1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
6 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
8 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
9 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
10 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
11 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
12 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
14 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
16 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
18 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
19 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
22 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
24 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
25 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
26 IRIX long double values).
30 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
31 command. This problem has been fixed.
33 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
35 * Fix for ``many threads''
37 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
38 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
41 ptrace: No such process.
42 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
44 This problem has been fixed.
46 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
48 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
51 * New ``start'' command.
53 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
55 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
57 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
58 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
59 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
61 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
62 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
63 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
64 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
65 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
66 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
67 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
68 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
69 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
71 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
73 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
74 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
75 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
76 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
77 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
79 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
80 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
81 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
83 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
85 * New native configurations
87 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
88 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
89 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
90 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
91 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
92 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
93 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
95 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
97 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
98 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
99 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
100 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
101 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
102 work, was also included.
104 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
105 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
115 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
116 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
118 * REMOVED configurations and files
120 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
121 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
122 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
123 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
124 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
125 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
126 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
127 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
128 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
130 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
132 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
134 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
136 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
137 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
138 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
139 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
142 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
144 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
145 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
146 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
147 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
148 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
149 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
152 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
154 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
156 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
157 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
158 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
160 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
162 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
163 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
165 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
167 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
168 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
169 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
171 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
173 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
174 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
176 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
178 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
179 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
180 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
182 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
184 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
185 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
186 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
188 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
190 * Removed --with-mmalloc
192 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
193 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
195 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
197 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
198 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
199 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
200 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
202 * Revised SPARC target
204 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
205 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
206 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
207 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
208 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
212 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
213 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
214 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
217 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
219 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
220 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
223 * C++ nested types and namespaces
225 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
226 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
227 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
228 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
229 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
230 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
231 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
232 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
233 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
235 * New native configurations
237 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
238 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
239 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
240 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
241 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
243 * New debugging protocols
245 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
247 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
249 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
250 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
251 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
253 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
255 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
256 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
257 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
260 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
261 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
262 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
263 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
264 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
265 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
266 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
267 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
268 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
270 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
272 * REMOVED configurations and files
274 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
275 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
276 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
277 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
278 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
279 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
280 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
281 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
282 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
283 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
284 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
285 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
286 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
287 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
288 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
289 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
290 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
292 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
296 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
299 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
301 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
302 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
303 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
306 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
307 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
312 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
313 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
314 remote protocol documentation for details.
316 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
318 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
319 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
320 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
323 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
325 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
326 per-thread variables.
328 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
330 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
331 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
333 * Separate debug info.
335 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
336 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
337 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
338 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
339 and optional debug files.
341 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
343 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
344 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
347 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
348 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
352 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
353 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
354 considered "useable".
356 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
358 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
359 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
362 * GDB supports logging output to a file
364 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
365 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
367 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
369 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
370 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
373 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
375 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
376 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
380 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
381 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
382 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
383 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
384 data, for more informative profiling results.
386 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
388 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
389 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
390 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
392 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
395 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
396 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
397 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
398 in a subsequent -var-update.
400 * New native configurations.
402 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
404 * Multi-arched targets.
406 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
407 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
409 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
411 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
412 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
413 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
416 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
417 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
418 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
419 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
420 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
421 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
422 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
423 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
424 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
425 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
426 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
427 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
429 * REMOVED configurations and files
432 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
433 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
434 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
435 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
436 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
437 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
439 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
440 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
441 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
442 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
443 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
444 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
446 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
448 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
449 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
450 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
451 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
452 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
454 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
456 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
458 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
459 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
460 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
461 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
462 shared libs like mad''.
464 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
466 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
467 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
468 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
469 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
471 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
473 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
474 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
477 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
478 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
480 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
481 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
483 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
484 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
485 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
486 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
488 * Multi-arched targets.
490 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
491 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
493 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
494 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
495 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
499 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
502 * New native configurations
504 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
505 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
506 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
507 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
509 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
511 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
512 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
513 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
516 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
517 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
518 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
519 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
520 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
521 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
522 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
523 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
524 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
525 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
527 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
528 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
532 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
534 * REMOVED configurations and files
536 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
537 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
538 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
539 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
540 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
542 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
544 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
546 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
547 commands. The default is 1024.
549 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
551 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
553 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
555 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
556 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
557 from a file into memory (restore).
559 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
561 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
562 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
563 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
565 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
573 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
574 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
575 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
577 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
578 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
579 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
581 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
582 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
583 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
585 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
586 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
587 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
589 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
591 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
593 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
594 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
595 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
596 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
597 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
598 (notably embedded) targets.
600 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
602 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
603 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
604 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
605 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
607 * New command line option
609 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
611 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
613 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
614 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
615 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
616 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
617 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
618 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
619 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
620 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
621 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
622 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
624 * Changes in ARM configurations.
626 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
627 configuration is fully multi-arch.
629 * New native configurations
631 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
632 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
633 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
634 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
638 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
640 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
642 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
643 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
644 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
647 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
648 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
649 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
650 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
651 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
653 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
655 * REMOVED configurations and files
657 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
659 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
660 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
661 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
662 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
663 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
664 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
665 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
666 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
667 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
668 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
669 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
671 * Changes to command line processing
673 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
674 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
676 * Changes to key bindings
678 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
680 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
682 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
684 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
687 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
689 Numerous documentation fixes.
691 Numerous testsuite fixes.
693 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
695 * New native configurations
697 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
698 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
699 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
700 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
702 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
706 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
708 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
710 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
712 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
713 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
714 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
715 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
716 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
718 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
719 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
720 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
721 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
722 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
723 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
724 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
725 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
727 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
728 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
730 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
731 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
732 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
735 * REMOVED configurations and files
737 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
738 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
740 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
744 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
746 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
747 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
752 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
754 * The MI enabled by default.
756 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
757 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
758 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
759 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
760 which is now deprecated.
762 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
764 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
765 main features are supported:
767 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
769 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
772 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
774 - a Pascal expression parser.
776 However, some important features are not yet supported.
778 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
780 - there are some problems with boolean types;
782 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
783 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
785 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
787 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
789 * Changes in completion.
791 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
792 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
793 users expect at the shell prompt.
795 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
796 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
797 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
798 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
799 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
800 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
801 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
803 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
805 * New platform-independent commands:
807 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
808 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
809 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
811 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
813 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
814 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
815 many threads as your system allows you to have.
817 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
819 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
820 multi-threaded programs though.
822 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
824 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
826 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
827 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
830 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
832 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
833 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
834 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
835 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
836 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
839 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
840 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
841 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
843 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
845 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
846 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
848 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
849 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
852 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
853 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
854 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
855 a given linear address.
857 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
858 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
859 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
861 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
863 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
865 * Changes in documentation.
867 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
868 Documentation License.
870 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
873 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
875 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
878 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
879 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
880 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
882 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
884 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
885 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
886 contents of this file.
890 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
892 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
894 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
896 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
897 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
898 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
899 greater level of detail.
901 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
903 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
904 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
905 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
908 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
910 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
911 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
912 machines ``out of the box''.
914 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
915 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
916 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
917 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
918 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
920 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
921 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
922 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
923 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
924 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
926 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
927 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
930 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
933 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
934 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
935 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
936 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
938 * New native configurations
940 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
941 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
945 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
946 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
947 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
948 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
950 * OBSOLETE configurations
952 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
953 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
955 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
958 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
959 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
960 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
961 be permanently REMOVED.
963 * Gould support removed
965 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
967 * New features for SVR4
969 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
970 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
971 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
973 * Many C++ enhancements
975 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
976 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
978 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
980 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
981 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
982 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
983 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
985 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
986 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
988 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
990 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
991 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
992 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
994 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
995 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
997 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
999 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1000 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1001 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1003 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1005 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1006 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1007 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1009 * ``apropos'' command added.
1011 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1012 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1013 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1017 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1018 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1019 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1020 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1021 enabled by configuring with:
1023 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1025 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1027 * New native configurations
1029 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1030 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1031 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1035 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1036 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1037 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1039 * OBSOLETE configurations
1041 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1043 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1044 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1045 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1046 be permanently REMOVED.
1050 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1051 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1052 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1053 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1054 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1055 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1056 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1061 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1063 * set extension-language
1065 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1066 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1067 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1068 set extension-language .c c++
1069 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1070 and their associated languages.
1072 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1074 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1075 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1076 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1080 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1081 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1083 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1084 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1086 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1087 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1088 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1089 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1090 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1091 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1092 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1093 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1095 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1096 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1097 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1098 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1102 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1103 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1104 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1105 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1106 for xdb and dbx commands.
1110 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1111 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1112 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1114 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1115 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1116 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1118 * Debugging across forks
1120 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1125 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1126 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1127 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1129 * GDB remote protocol additions
1131 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1132 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1133 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1134 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1136 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1137 full 64-bit address. The command
1139 set remoteaddresssize 32
1141 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1142 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1145 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1146 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1148 maint packet heythere
1150 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1151 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1154 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1155 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1156 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1158 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1160 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1161 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1162 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1164 * mask-address variable for Mips
1166 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1167 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1168 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1170 * Higher serial baud rates
1172 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1173 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1174 to achieve all of these rates.)
1178 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1179 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1182 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1184 * New native configurations
1186 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1187 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1188 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1189 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1190 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1191 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1192 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1196 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1197 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1198 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1199 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1200 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1201 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1202 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1203 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1204 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1205 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1206 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1208 * New debugging protocols
1210 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1211 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1212 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1213 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1214 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1215 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1219 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1220 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1225 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1226 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1228 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1230 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1231 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1232 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1234 * Live range splitting
1236 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1237 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1238 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1242 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1243 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1247 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1248 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1249 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1254 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1259 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1260 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1261 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1262 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1263 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1264 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1268 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1269 the symbol at the specified address.
1273 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1274 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1275 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1276 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1277 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1281 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1282 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1283 of most MIPS variants.
1287 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1288 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1289 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1293 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1294 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1295 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1296 the possible architectures.
1298 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1300 * New native configurations
1302 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1303 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1304 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1305 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1306 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1307 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1311 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1312 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1313 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1314 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1315 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1317 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1321 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1322 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1323 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1324 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1325 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1329 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1331 * Windows 95/NT native
1333 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1334 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1335 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1336 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1337 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1339 * dont-repeat command
1341 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1342 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1343 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1344 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1346 * Send break instead of ^C
1348 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1349 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1350 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1352 * Remote protocol timeout
1354 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1355 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1356 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1358 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1360 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1361 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1362 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1363 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1364 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1366 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1367 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1368 automatically on hpux10.
1370 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1372 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1374 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1376 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1377 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1378 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1379 every character. The default value is 1050.
1381 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1383 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1384 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1385 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1386 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1387 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1388 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1390 * Speedups for remote debugging
1392 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1393 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1394 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1396 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1398 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1399 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1401 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1403 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1405 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1406 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1408 * Remote targets use caching
1410 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1411 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1412 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1413 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1414 off' turns the the data cache off.
1416 * Remote targets may have threads
1418 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1419 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1420 gdb/remote.c for details.
1424 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1425 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1426 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1427 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1428 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1429 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1430 sequence is something like
1432 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1434 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1438 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1439 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1440 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1441 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1442 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1443 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1444 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1445 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1449 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1450 but does simplify configuration and building.
1454 GDB now supports hpux10.
1456 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1458 * New native configurations
1460 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1461 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1462 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1463 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1467 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1468 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1469 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1470 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1473 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1475 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1476 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1477 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1478 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1479 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1481 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1483 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1484 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1487 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1489 To execute the command use:
1492 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1493 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1494 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1496 * New `if' and `while' commands
1498 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1499 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1500 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1501 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1502 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1503 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1504 if the expression is zero.
1506 * Fortran source language mode
1508 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1509 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1510 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1511 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1514 * Better HPUX support
1516 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1517 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1518 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1519 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1520 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1526 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1527 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1533 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1534 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1537 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1538 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1540 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1542 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1543 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1544 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1545 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1546 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1547 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1549 * New DOS host serial code
1551 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1552 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1555 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1557 * New "complete" command
1559 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1560 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1562 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1564 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1565 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1567 * Breakpoint hit counts
1569 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1570 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1571 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1572 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1573 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1576 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1578 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1579 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1580 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1582 * Shared library breakpoints
1584 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1585 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1587 * Hardware watchpoints
1589 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1590 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1592 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1596 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1597 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1599 * Improved Irix 5 support
1601 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1603 * Improved HPPA support
1605 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1607 * New native configurations
1609 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1610 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1611 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1612 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1616 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1617 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1620 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1622 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1623 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1627 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1628 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1630 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1632 * Irix 5 is now supported
1636 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1637 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1638 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1639 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1640 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1643 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1645 * User visible changes:
1649 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1650 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1651 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1652 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1653 debugging info for the mips target).
1655 * DEC Alpha native support
1657 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1658 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1659 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1660 Alpha-specific notes.
1662 * Preliminary thread implementation
1664 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1666 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1668 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1669 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1672 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1674 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1675 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1676 call methods, ...etc.
1678 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1680 * User visible changes:
1682 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1683 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1684 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1685 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1687 Filename completion now works.
1689 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1690 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1691 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1693 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1694 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1695 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1696 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1697 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1701 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1702 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1705 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1709 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1710 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1711 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1715 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1716 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1717 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1718 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1719 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1723 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1724 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1725 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1727 * New targets supported
1729 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1730 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1731 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1732 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1733 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1735 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1736 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1737 GO32 memory extender.
1739 * New remote protocols
1741 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1743 * New source languages supported
1745 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1746 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1747 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1750 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1752 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1754 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1755 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1756 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1757 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1758 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1759 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1761 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1763 * Faster and better demangling
1765 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1766 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1767 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1768 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1769 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1770 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1773 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1774 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1775 compiler does not actually implement.
1777 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1779 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1780 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1781 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1782 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1783 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1784 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1787 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1788 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1790 * Improved configure script
1792 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1793 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1794 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1795 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1797 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1798 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1799 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1800 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1801 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1802 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1804 * Documentation improvements
1806 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1807 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1808 before submitting changes.
1810 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1811 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1812 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1813 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1814 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1816 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1817 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1818 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1819 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1820 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1821 around this problem.
1825 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1826 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1827 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1830 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1831 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1833 * New native hosts supported
1835 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1836 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1838 * New targets supported
1840 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1842 * New file formats supported
1844 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1845 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1849 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1851 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1852 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1854 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1855 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1856 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1858 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1859 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1861 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1862 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1863 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1866 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1867 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1868 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1869 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1870 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1872 * Internal improvements
1874 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1875 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1877 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1878 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1879 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1880 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1881 shared code that handles any of them.
1883 * New command line options
1885 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1889 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1890 General Public License.
1892 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1894 * Host/native/target split
1896 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1897 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1898 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1899 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1900 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1902 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1903 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1904 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1905 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1906 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1907 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1908 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1910 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1911 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1912 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1914 * New hosts supported
1916 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1917 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1918 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1920 * New targets supported
1922 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1923 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1925 * New native hosts supported
1927 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1928 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1929 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1931 * New file formats supported
1933 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1934 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1935 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1939 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1940 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1941 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1943 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1945 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1946 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1947 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1948 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1952 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1953 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1954 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1956 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1960 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1961 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1964 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1965 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1967 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1968 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1969 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1970 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1971 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1972 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1974 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1975 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1976 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1977 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1981 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1982 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1983 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1984 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1985 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1987 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1988 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1989 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1990 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1994 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1995 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1996 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1997 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1998 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1999 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2000 each instruction being stepped through.
2002 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2003 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2005 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2006 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2007 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2008 processor with a serial port.
2012 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2013 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2014 supported, and what files each one uses.
2018 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2019 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2020 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2021 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2023 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2024 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2025 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2026 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2030 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2031 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2032 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2033 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2034 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2035 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2037 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2040 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2042 * Better support for C++ function names
2044 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2045 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2046 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2047 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2048 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2050 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2051 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2052 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2053 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2054 for the list of formats.
2056 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2058 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2059 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2060 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2061 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2062 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2063 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2066 * New 'maintenance' command
2068 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2069 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2070 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2072 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2073 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2074 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2075 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2076 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2077 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2079 The following commands are new:
2081 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2082 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2083 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2085 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2087 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2088 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2089 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2090 read after argv processing.
2092 * New hosts supported
2094 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2096 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2098 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2099 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2100 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2101 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2102 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2105 * New targets supported
2107 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2109 * More smarts about finding #include files
2111 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2112 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2113 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2114 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2115 the one that contains your sources.
2117 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2118 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2119 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2121 * Interesting infernals change
2123 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2124 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2125 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2126 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2128 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2130 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2131 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2132 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2134 See the ChangeLog for details.
2136 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2138 * New machines supported (host and target)
2140 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2142 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2144 * New malloc package
2146 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2147 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2148 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2149 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2150 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2151 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2155 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2156 'help info proc' for details.
2158 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2160 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2161 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2164 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2166 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2167 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2168 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2169 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2170 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2171 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2173 * Cross byte order fixes
2175 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2176 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2178 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2180 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2181 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2182 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2183 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2184 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2185 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2186 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2187 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2188 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2189 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2191 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2192 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2193 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2194 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2196 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2197 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2198 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2201 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2203 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2204 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2205 shared across multiple host platforms.
2207 * longjmp() handling
2209 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2210 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2211 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2212 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2216 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2217 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2222 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2223 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2224 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2226 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2228 * New machines supported (host and target)
2230 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2232 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2233 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2235 * New machines supported (target)
2237 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2241 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2242 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2243 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2245 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2246 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2247 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2248 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2249 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2252 * New features for SVR4
2254 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2255 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2256 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2258 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2259 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2260 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2262 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2263 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2265 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2267 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2268 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2269 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2270 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2271 same code linked statically.
2275 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2276 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2277 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2278 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2279 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2280 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2284 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2285 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2286 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2289 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2291 * New machines supported (host and target)
2293 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2294 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2295 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2297 * Almost SCO Unix support
2299 We had hoped to support:
2300 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2301 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2302 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2303 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2305 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2307 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2308 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2309 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2310 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2315 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2316 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2317 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2321 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2322 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2323 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2325 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2327 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2328 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2329 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2331 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2332 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2333 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2334 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2337 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2338 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2339 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2340 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2343 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2344 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2347 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2348 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2349 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2352 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2354 * Improved configuration
2356 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2357 Porting BFD is simpler.
2361 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2362 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2363 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2364 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2368 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2370 * New host supported (not target)
2372 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2375 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2377 * Multiple source language support
2379 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2380 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2381 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2382 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2383 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2384 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2388 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2389 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2390 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2391 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2393 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2394 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2395 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2397 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2398 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2402 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2403 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2404 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2405 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2408 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2410 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2411 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2412 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2413 examining core files.
2417 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2420 * New machines supported (host and target)
2422 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2423 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2424 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2426 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2428 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2430 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2432 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2433 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2434 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2436 * New remote interfaces
2442 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2446 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2448 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2449 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2450 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2451 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2452 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2453 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2454 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2455 stub on the target system.
2457 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2459 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2460 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2461 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2463 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2464 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2467 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2469 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2470 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2472 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2473 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2474 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2476 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2477 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2478 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2479 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2481 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2482 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2483 it is already running. Default is ON.
2485 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2486 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2487 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2488 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2491 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2492 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2493 or the value of the environment variable
2496 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2497 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2500 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2501 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2502 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2504 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2505 history expansion will be performed on
2506 command line input. The default is OFF.
2508 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2509 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2510 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2512 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2513 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2514 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2517 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2518 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2519 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2522 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2523 ``set width'' instead.
2525 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2526 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2527 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2528 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2530 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2533 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2536 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2539 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2542 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2544 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2545 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2546 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2550 * Support for Shared Libraries
2552 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2553 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2554 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2555 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2556 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2557 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2558 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2559 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2561 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2562 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2563 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2565 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2570 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2571 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2572 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2573 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2574 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2575 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2577 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2579 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2581 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2582 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2583 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2586 * C++ multiple inheritance
2588 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2591 * C++ exception handling
2593 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2594 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2595 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2598 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2599 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2600 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2602 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2603 current stack frame.
2606 * Minor command changes
2608 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2609 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2610 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2612 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2613 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2614 frames without printing.
2616 * New directory command
2618 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2619 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2620 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2621 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2622 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2624 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2626 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2629 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2630 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2631 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2632 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob