1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
9 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
11 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
14 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
15 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
17 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
18 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
19 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
21 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
22 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
24 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
26 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
27 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
29 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
30 list of section offsets.
32 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
33 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
36 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
38 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
39 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
41 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
42 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
43 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
47 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
49 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
53 Display timestamps with GDB debugging output.
58 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
60 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
62 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
63 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
64 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
66 set breakpoint always-inserted
67 show breakpoint always-inserted
68 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
69 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
70 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
72 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
73 show arm fallback-mode
74 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
76 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
77 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
78 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
79 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
81 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
83 * New native configurations
85 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
86 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
90 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
91 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
93 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
95 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
96 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
97 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
98 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
100 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
101 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
103 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
106 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
107 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
108 and in inlined functions.
110 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
111 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
112 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
114 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
116 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
117 registers on PowerPC targets.
119 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
120 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
122 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
123 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
125 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
126 extended-remote mode.
128 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
129 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
130 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
131 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
133 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
134 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
135 target architectures.
137 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
138 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
139 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
140 stored in two consecutive float registers.
142 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
145 * Improved support for debugging Ada
146 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
148 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
149 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
150 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
151 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
153 - Improved command completion in Ada
158 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
159 show print frame-arguments
160 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
161 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
166 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
173 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
182 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
184 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
188 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
192 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
194 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
196 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
197 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
198 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
200 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
201 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
202 -Bsymbolic linker option.
204 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
205 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
208 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
209 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
211 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
212 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
214 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
216 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
217 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
218 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
220 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
221 automatically displayed as character or string data.
223 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
224 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
227 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
228 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
229 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
231 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
234 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
235 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
236 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
238 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
240 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
242 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
243 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
244 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
246 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
247 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
249 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
250 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
251 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
252 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
253 Windows and SymbianOS).
255 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
256 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
258 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
259 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
265 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
266 when debugging using remote targets.
268 set mem inaccessible-by-default
269 show mem inaccessible-by-default
270 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
271 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
272 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
273 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
274 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
276 set breakpoint auto-hw
277 show breakpoint auto-hw
278 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
279 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
280 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
281 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
282 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
283 including "next" and "finish".
286 catch exception unhandled
287 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
290 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
294 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
295 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
296 an alias to "set sysroot".
299 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
300 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
303 * New native configurations
305 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
310 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
311 not query the target for its built-in description.
315 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
316 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
317 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
322 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
323 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
326 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
331 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
332 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
334 qXfer:libraries:read:
335 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
336 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
337 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
338 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
342 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
351 i[34567]86-*-netware*
352 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
353 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
355 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
358 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
359 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
368 * Other removed features
375 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
382 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
387 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
388 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
393 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
394 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
396 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
398 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
399 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
400 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
401 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
405 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
406 in debugging information.
410 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
411 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
413 set mips stack-arg-size
414 set mips saved-gpreg-size
416 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
418 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
423 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
425 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
426 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
427 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
429 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
430 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
433 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
434 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
436 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
437 stub provides the required support.
439 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
440 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
445 unset substitute-path
447 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
448 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
449 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
450 between compilation and debugging.
454 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
455 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
456 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
460 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
462 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
463 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
465 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
470 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
471 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
472 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
473 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
477 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
478 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
480 qXfer:memory-map:read:
481 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
482 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
487 Erase and program a flash memory device.
489 * Removed remote packets
492 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
493 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
495 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
499 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
501 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
505 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
506 only if it doesn't already have a value.
508 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
510 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
512 restart <n> Return the program state to a
513 previously saved state.
515 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
517 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
519 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
520 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
522 info forks List forks of the user program that
523 are available to be debugged.
525 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
526 forks of the user program that are
527 available to be debugged.
529 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
530 that are available to be debugged (and
531 kill the forked process).
533 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
534 that are available to be debugged (and
535 allow the process to continue).
539 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
541 * Improved Windows host support
543 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
544 native console support, and remote communications using either
545 network sockets or serial ports.
547 * Improved Modula-2 language support
549 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
550 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
551 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
552 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
553 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
554 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
558 The ARM rdi-share module.
560 The Netware NLM debug server.
562 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
564 * New native configurations
566 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
567 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
571 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
573 * New command line options
575 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
576 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
577 the child (debugged) program exited with.
578 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
579 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
580 specified multiple times and in conjunction
581 with the --command (-x) option.
583 * Deprecated commands removed
585 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
589 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
590 othernames set arm disassembler
591 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
592 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
593 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
596 * New BSD user-level threads support
598 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
599 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
602 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
603 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
604 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
606 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
607 are not yet supported.
609 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
610 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
612 * REMOVED configurations and files
614 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
615 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
616 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
618 * New "set print array-indexes" command
620 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
621 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
624 * VAX floating point support
626 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
628 * User-defined command support
630 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
631 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
632 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
634 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
636 * New command line option
638 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
641 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
643 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
644 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
645 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
646 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
647 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
649 * Internationalization
651 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
652 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
653 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
657 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
658 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
659 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
661 * New native configurations
663 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
667 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
668 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
670 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
672 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
673 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
674 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
677 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
678 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
679 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
691 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
692 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
694 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
696 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
697 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
698 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
708 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
710 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
712 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
713 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
716 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
718 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
719 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
720 IRIX long double values).
724 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
725 command. This problem has been fixed.
727 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
729 * Fix for ``many threads''
731 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
732 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
735 ptrace: No such process.
736 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
738 This problem has been fixed.
740 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
742 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
745 * New ``start'' command.
747 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
749 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
751 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
752 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
753 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
755 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
756 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
757 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
758 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
759 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
760 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
761 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
762 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
763 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
765 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
767 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
768 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
769 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
770 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
771 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
773 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
774 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
775 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
777 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
779 * New native configurations
781 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
782 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
783 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
784 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
785 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
786 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
787 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
789 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
791 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
792 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
793 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
794 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
795 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
796 work, was also included.
798 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
799 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
809 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
810 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
812 * REMOVED configurations and files
814 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
815 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
816 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
817 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
818 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
819 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
820 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
821 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
822 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
824 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
826 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
828 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
830 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
831 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
832 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
833 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
836 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
838 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
839 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
840 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
841 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
842 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
843 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
846 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
848 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
850 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
851 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
852 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
854 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
856 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
857 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
859 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
861 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
862 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
863 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
865 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
867 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
868 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
870 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
872 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
873 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
874 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
876 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
878 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
879 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
880 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
882 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
884 * Removed --with-mmalloc
886 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
887 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
889 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
891 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
892 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
893 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
894 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
896 * Revised SPARC target
898 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
899 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
900 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
901 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
902 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
906 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
907 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
908 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
911 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
913 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
914 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
917 * C++ nested types and namespaces
919 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
920 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
921 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
922 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
923 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
924 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
925 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
926 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
927 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
929 * New native configurations
931 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
932 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
933 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
934 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
935 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
937 * New debugging protocols
939 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
941 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
943 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
944 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
945 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
947 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
949 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
950 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
951 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
954 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
955 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
956 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
957 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
958 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
959 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
960 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
961 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
962 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
964 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
966 * REMOVED configurations and files
968 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
969 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
970 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
971 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
972 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
973 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
974 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
975 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
976 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
977 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
978 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
979 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
980 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
981 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
982 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
983 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
984 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
986 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
990 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
993 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
995 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
996 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
997 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1000 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1001 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1002 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1006 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1007 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1008 remote protocol documentation for details.
1010 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1012 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1013 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1014 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1017 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1019 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1020 per-thread variables.
1022 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1024 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1025 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1027 * Separate debug info.
1029 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1030 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1031 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1032 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1033 and optional debug files.
1035 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1037 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1038 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1041 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1042 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1046 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1047 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1048 considered "useable".
1050 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1052 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1053 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1056 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1058 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1059 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1061 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1063 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1064 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1067 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1069 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1070 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1074 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1075 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1076 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1077 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1078 data, for more informative profiling results.
1080 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1082 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1083 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1084 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1086 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1089 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1090 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1091 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1092 in a subsequent -var-update.
1094 * New native configurations.
1096 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1098 * Multi-arched targets.
1100 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1101 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1103 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1105 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1106 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1107 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1108 permanently REMOVED.
1110 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1111 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1112 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1113 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1114 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1115 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1116 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1117 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1118 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1119 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1120 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1121 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1123 * REMOVED configurations and files
1126 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1127 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1128 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1129 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1130 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1131 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1133 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1134 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1135 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1136 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1137 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1138 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1140 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1142 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1143 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1144 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1145 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1146 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1148 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1150 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1152 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1153 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1154 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1155 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1156 shared libs like mad''.
1158 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1160 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1161 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1162 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1163 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1165 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1167 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1168 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1171 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1172 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1174 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1175 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1177 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1178 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1179 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1180 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1182 * Multi-arched targets.
1184 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1185 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1187 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1188 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1189 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1193 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1196 * New native configurations
1198 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1199 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1200 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1201 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1203 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1205 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1206 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1207 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1208 permanently REMOVED.
1210 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1211 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1212 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1213 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1214 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1215 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1216 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1217 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1218 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1219 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1221 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1222 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1224 * OBSOLETE languages
1226 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1228 * REMOVED configurations and files
1230 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1231 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1232 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1233 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1234 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1236 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1238 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1240 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1241 commands. The default is 1024.
1243 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1245 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1247 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1249 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1250 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1251 from a file into memory (restore).
1253 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1255 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1256 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1257 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1259 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1267 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1268 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1269 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1271 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1272 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1273 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1275 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1276 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1277 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1279 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1280 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1281 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1283 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1285 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1287 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1288 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1289 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1290 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1291 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1292 (notably embedded) targets.
1294 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1296 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1297 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1298 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1299 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1301 * New command line option
1303 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1305 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1307 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1308 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1309 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1310 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1311 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1312 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1313 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1314 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1315 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1316 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1318 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1320 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1321 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1323 * New native configurations
1325 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1326 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1327 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1328 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1332 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1334 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1336 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1337 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1338 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1339 permanently REMOVED.
1341 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1342 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1343 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1344 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1345 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1347 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1349 * REMOVED configurations and files
1351 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1353 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1354 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1355 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1356 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1357 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1358 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1359 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1360 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1361 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1362 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1363 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1365 * Changes to command line processing
1367 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1368 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1370 * Changes to key bindings
1372 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1374 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1376 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1378 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1381 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1383 Numerous documentation fixes.
1385 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1387 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1389 * New native configurations
1391 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1392 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1393 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1394 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1395 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1396 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1400 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1402 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1404 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1406 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1407 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1408 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1409 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1410 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1412 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1413 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1414 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1415 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1416 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1417 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1418 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1419 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1421 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1422 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1424 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1425 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1426 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1427 permanently REMOVED.
1429 * REMOVED configurations and files
1431 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1432 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1434 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1438 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1440 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1441 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1446 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1448 * The MI enabled by default.
1450 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1451 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1452 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1453 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1454 which is now deprecated.
1456 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1458 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1459 main features are supported:
1461 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1463 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1466 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1468 - a Pascal expression parser.
1470 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1472 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1474 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1476 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1477 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1479 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1481 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1483 * Changes in completion.
1485 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1486 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1487 users expect at the shell prompt.
1489 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1490 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1491 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1492 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1493 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1494 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1495 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1497 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1499 * New platform-independent commands:
1501 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1502 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1503 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1505 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1507 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1508 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1509 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1511 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1513 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1514 multi-threaded programs though.
1516 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1518 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1520 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1521 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1524 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1526 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1527 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1528 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1529 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1530 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1533 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1534 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1535 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1537 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1539 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1540 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1542 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1543 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1546 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1547 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1548 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1549 a given linear address.
1551 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1552 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1553 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1555 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1557 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1559 * Changes in documentation.
1561 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1562 Documentation License.
1564 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1567 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1569 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1572 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1573 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1574 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1576 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1578 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1579 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1580 contents of this file.
1584 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1586 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1588 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1590 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1591 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1592 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1593 greater level of detail.
1595 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1597 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1598 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1599 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1602 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1604 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1605 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1606 machines ``out of the box''.
1608 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1609 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1610 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1611 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1612 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1614 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1615 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1616 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1617 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1618 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1620 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1621 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1624 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1627 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1628 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1629 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1630 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1632 * New native configurations
1634 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1635 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1639 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1640 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1641 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1642 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1644 * OBSOLETE configurations
1646 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1647 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1649 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1652 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1653 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1654 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1655 be permanently REMOVED.
1657 * Gould support removed
1659 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1661 * New features for SVR4
1663 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1664 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1665 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1667 * Many C++ enhancements
1669 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1670 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1672 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1674 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1675 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1676 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1677 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1679 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1680 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1682 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1684 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1685 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1686 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1688 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1689 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1691 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1693 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1694 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1695 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1697 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1699 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1700 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1701 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1703 * ``apropos'' command added.
1705 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1706 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1707 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1711 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1712 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1713 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1714 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1715 enabled by configuring with:
1717 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1719 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1721 * New native configurations
1723 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1724 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1725 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1729 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1730 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1731 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1733 * OBSOLETE configurations
1735 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1737 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1738 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1739 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1740 be permanently REMOVED.
1744 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1745 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1746 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1747 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1748 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1749 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1750 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1755 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1757 * set extension-language
1759 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1760 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1761 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1762 set extension-language .c c++
1763 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1764 and their associated languages.
1766 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1768 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1769 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1770 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1774 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1775 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1777 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1778 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1780 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1781 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1782 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1783 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1784 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1785 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1786 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1787 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1789 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1790 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1791 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1792 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1796 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1797 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1798 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1799 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1800 for xdb and dbx commands.
1804 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1805 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1806 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1808 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1809 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1810 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1812 * Debugging across forks
1814 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1819 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1820 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1821 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1823 * GDB remote protocol additions
1825 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1826 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1827 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1828 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1830 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1831 full 64-bit address. The command
1833 set remoteaddresssize 32
1835 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1836 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1839 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1840 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1842 maint packet heythere
1844 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1845 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1848 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1849 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1850 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1852 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1854 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1855 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1856 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1858 * mask-address variable for Mips
1860 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1861 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1862 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1864 * Higher serial baud rates
1866 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1867 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1868 to achieve all of these rates.)
1872 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1873 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1876 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1878 * New native configurations
1880 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1881 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1882 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1883 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1884 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1885 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1886 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1890 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1891 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1892 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1893 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1894 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1895 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1896 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1897 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1898 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1899 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1900 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1902 * New debugging protocols
1904 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1905 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1906 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1907 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1908 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1909 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1913 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1914 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1919 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1920 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1922 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1924 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1925 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1926 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1928 * Live range splitting
1930 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1931 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1932 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1936 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1937 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1941 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1942 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1943 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1948 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1953 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1954 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1955 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1956 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1957 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1958 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1962 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1963 the symbol at the specified address.
1967 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1968 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1969 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1970 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1971 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1975 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1976 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1977 of most MIPS variants.
1981 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1982 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1983 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1987 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1988 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1989 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1990 the possible architectures.
1992 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1994 * New native configurations
1996 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1997 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1998 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1999 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2000 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2001 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2005 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2006 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2007 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2008 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2009 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2011 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2015 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2016 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2017 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2018 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2019 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2023 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2025 * Windows 95/NT native
2027 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2028 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2029 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2030 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2031 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2033 * dont-repeat command
2035 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2036 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2037 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2038 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2040 * Send break instead of ^C
2042 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2043 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2044 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2046 * Remote protocol timeout
2048 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2049 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2050 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2052 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2054 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2055 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2056 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2057 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2058 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2060 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2061 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2062 automatically on hpux10.
2064 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2066 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2068 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2070 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2071 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2072 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2073 every character. The default value is 1050.
2075 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2077 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2078 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2079 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2080 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2081 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2082 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2084 * Speedups for remote debugging
2086 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2087 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2088 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2090 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2092 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2093 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2095 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2097 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2099 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2100 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2102 * Remote targets use caching
2104 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2105 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2106 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2107 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2108 off' turns the the data cache off.
2110 * Remote targets may have threads
2112 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2113 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2114 gdb/remote.c for details.
2118 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2119 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2120 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2121 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2122 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2123 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2124 sequence is something like
2126 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2128 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2132 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2133 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2134 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2135 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2136 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2137 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2138 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2139 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2143 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2144 but does simplify configuration and building.
2148 GDB now supports hpux10.
2150 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2152 * New native configurations
2154 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2155 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2156 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2157 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2161 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2162 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2163 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2164 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2167 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2169 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2170 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2171 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2172 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2173 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2175 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2177 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2178 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2181 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2183 To execute the command use:
2186 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2187 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2188 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2190 * New `if' and `while' commands
2192 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2193 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2194 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2195 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2196 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2197 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2198 if the expression is zero.
2200 * Fortran source language mode
2202 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2203 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2204 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2205 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2208 * Better HPUX support
2210 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2211 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2212 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2213 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2214 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2220 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2221 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2227 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2228 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2231 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2232 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2234 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2236 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2237 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2238 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2239 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2240 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2241 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2243 * New DOS host serial code
2245 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2246 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2249 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2251 * New "complete" command
2253 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2254 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2256 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2258 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2259 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2261 * Breakpoint hit counts
2263 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2264 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2265 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2266 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2267 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2270 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2272 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2273 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2274 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2276 * Shared library breakpoints
2278 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2279 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2281 * Hardware watchpoints
2283 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2284 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2286 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2290 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2291 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2293 * Improved Irix 5 support
2295 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2297 * Improved HPPA support
2299 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2301 * New native configurations
2303 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2304 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2305 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2306 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2310 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2311 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2314 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2316 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2317 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2321 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2322 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2324 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2326 * Irix 5 is now supported
2330 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2331 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2332 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2333 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2334 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2337 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2339 * User visible changes:
2343 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2344 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2345 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2346 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2347 debugging info for the mips target).
2349 * DEC Alpha native support
2351 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2352 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2353 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2354 Alpha-specific notes.
2356 * Preliminary thread implementation
2358 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2360 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2362 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2363 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2366 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2368 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2369 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2370 call methods, ...etc.
2372 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2374 * User visible changes:
2376 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2377 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2378 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2379 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2381 Filename completion now works.
2383 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2384 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2385 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2387 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2388 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2389 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2390 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2391 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2395 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2396 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2399 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2403 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2404 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2405 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2409 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2410 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2411 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2412 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2413 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2417 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2418 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2419 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2421 * New targets supported
2423 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2424 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2425 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2426 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2427 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2429 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2430 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2431 GO32 memory extender.
2433 * New remote protocols
2435 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2437 * New source languages supported
2439 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2440 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2441 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2444 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2446 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2448 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2449 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2450 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2451 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2452 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2453 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2455 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2457 * Faster and better demangling
2459 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2460 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2461 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2462 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2463 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2464 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2467 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2468 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2469 compiler does not actually implement.
2471 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2473 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2474 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2475 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2476 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2477 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2478 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2481 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2482 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2484 * Improved configure script
2486 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2487 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2488 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2489 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2491 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2492 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2493 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2494 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2495 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2496 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2498 * Documentation improvements
2500 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2501 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2502 before submitting changes.
2504 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2505 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2506 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2507 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2508 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2510 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2511 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2512 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2513 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2514 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2515 around this problem.
2519 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2520 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2521 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2524 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2525 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2527 * New native hosts supported
2529 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2530 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2532 * New targets supported
2534 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2536 * New file formats supported
2538 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2539 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2543 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2545 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2546 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2548 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2549 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2550 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2552 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2553 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2555 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2556 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2557 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2560 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2561 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2562 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2563 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2564 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2566 * Internal improvements
2568 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2569 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2571 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2572 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2573 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2574 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2575 shared code that handles any of them.
2577 * New command line options
2579 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2583 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2584 General Public License.
2586 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2588 * Host/native/target split
2590 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2591 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2592 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2593 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2594 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2596 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2597 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2598 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2599 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2600 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2601 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2602 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2604 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2605 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2606 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2608 * New hosts supported
2610 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2611 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2612 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2614 * New targets supported
2616 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2617 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2619 * New native hosts supported
2621 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2622 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2623 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2625 * New file formats supported
2627 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2628 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2629 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2633 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2634 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2635 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2637 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2639 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2640 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2641 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2642 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2646 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2647 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2648 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2650 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2654 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2655 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2658 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2659 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2661 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2662 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2663 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2664 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2665 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2666 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2668 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2669 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2670 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2671 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2675 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2676 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2677 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2678 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2679 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2681 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2682 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2683 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2684 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2688 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2689 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2690 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2691 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2692 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2693 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2694 each instruction being stepped through.
2696 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2697 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2699 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2700 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2701 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2702 processor with a serial port.
2706 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2707 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2708 supported, and what files each one uses.
2712 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2713 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2714 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2715 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2717 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2718 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2719 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2720 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2724 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2725 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2726 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2727 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2728 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2729 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2731 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2734 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2736 * Better support for C++ function names
2738 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2739 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2740 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2741 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2742 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2744 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2745 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2746 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2747 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2748 for the list of formats.
2750 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2752 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2753 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2754 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2755 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2756 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2757 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2760 * New 'maintenance' command
2762 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2763 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2764 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2766 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2767 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2768 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2769 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2770 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2771 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2773 The following commands are new:
2775 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2776 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2777 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2779 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2781 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2782 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2783 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2784 read after argv processing.
2786 * New hosts supported
2788 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2790 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2792 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2793 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2794 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2795 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2796 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2799 * New targets supported
2801 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2803 * More smarts about finding #include files
2805 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2806 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2807 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2808 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2809 the one that contains your sources.
2811 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2812 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2813 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2815 * Interesting infernals change
2817 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2818 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2819 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2820 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2822 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2824 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2825 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2826 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2828 See the ChangeLog for details.
2830 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2832 * New machines supported (host and target)
2834 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2836 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2838 * New malloc package
2840 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2841 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2842 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2843 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2844 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2845 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2849 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2850 'help info proc' for details.
2852 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2854 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2855 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2858 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2860 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2861 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2862 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2863 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2864 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2865 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2867 * Cross byte order fixes
2869 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2870 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2872 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2874 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2875 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2876 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2877 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2878 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2879 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2880 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2881 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2882 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2883 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2885 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2886 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2887 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2888 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2890 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2891 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2892 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2895 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2897 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2898 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2899 shared across multiple host platforms.
2901 * longjmp() handling
2903 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2904 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2905 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2906 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2910 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2911 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2916 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2917 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2918 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2920 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2922 * New machines supported (host and target)
2924 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2926 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2927 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2929 * New machines supported (target)
2931 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2935 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2936 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2937 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2939 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2940 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2941 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2942 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2943 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2946 * New features for SVR4
2948 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2949 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2950 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2952 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2953 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2954 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2956 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2957 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2959 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2961 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2962 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2963 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2964 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2965 same code linked statically.
2969 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2970 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2971 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2972 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2973 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2974 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2978 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2979 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2980 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2983 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2985 * New machines supported (host and target)
2987 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2988 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2989 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2991 * Almost SCO Unix support
2993 We had hoped to support:
2994 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2995 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2996 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2997 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2999 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3001 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3002 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3003 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3004 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3009 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3010 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3011 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3015 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3016 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3017 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3019 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3021 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3022 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3023 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3025 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3026 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3027 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3028 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3031 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3032 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3033 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3034 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3037 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3038 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3041 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3042 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3043 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3046 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3048 * Improved configuration
3050 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3051 Porting BFD is simpler.
3055 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3056 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3057 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3058 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3062 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3064 * New host supported (not target)
3066 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3069 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3071 * Multiple source language support
3073 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3074 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3075 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3076 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3077 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3078 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3082 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3083 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3084 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3085 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3087 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3088 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3089 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3091 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3092 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3096 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3097 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3098 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3099 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3102 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3104 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3105 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3106 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3107 examining core files.
3111 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3114 * New machines supported (host and target)
3116 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3117 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3118 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3120 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3122 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3124 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3126 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3127 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3128 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3130 * New remote interfaces
3136 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3140 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3142 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3143 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3144 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3145 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3146 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3147 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3148 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3149 stub on the target system.
3151 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3153 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3154 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3155 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3157 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3158 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3161 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3163 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3164 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3166 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3167 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3168 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3170 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3171 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3172 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3173 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3175 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3176 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3177 it is already running. Default is ON.
3179 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3180 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3181 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3182 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3185 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3186 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3187 or the value of the environment variable
3190 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3191 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3194 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3195 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3196 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3198 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3199 history expansion will be performed on
3200 command line input. The default is OFF.
3202 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3203 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3204 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3206 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3207 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3208 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3211 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3212 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3213 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3216 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3217 ``set width'' instead.
3219 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3220 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3221 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3222 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3224 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3227 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3230 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3233 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3236 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3238 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3239 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3240 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3244 * Support for Shared Libraries
3246 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3247 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3248 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3249 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3250 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3251 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3252 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3253 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3255 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3256 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3257 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3259 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3264 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3265 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3266 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3267 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3268 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3269 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3271 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3273 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3275 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3276 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3277 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3280 * C++ multiple inheritance
3282 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3285 * C++ exception handling
3287 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3288 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3289 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3292 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3293 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3294 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3296 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3297 current stack frame.
3300 * Minor command changes
3302 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3303 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3304 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3306 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3307 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3308 frames without printing.
3310 * New directory command
3312 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3313 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3314 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3315 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3316 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3318 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3320 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3323 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3324 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3325 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3326 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob