1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.1:
6 * New native configurations
8 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
9 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
10 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
12 * REMOVED configurations and files
14 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
15 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
16 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
17 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
18 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
19 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
20 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
21 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
22 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
24 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
26 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
28 * Removed --with-mmalloc
30 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
31 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
33 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
35 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
36 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
37 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
38 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
40 * Revised SPARC target
42 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
43 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
44 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
45 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
46 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
50 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
51 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
52 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
55 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
57 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
58 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
61 * C++ nested types and namespaces
63 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
64 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
65 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
66 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
67 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
68 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
69 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
70 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
71 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
73 * New native configurations
75 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
76 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
77 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
78 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
79 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
81 * New debugging protocols
83 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
85 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
87 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
88 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
89 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
91 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
93 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
94 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
95 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
98 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
99 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
100 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
101 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
102 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
103 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
104 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
105 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
106 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
108 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
110 * REMOVED configurations and files
112 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
113 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
114 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
115 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
116 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
117 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
118 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
119 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
120 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
121 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
122 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
123 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
124 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
125 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
126 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
127 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
128 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
130 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
134 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
137 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
139 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
140 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
141 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
144 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
145 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
150 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
151 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
152 remote protocol documentation for details.
154 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
156 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
157 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
158 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
161 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
163 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
164 per-thread variables.
166 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
168 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
169 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
171 * Separate debug info.
173 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
174 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
175 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
176 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
177 and optional debug files.
179 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
181 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
182 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
185 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
186 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
190 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
191 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
192 considered "useable".
194 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
196 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
197 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
200 * GDB supports logging output to a file
202 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
203 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
205 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
207 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
208 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
211 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
213 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
214 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
218 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
219 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
220 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
221 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
222 data, for more informative profiling results.
224 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
226 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
227 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
228 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
230 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
233 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
234 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
235 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
236 in a subsequent -var-update.
238 * New native configurations.
240 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
242 * Multi-arched targets.
244 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
245 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
247 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
249 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
250 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
251 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
254 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
255 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
256 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
257 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
258 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
259 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
260 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
261 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
262 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
263 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
264 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
265 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
267 * REMOVED configurations and files
270 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
271 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
272 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
273 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
274 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
275 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
277 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
278 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
279 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
280 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
281 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
282 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
284 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
286 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
287 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
288 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
289 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
290 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
292 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
294 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
296 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
297 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
298 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
299 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
300 shared libs like mad''.
302 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
304 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
305 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
306 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
307 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
309 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
311 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
312 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
315 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
316 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
318 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
319 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
321 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
322 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
323 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
324 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
326 * Multi-arched targets.
328 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
329 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
331 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
332 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
333 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
337 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
340 * New native configurations
342 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
343 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
344 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
345 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
347 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
349 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
350 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
351 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
354 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
355 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
356 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
357 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
358 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
359 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
360 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
361 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
362 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
363 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
365 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
366 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
370 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
372 * REMOVED configurations and files
374 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
375 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
376 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
377 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
378 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
380 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
382 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
384 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
385 commands. The default is 1024.
387 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
389 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
391 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
393 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
394 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
395 from a file into memory (restore).
397 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
399 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
400 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
401 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
403 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
411 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
412 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
413 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
415 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
416 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
417 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
419 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
420 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
421 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
423 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
424 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
425 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
427 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
429 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
431 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
432 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
433 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
434 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
435 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
436 (notably embedded) targets.
438 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
440 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
441 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
442 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
443 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
445 * New command line option
447 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
449 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
451 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
452 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
453 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
454 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
455 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
456 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
457 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
458 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
459 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
460 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
462 * Changes in ARM configurations.
464 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
465 configuration is fully multi-arch.
467 * New native configurations
469 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
470 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
471 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
472 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
476 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
478 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
480 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
481 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
482 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
485 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
486 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
487 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
488 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
489 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
491 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
493 * REMOVED configurations and files
495 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
497 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
498 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
499 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
500 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
501 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
502 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
503 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
504 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
505 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
506 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
507 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
509 * Changes to command line processing
511 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
512 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
514 * Changes to key bindings
516 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
518 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
520 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
522 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
525 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
527 Numerous documentation fixes.
529 Numerous testsuite fixes.
531 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
533 * New native configurations
535 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
536 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
537 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
538 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
540 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
544 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
546 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
548 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
550 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
551 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
552 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
553 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
554 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
556 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
557 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
558 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
559 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
560 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
561 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
562 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
563 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
565 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
566 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
568 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
569 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
570 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
573 * REMOVED configurations and files
575 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
576 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
578 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
582 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
584 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
585 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
590 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
592 * The MI enabled by default.
594 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
595 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
596 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
597 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
598 which is now deprecated.
600 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
602 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
603 main features are supported:
605 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
607 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
610 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
612 - a Pascal expression parser.
614 However, some important features are not yet supported.
616 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
618 - there are some problems with boolean types;
620 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
621 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
623 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
625 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
627 * Changes in completion.
629 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
630 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
631 users expect at the shell prompt.
633 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
634 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
635 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
636 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
637 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
638 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
639 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
641 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
643 * New platform-independent commands:
645 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
646 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
647 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
649 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
651 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
652 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
653 many threads as your system allows you to have.
655 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
657 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
658 multi-threaded programs though.
660 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
662 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
664 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
665 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
668 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
670 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
671 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
672 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
673 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
674 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
677 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
678 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
679 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
681 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
683 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
684 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
686 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
687 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
690 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
691 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
692 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
693 a given linear address.
695 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
696 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
697 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
699 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
701 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
703 * Changes in documentation.
705 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
706 Documentation License.
708 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
711 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
713 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
716 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
717 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
718 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
720 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
722 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
723 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
724 contents of this file.
728 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
730 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
732 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
734 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
735 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
736 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
737 greater level of detail.
739 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
741 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
742 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
743 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
746 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
748 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
749 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
750 machines ``out of the box''.
752 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
753 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
754 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
755 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
756 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
758 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
759 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
760 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
761 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
762 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
764 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
765 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
768 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
771 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
772 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
773 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
774 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
776 * New native configurations
778 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
779 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
783 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
784 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
785 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
786 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
788 * OBSOLETE configurations
790 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
791 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
793 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
796 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
797 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
798 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
799 be permanently REMOVED.
801 * Gould support removed
803 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
805 * New features for SVR4
807 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
808 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
809 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
811 * Many C++ enhancements
813 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
814 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
816 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
818 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
819 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
820 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
821 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
823 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
824 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
826 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
828 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
829 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
830 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
832 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
833 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
835 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
837 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
838 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
839 include ``set remote P-packet''.
841 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
843 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
844 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
845 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
847 * ``apropos'' command added.
849 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
850 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
851 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
855 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
856 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
857 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
858 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
859 enabled by configuring with:
861 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
863 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
865 * New native configurations
867 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
868 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
869 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
873 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
874 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
875 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
877 * OBSOLETE configurations
879 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
881 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
882 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
883 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
884 be permanently REMOVED.
888 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
889 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
890 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
891 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
892 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
893 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
894 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
899 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
901 * set extension-language
903 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
904 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
905 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
906 set extension-language .c c++
907 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
908 and their associated languages.
910 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
912 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
913 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
914 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
918 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
919 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
921 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
922 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
924 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
925 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
926 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
927 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
928 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
929 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
930 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
931 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
933 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
934 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
935 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
936 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
940 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
941 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
942 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
943 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
944 for xdb and dbx commands.
948 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
949 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
950 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
952 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
953 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
954 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
956 * Debugging across forks
958 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
963 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
964 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
965 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
967 * GDB remote protocol additions
969 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
970 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
971 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
972 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
974 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
975 full 64-bit address. The command
977 set remoteaddresssize 32
979 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
980 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
983 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
984 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
986 maint packet heythere
988 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
989 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
992 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
993 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
994 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
996 * Tracing can collect general expressions
998 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
999 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1000 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1002 * mask-address variable for Mips
1004 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1005 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1006 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1008 * Higher serial baud rates
1010 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1011 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1012 to achieve all of these rates.)
1016 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1017 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1020 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1022 * New native configurations
1024 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1025 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1026 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1027 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1028 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1029 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1030 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1034 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1035 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1036 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1037 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1038 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1039 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1040 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1041 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1042 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1043 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1044 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1046 * New debugging protocols
1048 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1049 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1050 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1051 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1052 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1053 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1057 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1058 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1063 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1064 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1066 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1068 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1069 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1070 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1072 * Live range splitting
1074 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1075 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1076 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1080 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1081 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1085 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1086 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1087 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1092 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1097 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1098 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1099 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1100 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1101 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1102 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1106 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1107 the symbol at the specified address.
1111 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1112 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1113 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1114 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1115 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1119 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1120 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1121 of most MIPS variants.
1125 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1126 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1127 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1131 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1132 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1133 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1134 the possible architectures.
1136 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1138 * New native configurations
1140 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1141 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1142 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1143 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1144 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1145 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1149 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1150 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1151 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1152 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1153 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1155 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1159 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1160 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1161 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1162 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1163 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1167 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1169 * Windows 95/NT native
1171 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1172 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1173 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1174 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1175 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1177 * dont-repeat command
1179 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1180 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1181 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1182 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1184 * Send break instead of ^C
1186 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1187 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1188 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1190 * Remote protocol timeout
1192 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1193 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1194 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1196 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1198 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1199 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1200 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1201 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1202 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1204 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1205 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1206 automatically on hpux10.
1208 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1210 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1212 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1214 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1215 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1216 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1217 every character. The default value is 1050.
1219 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1221 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1222 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1223 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1224 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1225 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1226 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1228 * Speedups for remote debugging
1230 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1231 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1232 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1234 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1236 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1237 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1239 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1241 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1243 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1244 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1246 * Remote targets use caching
1248 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1249 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1250 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1251 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1252 off' turns the the data cache off.
1254 * Remote targets may have threads
1256 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1257 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1258 gdb/remote.c for details.
1262 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1263 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1264 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1265 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1266 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1267 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1268 sequence is something like
1270 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1272 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1276 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1277 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1278 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1279 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1280 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1281 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1282 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1283 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1287 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1288 but does simplify configuration and building.
1292 GDB now supports hpux10.
1294 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1296 * New native configurations
1298 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1299 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1300 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1301 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1305 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1306 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1307 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1308 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1311 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1313 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1314 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1315 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1316 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1317 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1319 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1321 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1322 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1325 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1327 To execute the command use:
1330 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1331 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1332 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1334 * New `if' and `while' commands
1336 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1337 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1338 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1339 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1340 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1341 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1342 if the expression is zero.
1344 * Fortran source language mode
1346 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1347 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1348 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1349 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1352 * Better HPUX support
1354 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1355 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1356 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1357 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1358 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1364 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1365 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1371 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1372 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1375 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1376 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1378 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1380 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1381 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1382 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1383 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1384 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1385 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1387 * New DOS host serial code
1389 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1390 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1393 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1395 * New "complete" command
1397 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1398 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1400 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1402 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1403 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1405 * Breakpoint hit counts
1407 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1408 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1409 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1410 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1411 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1414 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1416 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1417 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1418 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1420 * Shared library breakpoints
1422 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1423 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1425 * Hardware watchpoints
1427 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1428 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1430 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1434 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1435 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1437 * Improved Irix 5 support
1439 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1441 * Improved HPPA support
1443 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1445 * New native configurations
1447 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1448 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1449 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1450 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1454 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1455 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1458 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1460 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1461 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1465 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1466 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1468 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1470 * Irix 5 is now supported
1474 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1475 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1476 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1477 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1478 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1481 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1483 * User visible changes:
1487 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1488 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1489 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1490 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1491 debugging info for the mips target).
1493 * DEC Alpha native support
1495 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1496 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1497 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1498 Alpha-specific notes.
1500 * Preliminary thread implementation
1502 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1504 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1506 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1507 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1510 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1512 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1513 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1514 call methods, ...etc.
1516 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1518 * User visible changes:
1520 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1521 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1522 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1523 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1525 Filename completion now works.
1527 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1528 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1529 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1531 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1532 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1533 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1534 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1535 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1539 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1540 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1543 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1547 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1548 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1549 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1553 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1554 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1555 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1556 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1557 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1561 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1562 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1563 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1565 * New targets supported
1567 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1568 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1569 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1570 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1571 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1573 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1574 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1575 GO32 memory extender.
1577 * New remote protocols
1579 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1581 * New source languages supported
1583 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1584 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1585 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1588 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1590 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1592 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1593 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1594 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1595 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1596 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1597 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1599 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1601 * Faster and better demangling
1603 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1604 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1605 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1606 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1607 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1608 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1611 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1612 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1613 compiler does not actually implement.
1615 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1617 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1618 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1619 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1620 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1621 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1622 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1625 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1626 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1628 * Improved configure script
1630 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1631 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1632 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1633 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1635 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1636 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1637 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1638 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1639 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1640 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1642 * Documentation improvements
1644 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1645 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1646 before submitting changes.
1648 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1649 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1650 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1651 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1652 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1654 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1655 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1656 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1657 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1658 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1659 around this problem.
1663 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1664 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1665 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1668 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1669 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1671 * New native hosts supported
1673 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1674 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1676 * New targets supported
1678 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1680 * New file formats supported
1682 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1683 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1687 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1689 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1690 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1692 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1693 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1694 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1696 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1697 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1699 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1700 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1701 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1704 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1705 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1706 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1707 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1708 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1710 * Internal improvements
1712 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1713 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1715 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1716 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1717 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1718 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1719 shared code that handles any of them.
1721 * New command line options
1723 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1727 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1728 General Public License.
1730 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1732 * Host/native/target split
1734 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1735 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1736 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1737 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1738 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1740 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1741 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1742 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1743 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1744 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1745 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1746 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1748 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1749 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1750 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1752 * New hosts supported
1754 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1755 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1756 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1758 * New targets supported
1760 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1761 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1763 * New native hosts supported
1765 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1766 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1767 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1769 * New file formats supported
1771 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1772 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1773 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1777 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1778 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1779 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1781 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1783 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1784 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1785 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1786 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1790 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1791 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1792 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1794 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1798 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1799 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1802 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1803 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1805 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1806 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1807 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1808 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1809 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1810 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1812 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1813 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1814 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1815 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1819 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1820 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1821 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1822 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1823 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1825 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1826 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1827 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1828 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1832 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1833 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1834 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1835 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1836 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1837 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1838 each instruction being stepped through.
1840 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1841 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1843 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1844 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1845 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1846 processor with a serial port.
1850 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1851 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1852 supported, and what files each one uses.
1856 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1857 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1858 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1859 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1861 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1862 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1863 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1864 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1868 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1869 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1870 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1871 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1872 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1873 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1875 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1878 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1880 * Better support for C++ function names
1882 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1883 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1884 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1885 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1886 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1888 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1889 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1890 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1891 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1892 for the list of formats.
1894 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1896 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1897 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1898 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1899 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1900 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1901 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1904 * New 'maintenance' command
1906 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1907 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1908 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1910 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1911 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1912 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1913 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1914 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1915 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1917 The following commands are new:
1919 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1920 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1921 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1923 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1925 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1926 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1927 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1928 read after argv processing.
1930 * New hosts supported
1932 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1934 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1936 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1937 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1938 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1939 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1940 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1943 * New targets supported
1945 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1947 * More smarts about finding #include files
1949 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1950 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1951 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1952 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1953 the one that contains your sources.
1955 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1956 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1957 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1959 * Interesting infernals change
1961 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1962 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1963 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1964 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1966 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1968 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1969 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1970 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1972 See the ChangeLog for details.
1974 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1976 * New machines supported (host and target)
1978 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1980 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1982 * New malloc package
1984 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1985 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1986 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1987 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1988 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1989 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1993 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1994 'help info proc' for details.
1996 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1998 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1999 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2002 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2004 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2005 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2006 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2007 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2008 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2009 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2011 * Cross byte order fixes
2013 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2014 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2016 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2018 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2019 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2020 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2021 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2022 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2023 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2024 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2025 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2026 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2027 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2029 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2030 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2031 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2032 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2034 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2035 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2036 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2039 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2041 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2042 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2043 shared across multiple host platforms.
2045 * longjmp() handling
2047 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2048 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2049 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2050 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2054 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2055 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2060 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2061 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2062 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2064 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2066 * New machines supported (host and target)
2068 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2070 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2071 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2073 * New machines supported (target)
2075 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2079 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2080 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2081 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2083 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2084 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2085 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2086 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2087 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2090 * New features for SVR4
2092 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2093 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2094 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2096 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2097 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2098 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2100 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2101 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2103 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2105 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2106 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2107 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2108 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2109 same code linked statically.
2113 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2114 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2115 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2116 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2117 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2118 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2122 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2123 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2124 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2127 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2129 * New machines supported (host and target)
2131 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2132 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2133 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2135 * Almost SCO Unix support
2137 We had hoped to support:
2138 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2139 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2140 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2141 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2143 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2145 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2146 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2147 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2148 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2153 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2154 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2155 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2159 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2160 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2161 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2163 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2165 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2166 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2167 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2169 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2170 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2171 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2172 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2175 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2176 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2177 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2178 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2181 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2182 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2185 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2186 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2187 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2190 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2192 * Improved configuration
2194 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2195 Porting BFD is simpler.
2199 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2200 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2201 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2202 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2206 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2208 * New host supported (not target)
2210 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2213 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2215 * Multiple source language support
2217 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2218 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2219 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2220 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2221 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2222 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2226 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2227 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2228 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2229 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2231 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2232 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2233 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2235 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2236 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2240 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2241 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2242 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2243 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2246 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2248 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2249 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2250 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2251 examining core files.
2255 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2258 * New machines supported (host and target)
2260 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2261 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2262 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2264 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2266 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2268 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2270 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2271 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2272 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2274 * New remote interfaces
2280 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2284 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2286 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2287 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2288 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2289 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2290 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2291 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2292 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2293 stub on the target system.
2295 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2297 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2298 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2299 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2301 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2302 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2305 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2307 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2308 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2310 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2311 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2312 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2314 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2315 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2316 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2317 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2319 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2320 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2321 it is already running. Default is ON.
2323 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2324 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2325 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2326 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2329 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2330 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2331 or the value of the environment variable
2334 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2335 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2338 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2339 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2340 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2342 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2343 history expansion will be performed on
2344 command line input. The default is OFF.
2346 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2347 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2348 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2350 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2351 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2352 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2355 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2356 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2357 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2360 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2361 ``set width'' instead.
2363 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2364 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2365 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2366 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2368 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2371 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2374 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2377 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2380 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2382 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2383 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2384 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2388 * Support for Shared Libraries
2390 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2391 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2392 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2393 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2394 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2395 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2396 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2397 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2399 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2400 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2401 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2403 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2408 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2409 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2410 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2411 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2412 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2413 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2415 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2417 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2419 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2420 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2421 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2424 * C++ multiple inheritance
2426 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2429 * C++ exception handling
2431 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2432 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2433 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2436 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2437 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2438 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2440 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2441 current stack frame.
2444 * Minor command changes
2446 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2447 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2448 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2450 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2451 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2452 frames without printing.
2454 * New directory command
2456 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2457 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2458 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2459 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2460 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2462 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2464 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2467 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2468 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2469 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2470 where the program that you are debugging will run.