1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.6
6 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
7 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
9 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
10 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
12 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
14 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
15 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
16 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
18 * Arrays of explicitly SIGNED or UNSIGNED CHARs are now printed as arrays
21 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
22 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
25 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
30 set mem inaccessible-by-default
31 show mem inaccessible-by-default
32 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
33 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
34 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
35 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
36 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
38 set breakpoint auto-hw
39 show breakpoint auto-hw
40 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
41 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
42 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
43 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
44 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
45 including "next" and "finish".
48 catch exception unhandled
49 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
52 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
56 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
57 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
58 an alias to "set sysroot".
60 * New native configurations
62 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
67 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
68 not query the target for its built-in description.
72 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
73 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
74 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
79 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
80 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
83 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
86 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
91 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
93 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
94 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
95 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
97 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
98 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
101 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
102 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
104 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
105 stub provides the required support.
107 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
108 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
113 unset substitute-path
115 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
116 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
117 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
118 between compilation and debugging.
122 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
123 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
124 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
128 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
130 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
131 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
133 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
138 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
139 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
140 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
141 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
145 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
146 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
148 qXfer:memory-map:read:
149 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
150 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
155 Erase and program a flash memory device.
157 * Removed remote packets
160 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
161 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
163 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
167 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
169 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
173 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
174 only if it doesn't already have a value.
176 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
178 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
180 restart <n> Return the program state to a
181 previously saved state.
183 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
185 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
187 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
188 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
190 info forks List forks of the user program that
191 are available to be debugged.
193 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
194 forks of the user program that are
195 available to be debugged.
197 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
198 that are available to be debugged (and
199 kill the forked process).
201 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
202 that are available to be debugged (and
203 allow the process to continue).
207 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
209 * Improved Windows host support
211 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
212 native console support, and remote communications using either
213 network sockets or serial ports.
215 * Improved Modula-2 language support
217 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
218 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
219 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
220 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
221 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
222 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
226 The ARM rdi-share module.
228 The Netware NLM debug server.
230 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
232 * New native configurations
234 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
235 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
239 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
241 * New command line options
243 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
244 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
245 the child (debugged) program exited with.
246 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
247 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
248 specified multiple times and in conjunction
249 with the --command (-x) option.
251 * Deprecated commands removed
253 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
257 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
258 othernames set arm disassembler
259 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
260 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
261 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
264 * New BSD user-level threads support
266 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
267 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
270 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
271 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
272 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
274 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
275 are not yet supported.
277 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
278 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
280 * REMOVED configurations and files
282 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
283 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
284 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
286 * New "set print array-indexes" command
288 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
289 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
292 * VAX floating point support
294 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
296 * User-defined command support
298 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
299 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
300 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
302 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
304 * New command line option
306 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
309 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
311 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
312 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
313 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
314 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
315 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
317 * Internationalization
319 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
320 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
321 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
325 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
326 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
327 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
329 * New native configurations
331 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
335 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
336 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
338 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
340 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
341 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
342 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
345 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
346 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
347 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
359 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
360 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
362 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
364 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
365 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
366 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
376 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
378 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
380 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
381 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
384 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
386 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
387 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
388 IRIX long double values).
392 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
393 command. This problem has been fixed.
395 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
397 * Fix for ``many threads''
399 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
400 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
403 ptrace: No such process.
404 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
406 This problem has been fixed.
408 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
410 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
413 * New ``start'' command.
415 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
417 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
419 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
420 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
421 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
423 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
424 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
425 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
426 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
427 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
428 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
429 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
430 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
431 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
433 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
435 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
436 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
437 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
438 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
439 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
441 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
442 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
443 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
445 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
447 * New native configurations
449 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
450 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
451 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
452 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
453 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
454 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
455 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
457 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
459 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
460 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
461 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
462 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
463 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
464 work, was also included.
466 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
467 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
477 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
478 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
480 * REMOVED configurations and files
482 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
483 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
484 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
485 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
486 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
487 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
488 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
489 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
490 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
492 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
494 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
496 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
498 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
499 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
500 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
501 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
504 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
506 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
507 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
508 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
509 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
510 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
511 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
514 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
516 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
518 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
519 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
520 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
522 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
524 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
525 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
527 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
529 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
530 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
531 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
533 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
535 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
536 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
538 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
540 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
541 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
542 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
544 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
546 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
547 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
548 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
550 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
552 * Removed --with-mmalloc
554 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
555 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
557 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
559 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
560 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
561 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
562 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
564 * Revised SPARC target
566 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
567 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
568 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
569 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
570 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
574 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
575 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
576 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
579 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
581 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
582 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
585 * C++ nested types and namespaces
587 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
588 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
589 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
590 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
591 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
592 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
593 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
594 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
595 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
597 * New native configurations
599 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
600 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
601 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
602 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
603 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
605 * New debugging protocols
607 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
609 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
611 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
612 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
613 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
615 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
617 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
618 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
619 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
622 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
623 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
624 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
625 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
626 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
627 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
628 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
629 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
630 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
632 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
634 * REMOVED configurations and files
636 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
637 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
638 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
639 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
640 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
641 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
642 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
643 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
644 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
645 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
646 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
647 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
648 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
649 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
650 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
651 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
652 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
654 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
658 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
661 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
663 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
664 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
665 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
668 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
669 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
674 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
675 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
676 remote protocol documentation for details.
678 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
680 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
681 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
682 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
685 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
687 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
688 per-thread variables.
690 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
692 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
693 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
695 * Separate debug info.
697 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
698 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
699 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
700 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
701 and optional debug files.
703 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
705 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
706 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
709 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
710 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
714 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
715 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
716 considered "useable".
718 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
720 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
721 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
724 * GDB supports logging output to a file
726 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
727 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
729 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
731 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
732 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
735 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
737 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
738 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
742 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
743 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
744 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
745 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
746 data, for more informative profiling results.
748 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
750 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
751 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
752 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
754 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
757 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
758 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
759 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
760 in a subsequent -var-update.
762 * New native configurations.
764 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
766 * Multi-arched targets.
768 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
769 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
771 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
773 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
774 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
775 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
778 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
779 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
780 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
781 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
782 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
783 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
784 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
785 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
786 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
787 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
788 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
789 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
791 * REMOVED configurations and files
794 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
795 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
796 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
797 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
798 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
799 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
801 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
802 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
803 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
804 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
805 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
806 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
808 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
810 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
811 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
812 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
813 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
814 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
816 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
818 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
820 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
821 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
822 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
823 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
824 shared libs like mad''.
826 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
828 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
829 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
830 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
831 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
833 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
835 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
836 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
839 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
840 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
842 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
843 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
845 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
846 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
847 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
848 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
850 * Multi-arched targets.
852 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
853 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
855 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
856 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
857 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
861 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
864 * New native configurations
866 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
867 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
868 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
869 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
871 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
873 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
874 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
875 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
878 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
879 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
880 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
881 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
882 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
883 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
884 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
885 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
886 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
887 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
889 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
890 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
894 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
896 * REMOVED configurations and files
898 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
899 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
900 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
901 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
902 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
904 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
906 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
908 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
909 commands. The default is 1024.
911 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
913 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
915 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
917 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
918 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
919 from a file into memory (restore).
921 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
923 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
924 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
925 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
927 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
935 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
936 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
937 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
939 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
940 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
941 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
943 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
944 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
945 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
947 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
948 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
949 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
951 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
953 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
955 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
956 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
957 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
958 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
959 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
960 (notably embedded) targets.
962 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
964 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
965 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
966 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
967 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
969 * New command line option
971 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
973 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
975 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
976 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
977 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
978 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
979 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
980 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
981 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
982 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
983 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
984 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
986 * Changes in ARM configurations.
988 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
989 configuration is fully multi-arch.
991 * New native configurations
993 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
994 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
995 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
996 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1000 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
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 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1010 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1011 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1012 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1013 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1015 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1017 * REMOVED configurations and files
1019 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1021 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1022 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1023 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1024 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1025 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1026 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1027 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1028 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1029 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1030 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1031 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1033 * Changes to command line processing
1035 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1036 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1038 * Changes to key bindings
1040 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1042 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1044 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1046 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1049 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1051 Numerous documentation fixes.
1053 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1055 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1057 * New native configurations
1059 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1060 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1061 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1062 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1063 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1064 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1068 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1070 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1072 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1074 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1075 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1076 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1077 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1078 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1080 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1081 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1082 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1083 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1084 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1085 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1086 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1087 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1089 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1090 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1092 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1093 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1094 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1095 permanently REMOVED.
1097 * REMOVED configurations and files
1099 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1100 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1102 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1106 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1108 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1109 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1114 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1116 * The MI enabled by default.
1118 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1119 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1120 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1121 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1122 which is now deprecated.
1124 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1126 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1127 main features are supported:
1129 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1131 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1134 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1136 - a Pascal expression parser.
1138 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1140 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1142 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1144 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1145 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1147 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1149 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1151 * Changes in completion.
1153 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1154 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1155 users expect at the shell prompt.
1157 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1158 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1159 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1160 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1161 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1162 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1163 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1165 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1167 * New platform-independent commands:
1169 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1170 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1171 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1173 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1175 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1176 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1177 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1179 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1181 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1182 multi-threaded programs though.
1184 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1186 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1188 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1189 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1192 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1194 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1195 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1196 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1197 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1198 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1201 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1202 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1203 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1205 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1207 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1208 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1210 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1211 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1214 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1215 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1216 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1217 a given linear address.
1219 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1220 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1221 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1223 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1225 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1227 * Changes in documentation.
1229 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1230 Documentation License.
1232 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1235 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1237 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1240 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1241 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1242 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1244 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1246 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1247 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1248 contents of this file.
1252 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1254 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1256 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1258 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1259 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1260 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1261 greater level of detail.
1263 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1265 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1266 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1267 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1270 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1272 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1273 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1274 machines ``out of the box''.
1276 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1277 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1278 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1279 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1280 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1282 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1283 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1284 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1285 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1286 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1288 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1289 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1292 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1295 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1296 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1297 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1298 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1300 * New native configurations
1302 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1303 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1307 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1308 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1309 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1310 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1312 * OBSOLETE configurations
1314 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1315 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1317 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1320 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1321 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1322 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1323 be permanently REMOVED.
1325 * Gould support removed
1327 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1329 * New features for SVR4
1331 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1332 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1333 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1335 * Many C++ enhancements
1337 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1338 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1340 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1342 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1343 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1344 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1345 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1347 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1348 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1350 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1352 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1353 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1354 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1356 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1357 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1359 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1361 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1362 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1363 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1365 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1367 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1368 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1369 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1371 * ``apropos'' command added.
1373 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1374 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1375 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1379 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1380 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1381 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1382 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1383 enabled by configuring with:
1385 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1387 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1389 * New native configurations
1391 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1392 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1393 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1397 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1398 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1399 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1401 * OBSOLETE configurations
1403 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1405 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1406 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1407 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1408 be permanently REMOVED.
1412 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1413 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1414 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1415 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1416 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1417 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1418 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1423 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1425 * set extension-language
1427 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1428 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1429 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1430 set extension-language .c c++
1431 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1432 and their associated languages.
1434 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1436 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1437 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1438 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1442 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1443 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1445 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1446 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1448 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1449 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1450 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1451 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1452 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1453 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1454 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1455 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1457 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1458 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1459 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1460 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1464 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1465 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1466 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1467 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1468 for xdb and dbx commands.
1472 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1473 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1474 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1476 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1477 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1478 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1480 * Debugging across forks
1482 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1487 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1488 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1489 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1491 * GDB remote protocol additions
1493 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1494 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1495 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1496 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1498 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1499 full 64-bit address. The command
1501 set remoteaddresssize 32
1503 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1504 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1507 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1508 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1510 maint packet heythere
1512 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1513 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1516 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1517 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1518 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1520 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1522 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1523 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1524 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1526 * mask-address variable for Mips
1528 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1529 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1530 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1532 * Higher serial baud rates
1534 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1535 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1536 to achieve all of these rates.)
1540 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1541 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1544 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1546 * New native configurations
1548 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1549 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1550 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1551 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1552 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1553 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1554 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1558 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1559 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1560 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1561 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1562 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1563 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1564 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1565 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1566 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1567 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1568 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1570 * New debugging protocols
1572 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1573 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1574 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1575 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1576 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1577 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1581 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1582 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1587 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1588 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1590 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1592 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1593 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1594 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1596 * Live range splitting
1598 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1599 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1600 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1604 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1605 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1609 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1610 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1611 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1616 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1621 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1622 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1623 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1624 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1625 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1626 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1630 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1631 the symbol at the specified address.
1635 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1636 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1637 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1638 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1639 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1643 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1644 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1645 of most MIPS variants.
1649 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1650 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1651 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1655 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1656 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1657 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1658 the possible architectures.
1660 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1662 * New native configurations
1664 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1665 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1666 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1667 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1668 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1669 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1673 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1674 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1675 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1676 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1677 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1679 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1683 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1684 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1685 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1686 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1687 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1691 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1693 * Windows 95/NT native
1695 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1696 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1697 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1698 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1699 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1701 * dont-repeat command
1703 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1704 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1705 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1706 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1708 * Send break instead of ^C
1710 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1711 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1712 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1714 * Remote protocol timeout
1716 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1717 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1718 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1720 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1722 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1723 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1724 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1725 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1726 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1728 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1729 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1730 automatically on hpux10.
1732 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1734 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1736 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1738 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1739 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1740 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1741 every character. The default value is 1050.
1743 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1745 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1746 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1747 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1748 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1749 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1750 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1752 * Speedups for remote debugging
1754 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1755 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1756 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1758 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1760 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1761 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1763 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1765 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1767 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1768 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1770 * Remote targets use caching
1772 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1773 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1774 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1775 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1776 off' turns the the data cache off.
1778 * Remote targets may have threads
1780 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1781 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1782 gdb/remote.c for details.
1786 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1787 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1788 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1789 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1790 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1791 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1792 sequence is something like
1794 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1796 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1800 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1801 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1802 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1803 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1804 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1805 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1806 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1807 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1811 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1812 but does simplify configuration and building.
1816 GDB now supports hpux10.
1818 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1820 * New native configurations
1822 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1823 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1824 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1825 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1829 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1830 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1831 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1832 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1835 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1837 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1838 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1839 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1840 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1841 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1843 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1845 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1846 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1849 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1851 To execute the command use:
1854 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1855 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1856 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1858 * New `if' and `while' commands
1860 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1861 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1862 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1863 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1864 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1865 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1866 if the expression is zero.
1868 * Fortran source language mode
1870 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1871 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1872 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1873 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1876 * Better HPUX support
1878 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1879 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1880 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1881 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1882 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1888 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1889 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1895 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1896 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1899 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1900 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1902 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1904 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1905 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1906 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1907 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1908 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1909 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1911 * New DOS host serial code
1913 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1914 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1917 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1919 * New "complete" command
1921 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1922 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1924 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1926 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1927 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1929 * Breakpoint hit counts
1931 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1932 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1933 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1934 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1935 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1938 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1940 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1941 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1942 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1944 * Shared library breakpoints
1946 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1947 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1949 * Hardware watchpoints
1951 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1952 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1954 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1958 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1959 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1961 * Improved Irix 5 support
1963 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1965 * Improved HPPA support
1967 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1969 * New native configurations
1971 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1972 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1973 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1974 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1978 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1979 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1982 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1984 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1985 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1989 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1990 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1992 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1994 * Irix 5 is now supported
1998 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1999 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2000 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2001 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2002 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2005 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2007 * User visible changes:
2011 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2012 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2013 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2014 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2015 debugging info for the mips target).
2017 * DEC Alpha native support
2019 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2020 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2021 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2022 Alpha-specific notes.
2024 * Preliminary thread implementation
2026 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2028 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2030 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2031 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2034 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2036 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2037 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2038 call methods, ...etc.
2040 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2042 * User visible changes:
2044 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2045 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2046 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2047 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2049 Filename completion now works.
2051 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2052 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2053 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2055 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2056 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2057 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2058 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2059 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2063 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2064 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2067 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2071 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2072 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2073 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2077 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2078 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2079 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2080 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2081 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2085 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2086 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2087 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2089 * New targets supported
2091 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2092 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2093 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2094 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2095 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2097 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2098 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2099 GO32 memory extender.
2101 * New remote protocols
2103 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2105 * New source languages supported
2107 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2108 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2109 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2112 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2114 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2116 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2117 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2118 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2119 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2120 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2121 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2123 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2125 * Faster and better demangling
2127 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2128 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2129 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2130 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2131 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2132 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2135 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2136 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2137 compiler does not actually implement.
2139 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2141 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2142 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2143 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2144 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2145 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2146 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2149 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2150 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2152 * Improved configure script
2154 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2155 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2156 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2157 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2159 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2160 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2161 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2162 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2163 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2164 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2166 * Documentation improvements
2168 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2169 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2170 before submitting changes.
2172 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2173 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2174 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2175 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2176 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2178 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2179 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2180 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2181 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2182 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2183 around this problem.
2187 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2188 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2189 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2192 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2193 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2195 * New native hosts supported
2197 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2198 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2200 * New targets supported
2202 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2204 * New file formats supported
2206 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2207 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2211 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2213 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2214 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2216 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2217 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2218 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2220 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2221 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2223 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2224 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2225 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2228 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2229 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2230 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2231 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2232 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2234 * Internal improvements
2236 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2237 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2239 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2240 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2241 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2242 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2243 shared code that handles any of them.
2245 * New command line options
2247 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2251 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2252 General Public License.
2254 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2256 * Host/native/target split
2258 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2259 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2260 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2261 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2262 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2264 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2265 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2266 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2267 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2268 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2269 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2270 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2272 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2273 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2274 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2276 * New hosts supported
2278 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2279 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2280 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2282 * New targets supported
2284 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2285 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2287 * New native hosts supported
2289 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2290 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2291 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2293 * New file formats supported
2295 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2296 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2297 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2301 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2302 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2303 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2305 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2307 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2308 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2309 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2310 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2314 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2315 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2316 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2318 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2322 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2323 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2326 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2327 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2329 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2330 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2331 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2332 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2333 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2334 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2336 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2337 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2338 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2339 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2343 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2344 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2345 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2346 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2347 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2349 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2350 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2351 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2352 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2356 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2357 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2358 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2359 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2360 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2361 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2362 each instruction being stepped through.
2364 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2365 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2367 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2368 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2369 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2370 processor with a serial port.
2374 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2375 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2376 supported, and what files each one uses.
2380 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2381 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2382 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2383 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2385 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2386 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2387 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2388 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2392 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2393 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2394 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2395 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2396 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2397 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2399 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2402 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2404 * Better support for C++ function names
2406 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2407 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2408 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2409 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2410 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2412 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2413 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2414 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2415 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2416 for the list of formats.
2418 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2420 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2421 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2422 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2423 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2424 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2425 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2428 * New 'maintenance' command
2430 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2431 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2432 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2434 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2435 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2436 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2437 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2438 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2439 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2441 The following commands are new:
2443 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2444 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2445 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2447 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2449 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2450 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2451 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2452 read after argv processing.
2454 * New hosts supported
2456 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2458 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2460 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2461 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2462 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2463 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2464 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2467 * New targets supported
2469 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2471 * More smarts about finding #include files
2473 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2474 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2475 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2476 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2477 the one that contains your sources.
2479 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2480 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2481 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2483 * Interesting infernals change
2485 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2486 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2487 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2488 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2490 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2492 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2493 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2494 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2496 See the ChangeLog for details.
2498 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2500 * New machines supported (host and target)
2502 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2504 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2506 * New malloc package
2508 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2509 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2510 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2511 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2512 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2513 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2517 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2518 'help info proc' for details.
2520 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2522 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2523 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2526 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2528 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2529 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2530 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2531 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2532 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2533 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2535 * Cross byte order fixes
2537 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2538 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2540 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2542 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2543 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2544 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2545 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2546 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2547 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2548 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2549 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2550 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2551 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2553 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2554 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2555 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2556 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2558 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2559 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2560 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2563 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2565 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2566 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2567 shared across multiple host platforms.
2569 * longjmp() handling
2571 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2572 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2573 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2574 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2578 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2579 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2584 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2585 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2586 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2588 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2590 * New machines supported (host and target)
2592 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2594 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2595 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2597 * New machines supported (target)
2599 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2603 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2604 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2605 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2607 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2608 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2609 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2610 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2611 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2614 * New features for SVR4
2616 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2617 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2618 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2620 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2621 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2622 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2624 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2625 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2627 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2629 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2630 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2631 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2632 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2633 same code linked statically.
2637 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2638 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2639 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2640 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2641 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2642 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2646 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2647 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2648 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2651 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2653 * New machines supported (host and target)
2655 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2656 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2657 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2659 * Almost SCO Unix support
2661 We had hoped to support:
2662 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2663 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2664 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2665 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2667 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2669 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2670 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2671 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2672 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2677 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2678 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2679 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2683 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2684 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2685 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2687 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2689 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2690 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2691 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2693 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2694 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2695 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2696 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2699 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2700 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2701 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2702 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2705 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2706 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2709 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2710 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2711 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2714 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2716 * Improved configuration
2718 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2719 Porting BFD is simpler.
2723 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2724 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2725 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2726 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2730 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2732 * New host supported (not target)
2734 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2737 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2739 * Multiple source language support
2741 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2742 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2743 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2744 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2745 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2746 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2750 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2751 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2752 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2753 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2755 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2756 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2757 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2759 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2760 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2764 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2765 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2766 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2767 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2770 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2772 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2773 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2774 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2775 examining core files.
2779 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2782 * New machines supported (host and target)
2784 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2785 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2786 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2788 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2790 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2792 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2794 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2795 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2796 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2798 * New remote interfaces
2804 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2808 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2810 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2811 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2812 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2813 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2814 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2815 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2816 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2817 stub on the target system.
2819 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2821 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2822 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2823 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2825 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2826 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2829 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2831 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2832 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2834 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2835 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2836 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2838 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2839 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2840 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2841 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2843 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2844 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2845 it is already running. Default is ON.
2847 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2848 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2849 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2850 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2853 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2854 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2855 or the value of the environment variable
2858 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2859 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2862 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2863 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2864 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2866 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2867 history expansion will be performed on
2868 command line input. The default is OFF.
2870 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2871 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2872 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2874 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2875 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2876 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2879 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2880 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2881 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2884 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2885 ``set width'' instead.
2887 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2888 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2889 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2890 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2892 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2895 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2898 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2901 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2904 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2906 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2907 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2908 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2912 * Support for Shared Libraries
2914 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2915 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2916 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2917 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2918 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2919 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2920 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2921 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2923 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2924 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2925 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2927 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2932 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2933 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2934 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2935 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2936 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2937 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2939 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2941 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2943 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2944 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2945 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2948 * C++ multiple inheritance
2950 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2953 * C++ exception handling
2955 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2956 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2957 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2960 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2961 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2962 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2964 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2965 current stack frame.
2968 * Minor command changes
2970 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2971 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2972 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2974 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2975 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2976 frames without printing.
2978 * New directory command
2980 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2981 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2982 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2983 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2984 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2986 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2988 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2991 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2992 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2993 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2994 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob