* rx-tdep.c (rx_frame_unwind): Add default_frame_unwind_stop_reason
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.3
5
6 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
7
8 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
9 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
10 matches the given regular expression.
11
12 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
13
14 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
15 dumping the instruction opcodes.
16
17 * New command line options
18
19 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
20 This is mostly for testing purposes.
21
22 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
23 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
24
25 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
26 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
27 source path list instead of augmenting it.
28
29 * GDB now understands thread names.
30
31 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
32 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
33
34 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
35 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
36
37 * OpenCL C
38 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
39 has been integrated into GDB.
40
41 * Python scripting
42
43 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
44 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
45 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
46
47 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
48 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
49 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
50 and allows for more dynamic content.
51
52 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
53 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
54 have an is_valid method.
55
56 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
57 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
58 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
59
60 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
61
62 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
63 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
64 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
65 that function like so:
66
67 result = some_value (10,20)
68
69 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
70 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
71 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
72
73 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
74 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
75 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
76 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
77 New function: register_pretty_printer.
78
79 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
80 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
81
82 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
83
84 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
85 selected thread.
86
87 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
88 holds the thread's name.
89
90 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
91 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
92 occurring in the process being debugged.
93 The following events are currently supported:
94 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
95 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
96 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
97
98 * C++ Improvements:
99
100 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
101 instantiation. For example, if you have:
102
103 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
104
105 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
106 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
107 was added to GCC 4.5.
108
109 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
110 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
111 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
112 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
113 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
114 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
115
116 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
117 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
118 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
119 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
120 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
121
122 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
123 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
124 execution to a label.
125
126 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
127 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
128 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
129 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
130
131 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
132 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
133 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
134 of scope.
135
136 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
137
138 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
139 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
140 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
141 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
142 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
143 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
144
145 (gdb) info threads
146 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
147
148 While now you see this:
149
150 (gdb) info threads
151 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
152
153 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
154 dumps.
155
156 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
157 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
158 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
159 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
160
161 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
162 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
163 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
164 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
165 section in the user manual for more details.
166
167 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
168
169 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
170 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
171
172 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
173
174 * New native configurations
175
176 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
177
178 * New targets:
179
180 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
181
182 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
183 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
184 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
185 in the GDB user manual.
186
187 * Guile support was removed.
188
189 * New features in the GNU simulator
190
191 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
192
193 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
194
195 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
196
197 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
198
199 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
200 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
201 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
202 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
203 was always disabled for such configurations.
204
205 * C++ Improvements:
206
207 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
208
209 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
210 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
211 For example:
212 namespace A
213 {
214 class B { };
215 void foo (B) { }
216 }
217 ...
218 A::B b
219 foo(b)
220 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
221 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
222 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
223
224 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
225
226 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
227 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
228 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
229 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
230 entry.
231 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
232 mentioned flavors of operators.
233
234 ** static const class members
235
236 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
237 class definition has been fixed.
238
239 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
240
241 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
242 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
243 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
244 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
245 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
246 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
247
248 * Static tracepoints
249
250 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
251 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
252 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
253 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
254 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
255 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
256 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
257 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
258 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
259 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
260 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
261 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
262 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
263 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
264 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
265 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
266 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
267 the "New remote packets" section below.
268
269 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
270
271 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
272 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
273 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
274 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
275
276 * Observer mode
277
278 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
279 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
280 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
281 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
282 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
283 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
284 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
285
286 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
287 current thread.
288
289 * New remote packets
290
291 qGetTIBAddr
292
293 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
294
295 qRelocInsn
296
297 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
298 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
299 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
300 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
301 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
302 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
303
304 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
305
306 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
307
308 qTSTMat
309
310 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
311 program.
312
313 qXfer:statictrace:read
314
315 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
316 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
317 to gdb's qSupported query.
318
319 QAllow
320
321 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
322
323 QTDPsrc
324
325 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
326 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
327
328 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
329 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
330 a directory.
331
332 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
333
334 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
335 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
336 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
337 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
338
339 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
340 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
341 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
342 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
343 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
344 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
345 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
346
347 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
348 for static tracepoints support.
349
350 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
351
352 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
353 it understands register description.
354
355 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
356
357 * X86 general purpose registers
358
359 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
360 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
361 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
362 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
363 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
364
365 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
366 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
367 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
368 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
369 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
370 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
371
372 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
373 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
374 in the specified file.
375
376 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
377 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
378 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
379 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
380 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
381 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
382 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
383 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
384 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
385 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
386
387 * New commands
388
389 eval template, expressions...
390 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
391 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
392
393 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
394 show target-file-system-kind
395 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
396 names.
397
398 save breakpoints <filename>
399 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
400 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
401 definitions, use the `source' command.
402
403 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
404 is now deprecated.
405
406 info static-tracepoint-markers
407 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
408
409 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
410 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
411 function, line, address, or marker ID.
412
413 set observer on|off
414 show observer
415 Enable and disable observer mode.
416
417 set may-write-registers on|off
418 set may-write-memory on|off
419 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
420 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
421 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
422 set may-interrupt on|off
423 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
424 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
425 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
426 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
427 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
428 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
429 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
430
431 set record memory-query on|off
432 show record memory-query
433 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
434 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
435
436 * Changed commands
437
438 disassemble
439 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
440
441 * Python scripting
442
443 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
444 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
445 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
446 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
447 GDB using Python' in the manual.
448
449 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
450 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
451 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
452 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
453
454 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
455 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
456
457 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
458
459 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
460
461 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
462
463 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
464 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
465 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
466
467 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
468 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
469 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
470 regular breakpoints.
471
472 * New targets
473
474 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
475
476 * D language support.
477 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
478 language.
479
480 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
481 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
482 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
483 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
484 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
485
486 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
487 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
488 conditions of the form:
489
490 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
491
492 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
493 interface mentioned above.
494
495 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
496
497 * C++ Improvements
498
499 ** Namespace Support
500
501 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
502 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
503 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
504 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
505 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
506
507 ** Bug Fixes
508
509 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
510 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
511 qualified name.
512
513 ** Cast Operators
514
515 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
516 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
517
518 * New targets
519
520 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
521 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
522
523 * New Simulators
524
525 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
526 Renesas RX rx
527
528 * Multi-program debugging.
529
530 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
531 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
532 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
533 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
534 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
535 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
536 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
537 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
538
539 * New tracing features
540
541 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
542
543 ** Trace state variables
544
545 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
546 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
547 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
548 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
549 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
550 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
551 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
552 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
553 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
554 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
555
556 ** Fast tracepoints
557
558 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
559 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
560 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
561 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
562 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
563 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
564 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
565 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
566 the regular trace command.
567
568 ** Disconnected tracing
569
570 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
571 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
572 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
573 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
574 connection is lost unexpectedly.
575
576 ** Trace files
577
578 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
579 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
580 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
581 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
582 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
583 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
584 <name>".
585
586 ** Circular trace buffer
587
588 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
589 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
590 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
591 not be available for all target agents.
592
593 * Changed commands
594
595 disassemble
596 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
597 the arguments to be comma-separated.
598
599 info variables
600 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
601 which only declare a variable are not shown.
602
603 source
604 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
605 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
606 support.
607
608 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
609 "set script-extension" (see below).
610
611 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
612
613 record save [<FILENAME>]
614 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
615 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
616
617 record restore <FILENAME>
618 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
619 earlier time, for replay debugging.
620
621 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
622 Add a new inferior.
623
624 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
625 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
626 inferior has loaded.
627
628 remove-inferior ID
629 Remove an inferior.
630
631 maint info program-spaces
632 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
633
634 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
635 show remote interrupt-sequence
636 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
637 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
638 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
639 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
640 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
641
642 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
643 show remote interrupt-on-connect
644 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
645 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
646 Linux kernel.
647
648 set remotebreak [on | off]
649 show remotebreak
650 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
651
652 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
653 Create or modify a trace state variable.
654
655 info tvariables
656 List trace state variables and their values.
657
658 delete tvariable $NAME ...
659 Delete one or more trace state variables.
660
661 teval EXPR, ...
662 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
663 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
664
665 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
666 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
667
668 * New expression syntax
669
670 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
671 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
672
673 * New options
674
675 set follow-exec-mode new|same
676 show follow-exec-mode
677 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
678 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
679 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
680
681 set default-collect EXPR, ...
682 show default-collect
683 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
684 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
685 such as registers or a critical global variable.
686
687 set disconnected-tracing
688 show disconnected-tracing
689 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
690 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
691 upon disconnection.
692
693 set circular-trace-buffer
694 show circular-trace-buffer
695 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
696 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
697 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
698 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
699
700 set script-extension off|soft|strict
701 show script-extension
702 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
703 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
704 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
705 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
706 evaluation failed.
707 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
708
709 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
710 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
711 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
712 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
713 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
714 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
715 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
716 is on.
717
718 * Python API Improvements
719
720 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
721 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
722 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
723
724 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
725 `is_base_class' attribute.
726
727 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
728
729 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
730 evaluate an expression.
731
732 * New remote packets
733
734 QTDV
735 Define a trace state variable.
736
737 qTV
738 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
739
740 QTDisconnected
741 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
742
743 QTBuffer:circular
744 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
745
746 qTfP, qTsP
747 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
748
749 * Bug fixes
750
751 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
752
753 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
754 much more reliable. In particular:
755 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
756 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
757 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
758 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
759 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
760 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
761 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
762 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
763 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
764 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
765 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
766 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
767 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
768 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
769 non-threaded programs.
770
771 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
772 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
773 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
774 executable program.
775
776 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
777
778 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
779 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
780 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
781 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
782 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
783
784 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
785 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
786 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
787 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
788 for tracepoint actions.
789
790 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
791 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
792 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
793
794 * Process record and replay
795
796 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
797 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
798 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
799 execute commands.
800
801 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
802 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
803 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
804 reverse execution.
805
806 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
807 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
808 2.6.28 or later.
809
810 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
811 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
812 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
813 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
814 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
815 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
816 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
817 the installation instructions for more information.
818
819 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
820 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
821 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
822 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
823
824 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
825 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
826
827 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
828 now complete on file names.
829
830 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
831 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
832 For instance, consider:
833
834 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
835 # struct example variable;
836 (gdb) p variable.
837
838 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
839 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
840
841 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
842 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
843
844 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
845 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
846 macros.
847
848 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
849 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
850 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
851
852 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
853 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
854 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
855 and simulator targets may also provide them.
856
857 * New remote packets
858
859 qSearch:memory:
860 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
861
862 QStartNoAckMode
863 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
864 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
865 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
866
867 vKill
868 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
869 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
870
871 qXfer:osdata:read
872 Obtains additional operating system information
873
874 qXfer:siginfo:read
875 qXfer:siginfo:write
876 Read or write additional signal information.
877
878 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
879
880 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
881 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
882 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
883
884 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
885 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
886
887 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
888 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
889 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
890
891 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
892 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
893
894 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
895
896 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
897
898 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
899 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
900
901 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
902 list of section offsets.
903
904 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
905 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
906 have also been fixed.
907
908 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
909 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
910 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
911
912 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
913 example, given:
914
915 template<typename T> class C { };
916 C<char const *> c;
917
918 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
919
920 ptype C<char const *>
921 ptype C<char const*>
922 ptype C<const char *>
923 ptype C<const char*>
924
925 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
926
927 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
928 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
929
930 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
931 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
932 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
933
934 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
935 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
936
937 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
938 gdbserver.
939
940 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
941 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
942
943 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
944 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
945 as appropriate.
946
947 * Python scripting
948
949 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
950 available is determined at configure time.
951
952 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
953
954 * Ada tasking support
955
956 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
957 been introduced:
958
959 info tasks
960 Print the list of Ada tasks.
961 info task N
962 Print detailed information about task number N.
963 task
964 Print the task number of the current task.
965 task N
966 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
967
968 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
969 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
970
971 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
972
973 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
974 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
975 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
976 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
977 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
978 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
979 below.
980
981 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
982 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
983 information.
984
985 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
986 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
987 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
988 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
989 more information.
990
991 * Multi-architecture debugging.
992
993 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
994 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
995 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
996 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
997 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
998
999 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1000 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1001 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1002 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1003 --enable-targets configure option.
1004
1005 * Non-stop mode debugging.
1006
1007 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1008 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1009 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1010 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1011 section in the user manual for more information.
1012
1013 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1014 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1015 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1016 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1017 extensions on linux targets.
1018
1019 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1020
1021 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1022 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1023 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1024 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1025 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1026 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1027 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1028 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1029 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1030
1031 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1032 val1 [, val2, ...]
1033 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1034
1035 maint set python print-stack
1036 maint show python print-stack
1037 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1038
1039 python [CODE]
1040 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1041
1042 macro define
1043 macro list
1044 macro undef
1045 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1046 interactively.
1047
1048 info os processes
1049 Show operating system information about processes.
1050
1051 info inferiors
1052 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1053
1054 inferior NUM
1055 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1056
1057 detach inferior NUM
1058 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1059
1060 kill inferior NUM
1061 Kill inferior number NUM.
1062
1063 * New options
1064
1065 set spu stop-on-load
1066 show spu stop-on-load
1067 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1068
1069 set spu auto-flush-cache
1070 show spu auto-flush-cache
1071 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1072 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1073
1074 set sh calling-convention
1075 show sh calling-convention
1076 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1077
1078 set debug timestamp
1079 show debug timestamp
1080 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1081
1082 set disassemble-next-line
1083 show disassemble-next-line
1084 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1085 the debuggee stops.
1086
1087 set remote noack-packet
1088 show remote noack-packet
1089 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1090 under "New remote packets."
1091
1092 set remote query-attached-packet
1093 show remote query-attached-packet
1094 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1095
1096 set remote read-siginfo-object
1097 show remote read-siginfo-object
1098 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1099 packet.
1100
1101 set remote write-siginfo-object
1102 show remote write-siginfo-object
1103 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1104 packet.
1105
1106 set remote reverse-continue
1107 show remote reverse-continue
1108 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1109
1110 set remote reverse-step
1111 show remote reverse-step
1112 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1113
1114 set displaced-stepping
1115 show displaced-stepping
1116 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1117 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1118 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1119
1120 set debug displaced
1121 show debug displaced
1122 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1123
1124 maint set internal-error
1125 maint show internal-error
1126 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1127
1128 maint set internal-warning
1129 maint show internal-warning
1130 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
1131
1132 set exec-wrapper
1133 show exec-wrapper
1134 unset exec-wrapper
1135 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1136
1137 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1138 show multiple-symbols
1139 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1140 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1141 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1142
1143 set breakpoint always-inserted
1144 show breakpoint always-inserted
1145 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1146 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1147 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1148
1149 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1150 show arm fallback-mode
1151 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1152 show arm force-mode
1153 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1154 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1155 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1156 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1157
1158 set disable-randomization
1159 show disable-randomization
1160 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1161 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1162 multiple debugging sessions.
1163
1164 set non-stop
1165 show non-stop
1166 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1167 a breakpoint.
1168
1169 set target-async
1170 show target-async
1171 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1172 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1173 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1174 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1175
1176 set target-wide-charset
1177 show target-wide-charset
1178 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1179 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1180
1181 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1182 show tcp auto-retry
1183 set tcp connect-timeout
1184 show tcp connect-timeout
1185 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1186 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1187 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1188
1189 set libthread-db-search-path
1190 show libthread-db-search-path
1191 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1192 libthread_db.
1193
1194 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1195 show schedule-multiple
1196 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1197 the current process.
1198
1199 set stack-cache
1200 show stack-cache
1201 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1202 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1203 affecting correctness.
1204
1205 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1206 show interactive-mode
1207 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1208 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1209 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1210 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1211 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1212
1213 * Removed commands
1214
1215 info forks
1216 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1217 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1218 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1219 command.
1220
1221 fork NUM
1222 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1223 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1224 alias for the `fork' command.
1225
1226 process PID
1227 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1228 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1229 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1230
1231 delete fork NUM
1232 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1233 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1234 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1235 fork' command.
1236
1237 detach fork NUM
1238 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1239 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1240 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1241 fork' command.
1242
1243 * New native configurations
1244
1245 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1246
1247 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1248
1249 * New targets
1250
1251 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
1252 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
1253 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
1254 S+core 3 score-*-*
1255
1256 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1257 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1258
1259 * Removed commands
1260
1261 catch load
1262 catch unload
1263 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1264
1265 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
1266
1267 * New native configurations
1268
1269 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
1270 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
1271
1272 * New targets
1273
1274 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
1275 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
1276
1277 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1278
1279 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1280 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1281 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1282 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1283
1284 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1285 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1286
1287 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
1288 is resolved.
1289
1290 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
1291 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1292 and in inlined functions.
1293
1294 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1295 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1296 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1297
1298 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1299
1300 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1301 registers on PowerPC targets.
1302
1303 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1304 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1305
1306 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1307 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1308
1309 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1310 extended-remote mode.
1311
1312 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
1313 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1314 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1315 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
1316
1317 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1318 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1319 target architectures.
1320
1321 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1322 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1323 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1324 stored in two consecutive float registers.
1325
1326 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1327 breakpoints now.
1328
1329 * Improved support for debugging Ada
1330 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1331 include:
1332 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1333 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1334 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1335 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1336 of an assignment
1337 - Improved command completion in Ada
1338 - Several bug fixes
1339
1340 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1341 process.
1342
1343 * New commands
1344
1345 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1346 show print frame-arguments
1347 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1348 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1349
1350 remote put
1351 remote get
1352 remote delete
1353 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1354
1355 * New MI commands
1356
1357 -target-file-put
1358 -target-file-get
1359 -target-file-delete
1360 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1361
1362 * New remote packets
1363
1364 vFile:open:
1365 vFile:close:
1366 vFile:pread:
1367 vFile:pwrite:
1368 vFile:unlink:
1369 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
1370
1371 vAttach
1372 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1373 mode.
1374
1375 vRun
1376 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1377
1378 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
1379
1380 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1381 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1382 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1383
1384 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1385 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1386 -Bsymbolic linker option.
1387
1388 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1389 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1390 is not supported.
1391
1392 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1393 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1394
1395 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
1396 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
1397
1398 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1399
1400 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1401 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1402 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1403
1404 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1405 automatically displayed as character or string data.
1406
1407 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1408 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1409 as strings.
1410
1411 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1412 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
1413 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
1414
1415 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1416 iWMMXt coprocessor.
1417
1418 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1419 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1420 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1421
1422 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1423
1424 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1425
1426 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1427 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1428 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1429
1430 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1431 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1432
1433 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1434 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1435 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1436 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1437 Windows and SymbianOS).
1438
1439 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1440 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
1441
1442 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1443 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
1444
1445 * New commands
1446
1447 set remoteflow
1448 show remoteflow
1449 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1450 when debugging using remote targets.
1451
1452 set mem inaccessible-by-default
1453 show mem inaccessible-by-default
1454 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1455 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1456 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1457 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1458 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1459
1460 set breakpoint auto-hw
1461 show breakpoint auto-hw
1462 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1463 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1464 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1465 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1466 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1467 including "next" and "finish".
1468
1469 catch exception
1470 catch exception unhandled
1471 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1472
1473 catch assert
1474 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1475
1476 set sysroot
1477 show sysroot
1478 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1479 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1480 an alias to "set sysroot".
1481
1482 info spu
1483 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1484 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1485 architecture.
1486
1487 * New native configurations
1488
1489 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1490
1491 set tdesc filename
1492 unset tdesc filename
1493 show tdesc filename
1494 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1495 not query the target for its built-in description.
1496
1497 * New targets
1498
1499 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1500 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1501 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1502
1503 * New remote packets
1504
1505 QPassSignals:
1506 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1507 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1508
1509 qXfer:features:read:
1510 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1511 features.
1512
1513 qXfer:spu:read:
1514 qXfer:spu:write:
1515 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1516 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1517
1518 qXfer:libraries:read:
1519 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1520 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1521 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1522 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1523
1524 * Removed targets
1525
1526 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1527
1528 alpha*-*-osf1*
1529 alpha*-*-osf2*
1530 d10v-*-*
1531 hppa*-*-hiux*
1532 i[34567]86-ncr-*
1533 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1534 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1535 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1536 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1537 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1538 i[34567]86-*-sco*
1539 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1540 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1541 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1542 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1543 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1544 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1545 i[34567]86-*-isc*
1546 m68*-cisco*-*
1547 m68*-tandem-*
1548 mips*-*-pe
1549 rs6000-*-lynxos*
1550 sh*-*-pe
1551
1552 * Other removed features
1553
1554 target abug
1555 target cpu32bug
1556 target est
1557 target rom68k
1558
1559 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1560
1561 target hms
1562 target e7000
1563 target sh3
1564 target sh3e
1565
1566 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1567 H8/300.
1568
1569 target ocd
1570
1571 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1572 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1573 interfaces.
1574
1575 DWARF 1 support
1576
1577 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1578 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1579
1580 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1581
1582 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1583 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1584 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1585 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1586
1587 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1588
1589 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1590 in debugging information.
1591
1592 Scheme support
1593
1594 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1595 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1596
1597 set mips stack-arg-size
1598 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1599
1600 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1601
1602 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1603
1604 * New targets
1605
1606 Xtensa xtensa-elf
1607 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1608
1609 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1610 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1611 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1612
1613 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1614 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1615 supported.
1616
1617 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1618 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1619
1620 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1621 stub provides the required support.
1622
1623 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1624 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1625
1626 * New commands
1627
1628 set substitute-path
1629 unset substitute-path
1630 show substitute-path
1631 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1632 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1633 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1634 between compilation and debugging.
1635
1636 set trace-commands
1637 show trace-commands
1638 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1639 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1640 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1641
1642 * REMOVED features
1643
1644 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1645
1646 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1647 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1648
1649 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1650
1651 * New remote packets
1652
1653 qSupported:
1654 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1655 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1656 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1657 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1658 target.
1659
1660 qXfer:auxv:read:
1661 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1662 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1663
1664 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1665 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1666 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1667
1668 vFlashErase:
1669 vFlashWrite:
1670 vFlashDone:
1671 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1672
1673 * Removed remote packets
1674
1675 qPart:auxv:read:
1676 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1677 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1678
1679 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1680
1681 * New targets
1682
1683 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1684
1685 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1686
1687 * New commands
1688
1689 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1690 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1691
1692 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1693
1694 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1695
1696 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1697 previously saved state.
1698
1699 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1700
1701 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1702
1703 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1704 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1705
1706 info forks List forks of the user program that
1707 are available to be debugged.
1708
1709 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1710 forks of the user program that are
1711 available to be debugged.
1712
1713 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1714 that are available to be debugged (and
1715 kill the forked process).
1716
1717 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1718 that are available to be debugged (and
1719 allow the process to continue).
1720
1721 * New architecture
1722
1723 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1724
1725 * Improved Windows host support
1726
1727 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1728 native console support, and remote communications using either
1729 network sockets or serial ports.
1730
1731 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1732
1733 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1734 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1735 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1736 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1737 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1738 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1739
1740 * REMOVED features
1741
1742 The ARM rdi-share module.
1743
1744 The Netware NLM debug server.
1745
1746 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1747
1748 * New native configurations
1749
1750 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1751 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1752
1753 * New targets
1754
1755 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1756
1757 * New command line options
1758
1759 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1760 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1761 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1762 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1763 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1764 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1765 with the --command (-x) option.
1766
1767 * Deprecated commands removed
1768
1769 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1770 removed:
1771
1772 Command Replacement
1773 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1774 othernames set arm disassembler
1775 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1776 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1777 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1778 regs info registers
1779
1780 * New BSD user-level threads support
1781
1782 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1783 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1784 configurations are:
1785
1786 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1787 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1788 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1789
1790 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1791 are not yet supported.
1792
1793 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1794 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1795
1796 * REMOVED configurations and files
1797
1798 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1799 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1800 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1801
1802 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1803
1804 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1805 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1806 behavior.
1807
1808 * VAX floating point support
1809
1810 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1811
1812 * User-defined command support
1813
1814 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1815 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1816 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1817
1818 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1819
1820 * New command line option
1821
1822 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1823 debugging.
1824
1825 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1826
1827 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1828 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1829 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1830 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1831 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1832
1833 * Internationalization
1834
1835 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1836 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1837 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1838
1839 * Ada
1840
1841 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1842 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1843 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1844
1845 * New native configurations
1846
1847 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1848
1849 * Remote 'p' packet
1850
1851 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1852 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1853
1854 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1855
1856 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1857 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1858 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1859 i386 application).
1860
1861 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1862 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1863 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1864 configurations:
1865
1866 hppa-*-hpux
1867 ia64-*-aix
1868 mips-*-irix*
1869 *-*-lynx
1870 mips-*-linux-gnu
1871 sds protocol
1872 xdr protocol
1873 powerpc bdm protocol
1874
1875 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1876 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1877
1878 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1879
1880 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1881 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1882 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1883 permanently REMOVED.
1884
1885 h8300-*-*
1886 mcore-*-*
1887 mn10300-*-*
1888 ns32k-*-*
1889 sh64-*-*
1890 v850-*-*
1891
1892 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1893
1894 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1895
1896 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1897 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1898 been fixed.
1899
1900 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1901
1902 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1903 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1904 IRIX long double values).
1905
1906 * VAX and "next"
1907
1908 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1909 command. This problem has been fixed.
1910
1911 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1912
1913 * Fix for ``many threads''
1914
1915 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1916 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1917 error message:
1918
1919 ptrace: No such process.
1920 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1921
1922 This problem has been fixed.
1923
1924 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1925
1926 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1927 GDB to dump core).
1928
1929 * New ``start'' command.
1930
1931 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1932
1933 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1934
1935 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1936 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1937 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1938
1939 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1940 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1941 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1942 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1943 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1944 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1945 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1946 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1947 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1948
1949 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1950
1951 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1952 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1953 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1954 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1955 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1956
1957 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1958 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1959 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1960
1961 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1962
1963 * New native configurations
1964
1965 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1966 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1967 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1968 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1969 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1970 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1971 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1972
1973 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1974
1975 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1976 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1977 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1978 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1979 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1980 work, was also included.
1981
1982 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1983 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1984
1985 h8300-*-*
1986 mcore-*-*
1987 mn10300-*-*
1988 ns32k-*-*
1989 sh64-*-*
1990 v850-*-*
1991 xstormy16-*-*
1992
1993 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1994 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1995
1996 * REMOVED configurations and files
1997
1998 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1999 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2000 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2001 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2002 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2003 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2004 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2005 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2006 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2007 sonymips mips-sony-*
2008 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2009
2010 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2011
2012 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2013
2014 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2015 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2016 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2017 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2018 with GDB".
2019
2020 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2021
2022 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2023 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2024 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2025 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2026 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2027 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2028 are created.
2029
2030 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2031
2032 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
2033
2034 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2035 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2036 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2037
2038 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2039
2040 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2041 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2042
2043 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2044
2045 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2046 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2047 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2048
2049 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2050
2051 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2052 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2053
2054 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2055
2056 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2057 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2058 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2059
2060 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2061
2062 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2063 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2064 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2065
2066 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
2067
2068 * Removed --with-mmalloc
2069
2070 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2071 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2072
2073 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
2074
2075 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2076 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2077 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2078 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2079
2080 * Revised SPARC target
2081
2082 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2083 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
2084 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2085 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2086 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
2087
2088 * New C++ demangler
2089
2090 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2091 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2092 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2093 programs.
2094
2095 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2096
2097 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2098 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2099 encountered these.
2100
2101 * C++ nested types and namespaces
2102
2103 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2104 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2105 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2106 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2107 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2108 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2109 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2110 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2111 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2112
2113 * New native configurations
2114
2115 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
2116 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2117 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
2118 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2119 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
2120
2121 * New debugging protocols
2122
2123 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2124
2125 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2126
2127 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2128 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2129 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2130
2131 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2132
2133 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2134 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2135 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2136 permanently REMOVED.
2137
2138 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2139 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2140 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2141 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2142 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2143 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2144 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2145 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2146 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2147 sonymips mips-sony-*
2148 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2149
2150 * REMOVED configurations and files
2151
2152 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2153 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2154 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2155 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2156 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2157 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2158 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2159 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2160 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2161 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
2162 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2163 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2164 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2165 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2166 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
2167 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2168 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2169
2170 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2171
2172 * Objective-C
2173
2174 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2175 integrated into GDB.
2176
2177 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2178
2179 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2180 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2181 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2182 backtraces.
2183
2184 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2185 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2186 DWARF 2 CFI support.
2187
2188 * Hosted file I/O.
2189
2190 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2191 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2192 remote protocol documentation for details.
2193
2194 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
2195
2196 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2197 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2198 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2199 ppc32 on ppc64).
2200
2201 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2202
2203 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2204 per-thread variables.
2205
2206 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2207
2208 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2209 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2210
2211 * Separate debug info.
2212
2213 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2214 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2215 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2216 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2217 and optional debug files.
2218
2219 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2220
2221 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2222 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2223 debugger.
2224
2225 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2226 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2227
2228 * Java
2229
2230 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2231 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2232 considered "useable".
2233
2234 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2235
2236 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2237 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2238 kernel.
2239
2240 * GDB supports logging output to a file
2241
2242 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2243 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
2244
2245 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2246
2247 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2248 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2249 command.
2250
2251 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
2252
2253 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2254 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2255
2256 * Profiling support
2257
2258 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2259 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2260 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2261 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2262 data, for more informative profiling results.
2263
2264 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2265
2266 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2267 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
2268 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
2269
2270 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2271 removed.
2272
2273 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2274 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2275 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2276 in a subsequent -var-update.
2277
2278 * New native configurations.
2279
2280 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2281
2282 * Multi-arched targets.
2283
2284 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
2285 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2286
2287 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2288
2289 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2290 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2291 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2292 permanently REMOVED.
2293
2294 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2295 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2296 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2297 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2298 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2299 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2300 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2301 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2302 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2303 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2304 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2305 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2306
2307 * REMOVED configurations and files
2308
2309 V850EA ISA
2310 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2311 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2312 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2313 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2314 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2315 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2316 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2317 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2318 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2319 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2320 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2321 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2322 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2323
2324 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
2325
2326 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2327 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2328 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2329 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2330 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2331
2332 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
2333
2334 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2335
2336 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2337 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2338 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2339 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2340 shared libs like mad''.
2341
2342 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
2343
2344 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2345 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2346 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2347 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
2348
2349 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2350
2351 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2352 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2353 they expand.
2354
2355 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2356 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2357
2358 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2359 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2360
2361 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2362 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2363 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2364 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2365
2366 * Multi-arched targets.
2367
2368 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2369 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2370 NEC V850 v850-*-*
2371 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
2372 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2373 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2374
2375 * New targets.
2376
2377 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2378
2379
2380 * New native configurations
2381
2382 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
2383 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
2384 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
2385 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
2386
2387 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2388
2389 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2390 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2391 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2392 permanently REMOVED.
2393
2394 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2395 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2396 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2397 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2398 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2399 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2400 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2401 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2402 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2403 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2404 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2405 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2406 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2407
2408 * OBSOLETE languages
2409
2410 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2411
2412 * REMOVED configurations and files
2413
2414 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2415 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2416 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2417 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2418 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2419
2420 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2421
2422 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2423
2424 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2425 commands. The default is 1024.
2426
2427 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2428
2429 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2430
2431 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2432
2433 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2434 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2435 from a file into memory (restore).
2436
2437 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2438
2439 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2440 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2441 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2442
2443 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2444
2445 * New targets.
2446
2447 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2448
2449 * Bug fixes
2450
2451 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2452 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2453 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2454
2455 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2456 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2457 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2458
2459 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2460 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2461 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2462
2463 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2464 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2465 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2466
2467 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
2468
2469 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2470
2471 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2472 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2473 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2474 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2475 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2476 (notably embedded) targets.
2477
2478 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2479
2480 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2481 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2482 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2483 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2484
2485 * New command line option
2486
2487 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2488
2489 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2490
2491 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2492 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2493 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2494 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2495 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2496 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2497 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2498 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2499 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2500 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2501
2502 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2503
2504 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2505 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2506
2507 * New native configurations
2508
2509 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2510 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2511 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2512 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2513
2514 * New targets
2515
2516 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2517
2518 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2519
2520 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2521 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2522 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2523 permanently REMOVED.
2524
2525 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2526 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2527 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2528 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2529 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2530
2531 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2532
2533 * REMOVED configurations and files
2534
2535 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2536 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2537 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2538 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2539 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2540 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2541 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2542 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2543 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2544 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2545 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2546 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2547 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2548
2549 * Changes to command line processing
2550
2551 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2552 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2553
2554 * Changes to key bindings
2555
2556 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2557
2558 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2559
2560 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2561
2562 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2563 corrupted.
2564
2565 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2566
2567 Numerous documentation fixes.
2568
2569 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2570
2571 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2572
2573 * New native configurations
2574
2575 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2576 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2577 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2578 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2579 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2580 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2581
2582 * New targets
2583
2584 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2585 CRIS cris-axis
2586 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2587
2588 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2589
2590 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2591 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2592 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2593 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2594 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2595 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2596 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2597 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2598 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2599 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2600 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2601 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2602 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2603 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2604
2605 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2606 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2607
2608 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2609 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2610 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2611 permanently REMOVED.
2612
2613 * REMOVED configurations and files
2614
2615 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2616 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2617 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2618 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2619 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
2620 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
2621
2622 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2623
2624 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2625 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2626 present.
2627
2628 * Other news:
2629
2630 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2631
2632 * The MI enabled by default.
2633
2634 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2635 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2636 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2637 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2638 which is now deprecated.
2639
2640 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2641
2642 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2643 main features are supported:
2644
2645 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2646
2647 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2648 extension;
2649
2650 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2651
2652 - a Pascal expression parser.
2653
2654 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2655
2656 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2657
2658 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2659
2660 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2661 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2662
2663 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2664
2665 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2666
2667 * Changes in completion.
2668
2669 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2670 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2671 users expect at the shell prompt.
2672
2673 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2674 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2675 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2676 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2677 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2678 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2679 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2680
2681 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2682
2683 * New platform-independent commands:
2684
2685 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2686 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2687 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2688
2689 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2690
2691 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2692 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2693 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2694
2695 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2696
2697 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2698 multi-threaded programs though.
2699
2700 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2701
2702 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2703
2704 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2705 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2706 supported.)
2707
2708 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2709
2710 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2711 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2712 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2713 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2714 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2715 registers.
2716
2717 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2718 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2719 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2720
2721 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2722
2723 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2724 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2725
2726 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2727 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2728 IDT.
2729
2730 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2731 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2732 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2733 a given linear address.
2734
2735 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2736 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2737 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2738
2739 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2740
2741 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2742
2743 * Changes in documentation.
2744
2745 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2746 Documentation License.
2747
2748 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2749 manual.
2750
2751 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2752
2753 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2754 manual.
2755
2756 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2757 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2758 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2759
2760 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2761
2762 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2763 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2764 contents of this file.
2765
2766 * gdba.el deleted
2767
2768 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2769
2770 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2771
2772 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2773
2774 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2775 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2776 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2777 greater level of detail.
2778
2779 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2780
2781 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2782 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2783 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2784 written.
2785
2786 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2787
2788 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2789 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2790 machines ``out of the box''.
2791
2792 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2793 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2794 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2795 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2796 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2797
2798 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2799 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2800 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2801 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2802 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2803
2804 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2805 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2806 also works.
2807
2808 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2809 GDB.
2810
2811 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2812 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2813 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2814 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2815
2816 * New native configurations
2817
2818 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2819 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2820
2821 * New targets
2822
2823 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2824 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2825 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2826 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2827
2828 * OBSOLETE configurations
2829
2830 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2831 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2832 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2833 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2834 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
2835
2836 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2837 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2838 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2839 be permanently REMOVED.
2840
2841 * Gould support removed
2842
2843 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2844
2845 * New features for SVR4
2846
2847 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2848 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2849 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2850
2851 * Many C++ enhancements
2852
2853 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2854 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2855
2856 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2857
2858 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2859 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2860 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2861 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2862
2863 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2864 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2865
2866 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2867
2868 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2869 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2870 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2871
2872 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2873 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2874
2875 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2876
2877 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2878 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2879 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2880
2881 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2882
2883 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2884 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2885 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2886
2887 * ``apropos'' command added.
2888
2889 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2890 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2891 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2892
2893 * New MI interface
2894
2895 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2896 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2897 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2898 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2899 enabled by configuring with:
2900
2901 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2902
2903 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2904
2905 * New native configurations
2906
2907 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2908 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2909 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2910
2911 * New targets
2912
2913 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2914 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2915 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2916
2917 * OBSOLETE configurations
2918
2919 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2920
2921 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2922 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2923 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2924 be permanently REMOVED.
2925
2926 * ANSI/ISO C
2927
2928 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2929 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2930 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2931 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2932 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2933 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2934 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2935 already.
2936
2937 * Readline 2.2
2938
2939 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2940
2941 * set extension-language
2942
2943 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2944 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2945 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2946 set extension-language .c c++
2947 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2948 and their associated languages.
2949
2950 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2951
2952 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2953 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2954 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2955
2956 set processor NAME
2957
2958 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2959 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2960
2961 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2962 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2963 403 IBM PowerPC 403
2964 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2965 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2966 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2967 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2968 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2969 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2970 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2971 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2972
2973 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2974 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2975 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2976 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2977
2978 * HP-UX support
2979
2980 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2981 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2982 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2983 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2984 for xdb and dbx commands.
2985
2986 * Catchpoints
2987
2988 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2989 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2990 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2991
2992 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2993 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2994 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2995
2996 * Debugging across forks
2997
2998 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2999 in the inferior.
3000
3001 * TUI
3002
3003 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3004 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3005 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3006
3007 * GDB remote protocol additions
3008
3009 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3010 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3011 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3012 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3013
3014 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3015 full 64-bit address. The command
3016
3017 set remoteaddresssize 32
3018
3019 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3020 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3021 will be discarded.
3022
3023 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3024 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3025
3026 maint packet heythere
3027
3028 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3029 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3030 time.
3031
3032 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3033 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3034 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3035
3036 * Tracing can collect general expressions
3037
3038 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3039 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3040 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3041
3042 * mask-address variable for Mips
3043
3044 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3045 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3046 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3047
3048 * Higher serial baud rates
3049
3050 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3051 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3052 to achieve all of these rates.)
3053
3054 * i960 simulator
3055
3056 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3057 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3058
3059
3060 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3061
3062 * New native configurations
3063
3064 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3065 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3066 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3067 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3068 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3069 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3070 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3071
3072 * New targets
3073
3074 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3075 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3076 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3077 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3078 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3079 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3080 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3081 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3082 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3083 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3084 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3085
3086 * New debugging protocols
3087
3088 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3089 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3090 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3091 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3092 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3093 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3094
3095 * DWARF 2
3096
3097 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3098 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3099 information.
3100
3101 * Java frontend
3102
3103 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3104 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3105
3106 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3107
3108 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3109 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3110 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3111
3112 * Live range splitting
3113
3114 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3115 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3116 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3117
3118 * Hurd support
3119
3120 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3121 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3122
3123 * ARM Thumb support
3124
3125 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3126 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3127 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3128 accordingly.
3129
3130 * MIPS16 support
3131
3132 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3133 instruction set.
3134
3135 * Overlay support
3136
3137 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3138 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3139 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3140 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3141 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3142 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3143
3144 * info symbol
3145
3146 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3147 the symbol at the specified address.
3148
3149 * Trace support
3150
3151 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3152 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3153 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3154 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3155 file tracepoint.c for more details.
3156
3157 * MIPS simulator
3158
3159 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3160 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3161 of most MIPS variants.
3162
3163 * Sparc simulator
3164
3165 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3166 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3167 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3168
3169 * set architecture
3170
3171 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3172 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3173 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3174 the possible architectures.
3175
3176 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3177
3178 * New native configurations
3179
3180 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3181 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3182 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3183 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3184 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3185 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3186
3187 * New targets
3188
3189 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3190 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3191 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3192 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3193 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3194 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
3195 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3196
3197 * PowerPC simulator
3198
3199 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3200 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3201 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3202 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3203 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3204
3205 * Solaris 2.5
3206
3207 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3208
3209 * Windows 95/NT native
3210
3211 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3212 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3213 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3214 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3215 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3216
3217 * dont-repeat command
3218
3219 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3220 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3221 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3222 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3223
3224 * Send break instead of ^C
3225
3226 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3227 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3228 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3229
3230 * Remote protocol timeout
3231
3232 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3233 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3234 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3235
3236 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3237
3238 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3239 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3240 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3241 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3242 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3243
3244 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3245 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3246 automatically on hpux10.
3247
3248 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3249
3250 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3251
3252 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3253
3254 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3255 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3256 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3257 every character. The default value is 1050.
3258
3259 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3260
3261 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3262 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3263 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3264 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3265 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3266 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3267
3268 * Speedups for remote debugging
3269
3270 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3271 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3272 and more efficient S-record downloading.
3273
3274 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3275
3276 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3277 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3278
3279 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3280
3281 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
3282
3283 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3284 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3285
3286 * Remote targets use caching
3287
3288 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3289 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3290 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3291 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3292 off' turns the the data cache off.
3293
3294 * Remote targets may have threads
3295
3296 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3297 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3298 gdb/remote.c for details.
3299
3300 * NetROM support
3301
3302 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3303 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3304 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3305 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3306 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3307 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3308 sequence is something like
3309
3310 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3311 load <prog>
3312 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3313
3314 * Macintosh host
3315
3316 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3317 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3318 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3319 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3320 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3321 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3322 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3323 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3324
3325 * Autoconf
3326
3327 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3328 but does simplify configuration and building.
3329
3330 * hpux10
3331
3332 GDB now supports hpux10.
3333
3334 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3335
3336 * New native configurations
3337
3338 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3339 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3340 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3341 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3342
3343 * New targets
3344
3345 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3346 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3347 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3348 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3349 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3350
3351 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3352
3353 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3354 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3355 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3356 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3357 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3358
3359 * Arguments to user-defined commands
3360
3361 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3362 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3363 trivial example:
3364 define adder
3365 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3366
3367 To execute the command use:
3368 adder 1 2 3
3369
3370 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3371 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3372 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3373
3374 * New `if' and `while' commands
3375
3376 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3377 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3378 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3379 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3380 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3381 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3382 if the expression is zero.
3383
3384 * Fortran source language mode
3385
3386 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3387 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3388 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3389 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3390 Fortran compilers.
3391
3392 * Better HPUX support
3393
3394 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3395 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3396 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3397 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3398 that behavior do the following before running the program:
3399
3400 adb -w a.out
3401 __dld_flags?W 0x5
3402 control-d
3403
3404 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3405 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3406
3407 adb -w a.out
3408 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3409 control-d
3410
3411 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3412 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3413 external linkage.
3414
3415 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3416 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3417
3418 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3419
3420 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3421 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3422 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3423 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3424 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3425 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3426
3427 * New DOS host serial code
3428
3429 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3430 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3431 a PC's serial port.
3432
3433 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3434
3435 * New "complete" command
3436
3437 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3438 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3439
3440 * Trailing space optional in prompt
3441
3442 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3443 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3444
3445 * Breakpoint hit counts
3446
3447 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3448 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3449 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3450 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3451 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3452 that breakpoint.
3453
3454 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3455
3456 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3457 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3458 arrays actually contain only short strings.
3459
3460 * Shared library breakpoints
3461
3462 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3463 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3464
3465 * Hardware watchpoints
3466
3467 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3468 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3469
3470 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
3471
3472 * Annotations
3473
3474 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3475 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3476
3477 * Improved Irix 5 support
3478
3479 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3480
3481 * Improved HPPA support
3482
3483 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3484
3485 * New native configurations
3486
3487 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3488 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3489 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3490 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3491
3492 * New targets
3493
3494 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3495 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3496 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3497
3498 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3499
3500 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3501 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3502
3503 * Fixes
3504
3505 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3506 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3507
3508 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3509
3510 * Irix 5 is now supported
3511
3512 * HPPA support
3513
3514 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3515 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3516 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3517 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3518 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3519
3520
3521 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3522
3523 * User visible changes:
3524
3525 * Remote Debugging
3526
3527 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3528 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3529 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3530 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3531 debugging info for the mips target).
3532
3533 * DEC Alpha native support
3534
3535 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3536 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3537 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3538 Alpha-specific notes.
3539
3540 * Preliminary thread implementation
3541
3542 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3543
3544 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3545
3546 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3547 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3548 for details).
3549
3550 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3551
3552 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3553 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3554 call methods, ...etc.
3555
3556 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3557
3558 * User visible changes:
3559
3560 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3561 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3562 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3563 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3564
3565 Filename completion now works.
3566
3567 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3568 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3569 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3570
3571 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3572 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3573 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3574 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3575 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3576
3577 * DEC alpha support
3578
3579 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3580 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3581
3582
3583 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3584
3585 * Testsuite
3586
3587 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3588 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3589 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3590
3591 * C++ demangling
3592
3593 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3594 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3595 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3596 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3597 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3598
3599 * Simulators
3600
3601 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3602 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3603 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3604
3605 * New targets supported
3606
3607 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3608 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3609 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3610 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3611 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3612
3613 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3614 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3615 GO32 memory extender.
3616
3617 * New remote protocols
3618
3619 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3620
3621 * New source languages supported
3622
3623 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3624 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3625 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3626
3627
3628 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3629
3630 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3631
3632 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3633 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3634 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3635 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3636 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3637 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3638
3639 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3640
3641 * Faster and better demangling
3642
3643 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3644 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3645 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3646 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3647 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3648 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3649 symbol lookups.
3650
3651 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3652 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3653 compiler does not actually implement.
3654
3655 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3656
3657 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3658 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3659 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3660 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3661 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3662 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3663 fix.
3664
3665 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3666 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3667
3668 * Improved configure script
3669
3670 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3671 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3672 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3673 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3674
3675 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3676 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3677 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3678 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3679 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3680 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3681
3682 * Documentation improvements
3683
3684 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3685 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3686 before submitting changes.
3687
3688 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3689 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3690 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3691 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3692 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3693
3694 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3695 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3696 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3697 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3698 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3699 around this problem.
3700
3701 * New features
3702
3703 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3704 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3705 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3706 the target program.
3707
3708 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3709 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3710
3711 * New native hosts supported
3712
3713 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3714 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3715
3716 * New targets supported
3717
3718 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3719
3720 * New file formats supported
3721
3722 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3723 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3724
3725 * Major bug fixes
3726
3727 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3728
3729 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3730 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3731
3732 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3733 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3734 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3735
3736 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3737 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3738
3739 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3740 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3741 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3742 libraries.
3743
3744 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3745 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3746 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3747 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3748 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3749
3750 * Internal improvements
3751
3752 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3753 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3754
3755 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3756 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3757 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3758 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3759 shared code that handles any of them.
3760
3761 * New command line options
3762
3763 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3764
3765 * Mmalloc licensing
3766
3767 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3768 General Public License.
3769
3770 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3771
3772 * Host/native/target split
3773
3774 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3775 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3776 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3777 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3778 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3779
3780 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3781 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3782 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3783 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3784 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3785 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3786 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3787
3788 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3789 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3790 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3791
3792 * New hosts supported
3793
3794 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3795 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3796 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3797
3798 * New targets supported
3799
3800 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3801 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3802
3803 * New native hosts supported
3804
3805 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3806 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3807 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3808
3809 * New file formats supported
3810
3811 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3812 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3813 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3814
3815 * New commands
3816
3817 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3818 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3819 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3820
3821 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3822
3823 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3824 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3825 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3826 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3827
3828 * C++ improvements
3829
3830 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3831 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3832 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3833
3834 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3835
3836 * Major bug fixes
3837
3838 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3839 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3840 by the compiler.
3841
3842 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3843 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3844
3845 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3846 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3847 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3848 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3849 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3850 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3851
3852 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3853 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3854 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3855 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3856
3857 * AMD 29k support
3858
3859 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3860 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3861 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3862 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3863 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3864
3865 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3866 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3867 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3868 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3869
3870 * Remote interfaces
3871
3872 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3873 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3874 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3875 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3876 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3877 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3878 each instruction being stepped through.
3879
3880 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3881 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3882
3883 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3884 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3885 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3886 processor with a serial port.
3887
3888 * Configuration
3889
3890 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3891 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3892 supported, and what files each one uses.
3893
3894 * Library changes
3895
3896 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3897 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3898 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3899 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3900
3901 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3902 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3903 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3904 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3905
3906 * Documentation
3907
3908 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3909 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3910 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3911 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3912 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3913 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3914
3915 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3916
3917
3918 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3919
3920 * Better support for C++ function names
3921
3922 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3923 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3924 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3925 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3926 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3927
3928 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3929 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3930 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3931 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3932 for the list of formats.
3933
3934 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3935
3936 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3937 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3938 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3939 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3940 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3941 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3942 this problem.)
3943
3944 * New 'maintenance' command
3945
3946 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3947 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3948 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3949
3950 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3951 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3952 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3953 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3954 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3955 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3956
3957 The following commands are new:
3958
3959 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3960 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3961 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3962
3963 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3964
3965 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3966 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3967 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3968 read after argv processing.
3969
3970 * New hosts supported
3971
3972 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3973
3974 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3975
3976 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3977 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3978 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3979 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3980 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3981 It costs extra.
3982
3983 * New targets supported
3984
3985 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3986
3987 * More smarts about finding #include files
3988
3989 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3990 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3991 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3992 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3993 the one that contains your sources.
3994
3995 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3996 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3997 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3998
3999 * Interesting infernals change
4000
4001 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4002 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4003 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4004 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4005
4006 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4007
4008 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4009 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4010 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4011
4012 See the ChangeLog for details.
4013
4014 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4015
4016 * New machines supported (host and target)
4017
4018 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4019
4020 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4021
4022 * New malloc package
4023
4024 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4025 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4026 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4027 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4028 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4029 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4030
4031 * info proc
4032
4033 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4034 'help info proc' for details.
4035
4036 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4037
4038 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4039 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4040 possible.
4041
4042 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4043
4044 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4045 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4046 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4047 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4048 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4049 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4050
4051 * Cross byte order fixes
4052
4053 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4054 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4055
4056 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4057
4058 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4059 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4060 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4061 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4062 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4063 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4064 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4065 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4066 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4067 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4068
4069 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4070 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4071 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4072 slower, but makes future operations faster.
4073
4074 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4075 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4076 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4077 use is:
4078
4079 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4080
4081 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4082 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4083 shared across multiple host platforms.
4084
4085 * longjmp() handling
4086
4087 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4088 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4089 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4090 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4091
4092 * Solaris 2.0
4093
4094 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4095 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4096 reading symbols.
4097
4098 * Bug fixes
4099
4100 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4101 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4102 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4103
4104 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4105
4106 * New machines supported (host and target)
4107
4108 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4109 (except core files)
4110 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4111 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4112
4113 * New machines supported (target)
4114
4115 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4116
4117 * C++ support
4118
4119 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4120 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4121 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4122
4123 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4124 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4125 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4126 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4127 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4128 released.
4129
4130 * New features for SVR4
4131
4132 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4133 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4134 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4135
4136 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4137 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4138 it prints the address mappings of the process.
4139
4140 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4141 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4142
4143 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4144
4145 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4146 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4147 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4148 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4149 same code linked statically.
4150
4151 * New Getopt
4152
4153 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4154 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4155 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4156 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4157 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4158 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4159
4160 * Bugs fixed
4161
4162 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4163 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4164 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4165
4166
4167 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4168
4169 * New machines supported (host and target)
4170
4171 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4172 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4173 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4174
4175 * Almost SCO Unix support
4176
4177 We had hoped to support:
4178 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4179 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4180 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4181 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4182
4183 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4184
4185 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4186 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4187 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4188 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4189 reqired (if any).
4190
4191 * New Readline
4192
4193 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4194 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4195 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4196
4197 * Bugs fixed
4198
4199 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4200 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4201 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4202
4203 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4204
4205 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4206 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4207 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4208
4209 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4210 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4211 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4212 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4213 version 2.
4214
4215 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4216 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4217 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4218 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4219 situation somewhat.
4220
4221 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4222 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4223 methods.
4224
4225 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4226 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4227 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4228
4229
4230 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4231
4232 * Improved configuration
4233
4234 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4235 Porting BFD is simpler.
4236
4237 * Stepping improved
4238
4239 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4240 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4241 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4242 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4243
4244 * Bug fixing
4245
4246 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4247
4248 * New host supported (not target)
4249
4250 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4251
4252
4253 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4254
4255 * Multiple source language support
4256
4257 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4258 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4259 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4260 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4261 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4262 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4263
4264 * GDB and Modula-2
4265
4266 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4267 currently under development at the State University of New York at
4268 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4269 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4270
4271 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4272 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4273 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4274
4275 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4276 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4277
4278 * set write on/off
4279
4280 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4281 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4282 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4283 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4284 effect immediately.
4285
4286 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4287
4288 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4289 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4290 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4291 examining core files.
4292
4293 * set listsize
4294
4295 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4296 The default is 10.
4297
4298 * New machines supported (host and target)
4299
4300 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4301 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4302 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4303
4304 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4305
4306 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4307
4308 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4309
4310 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4311 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4312 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4313
4314 * New remote interfaces
4315
4316 AMD 29000 Adapt
4317 AMD 29000 Minimon
4318
4319
4320 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4321
4322 * New Facilities
4323
4324 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4325
4326 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4327 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4328 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4329 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4330 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4331 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4332 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4333 stub on the target system.
4334
4335 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4336
4337 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4338 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4339 object file types such as a.out and coff.
4340
4341 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4342 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4343
4344
4345 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4346
4347 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4348 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4349
4350 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4351 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4352 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4353
4354 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4355 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4356 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4357 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4358
4359 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4360 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4361 it is already running. Default is ON.
4362
4363 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4364 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4365 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4366 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4367 Default is ON.
4368
4369 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4370 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4371 or the value of the environment variable
4372 GDBHISTFILE.
4373
4374 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4375 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4376 HISTSIZE.
4377
4378 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4379 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4380 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4381
4382 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4383 history expansion will be performed on
4384 command line input. The default is OFF.
4385
4386 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4387 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4388 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4389
4390 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4391 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4392 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4393 variable TERM.
4394
4395 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4396 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4397 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4398 variable TERM.
4399
4400 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4401 ``set width'' instead.
4402
4403 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4404 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4405 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4406 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4407
4408 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4409 is OFF.
4410
4411 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4412 "raw" form if off.
4413
4414 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4415 like instructions.
4416
4417 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4418
4419
4420 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4421
4422 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4423 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4424 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4425 window.
4426
4427
4428 * Support for Shared Libraries
4429
4430 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4431 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4432 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4433 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4434 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4435 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4436 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4437 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4438
4439 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4440 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4441 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4442
4443 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4444
4445
4446 * Watchpoints
4447
4448 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4449 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4450 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4451 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4452 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4453 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4454
4455 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4456
4457 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4458
4459 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4460 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4461 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4462
4463
4464 * C++ multiple inheritance
4465
4466 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4467 for C++ programs.
4468
4469 * C++ exception handling
4470
4471 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4472 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4473 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4474 handler's context).
4475
4476 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4477 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4478 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4479
4480 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4481 current stack frame.
4482
4483
4484 * Minor command changes
4485
4486 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4487 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4488 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4489
4490 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4491 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4492 frames without printing.
4493
4494 * New directory command
4495
4496 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4497 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4498 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4499 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4500 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4501
4502 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4503
4504 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4505 for more details.
4506
4507 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4508 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4509 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4510 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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