1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.7
8 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
9 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
10 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
12 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
13 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
14 -Bsymbolic linker option.
16 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
17 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
20 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
21 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
23 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
24 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
26 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
28 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
29 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
30 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
32 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
33 automatically displayed as character or string data.
35 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
36 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
39 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
40 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
43 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
46 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
47 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
48 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
50 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
52 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
54 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
55 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
56 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
58 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
59 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
61 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
62 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
63 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
64 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
65 Windows and SymbianOS).
67 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
68 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
70 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
71 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
77 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
78 when debugging using remote targets.
80 set mem inaccessible-by-default
81 show mem inaccessible-by-default
82 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
83 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
84 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
85 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
86 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
88 set breakpoint auto-hw
89 show breakpoint auto-hw
90 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
91 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
92 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
93 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
94 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
95 including "next" and "finish".
98 catch exception unhandled
99 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
102 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
106 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
107 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
108 an alias to "set sysroot".
111 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
112 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
115 * New native configurations
117 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
122 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
123 not query the target for its built-in description.
127 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
128 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
129 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
134 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
135 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
138 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
143 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
144 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
146 qXfer:libraries:read:
147 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
148 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
149 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
150 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
154 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
163 i[34567]86-*-netware*
164 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
165 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
167 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
170 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
171 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
180 * Other removed features
187 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
194 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
199 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
200 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
205 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
206 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
208 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
210 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
211 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
212 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
213 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
217 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
218 in debugging information.
222 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
223 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
225 set mips stack-arg-size
226 set mips saved-gpreg-size
228 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
230 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
235 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
237 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
238 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
239 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
241 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
242 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
245 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
246 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
248 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
249 stub provides the required support.
251 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
252 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
257 unset substitute-path
259 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
260 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
261 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
262 between compilation and debugging.
266 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
267 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
268 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
272 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
274 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
275 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
277 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
282 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
283 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
284 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
285 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
289 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
290 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
292 qXfer:memory-map:read:
293 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
294 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
299 Erase and program a flash memory device.
301 * Removed remote packets
304 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
305 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
307 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
311 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
313 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
317 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
318 only if it doesn't already have a value.
320 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
322 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
324 restart <n> Return the program state to a
325 previously saved state.
327 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
329 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
331 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
332 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
334 info forks List forks of the user program that
335 are available to be debugged.
337 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
338 forks of the user program that are
339 available to be debugged.
341 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
342 that are available to be debugged (and
343 kill the forked process).
345 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
346 that are available to be debugged (and
347 allow the process to continue).
351 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
353 * Improved Windows host support
355 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
356 native console support, and remote communications using either
357 network sockets or serial ports.
359 * Improved Modula-2 language support
361 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
362 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
363 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
364 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
365 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
366 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
370 The ARM rdi-share module.
372 The Netware NLM debug server.
374 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
376 * New native configurations
378 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
379 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
383 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
385 * New command line options
387 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
388 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
389 the child (debugged) program exited with.
390 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
391 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
392 specified multiple times and in conjunction
393 with the --command (-x) option.
395 * Deprecated commands removed
397 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
401 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
402 othernames set arm disassembler
403 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
404 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
405 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
408 * New BSD user-level threads support
410 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
411 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
414 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
415 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
416 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
418 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
419 are not yet supported.
421 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
422 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
424 * REMOVED configurations and files
426 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
427 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
428 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
430 * New "set print array-indexes" command
432 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
433 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
436 * VAX floating point support
438 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
440 * User-defined command support
442 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
443 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
444 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
446 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
448 * New command line option
450 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
453 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
455 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
456 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
457 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
458 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
459 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
461 * Internationalization
463 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
464 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
465 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
469 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
470 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
471 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
473 * New native configurations
475 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
479 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
480 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
482 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
484 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
485 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
486 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
489 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
490 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
491 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
503 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
504 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
506 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
508 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
509 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
510 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
520 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
522 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
524 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
525 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
528 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
530 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
531 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
532 IRIX long double values).
536 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
537 command. This problem has been fixed.
539 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
541 * Fix for ``many threads''
543 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
544 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
547 ptrace: No such process.
548 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
550 This problem has been fixed.
552 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
554 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
557 * New ``start'' command.
559 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
561 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
563 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
564 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
565 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
567 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
568 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
569 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
570 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
571 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
572 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
573 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
574 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
575 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
577 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
579 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
580 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
581 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
582 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
583 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
585 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
586 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
587 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
589 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
591 * New native configurations
593 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
594 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
595 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
596 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
597 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
598 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
599 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
601 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
603 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
604 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
605 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
606 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
607 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
608 work, was also included.
610 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
611 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
621 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
622 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
624 * REMOVED configurations and files
626 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
627 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
628 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
629 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
630 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
631 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
632 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
633 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
634 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
636 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
638 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
640 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
642 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
643 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
644 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
645 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
648 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
650 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
651 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
652 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
653 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
654 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
655 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
658 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
660 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
662 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
663 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
664 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
666 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
668 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
669 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
671 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
673 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
674 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
675 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
677 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
679 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
680 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
682 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
684 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
685 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
686 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
688 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
690 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
691 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
692 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
694 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
696 * Removed --with-mmalloc
698 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
699 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
701 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
703 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
704 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
705 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
706 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
708 * Revised SPARC target
710 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
711 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
712 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
713 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
714 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
718 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
719 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
720 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
723 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
725 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
726 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
729 * C++ nested types and namespaces
731 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
732 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
733 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
734 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
735 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
736 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
737 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
738 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
739 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
741 * New native configurations
743 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
744 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
745 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
746 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
747 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
749 * New debugging protocols
751 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
753 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
755 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
756 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
757 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
759 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
761 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
762 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
763 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
766 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
767 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
768 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
769 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
770 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
771 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
772 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
773 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
774 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
776 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
778 * REMOVED configurations and files
780 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
781 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
782 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
783 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
784 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
785 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
786 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
787 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
788 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
789 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
790 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
791 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
792 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
793 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
794 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
795 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
796 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
798 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
802 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
805 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
807 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
808 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
809 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
812 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
813 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
818 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
819 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
820 remote protocol documentation for details.
822 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
824 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
825 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
826 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
829 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
831 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
832 per-thread variables.
834 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
836 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
837 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
839 * Separate debug info.
841 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
842 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
843 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
844 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
845 and optional debug files.
847 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
849 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
850 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
853 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
854 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
858 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
859 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
860 considered "useable".
862 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
864 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
865 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
868 * GDB supports logging output to a file
870 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
871 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
873 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
875 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
876 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
879 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
881 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
882 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
886 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
887 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
888 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
889 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
890 data, for more informative profiling results.
892 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
894 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
895 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
896 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
898 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
901 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
902 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
903 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
904 in a subsequent -var-update.
906 * New native configurations.
908 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
910 * Multi-arched targets.
912 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
913 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
915 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
917 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
918 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
919 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
922 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
923 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
924 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
925 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
926 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
927 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
928 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
929 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
930 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
931 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
932 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
933 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
935 * REMOVED configurations and files
938 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
939 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
940 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
941 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
942 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
943 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
945 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
946 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
947 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
948 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
949 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
950 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
952 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
954 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
955 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
956 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
957 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
958 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
960 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
962 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
964 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
965 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
966 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
967 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
968 shared libs like mad''.
970 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
972 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
973 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
974 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
975 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
977 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
979 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
980 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
983 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
984 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
986 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
987 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
989 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
990 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
991 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
992 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
994 * Multi-arched targets.
996 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
997 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
999 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1000 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1001 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1005 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1008 * New native configurations
1010 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1011 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1012 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1013 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1015 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1017 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1018 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1019 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1020 permanently REMOVED.
1022 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1023 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1024 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1025 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1026 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1027 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1028 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1029 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1030 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1031 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1033 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1034 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1036 * OBSOLETE languages
1038 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1040 * REMOVED configurations and files
1042 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1043 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1044 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1045 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1046 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1048 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1050 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1052 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1053 commands. The default is 1024.
1055 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1057 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1059 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1061 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1062 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1063 from a file into memory (restore).
1065 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1067 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1068 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1069 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1071 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1079 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1080 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1081 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1083 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1084 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1085 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1087 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1088 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1089 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1091 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1092 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1093 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1095 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1097 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1099 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1100 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1101 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1102 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1103 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1104 (notably embedded) targets.
1106 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1108 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1109 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1110 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1111 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1113 * New command line option
1115 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1117 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1119 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1120 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1121 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1122 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1123 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1124 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1125 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1126 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1127 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1128 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1130 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1132 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1133 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1135 * New native configurations
1137 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1138 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1139 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1140 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1144 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1146 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1148 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1149 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1150 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1151 permanently REMOVED.
1153 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1154 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1155 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1156 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1157 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1159 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1161 * REMOVED configurations and files
1163 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1165 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1166 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1167 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1168 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1169 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1170 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1171 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1172 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1173 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1174 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1175 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1177 * Changes to command line processing
1179 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1180 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1182 * Changes to key bindings
1184 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1186 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1188 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1190 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1193 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1195 Numerous documentation fixes.
1197 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1199 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1201 * New native configurations
1203 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1204 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1205 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1206 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1207 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1208 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1212 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1214 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1216 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1218 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1219 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1220 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1221 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1222 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1224 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1225 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1226 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1227 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1228 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1229 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1230 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1231 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1233 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1234 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1236 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1237 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1238 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1239 permanently REMOVED.
1241 * REMOVED configurations and files
1243 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1244 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1246 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1250 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1252 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1253 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1258 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1260 * The MI enabled by default.
1262 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1263 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1264 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1265 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1266 which is now deprecated.
1268 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1270 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1271 main features are supported:
1273 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1275 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1278 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1280 - a Pascal expression parser.
1282 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1284 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1286 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1288 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1289 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1291 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1293 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1295 * Changes in completion.
1297 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1298 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1299 users expect at the shell prompt.
1301 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1302 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1303 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1304 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1305 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1306 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1307 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1309 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1311 * New platform-independent commands:
1313 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1314 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1315 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1317 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1319 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1320 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1321 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1323 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1325 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1326 multi-threaded programs though.
1328 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1330 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1332 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1333 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1336 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1338 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1339 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1340 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1341 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1342 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1345 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1346 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1347 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1349 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1351 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1352 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1354 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1355 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1358 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1359 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1360 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1361 a given linear address.
1363 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1364 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1365 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1367 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1369 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1371 * Changes in documentation.
1373 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1374 Documentation License.
1376 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1379 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1381 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1384 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1385 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1386 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1388 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1390 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1391 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1392 contents of this file.
1396 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1398 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1400 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1402 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1403 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1404 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1405 greater level of detail.
1407 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1409 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1410 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1411 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1414 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1416 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1417 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1418 machines ``out of the box''.
1420 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1421 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1422 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1423 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1424 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1426 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1427 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1428 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1429 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1430 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1432 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1433 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1436 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1439 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1440 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1441 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1442 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1444 * New native configurations
1446 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1447 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1451 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1452 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1453 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1454 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1456 * OBSOLETE configurations
1458 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1459 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1461 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1464 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1465 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1466 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1467 be permanently REMOVED.
1469 * Gould support removed
1471 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1473 * New features for SVR4
1475 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1476 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1477 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1479 * Many C++ enhancements
1481 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1482 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1484 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1486 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1487 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1488 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1489 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1491 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1492 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1494 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1496 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1497 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1498 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1500 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1501 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1503 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1505 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1506 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1507 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1509 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1511 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1512 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1513 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1515 * ``apropos'' command added.
1517 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1518 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1519 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1523 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1524 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1525 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1526 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1527 enabled by configuring with:
1529 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1531 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1533 * New native configurations
1535 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1536 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1537 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1541 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1542 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1543 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1545 * OBSOLETE configurations
1547 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1549 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1550 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1551 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1552 be permanently REMOVED.
1556 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1557 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1558 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1559 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1560 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1561 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1562 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1567 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1569 * set extension-language
1571 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1572 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1573 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1574 set extension-language .c c++
1575 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1576 and their associated languages.
1578 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1580 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1581 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1582 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1586 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1587 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1589 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1590 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1592 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1593 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1594 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1595 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1596 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1597 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1598 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1599 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1601 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1602 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1603 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1604 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1608 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1609 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1610 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1611 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1612 for xdb and dbx commands.
1616 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1617 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1618 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1620 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1621 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1622 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1624 * Debugging across forks
1626 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1631 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1632 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1633 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1635 * GDB remote protocol additions
1637 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1638 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1639 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1640 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1642 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1643 full 64-bit address. The command
1645 set remoteaddresssize 32
1647 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1648 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1651 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1652 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1654 maint packet heythere
1656 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1657 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1660 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1661 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1662 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1664 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1666 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1667 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1668 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1670 * mask-address variable for Mips
1672 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1673 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1674 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1676 * Higher serial baud rates
1678 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1679 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1680 to achieve all of these rates.)
1684 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1685 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1688 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1690 * New native configurations
1692 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1693 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1694 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1695 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1696 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1697 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1698 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1702 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1703 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1704 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1705 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1706 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1707 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1708 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1709 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1710 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1711 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1712 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1714 * New debugging protocols
1716 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1717 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1718 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1719 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1720 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1721 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1725 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1726 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1731 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1732 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1734 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1736 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1737 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1738 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1740 * Live range splitting
1742 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1743 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1744 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1748 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1749 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1753 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1754 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1755 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1760 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1765 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1766 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1767 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1768 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1769 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1770 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1774 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1775 the symbol at the specified address.
1779 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1780 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1781 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1782 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1783 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1787 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1788 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1789 of most MIPS variants.
1793 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1794 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1795 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1799 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1800 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1801 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1802 the possible architectures.
1804 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1806 * New native configurations
1808 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1809 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1810 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1811 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1812 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1813 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1817 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1818 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1819 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1820 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1821 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1823 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1827 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1828 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1829 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1830 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1831 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1835 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1837 * Windows 95/NT native
1839 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1840 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1841 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1842 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1843 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1845 * dont-repeat command
1847 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1848 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1849 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1850 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1852 * Send break instead of ^C
1854 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1855 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1856 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1858 * Remote protocol timeout
1860 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1861 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1862 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1864 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1866 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1867 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1868 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1869 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1870 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1872 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1873 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1874 automatically on hpux10.
1876 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1878 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1880 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1882 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1883 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1884 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1885 every character. The default value is 1050.
1887 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1889 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1890 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1891 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1892 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1893 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1894 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1896 * Speedups for remote debugging
1898 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1899 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1900 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1902 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1904 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1905 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1907 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1909 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1911 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1912 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1914 * Remote targets use caching
1916 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1917 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1918 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1919 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1920 off' turns the the data cache off.
1922 * Remote targets may have threads
1924 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1925 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1926 gdb/remote.c for details.
1930 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1931 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1932 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1933 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1934 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1935 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1936 sequence is something like
1938 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1940 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1944 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1945 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1946 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1947 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1948 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1949 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1950 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1951 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1955 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1956 but does simplify configuration and building.
1960 GDB now supports hpux10.
1962 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1964 * New native configurations
1966 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1967 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1968 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1969 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1973 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1974 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1975 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1976 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1979 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1981 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1982 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1983 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1984 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1985 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1987 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1989 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1990 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1993 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1995 To execute the command use:
1998 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1999 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2000 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2002 * New `if' and `while' commands
2004 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2005 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2006 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2007 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2008 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2009 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2010 if the expression is zero.
2012 * Fortran source language mode
2014 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2015 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2016 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2017 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2020 * Better HPUX support
2022 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2023 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2024 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2025 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2026 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2032 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2033 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2039 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2040 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2043 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2044 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2046 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2048 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2049 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2050 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2051 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2052 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2053 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2055 * New DOS host serial code
2057 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2058 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2061 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2063 * New "complete" command
2065 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2066 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2068 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2070 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2071 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2073 * Breakpoint hit counts
2075 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2076 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2077 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2078 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2079 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2082 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2084 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2085 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2086 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2088 * Shared library breakpoints
2090 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2091 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2093 * Hardware watchpoints
2095 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2096 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2098 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2102 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2103 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2105 * Improved Irix 5 support
2107 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2109 * Improved HPPA support
2111 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2113 * New native configurations
2115 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2116 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2117 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2118 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2122 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2123 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2126 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2128 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2129 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2133 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2134 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2136 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2138 * Irix 5 is now supported
2142 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2143 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2144 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2145 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2146 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2149 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2151 * User visible changes:
2155 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2156 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2157 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2158 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2159 debugging info for the mips target).
2161 * DEC Alpha native support
2163 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2164 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2165 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2166 Alpha-specific notes.
2168 * Preliminary thread implementation
2170 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2172 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2174 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2175 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2178 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2180 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2181 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2182 call methods, ...etc.
2184 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2186 * User visible changes:
2188 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2189 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2190 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2191 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2193 Filename completion now works.
2195 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2196 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2197 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2199 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2200 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2201 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2202 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2203 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2207 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2208 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2211 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2215 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2216 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2217 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2221 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2222 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2223 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2224 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2225 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2229 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2230 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2231 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2233 * New targets supported
2235 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2236 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2237 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2238 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2239 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2241 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2242 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2243 GO32 memory extender.
2245 * New remote protocols
2247 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2249 * New source languages supported
2251 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2252 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2253 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2256 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2258 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2260 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2261 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2262 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2263 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2264 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2265 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2267 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2269 * Faster and better demangling
2271 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2272 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2273 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2274 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2275 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2276 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2279 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2280 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2281 compiler does not actually implement.
2283 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2285 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2286 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2287 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2288 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2289 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2290 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2293 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2294 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2296 * Improved configure script
2298 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2299 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2300 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2301 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2303 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2304 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2305 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2306 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2307 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2308 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2310 * Documentation improvements
2312 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2313 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2314 before submitting changes.
2316 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2317 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2318 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2319 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2320 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2322 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2323 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2324 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2325 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2326 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2327 around this problem.
2331 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2332 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2333 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2336 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2337 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2339 * New native hosts supported
2341 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2342 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2344 * New targets supported
2346 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2348 * New file formats supported
2350 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2351 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2355 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2357 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2358 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2360 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2361 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2362 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2364 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2365 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2367 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2368 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2369 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2372 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2373 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2374 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2375 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2376 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2378 * Internal improvements
2380 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2381 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2383 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2384 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2385 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2386 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2387 shared code that handles any of them.
2389 * New command line options
2391 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2395 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2396 General Public License.
2398 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2400 * Host/native/target split
2402 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2403 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2404 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2405 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2406 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2408 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2409 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2410 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2411 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2412 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2413 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2414 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2416 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2417 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2418 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2420 * New hosts supported
2422 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2423 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2424 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2426 * New targets supported
2428 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2429 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2431 * New native hosts supported
2433 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2434 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2435 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2437 * New file formats supported
2439 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2440 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2441 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2445 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2446 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2447 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2449 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2451 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2452 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2453 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2454 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2458 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2459 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2460 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2462 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2466 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2467 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2470 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2471 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2473 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2474 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2475 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2476 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2477 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2478 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2480 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2481 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2482 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2483 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2487 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2488 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2489 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2490 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2491 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2493 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2494 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2495 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2496 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2500 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2501 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2502 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2503 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2504 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2505 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2506 each instruction being stepped through.
2508 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2509 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2511 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2512 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2513 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2514 processor with a serial port.
2518 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2519 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2520 supported, and what files each one uses.
2524 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2525 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2526 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2527 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2529 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2530 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2531 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2532 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2536 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2537 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2538 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2539 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2540 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2541 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2543 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2546 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2548 * Better support for C++ function names
2550 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2551 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2552 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2553 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2554 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2556 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2557 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2558 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2559 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2560 for the list of formats.
2562 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2564 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2565 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2566 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2567 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2568 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2569 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2572 * New 'maintenance' command
2574 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2575 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2576 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2578 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2579 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2580 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2581 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2582 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2583 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2585 The following commands are new:
2587 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2588 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2589 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2591 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2593 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2594 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2595 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2596 read after argv processing.
2598 * New hosts supported
2600 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2602 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2604 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2605 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2606 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2607 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2608 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2611 * New targets supported
2613 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2615 * More smarts about finding #include files
2617 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2618 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2619 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2620 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2621 the one that contains your sources.
2623 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2624 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2625 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2627 * Interesting infernals change
2629 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2630 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2631 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2632 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2634 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2636 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2637 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2638 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2640 See the ChangeLog for details.
2642 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2644 * New machines supported (host and target)
2646 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2648 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2650 * New malloc package
2652 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2653 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2654 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2655 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2656 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2657 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2661 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2662 'help info proc' for details.
2664 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2666 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2667 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2670 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2672 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2673 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2674 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2675 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2676 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2677 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2679 * Cross byte order fixes
2681 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2682 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2684 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2686 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2687 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2688 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2689 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2690 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2691 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2692 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2693 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2694 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2695 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2697 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2698 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2699 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2700 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2702 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2703 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2704 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2707 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2709 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2710 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2711 shared across multiple host platforms.
2713 * longjmp() handling
2715 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2716 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2717 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2718 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2722 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2723 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2728 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2729 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2730 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2732 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2734 * New machines supported (host and target)
2736 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2738 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2739 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2741 * New machines supported (target)
2743 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2747 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2748 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2749 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2751 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2752 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2753 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2754 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2755 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2758 * New features for SVR4
2760 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2761 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2762 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2764 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2765 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2766 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2768 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2769 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2771 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2773 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2774 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2775 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2776 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2777 same code linked statically.
2781 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2782 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2783 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2784 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2785 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2786 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2790 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2791 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2792 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2795 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2797 * New machines supported (host and target)
2799 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2800 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2801 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2803 * Almost SCO Unix support
2805 We had hoped to support:
2806 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2807 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2808 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2809 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2811 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2813 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2814 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2815 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2816 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2821 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2822 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2823 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2827 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2828 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2829 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2831 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2833 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2834 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2835 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2837 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2838 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2839 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2840 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2843 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2844 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2845 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2846 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2849 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2850 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2853 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2854 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2855 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2858 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2860 * Improved configuration
2862 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2863 Porting BFD is simpler.
2867 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2868 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2869 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2870 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2874 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2876 * New host supported (not target)
2878 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2881 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2883 * Multiple source language support
2885 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2886 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2887 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2888 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2889 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2890 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2894 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2895 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2896 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2897 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2899 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2900 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2901 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2903 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2904 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2908 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2909 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2910 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2911 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2914 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2916 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2917 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2918 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2919 examining core files.
2923 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2926 * New machines supported (host and target)
2928 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2929 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2930 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2932 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2934 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2936 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2938 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2939 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2940 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2942 * New remote interfaces
2948 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2952 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2954 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2955 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2956 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2957 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2958 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2959 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2960 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2961 stub on the target system.
2963 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2965 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2966 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2967 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2969 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2970 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2973 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2975 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2976 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2978 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2979 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2980 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2982 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2983 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2984 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2985 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2987 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2988 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2989 it is already running. Default is ON.
2991 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2992 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2993 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2994 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2997 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2998 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2999 or the value of the environment variable
3002 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3003 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3006 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3007 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3008 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3010 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3011 history expansion will be performed on
3012 command line input. The default is OFF.
3014 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3015 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3016 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3018 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3019 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3020 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3023 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3024 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3025 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3028 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3029 ``set width'' instead.
3031 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3032 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3033 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3034 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3036 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3039 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3042 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3045 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3048 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3050 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3051 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3052 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3056 * Support for Shared Libraries
3058 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3059 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3060 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3061 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3062 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3063 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3064 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3065 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3067 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3068 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3069 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3071 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3076 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3077 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3078 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3079 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3080 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3081 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3083 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3085 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3087 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3088 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3089 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3092 * C++ multiple inheritance
3094 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3097 * C++ exception handling
3099 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3100 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3101 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3104 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3105 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3106 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3108 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3109 current stack frame.
3112 * Minor command changes
3114 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3115 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3116 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3118 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3119 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3120 frames without printing.
3122 * New directory command
3124 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3125 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3126 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3127 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3128 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3130 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3132 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3135 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3136 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3137 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3138 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob