1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.4
8 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
9 only if it doesn't already have a value.
13 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
15 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
17 * New native configurations
19 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
20 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
24 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
26 * New command line options
28 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
29 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
30 the child (debugged) program exited with.
31 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
32 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
33 specified multiple times and in conjunction
34 with the --command (-x) option.
36 * Deprecated commands removed
38 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
42 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
43 othernames set arm disassembler
44 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
45 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
46 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
49 * New BSD user-level threads support
51 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
52 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
55 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
56 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
57 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
59 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
60 are not yet supported.
62 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
63 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
65 * REMOVED configurations and files
67 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
68 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
69 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
71 * New "set print array-indexes" command
73 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
74 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
77 * VAX floating point support
79 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
81 * User-defined command support
83 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
84 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
85 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
87 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
89 * New command line option
91 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
94 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
96 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
97 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
98 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
99 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
100 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
102 * Internationalization
104 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
105 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
106 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
110 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
111 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
112 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
114 * New native configurations
116 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
120 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
121 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
123 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
125 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
126 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
127 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
130 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
131 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
132 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
144 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
145 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
147 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
149 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
150 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
151 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
161 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
163 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
165 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
166 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
169 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
171 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
172 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
173 IRIX long double values).
177 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
178 command. This problem has been fixed.
180 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
182 * Fix for ``many threads''
184 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
185 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
188 ptrace: No such process.
189 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
191 This problem has been fixed.
193 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
195 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
198 * New ``start'' command.
200 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
202 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
204 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
205 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
206 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
208 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
209 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
210 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
211 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
212 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
213 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
214 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
215 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
216 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
218 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
220 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
221 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
222 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
223 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
224 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
226 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
227 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
228 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
230 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
232 * New native configurations
234 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
235 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
236 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
237 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
238 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
239 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
240 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
242 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
244 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
245 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
246 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
247 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
248 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
249 work, was also included.
251 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
252 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
262 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
263 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
265 * REMOVED configurations and files
267 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
268 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
269 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
270 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
271 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
272 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
273 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
274 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
275 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
277 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
279 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
281 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
283 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
284 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
285 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
286 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
289 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
291 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
292 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
293 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
294 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
295 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
296 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
299 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
301 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
303 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
304 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
305 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
307 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
309 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
310 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
312 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
314 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
315 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
316 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
318 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
320 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
321 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
323 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
325 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
326 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
327 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
329 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
331 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
332 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
333 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
335 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
337 * Removed --with-mmalloc
339 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
340 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
342 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
344 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
345 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
346 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
347 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
349 * Revised SPARC target
351 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
352 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
353 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
354 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
355 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
359 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
360 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
361 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
364 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
366 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
367 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
370 * C++ nested types and namespaces
372 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
373 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
374 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
375 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
376 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
377 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
378 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
379 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
380 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
382 * New native configurations
384 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
385 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
386 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
387 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
388 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
390 * New debugging protocols
392 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
394 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
396 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
397 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
398 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
400 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
402 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
403 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
404 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
407 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
408 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
409 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
410 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
411 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
412 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
413 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
414 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
415 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
417 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
419 * REMOVED configurations and files
421 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
422 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
423 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
424 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
425 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
426 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
427 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
428 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
429 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
430 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
431 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
432 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
433 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
434 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
435 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
436 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
437 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
439 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
443 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
446 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
448 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
449 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
450 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
453 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
454 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
459 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
460 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
461 remote protocol documentation for details.
463 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
465 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
466 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
467 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
470 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
472 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
473 per-thread variables.
475 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
477 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
478 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
480 * Separate debug info.
482 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
483 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
484 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
485 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
486 and optional debug files.
488 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
490 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
491 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
494 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
495 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
499 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
500 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
501 considered "useable".
503 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
505 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
506 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
509 * GDB supports logging output to a file
511 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
512 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
514 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
516 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
517 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
520 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
522 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
523 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
527 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
528 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
529 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
530 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
531 data, for more informative profiling results.
533 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
535 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
536 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
537 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
539 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
542 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
543 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
544 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
545 in a subsequent -var-update.
547 * New native configurations.
549 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
551 * Multi-arched targets.
553 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
554 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
556 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
558 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
559 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
560 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
563 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
564 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
565 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
566 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
567 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
568 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
569 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
570 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
571 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
572 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
573 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
574 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
576 * REMOVED configurations and files
579 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
580 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
581 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
582 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
583 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
584 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
586 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
587 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
588 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
589 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
590 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
591 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
593 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
595 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
596 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
597 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
598 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
599 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
601 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
603 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
605 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
606 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
607 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
608 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
609 shared libs like mad''.
611 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
613 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
614 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
615 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
616 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
618 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
620 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
621 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
624 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
625 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
627 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
628 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
630 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
631 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
632 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
633 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
635 * Multi-arched targets.
637 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
638 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
640 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
641 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
642 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
646 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
649 * New native configurations
651 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
652 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
653 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
654 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
656 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
658 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
659 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
660 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
663 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
664 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
665 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
666 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
667 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
668 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
669 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
670 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
671 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
672 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
674 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
675 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
679 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
681 * REMOVED configurations and files
683 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
684 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
685 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
686 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
687 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
689 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
691 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
693 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
694 commands. The default is 1024.
696 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
698 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
700 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
702 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
703 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
704 from a file into memory (restore).
706 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
708 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
709 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
710 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
712 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
720 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
721 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
722 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
724 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
725 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
726 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
728 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
729 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
730 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
732 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
733 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
734 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
736 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
738 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
740 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
741 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
742 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
743 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
744 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
745 (notably embedded) targets.
747 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
749 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
750 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
751 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
752 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
754 * New command line option
756 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
758 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
760 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
761 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
762 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
763 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
764 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
765 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
766 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
767 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
768 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
769 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
771 * Changes in ARM configurations.
773 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
774 configuration is fully multi-arch.
776 * New native configurations
778 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
779 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
780 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
781 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
785 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
787 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
789 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
790 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
791 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
794 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
795 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
796 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
797 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
798 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
800 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
802 * REMOVED configurations and files
804 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
806 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
807 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
808 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
809 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
810 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
811 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
812 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
813 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
814 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
815 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
816 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
818 * Changes to command line processing
820 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
821 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
823 * Changes to key bindings
825 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
827 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
829 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
831 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
834 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
836 Numerous documentation fixes.
838 Numerous testsuite fixes.
840 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
842 * New native configurations
844 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
845 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
846 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
847 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
849 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
853 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
855 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
857 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
859 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
860 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
861 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
862 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
863 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
865 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
866 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
867 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
868 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
869 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
870 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
871 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
872 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
874 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
875 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
877 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
878 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
879 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
882 * REMOVED configurations and files
884 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
885 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
887 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
891 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
893 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
894 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
899 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
901 * The MI enabled by default.
903 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
904 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
905 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
906 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
907 which is now deprecated.
909 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
911 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
912 main features are supported:
914 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
916 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
919 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
921 - a Pascal expression parser.
923 However, some important features are not yet supported.
925 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
927 - there are some problems with boolean types;
929 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
930 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
932 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
934 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
936 * Changes in completion.
938 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
939 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
940 users expect at the shell prompt.
942 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
943 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
944 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
945 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
946 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
947 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
948 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
950 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
952 * New platform-independent commands:
954 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
955 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
956 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
958 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
960 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
961 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
962 many threads as your system allows you to have.
964 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
966 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
967 multi-threaded programs though.
969 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
971 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
973 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
974 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
977 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
979 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
980 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
981 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
982 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
983 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
986 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
987 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
988 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
990 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
992 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
993 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
995 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
996 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
999 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1000 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1001 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1002 a given linear address.
1004 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1005 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1006 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1008 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1010 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1012 * Changes in documentation.
1014 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1015 Documentation License.
1017 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1020 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1022 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1025 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1026 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1027 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1029 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1031 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1032 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1033 contents of this file.
1037 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1039 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1041 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1043 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1044 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1045 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1046 greater level of detail.
1048 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1050 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1051 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1052 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1055 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1057 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1058 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1059 machines ``out of the box''.
1061 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1062 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1063 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1064 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1065 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1067 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1068 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1069 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1070 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1071 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1073 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1074 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1077 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1080 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1081 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1082 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1083 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1085 * New native configurations
1087 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1088 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1092 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1093 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1094 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1095 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1097 * OBSOLETE configurations
1099 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1100 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1102 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1105 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1106 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1107 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1108 be permanently REMOVED.
1110 * Gould support removed
1112 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1114 * New features for SVR4
1116 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1117 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1118 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1120 * Many C++ enhancements
1122 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1123 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1125 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1127 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1128 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1129 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1130 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1132 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1133 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1135 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1137 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1138 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1139 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1141 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1142 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1144 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1146 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1147 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1148 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1150 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1152 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1153 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1154 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1156 * ``apropos'' command added.
1158 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1159 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1160 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1164 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1165 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1166 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1167 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1168 enabled by configuring with:
1170 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1172 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1174 * New native configurations
1176 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1177 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1178 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1182 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1183 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1184 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1186 * OBSOLETE configurations
1188 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1190 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1191 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1192 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1193 be permanently REMOVED.
1197 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1198 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1199 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1200 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1201 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1202 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1203 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1208 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1210 * set extension-language
1212 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1213 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1214 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1215 set extension-language .c c++
1216 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1217 and their associated languages.
1219 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1221 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1222 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1223 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1227 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1228 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1230 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1231 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1233 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1234 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1235 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1236 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1237 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1238 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1239 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1240 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1242 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1243 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1244 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1245 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1249 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1250 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1251 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1252 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1253 for xdb and dbx commands.
1257 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1258 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1259 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1261 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1262 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1263 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1265 * Debugging across forks
1267 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1272 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1273 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1274 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1276 * GDB remote protocol additions
1278 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1279 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1280 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1281 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1283 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1284 full 64-bit address. The command
1286 set remoteaddresssize 32
1288 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1289 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1292 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1293 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1295 maint packet heythere
1297 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1298 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1301 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1302 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1303 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1305 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1307 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1308 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1309 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1311 * mask-address variable for Mips
1313 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1314 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1315 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1317 * Higher serial baud rates
1319 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1320 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1321 to achieve all of these rates.)
1325 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1326 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1329 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1331 * New native configurations
1333 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1334 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1335 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1336 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1337 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1338 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1339 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1343 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1344 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1345 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1346 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1347 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1348 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1349 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1350 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1351 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1352 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1353 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1355 * New debugging protocols
1357 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1358 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1359 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1360 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1361 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1362 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1366 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1367 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1372 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1373 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1375 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1377 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1378 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1379 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1381 * Live range splitting
1383 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1384 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1385 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1389 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1390 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1394 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1395 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1396 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1401 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1406 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1407 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1408 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1409 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1410 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1411 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1415 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1416 the symbol at the specified address.
1420 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1421 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1422 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1423 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1424 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1428 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1429 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1430 of most MIPS variants.
1434 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1435 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1436 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1440 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1441 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1442 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1443 the possible architectures.
1445 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1447 * New native configurations
1449 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1450 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1451 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1452 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1453 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1454 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1458 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1459 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1460 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1461 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1462 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1464 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1468 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1469 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1470 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1471 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1472 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1476 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1478 * Windows 95/NT native
1480 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1481 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1482 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1483 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1484 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1486 * dont-repeat command
1488 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1489 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1490 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1491 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1493 * Send break instead of ^C
1495 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1496 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1497 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1499 * Remote protocol timeout
1501 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1502 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1503 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1505 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1507 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1508 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1509 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1510 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1511 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1513 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1514 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1515 automatically on hpux10.
1517 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1519 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1521 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1523 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1524 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1525 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1526 every character. The default value is 1050.
1528 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1530 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1531 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1532 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1533 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1534 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1535 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1537 * Speedups for remote debugging
1539 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1540 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1541 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1543 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1545 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1546 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1548 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1550 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1552 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1553 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1555 * Remote targets use caching
1557 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1558 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1559 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1560 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1561 off' turns the the data cache off.
1563 * Remote targets may have threads
1565 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1566 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1567 gdb/remote.c for details.
1571 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1572 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1573 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1574 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1575 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1576 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1577 sequence is something like
1579 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1581 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1585 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1586 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1587 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1588 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1589 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1590 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1591 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1592 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1596 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1597 but does simplify configuration and building.
1601 GDB now supports hpux10.
1603 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1605 * New native configurations
1607 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1608 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1609 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1610 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1614 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1615 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1616 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1617 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1620 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1622 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1623 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1624 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1625 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1626 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1628 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1630 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1631 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1634 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1636 To execute the command use:
1639 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1640 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1641 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1643 * New `if' and `while' commands
1645 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1646 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1647 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1648 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1649 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1650 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1651 if the expression is zero.
1653 * Fortran source language mode
1655 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1656 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1657 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1658 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1661 * Better HPUX support
1663 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1664 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1665 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1666 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1667 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1673 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1674 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1680 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1681 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1684 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1685 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1687 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1689 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1690 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1691 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1692 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1693 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1694 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1696 * New DOS host serial code
1698 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1699 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1702 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1704 * New "complete" command
1706 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1707 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1709 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1711 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1712 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1714 * Breakpoint hit counts
1716 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1717 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1718 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1719 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1720 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1723 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1725 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1726 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1727 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1729 * Shared library breakpoints
1731 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1732 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1734 * Hardware watchpoints
1736 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1737 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1739 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1743 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1744 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1746 * Improved Irix 5 support
1748 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1750 * Improved HPPA support
1752 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1754 * New native configurations
1756 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1757 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1758 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1759 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1763 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1764 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1767 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1769 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1770 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1774 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1775 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1777 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1779 * Irix 5 is now supported
1783 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1784 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1785 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1786 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1787 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1790 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1792 * User visible changes:
1796 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1797 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1798 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1799 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1800 debugging info for the mips target).
1802 * DEC Alpha native support
1804 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1805 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1806 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1807 Alpha-specific notes.
1809 * Preliminary thread implementation
1811 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1813 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1815 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1816 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1819 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1821 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1822 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1823 call methods, ...etc.
1825 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1827 * User visible changes:
1829 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1830 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1831 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1832 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1834 Filename completion now works.
1836 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1837 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1838 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1840 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1841 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1842 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1843 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1844 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1848 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1849 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1852 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1856 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1857 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1858 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1862 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1863 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1864 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1865 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1866 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1870 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1871 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1872 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1874 * New targets supported
1876 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1877 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1878 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1879 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1880 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1882 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1883 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1884 GO32 memory extender.
1886 * New remote protocols
1888 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1890 * New source languages supported
1892 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1893 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1894 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1897 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1899 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1901 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1902 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1903 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1904 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1905 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1906 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1908 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1910 * Faster and better demangling
1912 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1913 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1914 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1915 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1916 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1917 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1920 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1921 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1922 compiler does not actually implement.
1924 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1926 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1927 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1928 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1929 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1930 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1931 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1934 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1935 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1937 * Improved configure script
1939 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1940 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1941 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1942 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1944 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1945 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1946 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1947 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1948 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1949 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1951 * Documentation improvements
1953 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1954 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1955 before submitting changes.
1957 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1958 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1959 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1960 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1961 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1963 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1964 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1965 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1966 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1967 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1968 around this problem.
1972 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1973 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1974 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1977 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1978 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1980 * New native hosts supported
1982 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1983 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1985 * New targets supported
1987 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1989 * New file formats supported
1991 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1992 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1996 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1998 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1999 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2001 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2002 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2003 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2005 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2006 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2008 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2009 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2010 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2013 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2014 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2015 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2016 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2017 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2019 * Internal improvements
2021 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2022 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2024 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2025 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2026 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2027 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2028 shared code that handles any of them.
2030 * New command line options
2032 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2036 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2037 General Public License.
2039 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2041 * Host/native/target split
2043 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2044 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2045 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2046 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2047 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2049 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2050 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2051 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2052 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2053 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2054 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2055 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2057 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2058 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2059 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2061 * New hosts supported
2063 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2064 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2065 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2067 * New targets supported
2069 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2070 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2072 * New native hosts supported
2074 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2075 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2076 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2078 * New file formats supported
2080 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2081 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2082 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2086 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2087 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2088 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2090 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2092 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2093 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2094 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2095 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2099 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2100 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2101 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2103 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2107 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2108 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2111 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2112 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2114 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2115 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2116 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2117 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2118 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2119 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2121 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2122 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2123 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2124 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2128 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2129 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2130 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2131 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2132 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2134 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2135 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2136 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2137 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2141 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2142 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2143 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2144 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2145 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2146 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2147 each instruction being stepped through.
2149 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2150 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2152 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2153 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2154 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2155 processor with a serial port.
2159 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2160 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2161 supported, and what files each one uses.
2165 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2166 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2167 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2168 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2170 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2171 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2172 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2173 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2177 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2178 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2179 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2180 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2181 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2182 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2184 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2187 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2189 * Better support for C++ function names
2191 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2192 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2193 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2194 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2195 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2197 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2198 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2199 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2200 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2201 for the list of formats.
2203 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2205 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2206 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2207 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2208 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2209 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2210 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2213 * New 'maintenance' command
2215 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2216 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2217 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2219 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2220 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2221 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2222 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2223 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2224 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2226 The following commands are new:
2228 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2229 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2230 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2232 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2234 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2235 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2236 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2237 read after argv processing.
2239 * New hosts supported
2241 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2243 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2245 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2246 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2247 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2248 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2249 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2252 * New targets supported
2254 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2256 * More smarts about finding #include files
2258 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2259 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2260 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2261 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2262 the one that contains your sources.
2264 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2265 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2266 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2268 * Interesting infernals change
2270 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2271 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2272 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2273 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2275 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2277 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2278 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2279 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2281 See the ChangeLog for details.
2283 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2285 * New machines supported (host and target)
2287 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2289 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2291 * New malloc package
2293 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2294 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2295 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2296 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2297 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2298 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2302 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2303 'help info proc' for details.
2305 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2307 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2308 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2311 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2313 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2314 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2315 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2316 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2317 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2318 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2320 * Cross byte order fixes
2322 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2323 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2325 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2327 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2328 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2329 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2330 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2331 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2332 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2333 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2334 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2335 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2336 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2338 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2339 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2340 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2341 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2343 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2344 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2345 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2348 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2350 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2351 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2352 shared across multiple host platforms.
2354 * longjmp() handling
2356 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2357 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2358 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2359 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2363 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2364 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2369 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2370 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2371 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2373 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2375 * New machines supported (host and target)
2377 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2379 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2380 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2382 * New machines supported (target)
2384 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2388 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2389 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2390 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2392 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2393 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2394 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2395 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2396 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2399 * New features for SVR4
2401 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2402 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2403 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2405 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2406 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2407 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2409 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2410 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2412 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2414 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2415 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2416 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2417 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2418 same code linked statically.
2422 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2423 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2424 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2425 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2426 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2427 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2431 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2432 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2433 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2436 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2438 * New machines supported (host and target)
2440 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2441 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2442 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2444 * Almost SCO Unix support
2446 We had hoped to support:
2447 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2448 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2449 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2450 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2452 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2454 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2455 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2456 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2457 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2462 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2463 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2464 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2468 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2469 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2470 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2472 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2474 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2475 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2476 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2478 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2479 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2480 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2481 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2484 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2485 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2486 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2487 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2490 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2491 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2494 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2495 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2496 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2499 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2501 * Improved configuration
2503 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2504 Porting BFD is simpler.
2508 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2509 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2510 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2511 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2515 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2517 * New host supported (not target)
2519 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2522 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2524 * Multiple source language support
2526 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2527 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2528 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2529 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2530 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2531 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2535 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2536 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2537 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2538 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2540 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2541 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2542 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2544 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2545 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2549 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2550 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2551 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2552 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2555 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2557 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2558 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2559 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2560 examining core files.
2564 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2567 * New machines supported (host and target)
2569 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2570 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2571 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2573 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2575 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2577 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2579 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2580 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2581 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2583 * New remote interfaces
2589 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2593 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2595 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2596 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2597 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2598 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2599 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2600 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2601 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2602 stub on the target system.
2604 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2606 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2607 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2608 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2610 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2611 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2614 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2616 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2617 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2619 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2620 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2621 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2623 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2624 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2625 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2626 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2628 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2629 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2630 it is already running. Default is ON.
2632 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2633 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2634 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2635 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2638 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2639 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2640 or the value of the environment variable
2643 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2644 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2647 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2648 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2649 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2651 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2652 history expansion will be performed on
2653 command line input. The default is OFF.
2655 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2656 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2657 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2659 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2660 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2661 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2664 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2665 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2666 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2669 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2670 ``set width'' instead.
2672 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2673 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2674 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2675 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2677 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2680 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2683 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2686 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2689 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2691 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2692 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2693 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2697 * Support for Shared Libraries
2699 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2700 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2701 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2702 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2703 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2704 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2705 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2706 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2708 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2709 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2710 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2712 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2717 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2718 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2719 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2720 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2721 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2722 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2724 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2726 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2728 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2729 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2730 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2733 * C++ multiple inheritance
2735 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2738 * C++ exception handling
2740 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2741 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2742 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2745 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2746 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2747 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2749 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2750 current stack frame.
2753 * Minor command changes
2755 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2756 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2757 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2759 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2760 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2761 frames without printing.
2763 * New directory command
2765 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2766 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2767 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2768 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2769 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2771 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2773 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2776 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2777 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2778 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2779 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob