1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
7 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
8 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
9 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
11 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
12 now complete on file names.
14 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
15 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
16 For instance, consider:
18 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
19 # struct example variable;
22 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
23 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
25 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
26 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
32 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
35 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
36 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
37 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
40 Obtains additional operating system information
42 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
44 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
45 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
46 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
48 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
51 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
52 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
54 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
55 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
56 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
58 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
59 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
61 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
63 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
65 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
66 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
68 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
69 list of section offsets.
71 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
72 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
75 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
76 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
77 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
79 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
81 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
82 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
84 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
85 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
86 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
88 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
89 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
91 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
96 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
97 available is determined at configure time.
101 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
105 Print the list of Ada tasks.
107 Print detailed information about task number N.
109 Print the task number of the current task.
111 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
113 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
114 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
118 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
120 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
122 maint set python print-stack
123 maint show python print-stack
124 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
127 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
129 set print symbol-loading
130 show print symbol-loading
131 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
135 Display timestamps with GDB debugging output.
140 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
142 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
143 show multiple-symbols
144 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
145 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
146 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
148 set breakpoint always-inserted
149 show breakpoint always-inserted
150 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
151 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
152 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
154 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
155 show arm fallback-mode
156 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
158 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
159 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
160 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
161 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
163 set disable-randomization
164 show disable-randomization
165 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
166 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
167 multiple debugging sessions.
170 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
171 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
172 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
173 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
175 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
177 set tcp connect-timeout
178 show tcp connect-timeout
179 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
180 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
181 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
186 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
190 Show operating system information about processes.
192 * New native configurations
194 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
196 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
200 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
206 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
208 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
210 * New native configurations
212 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
213 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
217 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
218 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
220 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
222 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
223 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
224 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
225 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
227 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
228 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
230 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
233 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
234 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
235 and in inlined functions.
237 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
238 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
239 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
241 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
243 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
244 registers on PowerPC targets.
246 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
247 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
249 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
250 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
252 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
253 extended-remote mode.
255 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
256 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
257 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
258 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
260 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
261 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
262 target architectures.
264 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
265 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
266 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
267 stored in two consecutive float registers.
269 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
272 * Improved support for debugging Ada
273 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
275 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
276 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
277 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
278 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
280 - Improved command completion in Ada
283 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
288 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
289 show print frame-arguments
290 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
291 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
296 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
303 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
312 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
315 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
319 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
321 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
323 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
324 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
325 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
327 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
328 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
329 -Bsymbolic linker option.
331 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
332 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
335 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
336 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
338 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
339 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
341 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
343 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
344 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
345 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
347 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
348 automatically displayed as character or string data.
350 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
351 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
354 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
355 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
356 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
358 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
361 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
362 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
363 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
365 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
367 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
369 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
370 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
371 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
373 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
374 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
376 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
377 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
378 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
379 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
380 Windows and SymbianOS).
382 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
383 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
385 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
386 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
392 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
393 when debugging using remote targets.
395 set mem inaccessible-by-default
396 show mem inaccessible-by-default
397 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
398 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
399 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
400 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
401 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
403 set breakpoint auto-hw
404 show breakpoint auto-hw
405 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
406 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
407 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
408 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
409 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
410 including "next" and "finish".
413 catch exception unhandled
414 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
417 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
421 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
422 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
423 an alias to "set sysroot".
426 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
427 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
430 * New native configurations
432 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
437 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
438 not query the target for its built-in description.
442 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
443 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
444 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
449 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
450 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
453 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
458 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
459 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
461 qXfer:libraries:read:
462 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
463 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
464 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
465 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
469 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
478 i[34567]86-*-netware*
479 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
480 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
482 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
485 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
486 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
495 * Other removed features
502 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
509 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
514 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
515 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
520 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
521 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
523 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
525 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
526 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
527 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
528 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
532 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
533 in debugging information.
537 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
538 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
540 set mips stack-arg-size
541 set mips saved-gpreg-size
543 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
545 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
550 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
552 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
553 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
554 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
556 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
557 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
560 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
561 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
563 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
564 stub provides the required support.
566 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
567 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
572 unset substitute-path
574 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
575 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
576 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
577 between compilation and debugging.
581 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
582 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
583 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
587 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
589 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
590 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
592 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
597 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
598 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
599 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
600 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
604 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
605 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
607 qXfer:memory-map:read:
608 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
609 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
614 Erase and program a flash memory device.
616 * Removed remote packets
619 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
620 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
622 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
626 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
628 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
632 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
633 only if it doesn't already have a value.
635 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
637 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
639 restart <n> Return the program state to a
640 previously saved state.
642 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
644 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
646 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
647 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
649 info forks List forks of the user program that
650 are available to be debugged.
652 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
653 forks of the user program that are
654 available to be debugged.
656 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
657 that are available to be debugged (and
658 kill the forked process).
660 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
661 that are available to be debugged (and
662 allow the process to continue).
666 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
668 * Improved Windows host support
670 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
671 native console support, and remote communications using either
672 network sockets or serial ports.
674 * Improved Modula-2 language support
676 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
677 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
678 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
679 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
680 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
681 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
685 The ARM rdi-share module.
687 The Netware NLM debug server.
689 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
691 * New native configurations
693 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
694 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
698 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
700 * New command line options
702 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
703 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
704 the child (debugged) program exited with.
705 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
706 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
707 specified multiple times and in conjunction
708 with the --command (-x) option.
710 * Deprecated commands removed
712 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
716 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
717 othernames set arm disassembler
718 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
719 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
720 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
723 * New BSD user-level threads support
725 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
726 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
729 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
730 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
731 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
733 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
734 are not yet supported.
736 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
737 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
739 * REMOVED configurations and files
741 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
742 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
743 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
745 * New "set print array-indexes" command
747 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
748 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
751 * VAX floating point support
753 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
755 * User-defined command support
757 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
758 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
759 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
761 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
763 * New command line option
765 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
768 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
770 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
771 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
772 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
773 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
774 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
776 * Internationalization
778 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
779 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
780 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
784 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
785 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
786 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
788 * New native configurations
790 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
794 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
795 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
797 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
799 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
800 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
801 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
804 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
805 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
806 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
818 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
819 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
821 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
823 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
824 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
825 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
835 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
837 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
839 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
840 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
843 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
845 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
846 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
847 IRIX long double values).
851 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
852 command. This problem has been fixed.
854 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
856 * Fix for ``many threads''
858 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
859 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
862 ptrace: No such process.
863 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
865 This problem has been fixed.
867 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
869 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
872 * New ``start'' command.
874 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
876 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
878 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
879 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
880 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
882 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
883 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
884 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
885 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
886 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
887 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
888 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
889 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
890 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
892 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
894 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
895 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
896 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
897 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
898 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
900 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
901 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
902 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
904 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
906 * New native configurations
908 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
909 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
910 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
911 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
912 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
913 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
914 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
916 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
918 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
919 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
920 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
921 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
922 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
923 work, was also included.
925 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
926 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
936 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
937 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
939 * REMOVED configurations and files
941 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
942 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
943 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
944 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
945 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
946 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
947 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
948 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
949 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
951 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
953 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
955 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
957 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
958 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
959 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
960 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
963 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
965 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
966 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
967 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
968 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
969 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
970 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
973 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
975 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
977 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
978 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
979 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
981 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
983 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
984 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
986 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
988 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
989 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
990 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
992 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
994 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
995 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
997 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
999 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1000 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1001 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1003 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1005 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1006 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1007 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1009 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1011 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1013 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1014 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1016 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1018 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1019 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1020 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1021 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1023 * Revised SPARC target
1025 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1026 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1027 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1028 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1029 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1033 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1034 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1035 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1038 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1040 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1041 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1044 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1046 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1047 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1048 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1049 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1050 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1051 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1052 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1053 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1054 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1056 * New native configurations
1058 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1059 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1060 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1061 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1062 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1064 * New debugging protocols
1066 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1068 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1070 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1071 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1072 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1074 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1076 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1077 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1078 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1079 permanently REMOVED.
1081 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1082 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1083 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1084 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1085 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1086 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1087 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1088 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1089 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1090 sonymips mips-sony-*
1091 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1093 * REMOVED configurations and files
1095 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1096 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1097 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1098 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1099 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1100 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1101 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1102 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1103 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1104 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1105 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1106 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1107 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1108 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1109 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1110 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1111 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1113 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1117 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1118 integrated into GDB.
1120 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1122 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1123 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1124 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1127 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1128 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1129 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1133 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1134 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1135 remote protocol documentation for details.
1137 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1139 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1140 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1141 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1144 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1146 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1147 per-thread variables.
1149 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1151 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1152 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1154 * Separate debug info.
1156 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1157 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1158 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1159 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1160 and optional debug files.
1162 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1164 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1165 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1168 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1169 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1173 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1174 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1175 considered "useable".
1177 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1179 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1180 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1183 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1185 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1186 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1188 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1190 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1191 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1194 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1196 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1197 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1201 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1202 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1203 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1204 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1205 data, for more informative profiling results.
1207 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1209 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1210 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1211 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1213 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1216 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1217 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1218 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1219 in a subsequent -var-update.
1221 * New native configurations.
1223 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1225 * Multi-arched targets.
1227 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1228 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1230 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1232 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1233 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1234 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1235 permanently REMOVED.
1237 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1238 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1239 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1240 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1241 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1242 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1243 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1244 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1245 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1246 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1247 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1248 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1250 * REMOVED configurations and files
1253 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1254 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1255 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1256 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1257 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1258 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1260 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1261 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1262 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1263 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1264 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1265 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1267 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1269 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1270 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1271 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1272 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1273 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1275 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1277 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1279 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1280 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1281 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1282 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1283 shared libs like mad''.
1285 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1287 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1288 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1289 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1290 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1292 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1294 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1295 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1298 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1299 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1301 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1302 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1304 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1305 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1306 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1307 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1309 * Multi-arched targets.
1311 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1312 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1314 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1315 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1316 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1320 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1323 * New native configurations
1325 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1326 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1327 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1328 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1330 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1332 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1333 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1334 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1335 permanently REMOVED.
1337 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1338 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1339 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1340 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1341 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1342 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1343 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1344 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1345 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1346 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1348 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1349 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1351 * OBSOLETE languages
1353 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1355 * REMOVED configurations and files
1357 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1358 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1359 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1360 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1361 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1363 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1365 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1367 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1368 commands. The default is 1024.
1370 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1372 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1374 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1376 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1377 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1378 from a file into memory (restore).
1380 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1382 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1383 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1384 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1386 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1394 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1395 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1396 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1398 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1399 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1400 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1402 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1403 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1404 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1406 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1407 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1408 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1410 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1412 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1414 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1415 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1416 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1417 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1418 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1419 (notably embedded) targets.
1421 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1423 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1424 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1425 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1426 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1428 * New command line option
1430 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1432 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1434 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1435 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1436 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1437 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1438 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1439 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1440 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1441 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1442 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1443 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1445 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1447 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1448 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1450 * New native configurations
1452 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1453 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1454 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1455 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1459 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1461 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1463 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1464 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1465 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1466 permanently REMOVED.
1468 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1469 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1470 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1471 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1472 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1474 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1476 * REMOVED configurations and files
1478 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1480 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1481 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1482 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1483 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1484 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1485 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1486 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1487 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1488 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1489 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1490 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1492 * Changes to command line processing
1494 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1495 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1497 * Changes to key bindings
1499 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1501 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1503 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1505 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1508 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1510 Numerous documentation fixes.
1512 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1514 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1516 * New native configurations
1518 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1519 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1520 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1521 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1522 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1523 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1527 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1529 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1531 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1533 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1534 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1535 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1536 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1537 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1539 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1540 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1541 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1542 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1543 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1544 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1545 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1546 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1548 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1549 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1551 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1552 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1553 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1554 permanently REMOVED.
1556 * REMOVED configurations and files
1558 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1559 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1561 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1565 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1567 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1568 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1573 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1575 * The MI enabled by default.
1577 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1578 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1579 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1580 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1581 which is now deprecated.
1583 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1585 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1586 main features are supported:
1588 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1590 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1593 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1595 - a Pascal expression parser.
1597 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1599 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1601 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1603 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1604 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1606 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1608 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1610 * Changes in completion.
1612 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1613 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1614 users expect at the shell prompt.
1616 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1617 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1618 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1619 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1620 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1621 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1622 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1624 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1626 * New platform-independent commands:
1628 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1629 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1630 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1632 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1634 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1635 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1636 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1638 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1640 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1641 multi-threaded programs though.
1643 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1645 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1647 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1648 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1651 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1653 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1654 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1655 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1656 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1657 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1660 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1661 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1662 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1664 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1666 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1667 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1669 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1670 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1673 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1674 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1675 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1676 a given linear address.
1678 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1679 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1680 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1682 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1684 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1686 * Changes in documentation.
1688 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1689 Documentation License.
1691 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1694 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1696 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1699 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1700 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1701 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1703 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1705 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1706 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1707 contents of this file.
1711 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1713 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1715 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1717 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1718 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1719 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1720 greater level of detail.
1722 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1724 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1725 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1726 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1729 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1731 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1732 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1733 machines ``out of the box''.
1735 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1736 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1737 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1738 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1739 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1741 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1742 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1743 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1744 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1745 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1747 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1748 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1751 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1754 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1755 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1756 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1757 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1759 * New native configurations
1761 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1762 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1766 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1767 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1768 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1769 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1771 * OBSOLETE configurations
1773 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1774 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1776 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1779 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1780 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1781 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1782 be permanently REMOVED.
1784 * Gould support removed
1786 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1788 * New features for SVR4
1790 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1791 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1792 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1794 * Many C++ enhancements
1796 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1797 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1799 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1801 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1802 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1803 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1804 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1806 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1807 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1809 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1811 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1812 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1813 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1815 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1816 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1818 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1820 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1821 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1822 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1824 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1826 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1827 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1828 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1830 * ``apropos'' command added.
1832 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1833 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1834 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1838 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1839 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1840 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1841 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1842 enabled by configuring with:
1844 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1846 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1848 * New native configurations
1850 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1851 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1852 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1856 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1857 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1858 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1860 * OBSOLETE configurations
1862 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1864 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1865 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1866 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1867 be permanently REMOVED.
1871 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1872 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1873 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1874 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1875 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1876 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1877 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1882 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1884 * set extension-language
1886 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1887 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1888 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1889 set extension-language .c c++
1890 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1891 and their associated languages.
1893 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1895 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1896 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1897 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1901 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1902 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1904 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1905 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1907 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1908 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1909 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1910 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1911 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1912 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1913 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1914 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1916 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1917 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1918 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1919 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1923 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1924 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1925 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1926 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1927 for xdb and dbx commands.
1931 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1932 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1933 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1935 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1936 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1937 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1939 * Debugging across forks
1941 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1946 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1947 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1948 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1950 * GDB remote protocol additions
1952 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1953 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1954 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1955 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1957 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1958 full 64-bit address. The command
1960 set remoteaddresssize 32
1962 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1963 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1966 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1967 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1969 maint packet heythere
1971 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1972 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1975 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1976 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1977 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1979 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1981 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1982 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1983 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1985 * mask-address variable for Mips
1987 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1988 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1989 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1991 * Higher serial baud rates
1993 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1994 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1995 to achieve all of these rates.)
1999 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2000 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2003 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2005 * New native configurations
2007 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2008 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2009 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2010 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2011 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2012 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2013 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2017 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2018 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2019 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2020 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2021 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2022 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2023 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2024 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2025 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2026 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2027 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2029 * New debugging protocols
2031 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2032 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2033 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2034 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2035 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2036 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2040 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2041 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2046 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2047 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2049 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2051 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2052 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2053 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2055 * Live range splitting
2057 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2058 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2059 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2063 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2064 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2068 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2069 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2070 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2075 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2080 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2081 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2082 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2083 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2084 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2085 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2089 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2090 the symbol at the specified address.
2094 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2095 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2096 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2097 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2098 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2102 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2103 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2104 of most MIPS variants.
2108 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2109 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2110 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2114 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2115 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2116 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2117 the possible architectures.
2119 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2121 * New native configurations
2123 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2124 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2125 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2126 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2127 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2128 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2132 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2133 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2134 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2135 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2136 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2138 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2142 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2143 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2144 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2145 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2146 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2150 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2152 * Windows 95/NT native
2154 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2155 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2156 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2157 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2158 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2160 * dont-repeat command
2162 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2163 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2164 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2165 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2167 * Send break instead of ^C
2169 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2170 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2171 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2173 * Remote protocol timeout
2175 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2176 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2177 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2179 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2181 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2182 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2183 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2184 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2185 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2187 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2188 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2189 automatically on hpux10.
2191 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2193 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2195 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2197 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2198 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2199 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2200 every character. The default value is 1050.
2202 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2204 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2205 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2206 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2207 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2208 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2209 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2211 * Speedups for remote debugging
2213 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2214 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2215 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2217 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2219 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2220 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2222 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2224 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2226 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2227 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2229 * Remote targets use caching
2231 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2232 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2233 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2234 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2235 off' turns the the data cache off.
2237 * Remote targets may have threads
2239 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2240 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2241 gdb/remote.c for details.
2245 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2246 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2247 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2248 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2249 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2250 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2251 sequence is something like
2253 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2255 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2259 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2260 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2261 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2262 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2263 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2264 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2265 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2266 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2270 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2271 but does simplify configuration and building.
2275 GDB now supports hpux10.
2277 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2279 * New native configurations
2281 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2282 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2283 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2284 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2288 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2289 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2290 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2291 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2294 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2296 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2297 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2298 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2299 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2300 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2302 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2304 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2305 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2308 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2310 To execute the command use:
2313 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2314 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2315 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2317 * New `if' and `while' commands
2319 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2320 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2321 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2322 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2323 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2324 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2325 if the expression is zero.
2327 * Fortran source language mode
2329 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2330 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2331 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2332 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2335 * Better HPUX support
2337 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2338 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2339 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2340 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2341 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2347 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2348 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2354 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2355 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2358 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2359 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2361 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2363 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2364 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2365 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2366 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2367 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2368 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2370 * New DOS host serial code
2372 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2373 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2376 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2378 * New "complete" command
2380 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2381 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2383 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2385 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2386 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2388 * Breakpoint hit counts
2390 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2391 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2392 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2393 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2394 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2397 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2399 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2400 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2401 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2403 * Shared library breakpoints
2405 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2406 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2408 * Hardware watchpoints
2410 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2411 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2413 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2417 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2418 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2420 * Improved Irix 5 support
2422 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2424 * Improved HPPA support
2426 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2428 * New native configurations
2430 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2431 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2432 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2433 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2437 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2438 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2441 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2443 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2444 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2448 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2449 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2451 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2453 * Irix 5 is now supported
2457 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2458 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2459 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2460 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2461 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2464 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2466 * User visible changes:
2470 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2471 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2472 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2473 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2474 debugging info for the mips target).
2476 * DEC Alpha native support
2478 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2479 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2480 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2481 Alpha-specific notes.
2483 * Preliminary thread implementation
2485 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2487 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2489 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2490 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2493 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2495 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2496 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2497 call methods, ...etc.
2499 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2501 * User visible changes:
2503 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2504 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2505 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2506 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2508 Filename completion now works.
2510 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2511 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2512 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2514 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2515 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2516 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2517 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2518 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2522 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2523 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2526 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2530 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2531 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2532 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2536 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2537 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2538 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2539 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2540 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2544 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2545 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2546 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2548 * New targets supported
2550 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2551 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2552 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2553 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2554 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2556 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2557 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2558 GO32 memory extender.
2560 * New remote protocols
2562 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2564 * New source languages supported
2566 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2567 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2568 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2571 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2573 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2575 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2576 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2577 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2578 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2579 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2580 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2582 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2584 * Faster and better demangling
2586 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2587 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2588 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2589 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2590 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2591 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2594 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2595 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2596 compiler does not actually implement.
2598 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2600 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2601 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2602 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2603 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2604 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2605 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2608 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2609 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2611 * Improved configure script
2613 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2614 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2615 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2616 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2618 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2619 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2620 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2621 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2622 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2623 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2625 * Documentation improvements
2627 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2628 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2629 before submitting changes.
2631 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2632 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2633 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2634 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2635 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2637 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2638 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2639 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2640 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2641 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2642 around this problem.
2646 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2647 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2648 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2651 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2652 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2654 * New native hosts supported
2656 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2657 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2659 * New targets supported
2661 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2663 * New file formats supported
2665 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2666 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2670 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2672 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2673 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2675 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2676 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2677 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2679 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2680 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2682 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2683 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2684 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2687 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2688 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2689 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2690 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2691 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2693 * Internal improvements
2695 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2696 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2698 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2699 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2700 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2701 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2702 shared code that handles any of them.
2704 * New command line options
2706 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2710 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2711 General Public License.
2713 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2715 * Host/native/target split
2717 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2718 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2719 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2720 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2721 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2723 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2724 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2725 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2726 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2727 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2728 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2729 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2731 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2732 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2733 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2735 * New hosts supported
2737 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2738 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2739 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2741 * New targets supported
2743 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2744 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2746 * New native hosts supported
2748 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2749 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2750 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2752 * New file formats supported
2754 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2755 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2756 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2760 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2761 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2762 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2764 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2766 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2767 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2768 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2769 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2773 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2774 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2775 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2777 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2781 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2782 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2785 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2786 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2788 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2789 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2790 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2791 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2792 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2793 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2795 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2796 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2797 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2798 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2802 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2803 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2804 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2805 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2806 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2808 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2809 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2810 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2811 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2815 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2816 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2817 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2818 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2819 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2820 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2821 each instruction being stepped through.
2823 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2824 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2826 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2827 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2828 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2829 processor with a serial port.
2833 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2834 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2835 supported, and what files each one uses.
2839 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2840 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2841 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2842 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2844 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2845 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2846 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2847 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2851 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2852 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2853 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2854 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2855 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2856 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2858 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2861 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2863 * Better support for C++ function names
2865 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2866 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2867 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2868 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2869 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2871 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2872 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2873 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2874 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2875 for the list of formats.
2877 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2879 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2880 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2881 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2882 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2883 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2884 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2887 * New 'maintenance' command
2889 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2890 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2891 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2893 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2894 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2895 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2896 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2897 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2898 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2900 The following commands are new:
2902 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2903 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2904 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2906 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2908 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2909 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2910 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2911 read after argv processing.
2913 * New hosts supported
2915 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2917 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2919 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2920 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2921 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2922 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2923 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2926 * New targets supported
2928 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2930 * More smarts about finding #include files
2932 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2933 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2934 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2935 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2936 the one that contains your sources.
2938 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2939 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2940 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2942 * Interesting infernals change
2944 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2945 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2946 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2947 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2949 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2951 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2952 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2953 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2955 See the ChangeLog for details.
2957 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2959 * New machines supported (host and target)
2961 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2963 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2965 * New malloc package
2967 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2968 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2969 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2970 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2971 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2972 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2976 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2977 'help info proc' for details.
2979 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2981 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2982 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2985 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2987 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2988 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2989 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2990 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2991 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2992 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2994 * Cross byte order fixes
2996 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2997 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2999 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3001 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3002 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3003 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3004 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3005 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3006 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3007 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3008 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3009 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3010 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3012 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3013 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3014 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3015 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3017 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3018 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3019 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3022 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3024 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3025 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3026 shared across multiple host platforms.
3028 * longjmp() handling
3030 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3031 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3032 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3033 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3037 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3038 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3043 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3044 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3045 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3047 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3049 * New machines supported (host and target)
3051 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3053 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3054 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3056 * New machines supported (target)
3058 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3062 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3063 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3064 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3066 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3067 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3068 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3069 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3070 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3073 * New features for SVR4
3075 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3076 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3077 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3079 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3080 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3081 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3083 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3084 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3086 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3088 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3089 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3090 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3091 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3092 same code linked statically.
3096 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3097 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3098 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3099 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3100 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3101 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3105 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3106 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3107 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3110 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3112 * New machines supported (host and target)
3114 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3115 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3116 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3118 * Almost SCO Unix support
3120 We had hoped to support:
3121 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3122 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3123 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3124 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3126 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3128 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3129 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3130 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3131 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3136 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3137 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3138 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3142 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3143 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3144 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3146 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3148 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3149 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3150 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3152 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3153 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3154 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3155 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3158 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3159 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3160 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3161 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3164 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3165 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3168 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3169 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3170 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3173 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3175 * Improved configuration
3177 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3178 Porting BFD is simpler.
3182 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3183 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3184 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3185 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3189 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3191 * New host supported (not target)
3193 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3196 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3198 * Multiple source language support
3200 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3201 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3202 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3203 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3204 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3205 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3209 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3210 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3211 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3212 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3214 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3215 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3216 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3218 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3219 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3223 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3224 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3225 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3226 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3229 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3231 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3232 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3233 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3234 examining core files.
3238 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3241 * New machines supported (host and target)
3243 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3244 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3245 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3247 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3249 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3251 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3253 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3254 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3255 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3257 * New remote interfaces
3263 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3267 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3269 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3270 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3271 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3272 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3273 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3274 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3275 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3276 stub on the target system.
3278 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3280 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3281 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3282 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3284 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3285 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3288 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3290 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3291 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3293 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3294 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3295 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3297 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3298 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3299 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3300 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3302 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3303 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3304 it is already running. Default is ON.
3306 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3307 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3308 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3309 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3312 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3313 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3314 or the value of the environment variable
3317 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3318 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3321 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3322 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3323 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3325 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3326 history expansion will be performed on
3327 command line input. The default is OFF.
3329 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3330 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3331 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3333 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3334 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3335 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3338 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3339 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3340 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3343 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3344 ``set width'' instead.
3346 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3347 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3348 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3349 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3351 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3354 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3357 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3360 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3363 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3365 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3366 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3367 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3371 * Support for Shared Libraries
3373 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3374 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3375 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3376 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3377 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3378 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3379 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3380 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3382 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3383 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3384 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3386 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3391 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3392 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3393 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3394 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3395 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3396 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3398 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3400 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3402 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3403 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3404 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3407 * C++ multiple inheritance
3409 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3412 * C++ exception handling
3414 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3415 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3416 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3419 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3420 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3421 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3423 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3424 current stack frame.
3427 * Minor command changes
3429 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3430 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3431 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3433 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3434 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3435 frames without printing.
3437 * New directory command
3439 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3440 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3441 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3442 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3443 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3445 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3447 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3450 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3451 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3452 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3453 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob