1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.6
6 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
7 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
8 -Bsymbolic linker option.
10 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
11 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
14 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
15 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
17 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
18 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
20 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
22 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
23 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
24 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
26 * Arrays of explicitly SIGNED or UNSIGNED CHARs are now printed as arrays
29 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
30 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
33 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
36 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
37 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
38 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
40 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
42 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
44 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
45 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
46 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
48 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
49 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
51 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
52 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
53 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
54 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
55 Windows and SymbianOS).
57 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
58 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
64 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
65 when debugging using remote targets.
67 set mem inaccessible-by-default
68 show mem inaccessible-by-default
69 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
70 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
71 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
72 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
73 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
75 set breakpoint auto-hw
76 show breakpoint auto-hw
77 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
78 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
79 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
80 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
81 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
82 including "next" and "finish".
85 catch exception unhandled
86 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
89 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
93 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
94 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
95 an alias to "set sysroot".
98 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
99 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
102 * New native configurations
104 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
109 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
110 not query the target for its built-in description.
114 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
115 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
116 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
121 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
122 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
125 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
130 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
131 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
133 qXfer:libraries:read:
134 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
135 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
136 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
137 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
141 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
150 i[34567]86-*-netware*
151 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
152 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
154 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
157 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
158 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
167 * Other removed features
174 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
181 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
186 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
187 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
192 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
193 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
195 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
197 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
198 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
199 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
200 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
204 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
205 in debugging information.
209 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
210 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
212 set mips stack-arg-size
213 set mips saved-gpreg-size
215 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
217 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
222 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
224 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
225 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
226 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
228 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
229 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
232 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
233 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
235 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
236 stub provides the required support.
238 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
239 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
244 unset substitute-path
246 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
247 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
248 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
249 between compilation and debugging.
253 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
254 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
255 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
259 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
261 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
262 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
264 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
269 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
270 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
271 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
272 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
276 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
277 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
279 qXfer:memory-map:read:
280 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
281 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
286 Erase and program a flash memory device.
288 * Removed remote packets
291 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
292 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
294 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
298 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
300 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
304 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
305 only if it doesn't already have a value.
307 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
309 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
311 restart <n> Return the program state to a
312 previously saved state.
314 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
316 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
318 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
319 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
321 info forks List forks of the user program that
322 are available to be debugged.
324 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
325 forks of the user program that are
326 available to be debugged.
328 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
329 that are available to be debugged (and
330 kill the forked process).
332 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
333 that are available to be debugged (and
334 allow the process to continue).
338 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
340 * Improved Windows host support
342 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
343 native console support, and remote communications using either
344 network sockets or serial ports.
346 * Improved Modula-2 language support
348 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
349 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
350 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
351 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
352 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
353 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
357 The ARM rdi-share module.
359 The Netware NLM debug server.
361 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
363 * New native configurations
365 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
366 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
370 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
372 * New command line options
374 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
375 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
376 the child (debugged) program exited with.
377 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
378 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
379 specified multiple times and in conjunction
380 with the --command (-x) option.
382 * Deprecated commands removed
384 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
388 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
389 othernames set arm disassembler
390 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
391 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
392 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
395 * New BSD user-level threads support
397 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
398 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
401 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
402 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
403 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
405 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
406 are not yet supported.
408 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
409 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
411 * REMOVED configurations and files
413 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
414 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
415 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
417 * New "set print array-indexes" command
419 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
420 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
423 * VAX floating point support
425 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
427 * User-defined command support
429 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
430 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
431 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
433 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
435 * New command line option
437 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
440 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
442 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
443 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
444 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
445 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
446 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
448 * Internationalization
450 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
451 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
452 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
456 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
457 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
458 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
460 * New native configurations
462 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
466 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
467 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
469 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
471 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
472 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
473 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
476 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
477 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
478 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
490 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
491 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
493 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
495 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
496 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
497 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
507 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
509 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
511 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
512 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
515 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
517 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
518 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
519 IRIX long double values).
523 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
524 command. This problem has been fixed.
526 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
528 * Fix for ``many threads''
530 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
531 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
534 ptrace: No such process.
535 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
537 This problem has been fixed.
539 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
541 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
544 * New ``start'' command.
546 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
548 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
550 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
551 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
552 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
554 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
555 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
556 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
557 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
558 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
559 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
560 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
561 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
562 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
564 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
566 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
567 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
568 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
569 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
570 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
572 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
573 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
574 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
576 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
578 * New native configurations
580 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
581 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
582 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
583 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
584 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
585 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
586 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
588 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
590 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
591 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
592 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
593 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
594 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
595 work, was also included.
597 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
598 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
608 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
609 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
611 * REMOVED configurations and files
613 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
614 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
615 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
616 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
617 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
618 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
619 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
620 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
621 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
623 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
625 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
627 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
629 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
630 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
631 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
632 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
635 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
637 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
638 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
639 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
640 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
641 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
642 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
645 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
647 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
649 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
650 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
651 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
653 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
655 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
656 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
658 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
660 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
661 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
662 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
664 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
666 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
667 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
669 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
671 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
672 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
673 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
675 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
677 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
678 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
679 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
681 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
683 * Removed --with-mmalloc
685 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
686 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
688 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
690 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
691 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
692 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
693 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
695 * Revised SPARC target
697 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
698 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
699 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
700 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
701 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
705 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
706 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
707 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
710 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
712 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
713 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
716 * C++ nested types and namespaces
718 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
719 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
720 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
721 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
722 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
723 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
724 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
725 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
726 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
728 * New native configurations
730 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
731 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
732 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
733 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
734 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
736 * New debugging protocols
738 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
740 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
742 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
743 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
744 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
746 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
748 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
749 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
750 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
753 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
754 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
755 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
756 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
757 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
758 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
759 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
760 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
761 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
763 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
765 * REMOVED configurations and files
767 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
768 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
769 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
770 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
771 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
772 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
773 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
774 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
775 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
776 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
777 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
778 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
779 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
780 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
781 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
782 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
783 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
785 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
789 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
792 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
794 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
795 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
796 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
799 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
800 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
805 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
806 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
807 remote protocol documentation for details.
809 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
811 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
812 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
813 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
816 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
818 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
819 per-thread variables.
821 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
823 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
824 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
826 * Separate debug info.
828 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
829 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
830 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
831 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
832 and optional debug files.
834 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
836 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
837 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
840 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
841 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
845 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
846 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
847 considered "useable".
849 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
851 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
852 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
855 * GDB supports logging output to a file
857 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
858 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
860 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
862 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
863 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
866 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
868 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
869 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
873 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
874 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
875 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
876 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
877 data, for more informative profiling results.
879 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
881 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
882 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
883 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
885 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
888 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
889 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
890 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
891 in a subsequent -var-update.
893 * New native configurations.
895 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
897 * Multi-arched targets.
899 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
900 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
902 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
904 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
905 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
906 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
909 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
910 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
911 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
912 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
913 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
914 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
915 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
916 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
917 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
918 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
919 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
920 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
922 * REMOVED configurations and files
925 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
926 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
927 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
928 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
929 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
930 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
932 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
933 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
934 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
935 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
936 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
937 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
939 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
941 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
942 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
943 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
944 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
945 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
947 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
949 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
951 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
952 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
953 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
954 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
955 shared libs like mad''.
957 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
959 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
960 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
961 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
962 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
964 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
966 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
967 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
970 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
971 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
973 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
974 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
976 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
977 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
978 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
979 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
981 * Multi-arched targets.
983 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
984 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
986 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
987 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
988 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
992 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
995 * New native configurations
997 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
998 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
999 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1000 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1002 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1004 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1005 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1006 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1007 permanently REMOVED.
1009 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1010 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1011 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1012 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1013 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1014 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1015 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1016 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1017 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1018 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1020 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1021 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1023 * OBSOLETE languages
1025 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1027 * REMOVED configurations and files
1029 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1030 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1031 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1032 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1033 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1035 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1037 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1039 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1040 commands. The default is 1024.
1042 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1044 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1046 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1048 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1049 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1050 from a file into memory (restore).
1052 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1054 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1055 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1056 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1058 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1066 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1067 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1068 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1070 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1071 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1072 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1074 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1075 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1076 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1078 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1079 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1080 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1082 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1084 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1086 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1087 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1088 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1089 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1090 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1091 (notably embedded) targets.
1093 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1095 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1096 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1097 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1098 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1100 * New command line option
1102 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1104 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1106 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1107 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1108 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1109 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1110 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1111 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1112 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1113 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1114 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1115 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1117 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1119 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1120 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1122 * New native configurations
1124 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1125 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1126 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1127 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1131 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1133 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1135 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1136 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1137 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1138 permanently REMOVED.
1140 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1141 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1142 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1143 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1144 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1146 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1148 * REMOVED configurations and files
1150 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1152 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1153 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1154 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1155 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1156 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1157 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1158 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1159 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1160 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1161 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1162 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1164 * Changes to command line processing
1166 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1167 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1169 * Changes to key bindings
1171 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1173 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1175 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1177 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1180 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1182 Numerous documentation fixes.
1184 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1186 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1188 * New native configurations
1190 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1191 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1192 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1193 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1194 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1195 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1199 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1201 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1203 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1205 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1206 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1207 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1208 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1209 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1211 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1212 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1213 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1214 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1215 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1216 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1217 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1218 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1220 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1221 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1223 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1224 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1225 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1226 permanently REMOVED.
1228 * REMOVED configurations and files
1230 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1231 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1233 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1237 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1239 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1240 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1245 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1247 * The MI enabled by default.
1249 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1250 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1251 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1252 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1253 which is now deprecated.
1255 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1257 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1258 main features are supported:
1260 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1262 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1265 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1267 - a Pascal expression parser.
1269 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1271 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1273 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1275 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1276 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1278 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1280 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1282 * Changes in completion.
1284 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1285 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1286 users expect at the shell prompt.
1288 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1289 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1290 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1291 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1292 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1293 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1294 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1296 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1298 * New platform-independent commands:
1300 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1301 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1302 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1304 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1306 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1307 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1308 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1310 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1312 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1313 multi-threaded programs though.
1315 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1317 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1319 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1320 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1323 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1325 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1326 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1327 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1328 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1329 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1332 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1333 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1334 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1336 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1338 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1339 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1341 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1342 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1345 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1346 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1347 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1348 a given linear address.
1350 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1351 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1352 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1354 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1356 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1358 * Changes in documentation.
1360 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1361 Documentation License.
1363 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1366 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1368 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1371 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1372 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1373 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1375 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1377 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1378 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1379 contents of this file.
1383 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1385 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1387 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1389 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1390 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1391 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1392 greater level of detail.
1394 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1396 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1397 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1398 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1401 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1403 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1404 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1405 machines ``out of the box''.
1407 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1408 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1409 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1410 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1411 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1413 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1414 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1415 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1416 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1417 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1419 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1420 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1423 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1426 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1427 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1428 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1429 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1431 * New native configurations
1433 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1434 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1438 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1439 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1440 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1441 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1443 * OBSOLETE configurations
1445 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1446 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1448 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1451 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1452 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1453 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1454 be permanently REMOVED.
1456 * Gould support removed
1458 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1460 * New features for SVR4
1462 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1463 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1464 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1466 * Many C++ enhancements
1468 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1469 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1471 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1473 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1474 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1475 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1476 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1478 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1479 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1481 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1483 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1484 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1485 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1487 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1488 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1490 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1492 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1493 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1494 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1496 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1498 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1499 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1500 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1502 * ``apropos'' command added.
1504 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1505 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1506 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1510 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1511 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1512 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1513 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1514 enabled by configuring with:
1516 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1518 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1520 * New native configurations
1522 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1523 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1524 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1528 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1529 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1530 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1532 * OBSOLETE configurations
1534 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1536 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1537 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1538 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1539 be permanently REMOVED.
1543 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1544 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1545 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1546 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1547 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1548 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1549 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1554 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1556 * set extension-language
1558 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1559 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1560 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1561 set extension-language .c c++
1562 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1563 and their associated languages.
1565 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1567 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1568 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1569 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1573 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1574 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1576 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1577 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1579 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1580 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1581 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1582 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1583 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1584 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1585 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1586 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1588 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1589 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1590 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1591 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1595 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1596 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1597 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1598 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1599 for xdb and dbx commands.
1603 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1604 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1605 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1607 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1608 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1609 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1611 * Debugging across forks
1613 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1618 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1619 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1620 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1622 * GDB remote protocol additions
1624 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1625 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1626 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1627 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1629 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1630 full 64-bit address. The command
1632 set remoteaddresssize 32
1634 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1635 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1638 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1639 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1641 maint packet heythere
1643 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1644 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1647 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1648 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1649 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1651 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1653 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1654 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1655 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1657 * mask-address variable for Mips
1659 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1660 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1661 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1663 * Higher serial baud rates
1665 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1666 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1667 to achieve all of these rates.)
1671 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1672 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1675 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1677 * New native configurations
1679 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1680 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1681 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1682 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1683 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1684 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1685 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1689 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1690 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1691 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1692 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1693 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1694 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1695 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1696 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1697 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1698 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1699 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1701 * New debugging protocols
1703 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1704 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1705 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1706 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1707 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1708 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1712 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1713 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1718 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1719 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1721 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1723 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1724 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1725 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1727 * Live range splitting
1729 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1730 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1731 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1735 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1736 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1740 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1741 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1742 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1747 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1752 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1753 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1754 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1755 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1756 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1757 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1761 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1762 the symbol at the specified address.
1766 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1767 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1768 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1769 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1770 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1774 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1775 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1776 of most MIPS variants.
1780 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1781 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1782 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1786 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1787 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1788 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1789 the possible architectures.
1791 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1793 * New native configurations
1795 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1796 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1797 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1798 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1799 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1800 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1804 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1805 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1806 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1807 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1808 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1810 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1814 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1815 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1816 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1817 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1818 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1822 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1824 * Windows 95/NT native
1826 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1827 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1828 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1829 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1830 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1832 * dont-repeat command
1834 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1835 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1836 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1837 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1839 * Send break instead of ^C
1841 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1842 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1843 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1845 * Remote protocol timeout
1847 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1848 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1849 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1851 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1853 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1854 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1855 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1856 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1857 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1859 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1860 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1861 automatically on hpux10.
1863 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1865 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1867 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1869 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1870 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1871 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1872 every character. The default value is 1050.
1874 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1876 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1877 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1878 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1879 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1880 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1881 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1883 * Speedups for remote debugging
1885 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1886 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1887 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1889 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1891 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1892 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1894 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1896 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1898 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1899 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1901 * Remote targets use caching
1903 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1904 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1905 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1906 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1907 off' turns the the data cache off.
1909 * Remote targets may have threads
1911 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1912 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1913 gdb/remote.c for details.
1917 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1918 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1919 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1920 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1921 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1922 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1923 sequence is something like
1925 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1927 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1931 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1932 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1933 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1934 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1935 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1936 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1937 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1938 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1942 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1943 but does simplify configuration and building.
1947 GDB now supports hpux10.
1949 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1951 * New native configurations
1953 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1954 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1955 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1956 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1960 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1961 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1962 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1963 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1966 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1968 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1969 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1970 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1971 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1972 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1974 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1976 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1977 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1980 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1982 To execute the command use:
1985 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1986 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1987 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1989 * New `if' and `while' commands
1991 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1992 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1993 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1994 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1995 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1996 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1997 if the expression is zero.
1999 * Fortran source language mode
2001 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2002 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2003 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2004 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2007 * Better HPUX support
2009 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2010 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2011 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2012 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2013 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2019 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2020 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2026 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2027 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2030 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2031 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2033 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2035 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2036 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2037 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2038 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2039 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2040 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2042 * New DOS host serial code
2044 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2045 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2048 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2050 * New "complete" command
2052 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2053 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2055 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2057 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2058 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2060 * Breakpoint hit counts
2062 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2063 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2064 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2065 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2066 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2069 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2071 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2072 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2073 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2075 * Shared library breakpoints
2077 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2078 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2080 * Hardware watchpoints
2082 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2083 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2085 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2089 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2090 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2092 * Improved Irix 5 support
2094 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2096 * Improved HPPA support
2098 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2100 * New native configurations
2102 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2103 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2104 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2105 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2109 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2110 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2113 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2115 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2116 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2120 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2121 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2123 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2125 * Irix 5 is now supported
2129 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2130 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2131 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2132 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2133 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2136 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2138 * User visible changes:
2142 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2143 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2144 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2145 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2146 debugging info for the mips target).
2148 * DEC Alpha native support
2150 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2151 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2152 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2153 Alpha-specific notes.
2155 * Preliminary thread implementation
2157 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2159 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2161 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2162 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2165 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2167 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2168 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2169 call methods, ...etc.
2171 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2173 * User visible changes:
2175 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2176 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2177 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2178 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2180 Filename completion now works.
2182 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2183 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2184 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2186 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2187 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2188 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2189 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2190 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2194 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2195 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2198 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2202 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2203 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2204 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2208 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2209 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2210 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2211 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2212 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2216 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2217 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2218 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2220 * New targets supported
2222 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2223 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2224 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2225 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2226 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2228 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2229 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2230 GO32 memory extender.
2232 * New remote protocols
2234 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2236 * New source languages supported
2238 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2239 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2240 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2243 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2245 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2247 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2248 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2249 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2250 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2251 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2252 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2254 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2256 * Faster and better demangling
2258 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2259 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2260 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2261 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2262 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2263 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2266 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2267 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2268 compiler does not actually implement.
2270 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2272 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2273 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2274 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2275 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2276 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2277 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2280 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2281 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2283 * Improved configure script
2285 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2286 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2287 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2288 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2290 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2291 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2292 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2293 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2294 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2295 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2297 * Documentation improvements
2299 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2300 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2301 before submitting changes.
2303 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2304 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2305 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2306 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2307 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2309 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2310 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2311 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2312 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2313 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2314 around this problem.
2318 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2319 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2320 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2323 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2324 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2326 * New native hosts supported
2328 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2329 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2331 * New targets supported
2333 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2335 * New file formats supported
2337 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2338 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2342 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2344 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2345 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2347 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2348 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2349 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2351 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2352 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2354 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2355 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2356 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2359 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2360 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2361 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2362 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2363 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2365 * Internal improvements
2367 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2368 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2370 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2371 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2372 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2373 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2374 shared code that handles any of them.
2376 * New command line options
2378 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2382 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2383 General Public License.
2385 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2387 * Host/native/target split
2389 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2390 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2391 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2392 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2393 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2395 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2396 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2397 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2398 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2399 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2400 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2401 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2403 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2404 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2405 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2407 * New hosts supported
2409 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2410 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2411 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2413 * New targets supported
2415 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2416 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2418 * New native hosts supported
2420 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2421 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2422 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2424 * New file formats supported
2426 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2427 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2428 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2432 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2433 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2434 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2436 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2438 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2439 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2440 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2441 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2445 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2446 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2447 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2449 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2453 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2454 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2457 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2458 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2460 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2461 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2462 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2463 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2464 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2465 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2467 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2468 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2469 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2470 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2474 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2475 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2476 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2477 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2478 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2480 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2481 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2482 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2483 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2487 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2488 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2489 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2490 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2491 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2492 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2493 each instruction being stepped through.
2495 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2496 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2498 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2499 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2500 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2501 processor with a serial port.
2505 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2506 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2507 supported, and what files each one uses.
2511 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2512 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2513 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2514 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2516 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2517 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2518 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2519 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2523 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2524 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2525 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2526 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2527 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2528 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2530 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2533 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2535 * Better support for C++ function names
2537 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2538 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2539 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2540 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2541 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2543 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2544 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2545 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2546 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2547 for the list of formats.
2549 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2551 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2552 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2553 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2554 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2555 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2556 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2559 * New 'maintenance' command
2561 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2562 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2563 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2565 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2566 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2567 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2568 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2569 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2570 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2572 The following commands are new:
2574 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2575 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2576 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2578 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2580 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2581 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2582 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2583 read after argv processing.
2585 * New hosts supported
2587 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2589 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2591 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2592 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2593 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2594 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2595 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2598 * New targets supported
2600 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2602 * More smarts about finding #include files
2604 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2605 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2606 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2607 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2608 the one that contains your sources.
2610 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2611 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2612 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2614 * Interesting infernals change
2616 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2617 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2618 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2619 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2621 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2623 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2624 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2625 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2627 See the ChangeLog for details.
2629 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2631 * New machines supported (host and target)
2633 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2635 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2637 * New malloc package
2639 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2640 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2641 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2642 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2643 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2644 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2648 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2649 'help info proc' for details.
2651 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2653 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2654 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2657 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2659 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2660 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2661 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2662 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2663 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2664 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2666 * Cross byte order fixes
2668 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2669 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2671 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2673 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2674 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2675 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2676 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2677 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2678 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2679 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2680 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2681 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2682 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2684 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2685 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2686 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2687 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2689 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2690 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2691 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2694 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2696 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2697 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2698 shared across multiple host platforms.
2700 * longjmp() handling
2702 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2703 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2704 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2705 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2709 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2710 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2715 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2716 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2717 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2719 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2721 * New machines supported (host and target)
2723 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2725 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2726 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2728 * New machines supported (target)
2730 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2734 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2735 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2736 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2738 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2739 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2740 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2741 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2742 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2745 * New features for SVR4
2747 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2748 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2749 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2751 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2752 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2753 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2755 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2756 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2758 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2760 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2761 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2762 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2763 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2764 same code linked statically.
2768 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2769 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2770 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2771 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2772 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2773 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2777 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2778 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2779 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2782 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2784 * New machines supported (host and target)
2786 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2787 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2788 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2790 * Almost SCO Unix support
2792 We had hoped to support:
2793 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2794 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2795 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2796 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2798 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2800 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2801 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2802 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2803 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2808 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2809 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2810 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2814 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2815 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2816 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2818 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2820 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2821 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2822 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2824 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2825 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2826 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2827 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2830 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2831 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2832 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2833 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2836 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2837 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2840 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2841 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2842 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2845 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2847 * Improved configuration
2849 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2850 Porting BFD is simpler.
2854 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2855 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2856 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2857 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2861 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2863 * New host supported (not target)
2865 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2868 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2870 * Multiple source language support
2872 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2873 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2874 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2875 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2876 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2877 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2881 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2882 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2883 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2884 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2886 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2887 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2888 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2890 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2891 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2895 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2896 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2897 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2898 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2901 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2903 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2904 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2905 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2906 examining core files.
2910 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2913 * New machines supported (host and target)
2915 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2916 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2917 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2919 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2921 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2923 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2925 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2926 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2927 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2929 * New remote interfaces
2935 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2939 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2941 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2942 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2943 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2944 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2945 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2946 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2947 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2948 stub on the target system.
2950 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2952 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2953 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2954 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2956 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2957 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2960 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2962 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2963 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2965 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2966 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2967 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2969 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2970 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2971 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2972 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2974 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2975 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2976 it is already running. Default is ON.
2978 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2979 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2980 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2981 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2984 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2985 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2986 or the value of the environment variable
2989 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2990 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2993 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2994 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2995 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2997 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2998 history expansion will be performed on
2999 command line input. The default is OFF.
3001 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3002 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3003 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3005 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3006 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3007 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3010 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3011 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3012 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3015 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3016 ``set width'' instead.
3018 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3019 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3020 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3021 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3023 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3026 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3029 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3032 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3035 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3037 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3038 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3039 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3043 * Support for Shared Libraries
3045 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3046 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3047 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3048 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3049 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3050 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3051 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3052 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3054 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3055 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3056 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3058 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3063 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3064 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3065 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3066 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3067 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3068 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3070 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3072 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3074 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3075 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3076 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3079 * C++ multiple inheritance
3081 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3084 * C++ exception handling
3086 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3087 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3088 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3091 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3092 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3093 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3095 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3096 current stack frame.
3099 * Minor command changes
3101 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3102 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3103 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3105 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3106 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3107 frames without printing.
3109 * New directory command
3111 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3112 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3113 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3114 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3115 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3117 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3119 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3122 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3123 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3124 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3125 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob