c78a4fb70f52c22bb729b9602faff5b2ecedef08
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.6
5
6 * New commands:
7 show configuration
8 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
9
10 maint set|show per-command
11 maint set|show per-command space
12 maint set|show per-command time
13 maint set|show per-command symtab
14 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
15
16 * New options
17
18 set remote trace-status-packet
19 show remote trace-status-packet
20 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
21
22 * New command-line options
23 --configuration
24 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
25
26 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
27 buffer in Common Trace Format.
28
29 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
30 GDB command gcore.
31
32 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
33
34 * MI changes
35
36 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
37 Trace Format now.
38
39 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
40
41 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
42 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
43 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
44 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
45
46 set|show record full insn-number-max
47 set|show record full stop-at-limit
48 set|show record full memory-query
49
50 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
51 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
52 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
53 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
54 This new recording method can be enabled using:
55
56 record btrace
57
58 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
59 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
60
61 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
62 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
63 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
64
65 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
66 instruction granularity
67
68 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
69 function granularity
70
71 * New native configurations
72
73 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
74 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
75 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
76 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
77
78 * New targets
79
80 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
81 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
82 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
83 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
84 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
85
86 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
87 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
88 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
89 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
90 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
91 --data-directory command-line option.
92
93 * New command line options:
94
95 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
96 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
97
98 * Removed command line options
99
100 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
101 Emacs.
102
103 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
104 type formatting.
105
106 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
107
108 * Python scripting
109
110 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
111
112 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
113
114 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
115
116 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
117
118 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
119 of architecture in the Python API.
120
121 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
122 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
123
124 * New Python-based convenience functions:
125
126 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
127 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
128 ** $_strlen(str)
129 ** $_regex(str, regex)
130
131 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
132 given an argument.
133
134 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
135 default for GCC since November 2000.
136
137 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
138
139 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
140 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
141
142 * New configure options
143
144 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
145 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
146 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
147 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
148 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
149 options allow the user to override that default.
150 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
151 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
152 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
153
154 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
155
156 catch rethrow
157 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
158
159 catch signal
160 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
161 conditions to be attached.
162
163 maint info bfds
164 List the BFDs known to GDB.
165
166 python-interactive [command]
167 pi [command]
168 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
169 and print the result of expressions.
170
171 py [command]
172 "py" is a new alias for "python".
173
174 enable type-printer [name]...
175 disable type-printer [name]...
176 Enable or disable type printers.
177
178 * Removed commands
179
180 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
181 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
182 instead.
183
184 * New options
185
186 set print type methods (on|off)
187 show print type methods
188 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
189 The default is to show them.
190
191 set print type typedefs (on|off)
192 show print type typedefs
193 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
194 The default is to show them.
195
196 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
197 show filename-display
198 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
199 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
200
201 set trace-buffer-size
202 show trace-buffer-size
203 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
204
205 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
206 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
207 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
208
209 set debug aarch64
210 show debug aarch64
211 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
212 The default is off.
213
214 set debug coff-pe-read
215 show debug coff-pe-read
216 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
217 exported symbols.
218
219 set debug mach-o
220 show debug mach-o
221 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
222 processing.
223
224 set debug notification
225 show debug notification
226 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
227
228 * MI changes
229
230 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
231 "=cmd-param-changed".
232 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
233 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
234 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
235 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
236 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
237 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
238 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
239 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
240 "=memory-changed".
241 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
242 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
243 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
244 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
245 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
246 library load/unload events.
247 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
248 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
249 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
250 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
251 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
252 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
253 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
254 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
255
256 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
257 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
258 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
259 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
260
261 * New remote packets
262
263 QTBuffer:size
264 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
265 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
266
267 Qbtrace:bts
268 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
269 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
270 qSupported query.
271
272 Qbtrace:off
273 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
274 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
275
276 qXfer:btrace:read
277 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
278 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
279
280 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
281
282 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
283 for more x32 ABI info.
284
285 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
286
287 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
288
289 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
290 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
291 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
292 "info os files" lists file descriptors
293 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
294 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
295 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
296 "info os msg" lists message queues
297 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
298
299 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
300 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
301 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
302 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
303 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
304 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
305
306 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
307 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
308 record/replay support.
309
310 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
311
312 * Python scripting
313
314 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
315 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
316
317 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
318
319 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
320 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
321
322 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
323
324 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
325 the source at which the symbol was defined.
326
327 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
328 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
329 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
330 symbol's value.
331
332 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
333 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
334
335 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
336 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
337 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
338
339 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
340 object associated with a PC value.
341
342 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
343 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
344
345 * Go language support.
346 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
347 language.
348
349 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
350 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
351
352 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
353 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
354
355 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
356 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
357 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
358 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
359 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
360 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
361
362 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
363 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
364 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
365 build/libcpp/expr.c.
366
367 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
368 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
369
370 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
371 since December 2007.
372
373 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
374 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
375 command does. For instance:
376
377 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
378
379 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
380 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
381 created, using the "condition" command.
382
383 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
384 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
385
386 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
387
388 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
389 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
390 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
391 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
392 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
393 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
394 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
395 files with older .gdb_index sections.
396
397 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
398 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
399 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
400 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
401 the .gdb_index section.
402
403 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
404
405 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
406 target.
407
408 * MI changes
409
410 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
411
412 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
413
414 * New commands
415
416 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
417 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
418 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
419
420 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
421 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
422
423 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
424 several hits.
425
426 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
427 C++ and Java objects.
428
429 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
430 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
431 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
432 configured with '--with-python'.
433
434 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
435 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
436 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
437 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
438 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
439 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
440 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
441
442 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
443 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
444 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
445 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
446
447 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
448 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
449 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
450 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
451
452 ** "set print symbol"
453 "show print symbol"
454 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
455 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
456 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
457
458 * Deprecated commands
459
460 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
461 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
462
463 * New targets
464
465 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
466 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
467
468 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
469 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
470 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
471 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
472 evaluates to true.
473
474 * New options
475
476 set mips compression
477 show mips compression
478 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
479 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
480 mips16
481 micromips
482 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
483
484 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
485 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
486 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
487 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
488 available mode.
489 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
490 target.
491
492 set auto-load off
493 Disable auto-loading globally.
494
495 show auto-load
496 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
497
498 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
499 show auto-load gdb-scripts
500 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
501
502 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
503 show auto-load python-scripts
504 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
505
506 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
507 show auto-load local-gdbinit
508 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
509
510 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
511 show auto-load libthread-db
512 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
513
514 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
515 show auto-load scripts-directory
516 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
517 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
518 of the directories listed by this option.
519 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
520
521 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
522 show auto-load safe-path
523 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
524 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
525
526 set debug auto-load on|off
527 show debug auto-load
528 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
529
530 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
531 show dprintf-style
532 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
533 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
534 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
535 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
536
537 set dprintf-function <expr>
538 show dprintf-function
539 set dprintf-channel <expr>
540 show dprintf-channel
541 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
542 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
543
544 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
545 show disconnected-dprintf
546 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
547 after GDB disconnects.
548
549 * New configure options
550
551 --with-auto-load-dir
552 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
553 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
554 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
555 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
556 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
557
558 --with-auto-load-safe-path
559 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
560 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
561
562 --without-auto-load-safe-path
563 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
564 security feature.
565
566 * New remote packets
567
568 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
569
570 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
571 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
572 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
573 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
574
575 QProgramSignals:
576
577 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
578 program without GDB involvement.
579
580 * New command line options
581
582 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
583 before loading inferior.
584 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
585 execute it before loading inferior.
586
587 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
588
589 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
590 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
591 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
592 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
593 inferior changes.
594
595 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
596 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
597
598 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
599 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
600 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
601 target hardware watchpoint.
602
603 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
604 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
605 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
606 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
607
608 * Python scripting
609
610 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
611 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
612 existing one.
613
614 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
615 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
616 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
617 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
618 now "message", which just prints the error message without
619 the stack trace.
620
621 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
622 Python API.
623
624 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
625 modules library. This module provides functionality for
626 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
627 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
628 corresponding value.
629
630 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
631 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
632 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
633 on GDB start-up.
634
635 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
636 static_block will return the global and static blocks
637 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
638 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
639
640 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
641
642 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
643 "gdb.breakpoints".
644
645 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
646 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
647 available in the CLI.
648
649 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
650 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
651 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
652 "some_type.items()".
653
654 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
655 new object file.
656
657 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
658 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
659 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
660 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
661 any anonymous fields.
662
663 * MI changes
664
665 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
666 "solib-event".
667
668 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
669 "=breakpoint-modified".
670
671 ** New command -ada-task-info.
672
673 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
674 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
675 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
676 lives.
677
678 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
679 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
680 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
681 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
682 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
683
684 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
685 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
686
687 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
688 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
689 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
690 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
691 use this option to specify where to find it.
692
693 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
694 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
695 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
696 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
697 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
698 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
699 section in the user manual for more details.
700
701 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
702 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
703 become available after that.
704
705 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
706
707 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
708 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
709 gcc version 4.7.
710
711 * New commands
712
713 !SHELL COMMAND
714 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
715 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
716
717 * Changed commands
718
719 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
720 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
721 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
722
723 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
724 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
725 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
726
727 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
728 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
729 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
730 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
731 name starts with a hyphen.
732
733 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
734 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
735 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
736 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
737 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
738 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
739 number of bytes that will be collected.
740
741 tstart [NOTES]
742 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
743 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
744 setting the variable trace-notes.
745
746 tstop [NOTES]
747 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
748 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
749 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
750 trace-stop-notes.
751
752 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
753 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
754 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
755 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
756 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
757 is running.
758
759 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
760 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
761 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
762
763 * New options
764
765 set debug dwarf2-read
766 show debug dwarf2-read
767 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
768 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
769
770 set debug symtab-create
771 show debug symtab-create
772 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
773 creation. The default is off.
774
775 set extended-prompt
776 show extended-prompt
777 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
778 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
779 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
780 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
781 prompt is displayed.
782
783 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
784 show print entry-values
785 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
786 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
787 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
788
789 set debug entry-values
790 show debug entry-values
791 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
792 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
793
794 set basenames-may-differ
795 show basenames-may-differ
796 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
797 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
798 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
799 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
800 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
801 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
802 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
803 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
804
805 set trace-user
806 show trace-user
807 set trace-notes
808 show trace-notes
809 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
810 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
811 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
812 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
813
814 set trace-stop-notes
815 show trace-stop-notes
816 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
817 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
818 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
819 started by someone else.
820
821 * New remote packets
822
823 QTEnable
824
825 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
826
827 QTDisable
828
829 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
830
831 QTNotes
832
833 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
834
835 qTP
836
837 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
838
839 qTMinFTPILen
840
841 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
842 be placed.
843
844 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
845 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
846
847 * New targets
848
849 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
850
851 * New Simulators
852
853 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
854
855 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
856
857 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
858
859 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
860
861 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
862 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
863 matches the given regular expression.
864
865 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
866
867 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
868 dumping the instruction opcodes.
869
870 * New command line options
871
872 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
873 This is mostly for testing purposes.
874
875 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
876 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
877
878 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
879 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
880 source path list instead of augmenting it.
881
882 * GDB now understands thread names.
883
884 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
885 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
886
887 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
888 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
889
890 * OpenCL C
891 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
892 has been integrated into GDB.
893
894 * Python scripting
895
896 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
897 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
898 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
899
900 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
901 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
902 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
903 and allows for more dynamic content.
904
905 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
906 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
907 have an is_valid method.
908
909 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
910 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
911 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
912
913 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
914
915 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
916 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
917 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
918 that function like so:
919
920 result = some_value (10,20)
921
922 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
923 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
924 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
925
926 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
927 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
928 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
929 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
930 New function: register_pretty_printer.
931
932 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
933 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
934
935 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
936
937 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
938 selected thread.
939
940 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
941 holds the thread's name.
942
943 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
944 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
945 occurring in the process being debugged.
946 The following events are currently supported:
947 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
948 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
949 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
950
951 * C++ Improvements:
952
953 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
954 instantiation. For example, if you have:
955
956 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
957
958 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
959 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
960 was added to GCC 4.5.
961
962 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
963 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
964 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
965 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
966 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
967 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
968
969 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
970 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
971 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
972 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
973 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
974
975 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
976 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
977 execution to a label.
978
979 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
980 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
981 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
982 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
983
984 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
985 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
986 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
987 of scope.
988
989 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
990
991 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
992 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
993 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
994 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
995 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
996 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
997
998 (gdb) info threads
999 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1000
1001 While now you see this:
1002
1003 (gdb) info threads
1004 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1005
1006 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1007 dumps.
1008
1009 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1010 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1011 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1012 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1013
1014 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1015 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1016 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1017 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1018 section in the user manual for more details.
1019
1020 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1021
1022 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1023 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
1024
1025 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1026
1027 * New native configurations
1028
1029 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1030
1031 * New targets:
1032
1033 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1034
1035 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1036 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1037 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1038 in the GDB user manual.
1039
1040 * Guile support was removed.
1041
1042 * New features in the GNU simulator
1043
1044 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1045
1046 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1047
1048 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
1049
1050 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
1051
1052 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1053 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1054 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1055 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1056 was always disabled for such configurations.
1057
1058 * C++ Improvements:
1059
1060 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1061
1062 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1063 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1064 For example:
1065 namespace A
1066 {
1067 class B { };
1068 void foo (B) { }
1069 }
1070 ...
1071 A::B b
1072 foo(b)
1073 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1074 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1075 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1076
1077 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1078
1079 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1080 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1081 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1082 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1083 entry.
1084 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1085 mentioned flavors of operators.
1086
1087 ** static const class members
1088
1089 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1090 class definition has been fixed.
1091
1092 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
1093
1094 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1095 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
1096 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
1097 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
1098 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
1099 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
1100
1101 * Static tracepoints
1102
1103 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
1104 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
1105 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
1106 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
1107 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
1108 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
1109 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
1110 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
1111 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
1112 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
1113 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
1114 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
1115 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
1116 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1117 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1118 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1119 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1120 the "New remote packets" section below.
1121
1122 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1123
1124 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1125 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1126 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1127 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1128
1129 * Observer mode
1130
1131 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1132 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1133 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1134 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1135 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1136 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1137 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1138
1139 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1140 current thread.
1141
1142 * New remote packets
1143
1144 qGetTIBAddr
1145
1146 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1147
1148 qRelocInsn
1149
1150 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1151 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1152 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1153 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1154 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1155 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1156
1157 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
1158
1159 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1160
1161 qTSTMat
1162
1163 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1164 program.
1165
1166 qXfer:statictrace:read
1167
1168 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1169 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1170 to gdb's qSupported query.
1171
1172 QAllow
1173
1174 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1175
1176 QTDPsrc
1177
1178 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1179 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1180
1181 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1182 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1183 a directory.
1184
1185 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1186
1187 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1188 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1189 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1190 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1191
1192 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1193 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1194 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1195 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1196 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1197 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1198 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1199
1200 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1201 for static tracepoints support.
1202
1203 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1204
1205 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1206 it understands register description.
1207
1208 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1209
1210 * X86 general purpose registers
1211
1212 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1213 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1214 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1215 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1216 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1217
1218 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
1219 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1220 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1221 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1222 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1223 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
1224
1225 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1226 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1227 in the specified file.
1228
1229 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1230 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1231 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1232 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1233 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1234 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1235 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1236 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1237 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1238 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1239
1240 * New commands
1241
1242 eval template, expressions...
1243 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1244 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1245
1246 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1247 show target-file-system-kind
1248 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1249 names.
1250
1251 save breakpoints <filename>
1252 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1253 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1254 definitions, use the `source' command.
1255
1256 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1257 is now deprecated.
1258
1259 info static-tracepoint-markers
1260 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1261
1262 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1263 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1264 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1265
1266 set observer on|off
1267 show observer
1268 Enable and disable observer mode.
1269
1270 set may-write-registers on|off
1271 set may-write-memory on|off
1272 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1273 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1274 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1275 set may-interrupt on|off
1276 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1277 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1278 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1279 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1280 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1281 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1282 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1283
1284 set record memory-query on|off
1285 show record memory-query
1286 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1287 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1288
1289 * Changed commands
1290
1291 disassemble
1292 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1293
1294 * Python scripting
1295
1296 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1297 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1298 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1299 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1300 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1301
1302 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
1303 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1304 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1305 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
1306
1307 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
1308 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1309
1310 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
1311
1312 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
1313
1314 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1315
1316 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1317 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1318 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1319
1320 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1321 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1322 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1323 regular breakpoints.
1324
1325 * New targets
1326
1327 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1328
1329 * D language support.
1330 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1331 language.
1332
1333 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1334 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1335 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1336 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1337 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1338
1339 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1340 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1341 conditions of the form:
1342
1343 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1344
1345 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1346 interface mentioned above.
1347
1348 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
1349
1350 * C++ Improvements
1351
1352 ** Namespace Support
1353
1354 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1355 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1356 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1357 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1358 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1359
1360 ** Bug Fixes
1361
1362 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1363 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1364 qualified name.
1365
1366 ** Cast Operators
1367
1368 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1369 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1370
1371 * New targets
1372
1373 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
1374 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
1375
1376 * New Simulators
1377
1378 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
1379 Renesas RX rx
1380
1381 * Multi-program debugging.
1382
1383 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1384 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1385 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1386 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1387 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1388 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1389 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1390 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1391
1392 * New tracing features
1393
1394 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1395
1396 ** Trace state variables
1397
1398 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1399 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1400 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1401 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1402 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1403 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1404 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1405 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1406 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1407 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
1408
1409 ** Fast tracepoints
1410
1411 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1412 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1413 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1414 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1415 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1416 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1417 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1418 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1419 the regular trace command.
1420
1421 ** Disconnected tracing
1422
1423 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1424 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1425 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1426 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1427 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1428
1429 ** Trace files
1430
1431 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1432 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1433 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1434 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1435 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1436 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1437 <name>".
1438
1439 ** Circular trace buffer
1440
1441 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1442 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1443 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1444 not be available for all target agents.
1445
1446 * Changed commands
1447
1448 disassemble
1449 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1450 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1451
1452 info variables
1453 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1454 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1455
1456 source
1457 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1458 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1459 support.
1460
1461 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1462 "set script-extension" (see below).
1463
1464 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1465
1466 record save [<FILENAME>]
1467 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1468 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1469
1470 record restore <FILENAME>
1471 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1472 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1473
1474 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1475 Add a new inferior.
1476
1477 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1478 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1479 inferior has loaded.
1480
1481 remove-inferior ID
1482 Remove an inferior.
1483
1484 maint info program-spaces
1485 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1486
1487 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1488 show remote interrupt-sequence
1489 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1490 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1491 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1492 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1493 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1494
1495 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1496 show remote interrupt-on-connect
1497 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1498 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1499 Linux kernel.
1500
1501 set remotebreak [on | off]
1502 show remotebreak
1503 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1504
1505 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1506 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1507
1508 info tvariables
1509 List trace state variables and their values.
1510
1511 delete tvariable $NAME ...
1512 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1513
1514 teval EXPR, ...
1515 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1516 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1517
1518 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1519 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1520
1521 * New expression syntax
1522
1523 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1524 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1525
1526 * New options
1527
1528 set follow-exec-mode new|same
1529 show follow-exec-mode
1530 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1531 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1532 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1533
1534 set default-collect EXPR, ...
1535 show default-collect
1536 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1537 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1538 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1539
1540 set disconnected-tracing
1541 show disconnected-tracing
1542 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1543 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1544 upon disconnection.
1545
1546 set circular-trace-buffer
1547 show circular-trace-buffer
1548 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1549 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1550 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1551 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1552
1553 set script-extension off|soft|strict
1554 show script-extension
1555 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1556 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1557 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1558 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1559 evaluation failed.
1560 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1561
1562 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1563 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1564 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1565 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1566 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1567 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1568 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1569 is on.
1570
1571 * Python API Improvements
1572
1573 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1574 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1575 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1576
1577 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1578 `is_base_class' attribute.
1579
1580 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1581
1582 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1583 evaluate an expression.
1584
1585 * New remote packets
1586
1587 QTDV
1588 Define a trace state variable.
1589
1590 qTV
1591 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1592
1593 QTDisconnected
1594 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1595
1596 QTBuffer:circular
1597 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1598
1599 qTfP, qTsP
1600 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1601
1602 * Bug fixes
1603
1604 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1605
1606 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1607 much more reliable. In particular:
1608 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1609 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1610 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1611 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1612 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1613 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1614 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1615 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1616 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1617 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1618 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1619 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1620 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1621 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1622 non-threaded programs.
1623
1624 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1625 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1626 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1627 executable program.
1628
1629 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
1630
1631 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1632 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1633 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1634 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1635 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1636
1637 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1638 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1639 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1640 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1641 for tracepoint actions.
1642
1643 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1644 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1645 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
1646
1647 * Process record and replay
1648
1649 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1650 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1651 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1652 execute commands.
1653
1654 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1655 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1656 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1657 reverse execution.
1658
1659 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1660 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
1661 2.6.28 or later.
1662
1663 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1664 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1665 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1666 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1667 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1668 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1669 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1670 the installation instructions for more information.
1671
1672 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1673 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1674 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1675 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1676
1677 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1678 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1679
1680 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1681 now complete on file names.
1682
1683 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1684 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1685 For instance, consider:
1686
1687 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1688 # struct example variable;
1689 (gdb) p variable.
1690
1691 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1692 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1693
1694 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1695 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1696
1697 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1698 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1699 macros.
1700
1701 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
1702 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1703 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1704
1705 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1706 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1707 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1708 and simulator targets may also provide them.
1709
1710 * New remote packets
1711
1712 qSearch:memory:
1713 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1714
1715 QStartNoAckMode
1716 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1717 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1718 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1719
1720 vKill
1721 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1722 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1723
1724 qXfer:osdata:read
1725 Obtains additional operating system information
1726
1727 qXfer:siginfo:read
1728 qXfer:siginfo:write
1729 Read or write additional signal information.
1730
1731 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1732
1733 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1734 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1735 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1736
1737 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
1738 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
1739
1740 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
1741 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1742 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
1743
1744 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1745 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1746
1747 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1748
1749 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1750
1751 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1752 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1753
1754 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
1755 list of section offsets.
1756
1757 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1758 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1759 have also been fixed.
1760
1761 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
1762 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1763 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
1764
1765 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1766 example, given:
1767
1768 template<typename T> class C { };
1769 C<char const *> c;
1770
1771 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1772
1773 ptype C<char const *>
1774 ptype C<char const*>
1775 ptype C<const char *>
1776 ptype C<const char*>
1777
1778 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1779
1780 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1781 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1782
1783 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1784 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1785 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1786
1787 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1788 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1789
1790 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1791 gdbserver.
1792
1793 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1794 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1795
1796 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1797 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1798 as appropriate.
1799
1800 * Python scripting
1801
1802 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1803 available is determined at configure time.
1804
1805 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1806
1807 * Ada tasking support
1808
1809 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1810 been introduced:
1811
1812 info tasks
1813 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1814 info task N
1815 Print detailed information about task number N.
1816 task
1817 Print the task number of the current task.
1818 task N
1819 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1820
1821 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1822 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1823
1824 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1825
1826 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1827 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1828 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1829 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1830 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1831 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1832 below.
1833
1834 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1835 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1836 information.
1837
1838 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1839 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1840 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1841 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1842 more information.
1843
1844 * Multi-architecture debugging.
1845
1846 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1847 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1848 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1849 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1850 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1851
1852 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1853 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1854 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1855 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1856 --enable-targets configure option.
1857
1858 * Non-stop mode debugging.
1859
1860 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1861 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1862 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1863 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1864 section in the user manual for more information.
1865
1866 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1867 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1868 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1869 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1870 extensions on linux targets.
1871
1872 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1873
1874 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1875 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1876 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1877 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1878 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1879 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1880 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1881 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1882 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1883
1884 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1885 val1 [, val2, ...]
1886 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1887
1888 maint set python print-stack
1889 maint show python print-stack
1890 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1891
1892 python [CODE]
1893 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1894
1895 macro define
1896 macro list
1897 macro undef
1898 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1899 interactively.
1900
1901 info os processes
1902 Show operating system information about processes.
1903
1904 info inferiors
1905 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1906
1907 inferior NUM
1908 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1909
1910 detach inferior NUM
1911 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1912
1913 kill inferior NUM
1914 Kill inferior number NUM.
1915
1916 * New options
1917
1918 set spu stop-on-load
1919 show spu stop-on-load
1920 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1921
1922 set spu auto-flush-cache
1923 show spu auto-flush-cache
1924 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1925 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1926
1927 set sh calling-convention
1928 show sh calling-convention
1929 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1930
1931 set debug timestamp
1932 show debug timestamp
1933 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1934
1935 set disassemble-next-line
1936 show disassemble-next-line
1937 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1938 the debuggee stops.
1939
1940 set remote noack-packet
1941 show remote noack-packet
1942 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1943 under "New remote packets."
1944
1945 set remote query-attached-packet
1946 show remote query-attached-packet
1947 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1948
1949 set remote read-siginfo-object
1950 show remote read-siginfo-object
1951 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1952 packet.
1953
1954 set remote write-siginfo-object
1955 show remote write-siginfo-object
1956 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1957 packet.
1958
1959 set remote reverse-continue
1960 show remote reverse-continue
1961 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1962
1963 set remote reverse-step
1964 show remote reverse-step
1965 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1966
1967 set displaced-stepping
1968 show displaced-stepping
1969 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1970 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1971 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1972
1973 set debug displaced
1974 show debug displaced
1975 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1976
1977 maint set internal-error
1978 maint show internal-error
1979 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1980
1981 maint set internal-warning
1982 maint show internal-warning
1983 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
1984
1985 set exec-wrapper
1986 show exec-wrapper
1987 unset exec-wrapper
1988 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1989
1990 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1991 show multiple-symbols
1992 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1993 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1994 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1995
1996 set breakpoint always-inserted
1997 show breakpoint always-inserted
1998 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1999 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2000 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2001
2002 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2003 show arm fallback-mode
2004 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2005 show arm force-mode
2006 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2007 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2008 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2009 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2010
2011 set disable-randomization
2012 show disable-randomization
2013 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2014 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2015 multiple debugging sessions.
2016
2017 set non-stop
2018 show non-stop
2019 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2020 a breakpoint.
2021
2022 set target-async
2023 show target-async
2024 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2025 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2026 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2027 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2028
2029 set target-wide-charset
2030 show target-wide-charset
2031 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2032 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2033
2034 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2035 show tcp auto-retry
2036 set tcp connect-timeout
2037 show tcp connect-timeout
2038 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2039 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2040 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2041
2042 set libthread-db-search-path
2043 show libthread-db-search-path
2044 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2045 libthread_db.
2046
2047 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2048 show schedule-multiple
2049 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2050 the current process.
2051
2052 set stack-cache
2053 show stack-cache
2054 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2055 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2056 affecting correctness.
2057
2058 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2059 show interactive-mode
2060 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2061 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2062 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2063 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2064 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2065
2066 * Removed commands
2067
2068 info forks
2069 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2070 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2071 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2072 command.
2073
2074 fork NUM
2075 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2076 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2077 alias for the `fork' command.
2078
2079 process PID
2080 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2081 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2082 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2083
2084 delete fork NUM
2085 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2086 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2087 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2088 fork' command.
2089
2090 detach fork NUM
2091 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2092 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2093 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2094 fork' command.
2095
2096 * New native configurations
2097
2098 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
2099
2100 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
2101
2102 * New targets
2103
2104 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
2105 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
2106 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
2107 S+core 3 score-*-*
2108
2109 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
2110 (mingw32ce) debugging.
2111
2112 * Removed commands
2113
2114 catch load
2115 catch unload
2116 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2117
2118 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
2119
2120 * New native configurations
2121
2122 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
2123 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
2124
2125 * New targets
2126
2127 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
2128 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
2129
2130 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2131
2132 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2133 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2134 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2135 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2136
2137 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2138 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2139
2140 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
2141 is resolved.
2142
2143 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
2144 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2145 and in inlined functions.
2146
2147 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2148 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2149 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2150
2151 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2152
2153 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2154 registers on PowerPC targets.
2155
2156 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2157 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2158
2159 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2160 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2161
2162 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2163 extended-remote mode.
2164
2165 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
2166 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2167 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2168 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
2169
2170 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2171 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2172 target architectures.
2173
2174 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2175 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2176 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2177 stored in two consecutive float registers.
2178
2179 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2180 breakpoints now.
2181
2182 * Improved support for debugging Ada
2183 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2184 include:
2185 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2186 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2187 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2188 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2189 of an assignment
2190 - Improved command completion in Ada
2191 - Several bug fixes
2192
2193 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2194 process.
2195
2196 * New commands
2197
2198 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2199 show print frame-arguments
2200 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2201 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2202
2203 remote put
2204 remote get
2205 remote delete
2206 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2207
2208 * New MI commands
2209
2210 -target-file-put
2211 -target-file-get
2212 -target-file-delete
2213 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2214
2215 * New remote packets
2216
2217 vFile:open:
2218 vFile:close:
2219 vFile:pread:
2220 vFile:pwrite:
2221 vFile:unlink:
2222 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
2223
2224 vAttach
2225 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2226 mode.
2227
2228 vRun
2229 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2230
2231 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
2232
2233 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2234 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2235 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2236
2237 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2238 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2239 -Bsymbolic linker option.
2240
2241 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2242 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2243 is not supported.
2244
2245 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2246 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2247
2248 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
2249 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
2250
2251 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2252
2253 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2254 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2255 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2256
2257 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2258 automatically displayed as character or string data.
2259
2260 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2261 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2262 as strings.
2263
2264 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2265 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
2266 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
2267
2268 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2269 iWMMXt coprocessor.
2270
2271 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2272 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2273 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2274
2275 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2276
2277 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2278
2279 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2280 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2281 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2282
2283 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2284 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2285
2286 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2287 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2288 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2289 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2290 Windows and SymbianOS).
2291
2292 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2293 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
2294
2295 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2296 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
2297
2298 * New commands
2299
2300 set remoteflow
2301 show remoteflow
2302 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2303 when debugging using remote targets.
2304
2305 set mem inaccessible-by-default
2306 show mem inaccessible-by-default
2307 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2308 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2309 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2310 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2311 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2312
2313 set breakpoint auto-hw
2314 show breakpoint auto-hw
2315 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2316 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2317 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2318 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2319 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2320 including "next" and "finish".
2321
2322 catch exception
2323 catch exception unhandled
2324 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2325
2326 catch assert
2327 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2328
2329 set sysroot
2330 show sysroot
2331 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2332 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2333 an alias to "set sysroot".
2334
2335 info spu
2336 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2337 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2338 architecture.
2339
2340 * New native configurations
2341
2342 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2343
2344 set tdesc filename
2345 unset tdesc filename
2346 show tdesc filename
2347 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2348 not query the target for its built-in description.
2349
2350 * New targets
2351
2352 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
2353 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
2354 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
2355
2356 * New remote packets
2357
2358 QPassSignals:
2359 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2360 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2361
2362 qXfer:features:read:
2363 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2364 features.
2365
2366 qXfer:spu:read:
2367 qXfer:spu:write:
2368 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2369 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2370
2371 qXfer:libraries:read:
2372 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2373 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2374 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2375 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2376
2377 * Removed targets
2378
2379 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2380
2381 alpha*-*-osf1*
2382 alpha*-*-osf2*
2383 d10v-*-*
2384 hppa*-*-hiux*
2385 i[34567]86-ncr-*
2386 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
2387 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2388 i[34567]86-*-netware*
2389 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2390 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2391 i[34567]86-*-sco*
2392 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2393 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
2394 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
2395 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2396 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2397 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
2398 i[34567]86-*-isc*
2399 m68*-cisco*-*
2400 m68*-tandem-*
2401 mips*-*-pe
2402 rs6000-*-lynxos*
2403 sh*-*-pe
2404
2405 * Other removed features
2406
2407 target abug
2408 target cpu32bug
2409 target est
2410 target rom68k
2411
2412 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2413
2414 target hms
2415 target e7000
2416 target sh3
2417 target sh3e
2418
2419 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2420 H8/300.
2421
2422 target ocd
2423
2424 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2425 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2426 interfaces.
2427
2428 DWARF 1 support
2429
2430 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2431 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2432
2433 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2434
2435 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2436 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2437 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2438 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2439
2440 MIPS ".pdr" sections
2441
2442 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2443 in debugging information.
2444
2445 Scheme support
2446
2447 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2448 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2449
2450 set mips stack-arg-size
2451 set mips saved-gpreg-size
2452
2453 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2454
2455 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
2456
2457 * New targets
2458
2459 Xtensa xtensa-elf
2460 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
2461
2462 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2463 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2464 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2465
2466 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2467 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2468 supported.
2469
2470 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2471 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2472
2473 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2474 stub provides the required support.
2475
2476 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2477 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2478
2479 * New commands
2480
2481 set substitute-path
2482 unset substitute-path
2483 show substitute-path
2484 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2485 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2486 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2487 between compilation and debugging.
2488
2489 set trace-commands
2490 show trace-commands
2491 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2492 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2493 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2494
2495 * REMOVED features
2496
2497 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2498
2499 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2500 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2501
2502 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2503
2504 * New remote packets
2505
2506 qSupported:
2507 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2508 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2509 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2510 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2511 target.
2512
2513 qXfer:auxv:read:
2514 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2515 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2516
2517 qXfer:memory-map:read:
2518 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2519 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2520
2521 vFlashErase:
2522 vFlashWrite:
2523 vFlashDone:
2524 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2525
2526 * Removed remote packets
2527
2528 qPart:auxv:read:
2529 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2530 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2531
2532 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
2533
2534 * New targets
2535
2536 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2537
2538 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2539
2540 * New commands
2541
2542 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2543 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2544
2545 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2546
2547 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2548
2549 restart <n> Return the program state to a
2550 previously saved state.
2551
2552 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2553
2554 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2555
2556 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2557 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2558
2559 info forks List forks of the user program that
2560 are available to be debugged.
2561
2562 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2563 forks of the user program that are
2564 available to be debugged.
2565
2566 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2567 that are available to be debugged (and
2568 kill the forked process).
2569
2570 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2571 that are available to be debugged (and
2572 allow the process to continue).
2573
2574 * New architecture
2575
2576 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2577
2578 * Improved Windows host support
2579
2580 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2581 native console support, and remote communications using either
2582 network sockets or serial ports.
2583
2584 * Improved Modula-2 language support
2585
2586 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2587 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2588 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2589 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2590 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2591 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2592
2593 * REMOVED features
2594
2595 The ARM rdi-share module.
2596
2597 The Netware NLM debug server.
2598
2599 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
2600
2601 * New native configurations
2602
2603 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
2604 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2605
2606 * New targets
2607
2608 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2609
2610 * New command line options
2611
2612 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2613 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2614 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2615 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2616 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2617 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2618 with the --command (-x) option.
2619
2620 * Deprecated commands removed
2621
2622 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2623 removed:
2624
2625 Command Replacement
2626 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2627 othernames set arm disassembler
2628 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2629 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2630 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2631 regs info registers
2632
2633 * New BSD user-level threads support
2634
2635 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2636 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2637 configurations are:
2638
2639 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2640 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2641 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2642
2643 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2644 are not yet supported.
2645
2646 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2647 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2648
2649 * REMOVED configurations and files
2650
2651 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
2652 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2653 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
2654
2655 * New "set print array-indexes" command
2656
2657 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2658 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2659 behavior.
2660
2661 * VAX floating point support
2662
2663 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2664
2665 * User-defined command support
2666
2667 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2668 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2669 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2670
2671 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2672
2673 * New command line option
2674
2675 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2676 debugging.
2677
2678 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2679
2680 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2681 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2682 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2683 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2684 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
2685
2686 * Internationalization
2687
2688 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2689 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2690 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2691
2692 * Ada
2693
2694 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2695 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2696 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2697
2698 * New native configurations
2699
2700 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2701
2702 * Remote 'p' packet
2703
2704 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2705 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2706
2707 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2708
2709 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2710 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2711 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2712 i386 application).
2713
2714 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2715 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2716 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2717 configurations:
2718
2719 hppa-*-hpux
2720 ia64-*-aix
2721 mips-*-irix*
2722 *-*-lynx
2723 mips-*-linux-gnu
2724 sds protocol
2725 xdr protocol
2726 powerpc bdm protocol
2727
2728 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2729 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2730
2731 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2732
2733 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2734 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2735 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2736 permanently REMOVED.
2737
2738 h8300-*-*
2739 mcore-*-*
2740 mn10300-*-*
2741 ns32k-*-*
2742 sh64-*-*
2743 v850-*-*
2744
2745 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2746
2747 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2748
2749 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2750 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2751 been fixed.
2752
2753 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2754
2755 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2756 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2757 IRIX long double values).
2758
2759 * VAX and "next"
2760
2761 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2762 command. This problem has been fixed.
2763
2764 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
2765
2766 * Fix for ``many threads''
2767
2768 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2769 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2770 error message:
2771
2772 ptrace: No such process.
2773 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2774
2775 This problem has been fixed.
2776
2777 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2778
2779 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2780 GDB to dump core).
2781
2782 * New ``start'' command.
2783
2784 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2785
2786 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2787
2788 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2789 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2790 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2791
2792 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2793 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2794 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2795 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2796 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2797 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2798 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2799 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2800 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2801
2802 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
2803
2804 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2805 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2806 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2807 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2808 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2809
2810 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2811 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2812 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
2813
2814 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2815
2816 * New native configurations
2817
2818 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
2819 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
2820 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2821 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
2822 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
2823 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
2824 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
2825
2826 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2827
2828 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2829 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2830 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2831 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2832 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2833 work, was also included.
2834
2835 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2836 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2837
2838 h8300-*-*
2839 mcore-*-*
2840 mn10300-*-*
2841 ns32k-*-*
2842 sh64-*-*
2843 v850-*-*
2844 xstormy16-*-*
2845
2846 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2847 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2848
2849 * REMOVED configurations and files
2850
2851 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2852 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2853 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2854 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2855 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2856 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2857 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2858 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2859 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2860 sonymips mips-sony-*
2861 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2862
2863 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2864
2865 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2866
2867 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2868 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2869 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2870 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2871 with GDB".
2872
2873 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2874
2875 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2876 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2877 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2878 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2879 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2880 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2881 are created.
2882
2883 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2884
2885 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
2886
2887 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2888 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2889 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2890
2891 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2892
2893 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2894 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2895
2896 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2897
2898 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2899 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2900 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2901
2902 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2903
2904 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2905 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2906
2907 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2908
2909 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2910 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2911 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2912
2913 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2914
2915 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2916 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2917 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2918
2919 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
2920
2921 * Removed --with-mmalloc
2922
2923 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2924 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2925
2926 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
2927
2928 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2929 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2930 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2931 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2932
2933 * Revised SPARC target
2934
2935 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2936 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
2937 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2938 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2939 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
2940
2941 * New C++ demangler
2942
2943 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2944 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2945 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2946 programs.
2947
2948 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2949
2950 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2951 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2952 encountered these.
2953
2954 * C++ nested types and namespaces
2955
2956 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2957 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2958 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2959 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2960 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2961 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2962 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2963 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2964 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2965
2966 * New native configurations
2967
2968 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
2969 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2970 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
2971 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2972 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
2973
2974 * New debugging protocols
2975
2976 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2977
2978 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2979
2980 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2981 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2982 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2983
2984 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2985
2986 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2987 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2988 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2989 permanently REMOVED.
2990
2991 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2992 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2993 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2994 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2995 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2996 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2997 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2998 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2999 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3000 sonymips mips-sony-*
3001 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3002
3003 * REMOVED configurations and files
3004
3005 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3006 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3007 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3008 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3009 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3010 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3011 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3012 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3013 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3014 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
3015 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3016 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3017 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3018 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3019 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
3020 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3021 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3022
3023 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3024
3025 * Objective-C
3026
3027 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3028 integrated into GDB.
3029
3030 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3031
3032 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3033 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3034 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3035 backtraces.
3036
3037 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3038 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3039 DWARF 2 CFI support.
3040
3041 * Hosted file I/O.
3042
3043 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3044 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3045 remote protocol documentation for details.
3046
3047 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
3048
3049 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3050 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3051 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3052 ppc32 on ppc64).
3053
3054 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3055
3056 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3057 per-thread variables.
3058
3059 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3060
3061 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3062 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3063
3064 * Separate debug info.
3065
3066 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3067 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3068 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3069 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3070 and optional debug files.
3071
3072 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3073
3074 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3075 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3076 debugger.
3077
3078 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3079 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3080
3081 * Java
3082
3083 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3084 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3085 considered "useable".
3086
3087 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3088
3089 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3090 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3091 kernel.
3092
3093 * GDB supports logging output to a file
3094
3095 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
3096 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
3097
3098 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
3099
3100 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
3101 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
3102 command.
3103
3104 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
3105
3106 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
3107 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
3108
3109 * Profiling support
3110
3111 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
3112 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
3113 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
3114 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
3115 data, for more informative profiling results.
3116
3117 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3118
3119 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3120 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
3121 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
3122
3123 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3124 removed.
3125
3126 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3127 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3128 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3129 in a subsequent -var-update.
3130
3131 * New native configurations.
3132
3133 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3134
3135 * Multi-arched targets.
3136
3137 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
3138 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3139
3140 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3141
3142 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3143 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3144 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3145 permanently REMOVED.
3146
3147 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3148 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3149 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3150 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3151 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3152 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3153 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3154 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3155 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3156 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3157 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3158 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3159
3160 * REMOVED configurations and files
3161
3162 V850EA ISA
3163 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3164 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3165 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3166 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3167 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3168 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3169 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3170 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3171 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3172 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3173 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3174 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3175 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3176
3177 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
3178
3179 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3180 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3181 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3182 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3183 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3184
3185 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
3186
3187 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3188
3189 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3190 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3191 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3192 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3193 shared libs like mad''.
3194
3195 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
3196
3197 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3198 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3199 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3200 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
3201
3202 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3203
3204 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3205 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3206 they expand.
3207
3208 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3209 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3210
3211 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3212 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3213
3214 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3215 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3216 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3217 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3218
3219 * Multi-arched targets.
3220
3221 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3222 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
3223 NEC V850 v850-*-*
3224 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
3225 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3226 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3227
3228 * New targets.
3229
3230 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3231
3232
3233 * New native configurations
3234
3235 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
3236 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
3237 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
3238 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
3239
3240 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3241
3242 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3243 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3244 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3245 permanently REMOVED.
3246
3247 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3248 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3249 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3250 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3251 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3252 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3253 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3254 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3255 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3256 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3257 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3258 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3259 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3260
3261 * OBSOLETE languages
3262
3263 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3264
3265 * REMOVED configurations and files
3266
3267 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3268 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3269 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3270 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3271 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3272
3273 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3274
3275 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3276
3277 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3278 commands. The default is 1024.
3279
3280 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3281
3282 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3283
3284 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3285
3286 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3287 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3288 from a file into memory (restore).
3289
3290 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3291
3292 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3293 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3294 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3295
3296 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3297
3298 * New targets.
3299
3300 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
3301
3302 * Bug fixes
3303
3304 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3305 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3306 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3307
3308 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3309 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3310 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3311
3312 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3313 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3314 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3315
3316 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3317 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3318 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3319
3320 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
3321
3322 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3323
3324 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3325 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3326 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3327 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3328 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3329 (notably embedded) targets.
3330
3331 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3332
3333 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3334 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3335 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3336 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
3337
3338 * New command line option
3339
3340 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3341
3342 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3343
3344 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3345 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3346 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3347 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3348 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3349 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3350 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3351 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3352 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3353 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3354
3355 * Changes in ARM configurations.
3356
3357 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3358 configuration is fully multi-arch.
3359
3360 * New native configurations
3361
3362 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
3363 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
3364 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
3365 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
3366
3367 * New targets
3368
3369 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3370
3371 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3372
3373 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3374 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3375 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3376 permanently REMOVED.
3377
3378 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3379 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3380 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3381 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3382 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3383
3384 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3385
3386 * REMOVED configurations and files
3387
3388 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3389 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3390 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3391 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3392 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3393 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3394 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3395 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3396 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3397 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3398 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3399 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3400 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
3401
3402 * Changes to command line processing
3403
3404 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3405 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3406
3407 * Changes to key bindings
3408
3409 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3410
3411 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3412
3413 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3414
3415 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3416 corrupted.
3417
3418 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3419
3420 Numerous documentation fixes.
3421
3422 Numerous testsuite fixes.
3423
3424 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
3425
3426 * New native configurations
3427
3428 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3429 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
3430 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
3431 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3432 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
3433 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
3434
3435 * New targets
3436
3437 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
3438 CRIS cris-axis
3439 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
3440
3441 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3442
3443 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
3444 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
3445 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3446 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
3447 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3448 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3449 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3450 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3451 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3452 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
3453 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
3454 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3455 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
3456 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
3457
3458 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3459 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3460
3461 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3462 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3463 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3464 permanently REMOVED.
3465
3466 * REMOVED configurations and files
3467
3468 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3469 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3470 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3471 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3472 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
3473 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
3474
3475 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
3476
3477 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
3478 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3479 present.
3480
3481 * Other news:
3482
3483 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3484
3485 * The MI enabled by default.
3486
3487 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3488 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3489 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3490 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3491 which is now deprecated.
3492
3493 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3494
3495 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3496 main features are supported:
3497
3498 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3499
3500 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3501 extension;
3502
3503 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3504
3505 - a Pascal expression parser.
3506
3507 However, some important features are not yet supported.
3508
3509 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3510
3511 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3512
3513 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3514 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3515
3516 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3517
3518 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3519
3520 * Changes in completion.
3521
3522 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3523 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3524 users expect at the shell prompt.
3525
3526 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3527 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3528 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3529 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3530 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3531 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3532 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3533
3534 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3535
3536 * New platform-independent commands:
3537
3538 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3539 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3540 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3541
3542 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3543
3544 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3545 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3546 many threads as your system allows you to have.
3547
3548 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3549
3550 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3551 multi-threaded programs though.
3552
3553 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
3554
3555 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3556
3557 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3558 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3559 supported.)
3560
3561 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3562
3563 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3564 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3565 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3566 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3567 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3568 registers.
3569
3570 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3571 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3572 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3573
3574 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3575
3576 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3577 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3578
3579 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3580 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3581 IDT.
3582
3583 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3584 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3585 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3586 a given linear address.
3587
3588 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3589 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3590 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3591
3592 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3593
3594 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3595
3596 * Changes in documentation.
3597
3598 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3599 Documentation License.
3600
3601 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3602 manual.
3603
3604 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3605
3606 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3607 manual.
3608
3609 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3610 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3611 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3612
3613 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3614
3615 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3616 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3617 contents of this file.
3618
3619 * gdba.el deleted
3620
3621 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
3622
3623 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
3624
3625 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3626
3627 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3628 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3629 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3630 greater level of detail.
3631
3632 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3633
3634 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3635 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3636 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3637 written.
3638
3639 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3640
3641 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3642 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3643 machines ``out of the box''.
3644
3645 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3646 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3647 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3648 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3649 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3650
3651 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3652 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3653 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3654 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3655 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3656
3657 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3658 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3659 also works.
3660
3661 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3662 GDB.
3663
3664 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3665 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3666 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3667 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3668
3669 * New native configurations
3670
3671 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
3672 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3673
3674 * New targets
3675
3676 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
3677 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3678 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
3679 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3680
3681 * OBSOLETE configurations
3682
3683 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3684 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3685 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3686 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3687 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
3688
3689 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3690 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3691 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3692 be permanently REMOVED.
3693
3694 * Gould support removed
3695
3696 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3697
3698 * New features for SVR4
3699
3700 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3701 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3702 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3703
3704 * Many C++ enhancements
3705
3706 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3707 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3708
3709 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3710
3711 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3712 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3713 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3714 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3715
3716 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3717 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3718
3719 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
3720
3721 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3722 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3723 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3724
3725 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3726 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3727
3728 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3729
3730 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3731 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3732 include ``set remote P-packet''.
3733
3734 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3735
3736 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3737 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3738 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3739
3740 * ``apropos'' command added.
3741
3742 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3743 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3744 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3745
3746 * New MI interface
3747
3748 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3749 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
3750 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3751 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3752 enabled by configuring with:
3753
3754 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3755
3756 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3757
3758 * New native configurations
3759
3760 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3761 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
3762 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
3763
3764 * New targets
3765
3766 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3767 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3768 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3769
3770 * OBSOLETE configurations
3771
3772 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3773
3774 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3775 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3776 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3777 be permanently REMOVED.
3778
3779 * ANSI/ISO C
3780
3781 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3782 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3783 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3784 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3785 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3786 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3787 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3788 already.
3789
3790 * Readline 2.2
3791
3792 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3793
3794 * set extension-language
3795
3796 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3797 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3798 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3799 set extension-language .c c++
3800 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3801 and their associated languages.
3802
3803 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3804
3805 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3806 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3807 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3808
3809 set processor NAME
3810
3811 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3812 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3813
3814 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3815 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3816 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3817 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3818 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3819 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3820 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3821 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3822 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3823 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3824 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3825
3826 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3827 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3828 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3829 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3830
3831 * HP-UX support
3832
3833 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3834 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3835 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3836 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3837 for xdb and dbx commands.
3838
3839 * Catchpoints
3840
3841 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3842 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3843 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3844
3845 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3846 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3847 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3848
3849 * Debugging across forks
3850
3851 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3852 in the inferior.
3853
3854 * TUI
3855
3856 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3857 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3858 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3859
3860 * GDB remote protocol additions
3861
3862 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3863 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3864 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3865 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3866
3867 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3868 full 64-bit address. The command
3869
3870 set remoteaddresssize 32
3871
3872 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3873 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3874 will be discarded.
3875
3876 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3877 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3878
3879 maint packet heythere
3880
3881 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3882 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3883 time.
3884
3885 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3886 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3887 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3888
3889 * Tracing can collect general expressions
3890
3891 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3892 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3893 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3894
3895 * mask-address variable for Mips
3896
3897 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3898 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3899 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3900
3901 * Higher serial baud rates
3902
3903 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3904 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3905 to achieve all of these rates.)
3906
3907 * i960 simulator
3908
3909 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3910 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3911
3912
3913 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3914
3915 * New native configurations
3916
3917 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3918 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3919 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3920 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3921 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3922 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3923 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3924
3925 * New targets
3926
3927 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3928 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3929 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3930 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3931 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3932 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3933 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3934 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3935 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3936 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3937 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3938
3939 * New debugging protocols
3940
3941 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3942 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3943 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3944 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3945 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3946 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3947
3948 * DWARF 2
3949
3950 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3951 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3952 information.
3953
3954 * Java frontend
3955
3956 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3957 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3958
3959 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3960
3961 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3962 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3963 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3964
3965 * Live range splitting
3966
3967 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3968 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3969 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3970
3971 * Hurd support
3972
3973 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3974 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3975
3976 * ARM Thumb support
3977
3978 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3979 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3980 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3981 accordingly.
3982
3983 * MIPS16 support
3984
3985 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3986 instruction set.
3987
3988 * Overlay support
3989
3990 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3991 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3992 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3993 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3994 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3995 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3996
3997 * info symbol
3998
3999 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4000 the symbol at the specified address.
4001
4002 * Trace support
4003
4004 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4005 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4006 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4007 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4008 file tracepoint.c for more details.
4009
4010 * MIPS simulator
4011
4012 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4013 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4014 of most MIPS variants.
4015
4016 * Sparc simulator
4017
4018 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4019 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4020 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4021
4022 * set architecture
4023
4024 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4025 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4026 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4027 the possible architectures.
4028
4029 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4030
4031 * New native configurations
4032
4033 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4034 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4035 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4036 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4037 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4038 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4039
4040 * New targets
4041
4042 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4043 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4044 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4045 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4046 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4047 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
4048 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4049
4050 * PowerPC simulator
4051
4052 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4053 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4054 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4055 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4056 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4057
4058 * Solaris 2.5
4059
4060 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4061
4062 * Windows 95/NT native
4063
4064 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4065 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4066 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4067 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4068 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4069
4070 * dont-repeat command
4071
4072 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4073 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4074 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4075 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4076
4077 * Send break instead of ^C
4078
4079 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4080 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4081 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4082
4083 * Remote protocol timeout
4084
4085 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4086 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4087 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4088
4089 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4090
4091 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4092 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4093 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4094 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4095 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
4096
4097 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
4098 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
4099 automatically on hpux10.
4100
4101 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
4102
4103 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
4104
4105 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
4106
4107 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
4108 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
4109 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
4110 every character. The default value is 1050.
4111
4112 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
4113
4114 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
4115 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
4116 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4117 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4118 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4119 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4120
4121 * Speedups for remote debugging
4122
4123 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4124 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4125 and more efficient S-record downloading.
4126
4127 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4128
4129 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4130 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4131
4132 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4133
4134 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
4135
4136 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4137 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4138
4139 * Remote targets use caching
4140
4141 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4142 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4143 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4144 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4145 off' turns the the data cache off.
4146
4147 * Remote targets may have threads
4148
4149 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4150 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4151 gdb/remote.c for details.
4152
4153 * NetROM support
4154
4155 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4156 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4157 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4158 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4159 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4160 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4161 sequence is something like
4162
4163 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4164 load <prog>
4165 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4166
4167 * Macintosh host
4168
4169 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4170 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4171 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4172 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4173 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4174 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4175 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4176 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4177
4178 * Autoconf
4179
4180 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4181 but does simplify configuration and building.
4182
4183 * hpux10
4184
4185 GDB now supports hpux10.
4186
4187 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4188
4189 * New native configurations
4190
4191 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4192 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4193 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4194 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4195
4196 * New targets
4197
4198 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4199 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4200 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4201 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4202 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4203
4204 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4205
4206 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4207 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4208 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4209 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4210 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4211
4212 * Arguments to user-defined commands
4213
4214 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4215 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4216 trivial example:
4217 define adder
4218 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4219
4220 To execute the command use:
4221 adder 1 2 3
4222
4223 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4224 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4225 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4226
4227 * New `if' and `while' commands
4228
4229 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4230 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4231 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4232 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4233 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4234 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4235 if the expression is zero.
4236
4237 * Fortran source language mode
4238
4239 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4240 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4241 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4242 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4243 Fortran compilers.
4244
4245 * Better HPUX support
4246
4247 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4248 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4249 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4250 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4251 that behavior do the following before running the program:
4252
4253 adb -w a.out
4254 __dld_flags?W 0x5
4255 control-d
4256
4257 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4258 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4259
4260 adb -w a.out
4261 __dld_flags?W 0x4
4262 control-d
4263
4264 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4265 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4266 external linkage.
4267
4268 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4269 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4270
4271 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4272
4273 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4274 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4275 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4276 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4277 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4278 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4279
4280 * New DOS host serial code
4281
4282 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4283 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4284 a PC's serial port.
4285
4286 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4287
4288 * New "complete" command
4289
4290 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4291 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4292
4293 * Trailing space optional in prompt
4294
4295 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4296 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4297
4298 * Breakpoint hit counts
4299
4300 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4301 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4302 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4303 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4304 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4305 that breakpoint.
4306
4307 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4308
4309 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4310 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4311 arrays actually contain only short strings.
4312
4313 * Shared library breakpoints
4314
4315 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4316 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4317
4318 * Hardware watchpoints
4319
4320 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4321 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4322
4323 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
4324
4325 * Annotations
4326
4327 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4328 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4329
4330 * Improved Irix 5 support
4331
4332 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4333
4334 * Improved HPPA support
4335
4336 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4337
4338 * New native configurations
4339
4340 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4341 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4342 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4343 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4344
4345 * New targets
4346
4347 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4348 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4349 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
4350
4351 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4352
4353 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4354 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4355
4356 * Fixes
4357
4358 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4359 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4360
4361 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4362
4363 * Irix 5 is now supported
4364
4365 * HPPA support
4366
4367 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4368 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4369 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4370 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4371 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4372
4373
4374 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4375
4376 * User visible changes:
4377
4378 * Remote Debugging
4379
4380 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4381 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4382 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4383 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4384 debugging info for the mips target).
4385
4386 * DEC Alpha native support
4387
4388 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4389 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4390 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4391 Alpha-specific notes.
4392
4393 * Preliminary thread implementation
4394
4395 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4396
4397 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
4398
4399 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4400 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4401 for details).
4402
4403 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4404
4405 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4406 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4407 call methods, ...etc.
4408
4409 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4410
4411 * User visible changes:
4412
4413 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4414 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4415 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4416 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4417
4418 Filename completion now works.
4419
4420 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4421 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4422 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4423
4424 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4425 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4426 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4427 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4428 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4429
4430 * DEC alpha support
4431
4432 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4433 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4434
4435
4436 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4437
4438 * Testsuite
4439
4440 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4441 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4442 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4443
4444 * C++ demangling
4445
4446 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4447 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4448 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4449 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4450 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4451
4452 * Simulators
4453
4454 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4455 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4456 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4457
4458 * New targets supported
4459
4460 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4461 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4462 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4463 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4464 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4465
4466 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4467 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4468 GO32 memory extender.
4469
4470 * New remote protocols
4471
4472 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4473
4474 * New source languages supported
4475
4476 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4477 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4478 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4479
4480
4481 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4482
4483 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4484
4485 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4486 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4487 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4488 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4489 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4490 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4491
4492 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4493
4494 * Faster and better demangling
4495
4496 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4497 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4498 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4499 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4500 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4501 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4502 symbol lookups.
4503
4504 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4505 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4506 compiler does not actually implement.
4507
4508 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4509
4510 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4511 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4512 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4513 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4514 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4515 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4516 fix.
4517
4518 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4519 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4520
4521 * Improved configure script
4522
4523 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4524 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4525 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4526 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4527
4528 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4529 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4530 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4531 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4532 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4533 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4534
4535 * Documentation improvements
4536
4537 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4538 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4539 before submitting changes.
4540
4541 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4542 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4543 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4544 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4545 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4546
4547 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4548 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4549 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4550 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4551 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4552 around this problem.
4553
4554 * New features
4555
4556 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4557 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4558 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4559 the target program.
4560
4561 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4562 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4563
4564 * New native hosts supported
4565
4566 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4567 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4568
4569 * New targets supported
4570
4571 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4572
4573 * New file formats supported
4574
4575 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4576 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4577
4578 * Major bug fixes
4579
4580 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4581
4582 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4583 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4584
4585 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4586 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4587 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4588
4589 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4590 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4591
4592 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4593 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4594 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4595 libraries.
4596
4597 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4598 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4599 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4600 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4601 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4602
4603 * Internal improvements
4604
4605 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4606 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4607
4608 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4609 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4610 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4611 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4612 shared code that handles any of them.
4613
4614 * New command line options
4615
4616 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4617
4618 * Mmalloc licensing
4619
4620 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4621 General Public License.
4622
4623 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4624
4625 * Host/native/target split
4626
4627 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4628 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4629 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4630 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4631 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4632
4633 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4634 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4635 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4636 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4637 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4638 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4639 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4640
4641 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4642 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4643 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4644
4645 * New hosts supported
4646
4647 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4648 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4649 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4650
4651 * New targets supported
4652
4653 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4654 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4655
4656 * New native hosts supported
4657
4658 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4659 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4660 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4661
4662 * New file formats supported
4663
4664 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4665 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4666 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4667
4668 * New commands
4669
4670 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4671 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4672 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4673
4674 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4675
4676 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4677 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4678 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4679 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4680
4681 * C++ improvements
4682
4683 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4684 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4685 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4686
4687 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4688
4689 * Major bug fixes
4690
4691 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4692 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4693 by the compiler.
4694
4695 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4696 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4697
4698 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4699 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4700 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4701 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4702 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4703 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4704
4705 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4706 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4707 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4708 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4709
4710 * AMD 29k support
4711
4712 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4713 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4714 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4715 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4716 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4717
4718 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4719 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4720 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4721 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4722
4723 * Remote interfaces
4724
4725 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4726 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4727 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4728 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4729 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4730 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4731 each instruction being stepped through.
4732
4733 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4734 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4735
4736 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4737 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4738 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4739 processor with a serial port.
4740
4741 * Configuration
4742
4743 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4744 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4745 supported, and what files each one uses.
4746
4747 * Library changes
4748
4749 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4750 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4751 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4752 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4753
4754 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4755 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4756 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4757 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4758
4759 * Documentation
4760
4761 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4762 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4763 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4764 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4765 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4766 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4767
4768 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4769
4770
4771 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4772
4773 * Better support for C++ function names
4774
4775 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4776 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4777 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4778 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4779 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4780
4781 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4782 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4783 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4784 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4785 for the list of formats.
4786
4787 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4788
4789 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4790 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4791 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4792 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4793 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4794 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4795 this problem.)
4796
4797 * New 'maintenance' command
4798
4799 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4800 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4801 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4802
4803 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4804 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4805 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4806 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4807 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4808 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4809
4810 The following commands are new:
4811
4812 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4813 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4814 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4815
4816 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4817
4818 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4819 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4820 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4821 read after argv processing.
4822
4823 * New hosts supported
4824
4825 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4826
4827 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
4828
4829 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4830 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4831 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4832 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4833 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4834 It costs extra.
4835
4836 * New targets supported
4837
4838 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4839
4840 * More smarts about finding #include files
4841
4842 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4843 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4844 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4845 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4846 the one that contains your sources.
4847
4848 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4849 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4850 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4851
4852 * Interesting infernals change
4853
4854 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4855 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4856 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4857 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4858
4859 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4860
4861 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4862 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4863 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4864
4865 See the ChangeLog for details.
4866
4867 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4868
4869 * New machines supported (host and target)
4870
4871 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4872
4873 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4874
4875 * New malloc package
4876
4877 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4878 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4879 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4880 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4881 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4882 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4883
4884 * info proc
4885
4886 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4887 'help info proc' for details.
4888
4889 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4890
4891 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4892 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4893 possible.
4894
4895 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4896
4897 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4898 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4899 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4900 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4901 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4902 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4903
4904 * Cross byte order fixes
4905
4906 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4907 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4908
4909 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4910
4911 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4912 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4913 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4914 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4915 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4916 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4917 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4918 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4919 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4920 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4921
4922 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4923 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4924 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4925 slower, but makes future operations faster.
4926
4927 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4928 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4929 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4930 use is:
4931
4932 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4933
4934 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4935 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4936 shared across multiple host platforms.
4937
4938 * longjmp() handling
4939
4940 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4941 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4942 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4943 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4944
4945 * Solaris 2.0
4946
4947 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4948 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4949 reading symbols.
4950
4951 * Bug fixes
4952
4953 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4954 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4955 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4956
4957 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4958
4959 * New machines supported (host and target)
4960
4961 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4962 (except core files)
4963 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4964 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4965
4966 * New machines supported (target)
4967
4968 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4969
4970 * C++ support
4971
4972 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4973 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4974 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4975
4976 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4977 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4978 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4979 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4980 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4981 released.
4982
4983 * New features for SVR4
4984
4985 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4986 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4987 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4988
4989 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4990 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4991 it prints the address mappings of the process.
4992
4993 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4994 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4995
4996 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4997
4998 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4999 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5000 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5001 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5002 same code linked statically.
5003
5004 * New Getopt
5005
5006 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5007 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5008 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5009 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5010 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5011 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5012
5013 * Bugs fixed
5014
5015 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5016 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5017 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5018
5019
5020 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5021
5022 * New machines supported (host and target)
5023
5024 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5025 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5026 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5027
5028 * Almost SCO Unix support
5029
5030 We had hoped to support:
5031 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5032 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5033 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5034 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5035
5036 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5037
5038 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5039 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5040 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5041 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5042 reqired (if any).
5043
5044 * New Readline
5045
5046 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5047 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5048 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5049
5050 * Bugs fixed
5051
5052 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5053 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5054 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5055
5056 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5057
5058 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5059 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5060 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5061
5062 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5063 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5064 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5065 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5066 version 2.
5067
5068 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5069 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5070 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5071 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5072 situation somewhat.
5073
5074 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5075 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5076 methods.
5077
5078 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5079 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5080 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5081
5082
5083 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5084
5085 * Improved configuration
5086
5087 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5088 Porting BFD is simpler.
5089
5090 * Stepping improved
5091
5092 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5093 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5094 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5095 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
5096
5097 * Bug fixing
5098
5099 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
5100
5101 * New host supported (not target)
5102
5103 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
5104
5105
5106 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
5107
5108 * Multiple source language support
5109
5110 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
5111 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
5112 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
5113 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
5114 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
5115 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
5116
5117 * GDB and Modula-2
5118
5119 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5120 currently under development at the State University of New York at
5121 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5122 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5123
5124 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5125 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5126 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5127
5128 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5129 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5130
5131 * set write on/off
5132
5133 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5134 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5135 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5136 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5137 effect immediately.
5138
5139 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5140
5141 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5142 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5143 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5144 examining core files.
5145
5146 * set listsize
5147
5148 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5149 The default is 10.
5150
5151 * New machines supported (host and target)
5152
5153 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5154 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5155 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5156
5157 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5158
5159 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5160
5161 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5162
5163 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5164 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5165 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5166
5167 * New remote interfaces
5168
5169 AMD 29000 Adapt
5170 AMD 29000 Minimon
5171
5172
5173 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5174
5175 * New Facilities
5176
5177 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5178
5179 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5180 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5181 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5182 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5183 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5184 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5185 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5186 stub on the target system.
5187
5188 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5189
5190 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5191 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5192 object file types such as a.out and coff.
5193
5194 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5195 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5196
5197
5198 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5199
5200 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5201 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5202
5203 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5204 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5205 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5206
5207 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5208 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5209 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5210 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5211
5212 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5213 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5214 it is already running. Default is ON.
5215
5216 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5217 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5218 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5219 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5220 Default is ON.
5221
5222 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5223 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5224 or the value of the environment variable
5225 GDBHISTFILE.
5226
5227 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5228 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5229 HISTSIZE.
5230
5231 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5232 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5233 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5234
5235 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5236 history expansion will be performed on
5237 command line input. The default is OFF.
5238
5239 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5240 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5241 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5242
5243 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5244 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5245 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5246 variable TERM.
5247
5248 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5249 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5250 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5251 variable TERM.
5252
5253 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5254 ``set width'' instead.
5255
5256 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5257 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5258 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5259 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5260
5261 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5262 is OFF.
5263
5264 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5265 "raw" form if off.
5266
5267 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5268 like instructions.
5269
5270 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5271
5272
5273 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5274
5275 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5276 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5277 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5278 window.
5279
5280
5281 * Support for Shared Libraries
5282
5283 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5284 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5285 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5286 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5287 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5288 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5289 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5290 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5291
5292 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5293 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5294 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5295
5296 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5297
5298
5299 * Watchpoints
5300
5301 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5302 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5303 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5304 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5305 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5306 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5307
5308 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5309
5310 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5311
5312 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5313 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5314 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5315
5316
5317 * C++ multiple inheritance
5318
5319 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5320 for C++ programs.
5321
5322 * C++ exception handling
5323
5324 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5325 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5326 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5327 handler's context).
5328
5329 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5330 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5331 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5332
5333 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5334 current stack frame.
5335
5336
5337 * Minor command changes
5338
5339 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5340 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5341 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5342
5343 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5344 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5345 frames without printing.
5346
5347 * New directory command
5348
5349 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5350 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5351 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5352 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5353 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5354
5355 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5356
5357 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5358 for more details.
5359
5360 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5361 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5362 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5363 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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