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
5740 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
5741 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
5742 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
5743 It costs extra.
5744
5745 * New targets supported
5746
5747 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5748
5749 * More smarts about finding #include files
5750
5751 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
5752 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
5753 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
5754 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
5755 the one that contains your sources.
5756
5757 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
5758 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
5759 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
5760
5761 * Interesting infernals change
5762
5763 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
5764 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
5765 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
5766 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
5767
5768 * Bug fixes (of course!)
5769
5770 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
5771 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
5772 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
5773
5774 See the ChangeLog for details.
5775
5776 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
5777
5778 * New machines supported (host and target)
5779
5780 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
5781
5782 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5783
5784 * New malloc package
5785
5786 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
5787 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
5788 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
5789 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
5790 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
5791 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
5792
5793 * info proc
5794
5795 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
5796 'help info proc' for details.
5797
5798 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
5799
5800 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
5801 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
5802 possible.
5803
5804 * File name changes for MS-DOS
5805
5806 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
5807 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
5808 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
5809 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
5810 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
5811 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
5812
5813 * Cross byte order fixes
5814
5815 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
5816 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
5817
5818 * New -mapped and -readnow options
5819
5820 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
5821 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
5822 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
5823 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
5824 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
5825 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
5826 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
5827 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
5828 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
5829 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
5830
5831 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
5832 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
5833 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
5834 slower, but makes future operations faster.
5835
5836 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
5837 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
5838 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
5839 use is:
5840
5841 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
5842
5843 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
5844 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
5845 shared across multiple host platforms.
5846
5847 * longjmp() handling
5848
5849 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
5850 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
5851 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
5852 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
5853
5854 * Solaris 2.0
5855
5856 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
5857 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
5858 reading symbols.
5859
5860 * Bug fixes
5861
5862 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
5863 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
5864 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
5865
5866 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
5867
5868 * New machines supported (host and target)
5869
5870 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5871 (except core files)
5872 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
5873 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
5874
5875 * New machines supported (target)
5876
5877 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5878
5879 * C++ support
5880
5881 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
5882 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
5883 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
5884
5885 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
5886 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
5887 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
5888 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
5889 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
5890 released.
5891
5892 * New features for SVR4
5893
5894 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
5895 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
5896 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
5897
5898 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
5899 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
5900 it prints the address mappings of the process.
5901
5902 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
5903 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
5904
5905 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
5906
5907 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
5908 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5909 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5910 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5911 same code linked statically.
5912
5913 * New Getopt
5914
5915 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5916 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5917 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5918 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5919 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5920 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5921
5922 * Bugs fixed
5923
5924 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5925 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5926 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5927
5928
5929 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5930
5931 * New machines supported (host and target)
5932
5933 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5934 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5935 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5936
5937 * Almost SCO Unix support
5938
5939 We had hoped to support:
5940 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5941 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5942 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5943 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5944
5945 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5946
5947 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5948 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5949 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5950 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5951 reqired (if any).
5952
5953 * New Readline
5954
5955 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5956 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5957 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5958
5959 * Bugs fixed
5960
5961 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5962 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5963 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5964
5965 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5966
5967 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5968 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5969 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5970
5971 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5972 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5973 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5974 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5975 version 2.
5976
5977 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5978 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5979 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5980 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5981 situation somewhat.
5982
5983 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5984 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5985 methods.
5986
5987 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5988 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5989 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5990
5991
5992 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5993
5994 * Improved configuration
5995
5996 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5997 Porting BFD is simpler.
5998
5999 * Stepping improved
6000
6001 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
6002 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
6003 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
6004 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6005
6006 * Bug fixing
6007
6008 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6009
6010 * New host supported (not target)
6011
6012 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6013
6014
6015 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6016
6017 * Multiple source language support
6018
6019 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6020 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6021 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6022 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6023 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6024 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6025
6026 * GDB and Modula-2
6027
6028 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6029 currently under development at the State University of New York at
6030 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6031 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6032
6033 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6034 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6035 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6036
6037 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6038 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
6039
6040 * set write on/off
6041
6042 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
6043 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
6044 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
6045 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
6046 effect immediately.
6047
6048 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
6049
6050 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
6051 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
6052 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
6053 examining core files.
6054
6055 * set listsize
6056
6057 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
6058 The default is 10.
6059
6060 * New machines supported (host and target)
6061
6062 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6063 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
6064 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
6065
6066 * New hosts supported (not targets)
6067
6068 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
6069
6070 * New targets supported (not hosts)
6071
6072 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6073 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6074 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
6075
6076 * New remote interfaces
6077
6078 AMD 29000 Adapt
6079 AMD 29000 Minimon
6080
6081
6082 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
6083
6084 * New Facilities
6085
6086 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
6087
6088 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
6089 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
6090 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
6091 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
6092 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
6093 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
6094 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
6095 stub on the target system.
6096
6097 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
6098
6099 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
6100 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
6101 object file types such as a.out and coff.
6102
6103 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
6104 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
6105
6106
6107 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
6108
6109 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
6110 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
6111
6112 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
6113 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
6114 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
6115
6116 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
6117 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
6118 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
6119 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
6120
6121 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
6122 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
6123 it is already running. Default is ON.
6124
6125 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
6126 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
6127 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
6128 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
6129 Default is ON.
6130
6131 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
6132 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
6133 or the value of the environment variable
6134 GDBHISTFILE.
6135
6136 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
6137 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
6138 HISTSIZE.
6139
6140 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
6141 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
6142 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
6143
6144 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
6145 history expansion will be performed on
6146 command line input. The default is OFF.
6147
6148 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
6149 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
6150 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
6151
6152 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
6153 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
6154 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6155 variable TERM.
6156
6157 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
6158 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
6159 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6160 variable TERM.
6161
6162 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
6163 ``set width'' instead.
6164
6165 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
6166 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
6167 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
6168 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
6169
6170 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
6171 is OFF.
6172
6173 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
6174 "raw" form if off.
6175
6176 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
6177 like instructions.
6178
6179 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
6180
6181
6182 * Support for Epoch Environment.
6183
6184 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
6185 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
6186 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
6187 window.
6188
6189
6190 * Support for Shared Libraries
6191
6192 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
6193 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
6194 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
6195 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
6196 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
6197 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
6198 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
6199 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
6200
6201 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
6202 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
6203 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
6204
6205 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
6206
6207
6208 * Watchpoints
6209
6210 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
6211 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
6212 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
6213 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
6214 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
6215 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
6216
6217 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
6218
6219 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
6220
6221 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6222 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6223 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6224
6225
6226 * C++ multiple inheritance
6227
6228 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
6229 for C++ programs.
6230
6231 * C++ exception handling
6232
6233 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
6234 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
6235 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
6236 handler's context).
6237
6238 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
6239 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
6240 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
6241
6242 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
6243 current stack frame.
6244
6245
6246 * Minor command changes
6247
6248 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
6249 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
6250 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
6251
6252 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
6253 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
6254 frames without printing.
6255
6256 * New directory command
6257
6258 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
6259 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
6260 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
6261 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
6262 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
6263
6264 * Configuring GDB for compilation
6265
6266 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
6267 for more details.
6268
6269 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
6270 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
6271 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
6272 where the program that you are debugging will run.
This page took 0.161571 seconds and 4 git commands to generate.