Compute msymbol hash codes in parallel
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 8.3
5
6 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
7
8 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
9 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
10 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
11 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
12 such as in system-wide init files.
13
14 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
15 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
16 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
17 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
18 current GDB settings.
19
20 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
21 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
22 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
23 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
24
25 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
26 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
27 postfix [PAC].
28
29 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
30 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
31
32 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
33 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
34 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
35
36 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
37
38 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
39 messages.
40
41 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
42
43 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
44 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
45
46 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
47 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
48 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
49
50 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
51
52 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
53 not visible in the current scope.
54
55 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
56 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
57 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
58 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
59 compiled with support for that language.
60
61 * Python API
62
63 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
64 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
65 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
66 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
67 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
68
69 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
70 type was defined in.
71
72 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
73 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
74 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
75 is given.
76
77 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
78 symbols with static linkage.
79
80 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
81 all static symbols with static linkage.
82
83 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
84 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
85
86 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
87 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
88
89 * New commands
90
91 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
92 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
93 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
94 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
95 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
96 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
97 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
98
99 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
100 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
101 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
102 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
103 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
104 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
105 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
106 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
107 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
108 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
109 of array elements to print.
110
111 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
112 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
113
114 set may-call-functions [on|off]
115 show may-call-functions
116 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
117 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
118 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
119 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
120 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
121 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
122 in the program.
123
124 set print finish [on|off]
125 show print finish
126 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
127 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
128 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
129 default is `on'.
130
131 set print max-depth
132 show print max-depth
133 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
134 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
135 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
136 the old behavior back.
137
138 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
139 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
140 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
141
142 set style title foreground COLOR
143 set style title background COLOR
144 set style title intensity VALUE
145 Control the styling of titles.
146
147 set style highlight foreground COLOR
148 set style highlight background COLOR
149 set style highlight intensity VALUE
150 Control the styling of highlightings.
151
152 maint set worker-threads
153 maint show worker-threads
154 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
155 default is "unlimited", which lets GDB choose a number that is
156 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
157 the names of linker symbols.
158
159 maint set test-settings KIND
160 maint show test-settings KIND
161 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
162 infrastructure.
163
164 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
165 maint show tui-resize-message
166 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
167 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
168 TUI.
169
170 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
171 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
172 show print frame-info
173 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
174 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
175 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
176 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
177
178 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
179 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
180 no REGEXP is given.
181
182 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
183 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
184 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
185 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
186 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
187 matches against the function name.
188
189 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
190 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
191 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
192 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
193 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
194 against the variable name.
195
196 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
197 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
198 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
199 "set debug remote".
200 The default is 512 bytes.
201
202 * Changed commands
203
204 help
205 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
206 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
207 command names.
208
209 apropos [-v] REGEXP
210 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
211 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
212 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
213 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
214 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
215
216 printf
217 eval
218 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
219 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
220 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
221 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
222
223 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
224 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
225 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
226 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
227 parts of the files.
228
229 show style
230 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
231 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
232 the user visualize the different styles.
233
234 set print frame-arguments
235 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
236 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
237
238 set print raw-frame-arguments
239 show print raw-frame-arguments
240
241 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
242 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
243 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
244 release.
245
246 maint test-options require-delimiter
247 maint test-options unknown-is-error
248 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
249 maint show test-options-completion-result
250 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
251 framework.
252
253 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
254 These commands are now case-sensitive.
255
256 * New command options, command completion
257
258 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
259 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
260 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
261 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
262 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
263 number of commands got support for new command options in this
264 release:
265
266 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
267 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
268 set by "set print" subcommands:
269
270 -address [on|off]
271 -array [on|off]
272 -array-indexes [on|off]
273 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
274 -null-stop [on|off]
275 -object [on|off]
276 -pretty [on|off]
277 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
278 -static-members [on|off]
279 -symbol [on|off]
280 -union [on|off]
281 -vtbl [on|off]
282
283 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
284 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
285 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
286 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
287
288 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
289 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
290 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
291
292 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
293 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
294 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
295 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
296 |location-and-address|short-location
297 -past-main [on|off]
298 -past-entry [on|off]
299
300 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
301 exposed as command options too:
302
303 -full
304 -no-filters
305 -hide
306
307 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
308 support the following options:
309
310 -past-main [on|off]
311 -past-entry [on|off]
312
313 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
314 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
315
316 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
317 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
318 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
319 like for example:
320
321 (gdb) p -r -p -o 0 -- *myptr
322
323 The above is equivalent to:
324
325 (gdb) print -raw -pretty -object off -- *myptr
326
327 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
328 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
329 variables" and "info functions".
330
331 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
332 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
333 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
334 from the results.
335
336 * Completion improvements
337
338 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
339 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
340 abbreviated.
341
342 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
343 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
344 commands.
345
346 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
347 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
348 completes on filenames.
349
350 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
351 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
352
353 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
354
355 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
356 elements unlimited".
357
358 * New MI commands
359
360 -complete
361 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
362 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
363 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
364
365 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
366 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
367 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
368
369 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
370 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
371 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
372
373 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
374 modules' command.
375
376 * Other MI changes
377
378 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
379
380 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
381 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
382 the following commands and events:
383
384 - -break-insert
385 - -break-info
386 - =breakpoint-created
387 - =breakpoint-modified
388
389 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
390 this behavior with previous MI versions.
391
392 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
393 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
394 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
395 present.
396
397 * Testsuite
398
399 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
400 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
401 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
402 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
403
404 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
405
406 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
407 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
408
409 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
410
411 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
412 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
413
414 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
415 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
416 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
417
418 * Removed targets and native configurations
419
420 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
421 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
422 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
423
424 * New Simulators
425
426 TI PRU pru-*-elf
427
428 * Removed targets and native configurations
429
430 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
431 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
432
433 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
434
435 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
436 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
437 HTM registers.
438
439 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
440 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
441 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
442 and operators.
443
444 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
445 (the C++ plug-in).
446
447 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
448 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
449 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
450
451 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
452 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
453
454 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
455 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
456 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
457 in the GDB user manual.
458
459 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
460 executed failed.
461
462 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
463
464 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
465 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
466 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
467 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
468 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
469 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
470 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
471 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
472 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
473 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
474 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
475 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
476
477 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
478 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
479 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
480 information.
481
482 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
483 lucid.
484
485 * New commands
486
487 set debug compile-cplus-types
488 show debug compile-cplus-types
489 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
490 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiliong
491 for other languages.
492
493 set debug skip
494 show debug skip
495 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
496 displayed.
497
498 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
499 Apply a command to some frames.
500 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
501 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
502
503 taas COMMAND
504 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
505 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
506
507 faas COMMAND
508 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
509 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
510
511 tfaas COMMAND
512 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
513 output).
514 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
515
516 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
517 maint show dwarf unwinders
518 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
519
520 info proc files
521 Display a list of open files for a process.
522
523 * Changed commands
524
525 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
526 These commands all now take a frame specification which
527 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
528 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
529 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
530 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
531 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
532
533 target remote FILENAME
534 target extended-remote FILENAME
535 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
536 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
537
538 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
539 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
540 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
541 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
542 These commands can now print only the searched entities
543 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
544 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
545 printing headers or informations messages.
546
547 info functions
548 info types
549 info variables
550 rbreak
551 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
552 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
553 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
554 the shown entities.
555
556 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
557 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
558 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
559 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
560
561 set tui tab-width NCHARS
562 show tui tab-width NCHARS
563 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
564
565 set style enabled [on|off]
566 show style enabled
567 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
568 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
569
570 set style sources [on|off]
571 show style sources
572 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
573 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
574 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
575
576 set style filename foreground COLOR
577 set style filename background COLOR
578 set style filename intensity VALUE
579 Control the styling of file names.
580
581 set style function foreground COLOR
582 set style function background COLOR
583 set style function intensity VALUE
584 Control the styling of function names.
585
586 set style variable foreground COLOR
587 set style variable background COLOR
588 set style variable intensity VALUE
589 Control the styling of variable names.
590
591 set style address foreground COLOR
592 set style address background COLOR
593 set style address intensity VALUE
594 Control the styling of addresses.
595
596 * MI changes
597
598 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
599 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
600 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
601 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
602 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
603
604 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
605 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
606
607 * New native configurations
608
609 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
610 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
611
612 * New targets
613
614 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
615 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
616 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
617 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
618 NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
619 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
620
621 * Removed targets
622
623 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
624 before Windows XP.
625
626 * Python API
627
628 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
629
630 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
631 space associated to that inferior.
632
633 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
634 of objfiles associated to that program space.
635
636 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
637 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
638 the gdb core.
639
640 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
641 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
642 correct and did not work properly.
643
644 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
645 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
646
647 * Configure changes
648
649 --enable-ubsan
650
651 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
652 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
653 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
654 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
655 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
656
657 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
658
659 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
660 for the MIPS target.
661
662 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
663 offset to all sections.
664
665 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
666 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
667 address of individual sections using '-s'.
668
669 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
670 (address of the text section).
671
672 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
673 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
674 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
675 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
676 default.
677
678 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
679 for the rest of the current command.
680
681 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
682 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
683
684 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
685 files created on FreeBSD systems.
686
687 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
688 alignof.
689
690 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
691 the vector length while the process is running.
692
693 * New commands
694
695 set debug fbsd-nat
696 show debug fbsd-nat
697 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
698
699 set|show varsize-limit
700 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
701 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
702 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
703
704 set|show record btrace cpu
705 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
706 branch trace decode.
707
708 maint check libthread-db
709 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
710 library
711
712 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
713 maint show check-libthread-db
714 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
715 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
716 perform such checks.
717
718 * Python API
719
720 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
721
722 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
723 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
724
725 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
726
727 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
728 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
729 of convenience variables.
730
731 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
732 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
733 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
734
735 * New targets
736
737 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
738
739 * Removed targets and native configurations
740
741 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
742 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
743 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
744 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
745
746 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
747
748 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
749 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
750 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
751 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
752 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
753 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
754 reported.
755
756 * Configure changes
757
758 --enable-codesign=CERT
759 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
760 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
761 gdb to work properly.
762
763 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
764 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
765
766 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
767
768 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
769 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
770 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
771
772 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
773 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
774
775 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
776 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
777 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
778 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
779 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
780
781 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
782 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
783 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
784 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
785
786 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
787 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
788
789 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
790 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
791 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
792
793 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
794 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
795 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
796
797 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
798 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
799 environment" command.
800
801 * Completion improvements
802
803 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
804 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
805 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
806 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
807 correctly:
808
809 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
810 (gdb) b function(int)
811
812 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
813 C++ anonymous namespaces:
814
815 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
816 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
817 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
818 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
819
820 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
821 completion support, that better understands what you're
822 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
823 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
824 setting a breakpoint.
825
826 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
827
828 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
829
830 * New command line options (gcore)
831
832 -a
833 Dump all memory mappings.
834
835 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
836
837 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
838 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
839 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
840
841 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
842
843 A::B::func()
844 B::func()
845
846 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
847 on both symbols.
848
849 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
850 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
851 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
852 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
853 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
854 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
855 a breakpoint from Python.
856
857 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
858
859 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
860 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
861 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
862
863 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
864
865 function[abi:cxx11](int)
866 ^^^^^^^^^^^
867
868 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
869 no tag, like:
870
871 (gdb) b function(int)
872
873 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
874
875 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
876
877 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
878
879 * Python Scripting
880
881 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
882 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
883 description of these.
884
885 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
886 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
887 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
888
889 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
890 manual for a further description of this feature.
891
892
893 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
894
895 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
896 specified initial working directory.
897
898 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
899 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
900
901 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
902 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
903
904 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
905 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
906
907 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
908 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
909 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
910 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
911 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
912
913 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
914 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
915 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
916
917 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
918 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
919 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
920 in the *stopped notification.
921
922 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
923 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
924
925 * New remote packets
926
927 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
928 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
929 the inferior when starting it.
930
931 QEnvironmentUnset
932 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
933 before starting the remote inferior.
934
935 QEnvironmentReset
936 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
937 user-set environment variables should be unset).
938
939 QStartupWithShell
940 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
941
942 QSetWorkingDir
943 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
944 working directory.
945
946 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
947 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
948
949 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
950 filter the tests to be run.
951
952 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
953 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
954
955 * New commands
956
957 set|show cwd
958 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
959
960 set|show compile-gcc
961 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
962 with the 'compile' commands.
963
964 set debug separate-debug-file
965 show debug separate-debug-file
966 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
967
968 set dump-excluded-mappings
969 show dump-excluded-mappings
970 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
971 dumped when generating a core file.
972
973 maint info selftests
974 List the registered selftests.
975
976 starti
977 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
978
979 set|show debug or1k
980 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
981
982 set|show print type nested-type-limit
983 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
984 type printer will show.
985
986 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
987 `o' for nexti.
988
989 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
990
991 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
992 'int'.
993
994 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
995 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
996 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
997 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
998
999 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
1000 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
1001 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
1002 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1003 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
1004 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1005
1006 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
1007 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
1008 unless you tell it the variable's type:
1009
1010 (gdb) p var
1011 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
1012 (gdb) p (float) var
1013 $3 = 3.14
1014
1015 * New native configurations
1016
1017 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1018 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1019
1020 * New targets
1021
1022 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1023 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1024 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
1025
1026 * Removed targets and native configurations
1027
1028 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
1029
1030 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
1031
1032 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
1033 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
1034 available in future Intel CPUs.
1035
1036 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
1037
1038 * Python Scripting
1039
1040 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
1041 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
1042
1043 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
1044 instructions.
1045
1046 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
1047
1048 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
1049
1050 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
1051 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
1052 removed.
1053
1054 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
1055
1056 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
1057 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
1058
1059 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
1060
1061 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
1062 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
1063 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
1064 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
1065 features.
1066
1067 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
1068
1069 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
1070 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
1071 debugger.
1072
1073 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
1074
1075 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
1076 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
1077
1078 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
1079
1080 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
1081
1082 define mycommand
1083 set $i = 0
1084 while $i < $argc
1085 eval "print $arg%d", $i
1086 set $i = $i + 1
1087 end
1088 end
1089
1090 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
1091
1092 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
1093 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
1094
1095 * New native configurations
1096
1097 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1098
1099 * New targets
1100
1101 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1102 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1103
1104 * Removed targets and native configurations
1105
1106 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1107 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1108
1109 * New commands
1110
1111 flash-erase
1112 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1113
1114 maint print arc arc-instruction address
1115 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1116
1117 * New options
1118
1119 set disassembler-options
1120 show disassembler-options
1121 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1122 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1123 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1124 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1125 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
1126
1127 * New MI commands
1128
1129 -target-flash-erase
1130 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
1131 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1132
1133 -file-list-shared-libraries
1134 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
1135 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1136
1137 -catch-handlers
1138 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
1139 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
1140
1141 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
1142
1143 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
1144
1145 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
1146 default. One must now explicitly configure with
1147 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
1148 option will be removed in a future release.
1149
1150 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
1151 GDB connection.
1152
1153 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
1154 memory backward from the given address. For example:
1155
1156 (gdb) bt
1157 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
1158 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
1159 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
1160 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
1161 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
1162 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
1163 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
1164 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
1165 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
1166
1167 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
1168 arrays of dynamic types.
1169
1170 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
1171 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1172 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1173 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1174 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1175 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
1176
1177 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
1178 descriptions.
1179
1180 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
1181 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
1182 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
1183
1184 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
1185
1186 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
1187 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
1188 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
1189 signal received and code location.
1190
1191 For example:
1192
1193 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
1194 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
1195 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
1196 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
1197
1198 * Rust language support.
1199 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
1200 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
1201 Rust.
1202
1203 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
1204
1205 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
1206 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
1207 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
1208 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
1209 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
1210 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
1211 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
1212 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
1213 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
1214 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
1215 line.
1216
1217 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
1218
1219 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
1220 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
1221
1222 * New commands
1223
1224 skip -file file
1225 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
1226 skip -function function
1227 skip -rfunction regular-expression
1228 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
1229 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
1230 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
1231
1232 maint info line-table REGEXP
1233 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
1234
1235 maint selftest
1236 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
1237
1238 new-ui INTERP TTY
1239 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
1240 using the TTY file for input/output.
1241
1242 * Python Scripting
1243
1244 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
1245 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
1246 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
1247 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
1248 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
1249
1250 signal-event EVENTID
1251 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
1252 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
1253 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
1254 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
1255 signalling an event.
1256
1257 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
1258 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
1259 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
1260
1261 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
1262 been removed:
1263
1264 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
1265 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
1266 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
1267 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
1268 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
1269 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
1270
1271 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
1272 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
1273 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
1274 bytecode into native code.
1275
1276 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
1277 recording. For example:
1278
1279 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
1280
1281 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
1282
1283 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
1284
1285 * New targets
1286
1287 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
1288
1289 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
1290
1291 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
1292
1293 * Per-inferior thread numbers
1294
1295 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
1296 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
1297 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
1298
1299 (gdb) info threads
1300 Id Target Id Frame
1301 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
1302 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
1303 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
1304 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
1305
1306 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
1307 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
1308 are no longer unique between inferiors.
1309
1310 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
1311 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
1312 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
1313
1314 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
1315 IDs.
1316
1317 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
1318 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
1319
1320 (gdb) thread 2.1
1321 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
1322 (gdb)
1323
1324 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
1325 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
1326 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
1327 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
1328 threads 2.*".
1329
1330 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
1331 all threads.
1332
1333 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
1334 the current thread.
1335
1336 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
1337 current inferior.
1338
1339 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
1340 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
1341 example:
1342
1343 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
1344 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
1345
1346 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
1347
1348 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
1349
1350 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
1351 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
1352
1353 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
1354 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
1355 clients.
1356
1357 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1358 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
1359 at the same time.
1360
1361 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
1362 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
1363 into native code.
1364
1365 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1366
1367 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
1368 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
1369 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
1370
1371 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
1372 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
1373
1374 * New commands
1375
1376 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
1377 maint show target-non-stop
1378 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
1379 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
1380 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
1381
1382 maint set bfd-sharing
1383 maint show bfd-sharing
1384 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
1385
1386 set debug bfd-cache
1387 show debug bfd-cache
1388 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
1389
1390 set debug fbsd-lwp
1391 show debug fbsd-lwp
1392 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
1393
1394 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1395 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1396 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
1397
1398 set remote thread-events
1399 show remote thread-events
1400 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
1401
1402 set ada print-signatures on|off
1403 show ada print-signatures"
1404 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
1405 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
1406
1407 set max-value-size
1408 show max-value-size
1409 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
1410 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
1411 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
1412
1413 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1414 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
1415 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
1416 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
1417 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
1418 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
1419
1420 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1421 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
1422
1423 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
1424 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
1425
1426 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
1427
1428 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
1429 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
1430 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
1431 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
1432 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
1433 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
1434
1435 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
1436 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
1437
1438 catch handlers
1439 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
1440
1441 * New remote packets
1442
1443 exec stop reason
1444 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
1445
1446 exec-events feature in qSupported
1447 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
1448 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
1449 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
1450 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
1451
1452 vCtrlC
1453 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
1454 non-stop mode.
1455
1456 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
1457 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
1458
1459 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
1460 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
1461
1462 QThreadEvents
1463 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
1464 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
1465 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
1466 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
1467 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
1468 stop for that same thread.
1469
1470 N stop reply
1471 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
1472 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
1473 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
1474
1475 QCatchSyscalls
1476 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
1477 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
1478
1479 syscall_entry stop reason
1480 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
1481
1482 syscall_return stop reason
1483 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
1484
1485 * Extended-remote exec events
1486
1487 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
1488 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1489 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1490
1491 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1492 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1493 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1494
1495 * Thread names in remote protocol
1496
1497 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1498 thread.
1499
1500 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
1501
1502 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1503 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1504 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1505 fork and exec catchpoints.
1506
1507 * Remote syscall events
1508
1509 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1510 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1511
1512 set remote catch-syscall-packet
1513 show remote catch-syscall-packet
1514 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
1515
1516 * MI changes
1517
1518 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
1519 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
1520 left.
1521
1522 * Python Scripting
1523
1524 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
1525 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
1526 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
1527 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
1528 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
1529 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
1530
1531 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
1532
1533 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
1534 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
1535 including advance SIMD instructions.
1536
1537 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
1538
1539 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
1540 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
1541 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
1542 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
1543 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
1544 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
1545 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
1546
1547 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1548 cpu information :
1549 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
1550
1551 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
1552 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
1553 remote serial I/O.
1554
1555 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
1556 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
1557 and may include things like its command line arguments.
1558
1559 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
1560 is now available on all platforms.
1561
1562 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
1563 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
1564 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
1565 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
1566 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
1567 backward compatibility.
1568
1569 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
1570 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
1571 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
1572 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
1573
1574 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
1575 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
1576 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
1577 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
1578 packets" below.
1579
1580 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
1581
1582 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
1583
1584 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
1585 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
1586 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
1587 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
1588 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
1589 See "New remote packets" below.
1590
1591 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
1592 available register groups, including target specific groups.
1593
1594 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
1595 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
1596 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1597 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1598 are ignored.
1599
1600 * Guile Scripting
1601
1602 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1603
1604 * Python Scripting
1605
1606 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1607 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1608 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
1609 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
1610 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
1611 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
1612 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
1613 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
1614 "const" version of the value respectively.
1615
1616 * New commands
1617
1618 maint print symbol-cache
1619 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1620
1621 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1622 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1623
1624 maint flush-symbol-cache
1625 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1626
1627 record btrace bts
1628 record bts
1629 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1630
1631 compile print
1632 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1633
1634 tui enable
1635 tui disable
1636 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1637
1638 show mpx bound
1639 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
1640 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
1641
1642 record btrace pt
1643 record pt
1644 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
1645
1646 maint info btrace
1647 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1648
1649 maint btrace packet-history
1650 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1651
1652 maint btrace clear-packet-history
1653 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1654
1655 maint btrace clear
1656 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1657 anew by the next "record" command.
1658
1659 * New options
1660
1661 set debug dwarf-die
1662 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1663 show debug dwarf-die
1664 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1665
1666 set debug dwarf-read
1667 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1668 show debug dwarf-read
1669 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1670
1671 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1672 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1673 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1674 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1675
1676 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1677 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1678 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1679 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1680
1681 set debug dwarf-line
1682 show debug dwarf-line
1683 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1684
1685 set max-completions
1686 show max-completions
1687 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1688 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1689 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1690 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1691
1692 set history remove-duplicates
1693 show history remove-duplicates
1694 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1695
1696 maint set symbol-cache-size
1697 maint show symbol-cache-size
1698 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1699
1700 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1701 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1702 BTS format.
1703 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1704 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1705
1706 set debug linux-namespaces
1707 show debug linux-namespaces
1708 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1709
1710 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1711 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1712 Intel Processor Trace format.
1713 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1714 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1715
1716 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1717 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1718 packet history.
1719
1720 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1721 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1722
1723 * Python/Guile scripting
1724
1725 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1726 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1727
1728 * New remote packets
1729
1730 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1731 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1732
1733 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1734 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1735
1736 Qbtrace:pt
1737 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1738 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1739 qSupported query.
1740
1741 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1742 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1743 Trace format.
1744
1745 swbreak stop reason
1746 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1747 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1748 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1749 mode operation.
1750
1751 hwbreak stop reason
1752 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1753 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1754
1755 vFile:fstat:
1756 Return information about files on the remote system.
1757
1758 qXfer:exec-file:read
1759 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1760 create a process running on the remote system.
1761
1762 vFile:setfs:
1763 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1764 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1765 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1766 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1767
1768 fork stop reason
1769 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1770
1771 vfork stop reason
1772 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1773
1774 vforkdone stop reason
1775 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1776 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1777
1778 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1779 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1780 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1781 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1782 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1783 whether these features are enabled.
1784
1785 * Extended-remote fork events
1786
1787 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1788 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1789 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1790 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1791
1792 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1793 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1794 the btrace record target.
1795 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1796
1797 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1798 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1799
1800 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1801 targets.
1802
1803 * Removed command line options
1804
1805 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1806
1807 * Removed targets and native configurations
1808
1809 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1810 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1811
1812 * New configure options
1813
1814 --with-intel-pt
1815 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1816 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1817
1818 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1819 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1820 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1821 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1822
1823 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1824
1825 * Python Scripting
1826
1827 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1828
1829 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
1830
1831 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1832
1833 * Python Scripting
1834
1835 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1836 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1837 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1838 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1839 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1840 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1841 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1842 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1843 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1844 selecting a new file to debug.
1845 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1846 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1847
1848 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1849 inferior.
1850
1851 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1852 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1853 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1854 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1855
1856 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1857
1858 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1859 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1860 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1861 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1862
1863 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1864 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1865 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1866 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1867 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1868 interface with this new feature are:
1869
1870 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1871 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1872
1873 * New commands
1874
1875 demangle [-l language] [--] name
1876 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1877 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1878 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1879 as "maint demangler-warning".
1880
1881 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1882 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1883
1884 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1885 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1886 scripts.
1887
1888 maint print user-registers
1889 List all currently available "user" registers.
1890
1891 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1892 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1893 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1894
1895 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1896 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1897 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
1898 provided.
1899
1900 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
1901 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
1902 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
1903 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
1904 at resume time.
1905
1906 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
1907 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
1908 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
1909 switched threads meanwhile.
1910
1911 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
1912
1913 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
1914 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
1915 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
1916 is now the default mode.
1917
1918 * New options
1919
1920 set debug symbol-lookup
1921 show debug symbol-lookup
1922 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
1923
1924 * MI changes
1925
1926 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
1927 inferiors that have exited.
1928
1929 * New targets
1930
1931 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
1932
1933 * Removed targets
1934
1935 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1936
1937 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
1938 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
1939 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
1940 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
1941 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
1942
1943 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1944 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1945 its alias "share", instead.
1946
1947 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
1948
1949 * New command line options
1950
1951 -D data-directory
1952 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
1953
1954 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
1955 as specified in ISO C99.
1956
1957 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
1958 with or without disassembly.
1959
1960 * Guile scripting
1961
1962 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
1963 available is determined at configure time.
1964 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
1965 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
1966
1967 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1968
1969 guile [code]
1970 gu [code]
1971 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
1972
1973 guile-repl
1974 gr
1975 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
1976
1977 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
1978 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
1979
1980 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
1981 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
1982
1983 * New options
1984
1985 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
1986 show print symbol-loading
1987 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
1988 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
1989 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
1990 becomes less useful.
1991
1992 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
1993 show guile print-stack
1994 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
1995
1996 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
1997 show auto-load guile-scripts
1998 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
1999
2000 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
2001 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
2002 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
2003 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
2004 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
2005 usage of this option.
2006
2007 set auto-connect-native-target
2008
2009 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
2010 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
2011 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
2012
2013 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
2014 show record btrace replay-memory-access
2015 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
2016
2017 maint set target-async (on|off)
2018 maint show target-async
2019 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
2020 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
2021 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
2022 occurring only in synchronous mode.
2023
2024 set mi-async (on|off)
2025 show mi-async
2026 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
2027 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
2028
2029 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
2030 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
2031
2032 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
2033 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
2034 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
2035 "set target-async on" command.
2036
2037 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2038
2039 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
2040 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
2041 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
2042 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
2043 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
2044
2045 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
2046 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
2047 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
2048
2049 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
2050 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
2051 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
2052 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
2053 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
2054 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
2055 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
2056
2057 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
2058 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
2059
2060 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
2061 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
2062 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
2063
2064 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
2065 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
2066 memory or registers.
2067
2068 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
2069
2070 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
2071 remote. It now works with all targets.
2072
2073 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
2074 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
2075 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
2076 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
2077 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
2078 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
2079 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
2080 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
2081 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
2082 target-stack".
2083
2084 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
2085 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
2086 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
2087
2088 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
2089
2090 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
2091 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
2092 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
2093
2094 * New remote packets
2095
2096 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
2097 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2098 branch trace incrementally.
2099
2100 * Python Scripting
2101
2102 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2103 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2104 available.
2105 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2106 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2107 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2108 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2109 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2110
2111 * New targets
2112 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2113
2114 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2115 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2116 its alias "share", instead.
2117
2118 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2119 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2120 instead.
2121
2122 * MI changes
2123
2124 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2125 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2126 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2127 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2128 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2129 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
2130 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
2131 commands and CLI execution commands.
2132
2133 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
2134
2135 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
2136 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
2137 recording has been added.
2138
2139 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2140
2141 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
2142 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
2143
2144 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
2145 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
2146 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
2147 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
2148 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
2149 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
2150 "void".
2151
2152 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
2153
2154 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
2155
2156 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
2157 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
2158 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
2159 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
2160
2161 (gdb) p $rax
2162 $1 = <not saved>
2163
2164 (gdb) info registers rax
2165 rax <not saved>
2166
2167 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
2168 "*value not available*".
2169
2170 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
2171 to binaries.
2172
2173 * Python scripting
2174
2175 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
2176 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
2177 ** Line tables representation has been added.
2178 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
2179 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
2180 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
2181
2182 * New targets
2183
2184 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
2185 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
2186 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
2187
2188 * Removed native configurations
2189
2190 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
2191 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
2192
2193 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2194 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2195 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
2196 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
2197 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2198 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2199 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2200
2201 * New commands:
2202 catch rethrow
2203 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
2204 maint check-psymtabs
2205 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
2206 maint check-symtabs
2207 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
2208 maint expand-symtabs
2209 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
2210
2211 show configuration
2212 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2213
2214 maint set|show per-command
2215 maint set|show per-command space
2216 maint set|show per-command time
2217 maint set|show per-command symtab
2218 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
2219
2220 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
2221 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
2222 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
2223 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
2224 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
2225
2226 info exceptions
2227 info exceptions REGEXP
2228 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
2229 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
2230 are listed.
2231
2232 * New options
2233
2234 set debug symfile off|on
2235 show debug symfile
2236 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
2237 symbol tables within those files
2238
2239 set print raw frame-arguments
2240 show print raw frame-arguments
2241 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
2242 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
2243
2244 set remote trace-status-packet
2245 show remote trace-status-packet
2246 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
2247
2248 set debug nios2
2249 show debug nios2
2250 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
2251
2252 set range-stepping
2253 show range-stepping
2254 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
2255
2256 set startup-with-shell
2257 show startup-with-shell
2258 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
2259 directly.
2260
2261 set code-cache
2262 show code-cache
2263 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
2264 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
2265
2266 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
2267 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
2268 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
2269 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
2270 "set height 0".
2271
2272 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
2273 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
2274 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
2275
2276 * New command-line options
2277 --configuration
2278 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2279
2280 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
2281 buffer in Common Trace Format.
2282
2283 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
2284 GDB command gcore.
2285
2286 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
2287
2288 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
2289 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
2290
2291 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
2292 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
2293
2294 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
2295 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
2296 due to an uncaught signal.
2297
2298 * MI changes
2299
2300 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
2301 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
2302 command, which should contain "language-option".
2303
2304 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
2305 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
2306
2307 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
2308 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
2309 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
2310 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2311 "undefined-command-error-code".
2312
2313 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
2314 Trace Format now.
2315
2316 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
2317
2318 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
2319 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
2320 are displayed.
2321
2322 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
2323 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
2324
2325 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
2326 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
2327 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
2328
2329 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
2330 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
2331 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
2332 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
2333 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2334 "exec-run-start-option".
2335
2336 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
2337 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
2338
2339 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
2340 the new "info exceptions" command.
2341
2342 * New system-wide configuration scripts
2343 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
2344 configuration scripts for the following systems:
2345 ** ElinOS
2346 ** Wind River Linux
2347
2348 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
2349 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
2350 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
2351 below.
2352
2353 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
2354 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
2355
2356 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
2357 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
2358 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
2359
2360 * New remote packets
2361
2362 vCont;r
2363
2364 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
2365 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
2366 involvemement at each single-step.
2367
2368 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
2369 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
2370 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
2371 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
2372 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
2373 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
2374 speedup.
2375
2376 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2377
2378 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
2379 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
2380
2381 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
2382 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
2383 trace state variables.
2384
2385 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
2386 target.
2387
2388 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
2389 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
2390
2391 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
2392
2393 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
2394 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
2395 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
2396 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2397
2398 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
2399
2400 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
2401 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
2402 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
2403 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
2404
2405 set|show record full insn-number-max
2406 set|show record full stop-at-limit
2407 set|show record full memory-query
2408
2409 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
2410 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
2411 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
2412 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
2413 This new recording method can be enabled using:
2414
2415 record btrace
2416
2417 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
2418 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
2419
2420 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
2421 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
2422 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
2423
2424 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
2425 instruction granularity
2426
2427 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
2428 function granularity
2429
2430 * New native configurations
2431
2432 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
2433 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
2434 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2435 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
2436
2437 * New targets
2438
2439 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
2440 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
2441 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
2442 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2443 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
2444
2445 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
2446 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
2447 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
2448 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
2449 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
2450 --data-directory command-line option.
2451
2452 * New command line options:
2453
2454 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
2455 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
2456
2457 * Removed command line options
2458
2459 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
2460 Emacs.
2461
2462 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
2463 type formatting.
2464
2465 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
2466
2467 * Python scripting
2468
2469 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
2470
2471 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
2472
2473 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
2474
2475 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
2476
2477 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
2478 of architecture in the Python API.
2479
2480 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
2481 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
2482
2483 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2484
2485 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
2486 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
2487 ** $_strlen(str)
2488 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2489
2490 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2491 given an argument.
2492
2493 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2494 default for GCC since November 2000.
2495
2496 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2497
2498 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2499 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2500
2501 * New configure options
2502
2503 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2504 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2505 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2506 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2507 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2508 options allow the user to override that default.
2509 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2510 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2511 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2512
2513 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2514
2515 catch signal
2516 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
2517 conditions to be attached.
2518
2519 maint info bfds
2520 List the BFDs known to GDB.
2521
2522 python-interactive [command]
2523 pi [command]
2524 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
2525 and print the result of expressions.
2526
2527 py [command]
2528 "py" is a new alias for "python".
2529
2530 enable type-printer [name]...
2531 disable type-printer [name]...
2532 Enable or disable type printers.
2533
2534 * Removed commands
2535
2536 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
2537 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
2538 instead.
2539
2540 * New options
2541
2542 set print type methods (on|off)
2543 show print type methods
2544 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
2545 The default is to show them.
2546
2547 set print type typedefs (on|off)
2548 show print type typedefs
2549 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
2550 The default is to show them.
2551
2552 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
2553 show filename-display
2554 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
2555 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
2556
2557 set trace-buffer-size
2558 show trace-buffer-size
2559 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
2560
2561 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
2562 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
2563 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
2564
2565 set debug aarch64
2566 show debug aarch64
2567 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
2568 The default is off.
2569
2570 set debug coff-pe-read
2571 show debug coff-pe-read
2572 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
2573 exported symbols.
2574
2575 set debug mach-o
2576 show debug mach-o
2577 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
2578 processing.
2579
2580 set debug notification
2581 show debug notification
2582 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
2583
2584 * MI changes
2585
2586 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
2587 "=cmd-param-changed".
2588 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
2589 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
2590 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
2591 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
2592 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
2593 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
2594 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
2595 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
2596 "=memory-changed".
2597 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
2598 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
2599 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2600 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
2601 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2602 library load/unload events.
2603 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2604 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2605 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
2606 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2607 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2608 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
2609 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2610 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
2611
2612 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
2613 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
2614 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
2615 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
2616
2617 * New remote packets
2618
2619 QTBuffer:size
2620 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2621 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2622
2623 Qbtrace:bts
2624 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2625 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2626 qSupported query.
2627
2628 Qbtrace:off
2629 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2630 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2631
2632 qXfer:btrace:read
2633 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2634 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2635
2636 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
2637
2638 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2639 for more x32 ABI info.
2640
2641 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2642
2643 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2644
2645 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2646 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2647 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2648 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2649 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2650 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2651 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2652 "info os msg" lists message queues
2653 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2654
2655 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2656 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2657 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2658 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2659 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2660 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2661
2662 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2663 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2664 record/replay support.
2665
2666 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2667
2668 * Python scripting
2669
2670 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2671 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
2672
2673 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2674
2675 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2676 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2677
2678 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2679
2680 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2681 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2682
2683 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2684 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2685 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2686 symbol's value.
2687
2688 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2689 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2690
2691 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2692 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2693 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2694
2695 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2696 object associated with a PC value.
2697
2698 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2699 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2700
2701 * Go language support.
2702 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2703 language.
2704
2705 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2706 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2707
2708 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2709 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2710
2711 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2712 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2713 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2714 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2715 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2716 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
2717
2718 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2719 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2720 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2721 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2722
2723 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2724 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2725
2726 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2727 since December 2007.
2728
2729 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2730 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2731 command does. For instance:
2732
2733 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2734
2735 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2736 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2737 created, using the "condition" command.
2738
2739 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2740 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2741
2742 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2743
2744 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2745 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2746 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2747 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2748 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2749 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2750 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2751 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2752
2753 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2754 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2755 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2756 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2757 the .gdb_index section.
2758
2759 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2760
2761 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2762 target.
2763
2764 * MI changes
2765
2766 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2767
2768 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2769
2770 * New commands
2771
2772 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2773 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2774 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2775
2776 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2777 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2778
2779 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2780 several hits.
2781
2782 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2783 C++ and Java objects.
2784
2785 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2786 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2787 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2788 configured with '--with-python'.
2789
2790 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2791 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2792 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2793 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2794 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2795 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2796 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2797
2798 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2799 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2800 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2801 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2802
2803 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2804 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2805 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2806 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2807
2808 ** "set print symbol"
2809 "show print symbol"
2810 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2811 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2812 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2813
2814 * Deprecated commands
2815
2816 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2817 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2818
2819 * New targets
2820
2821 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2822 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2823
2824 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2825 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2826 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2827 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2828 evaluates to true.
2829
2830 * New options
2831
2832 set mips compression
2833 show mips compression
2834 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2835 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2836 mips16
2837 micromips
2838 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2839
2840 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2841 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2842 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2843 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2844 available mode.
2845 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2846 target.
2847
2848 set auto-load off
2849 Disable auto-loading globally.
2850
2851 show auto-load
2852 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2853
2854 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2855 show auto-load gdb-scripts
2856 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2857
2858 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2859 show auto-load python-scripts
2860 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2861
2862 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2863 show auto-load local-gdbinit
2864 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2865
2866 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2867 show auto-load libthread-db
2868 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2869
2870 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2871 show auto-load scripts-directory
2872 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2873 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2874 of the directories listed by this option.
2875 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2876
2877 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2878 show auto-load safe-path
2879 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2880 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2881
2882 set debug auto-load on|off
2883 show debug auto-load
2884 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2885
2886 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
2887 show dprintf-style
2888 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2889 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2890 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2891 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
2892
2893 set dprintf-function <expr>
2894 show dprintf-function
2895 set dprintf-channel <expr>
2896 show dprintf-channel
2897 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
2898 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
2899
2900 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
2901 show disconnected-dprintf
2902 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
2903 after GDB disconnects.
2904
2905 * New configure options
2906
2907 --with-auto-load-dir
2908 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
2909 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
2910 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
2911 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
2912 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
2913
2914 --with-auto-load-safe-path
2915 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
2916 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
2917
2918 --without-auto-load-safe-path
2919 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
2920 security feature.
2921
2922 * New remote packets
2923
2924 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
2925
2926 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
2927 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
2928 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
2929 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
2930
2931 QProgramSignals:
2932
2933 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
2934 program without GDB involvement.
2935
2936 * New command line options
2937
2938 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
2939 before loading inferior.
2940 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
2941 execute it before loading inferior.
2942
2943 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
2944
2945 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
2946 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
2947 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
2948 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
2949 inferior changes.
2950
2951 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
2952 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
2953
2954 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
2955 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
2956 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
2957 target hardware watchpoint.
2958
2959 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
2960 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
2961 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
2962 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
2963
2964 * Python scripting
2965
2966 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
2967 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
2968 existing one.
2969
2970 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
2971 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
2972 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
2973 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
2974 now "message", which just prints the error message without
2975 the stack trace.
2976
2977 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
2978 Python API.
2979
2980 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
2981 modules library. This module provides functionality for
2982 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
2983 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
2984 corresponding value.
2985
2986 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
2987 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
2988 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
2989 on GDB start-up.
2990
2991 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
2992 static_block will return the global and static blocks
2993 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
2994 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
2995
2996 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
2997
2998 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
2999 "gdb.breakpoints".
3000
3001 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
3002 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
3003 available in the CLI.
3004
3005 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
3006 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
3007 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
3008 "some_type.items()".
3009
3010 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
3011 new object file.
3012
3013 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
3014 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
3015 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
3016 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
3017 any anonymous fields.
3018
3019 * MI changes
3020
3021 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
3022 "solib-event".
3023
3024 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
3025 "=breakpoint-modified".
3026
3027 ** New command -ada-task-info.
3028
3029 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
3030 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
3031 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
3032 lives.
3033
3034 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
3035 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
3036 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
3037 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
3038 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
3039
3040 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
3041 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
3042
3043 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
3044 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
3045 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
3046 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
3047 use this option to specify where to find it.
3048
3049 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3050 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
3051 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
3052 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
3053 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
3054 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3055 section in the user manual for more details.
3056
3057 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
3058 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
3059 become available after that.
3060
3061 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
3062
3063 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
3064 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
3065 gcc version 4.7.
3066
3067 * New commands
3068
3069 !SHELL COMMAND
3070 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
3071 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
3072
3073 * Changed commands
3074
3075 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
3076 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
3077 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
3078
3079 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
3080 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
3081 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
3082
3083 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
3084 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
3085 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
3086 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
3087 name starts with a hyphen.
3088
3089 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
3090 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
3091 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
3092 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
3093 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
3094 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
3095 number of bytes that will be collected.
3096
3097 tstart [NOTES]
3098 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3099 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3100 setting the variable trace-notes.
3101
3102 tstop [NOTES]
3103 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3104 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3105 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3106 trace-stop-notes.
3107
3108 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3109 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3110 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3111 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3112 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3113 is running.
3114
3115 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3116 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3117 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3118
3119 * New options
3120
3121 set debug dwarf2-read
3122 show debug dwarf2-read
3123 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3124 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3125
3126 set debug symtab-create
3127 show debug symtab-create
3128 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3129 creation. The default is off.
3130
3131 set extended-prompt
3132 show extended-prompt
3133 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
3134 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
3135 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
3136 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
3137 prompt is displayed.
3138
3139 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
3140 show print entry-values
3141 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
3142 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
3143 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
3144
3145 set debug entry-values
3146 show debug entry-values
3147 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
3148 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
3149
3150 set basenames-may-differ
3151 show basenames-may-differ
3152 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
3153 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
3154 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
3155 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
3156 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
3157 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
3158 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
3159 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
3160
3161 set trace-user
3162 show trace-user
3163 set trace-notes
3164 show trace-notes
3165 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
3166 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
3167 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
3168 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
3169
3170 set trace-stop-notes
3171 show trace-stop-notes
3172 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
3173 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
3174 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
3175 started by someone else.
3176
3177 * New remote packets
3178
3179 QTEnable
3180
3181 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3182
3183 QTDisable
3184
3185 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3186
3187 QTNotes
3188
3189 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
3190
3191 qTP
3192
3193 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
3194
3195 qTMinFTPILen
3196
3197 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
3198 be placed.
3199
3200 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
3201 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
3202
3203 * New targets
3204
3205 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
3206
3207 * New Simulators
3208
3209 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3210
3211 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
3212
3213 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
3214
3215 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
3216
3217 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
3218 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
3219 matches the given regular expression.
3220
3221 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
3222
3223 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
3224 dumping the instruction opcodes.
3225
3226 * New command line options
3227
3228 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
3229 This is mostly for testing purposes.
3230
3231 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
3232 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
3233
3234 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
3235 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
3236 source path list instead of augmenting it.
3237
3238 * GDB now understands thread names.
3239
3240 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
3241 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
3242
3243 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
3244 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
3245
3246 * OpenCL C
3247 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
3248 has been integrated into GDB.
3249
3250 * Python scripting
3251
3252 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
3253 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
3254 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
3255
3256 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3257 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
3258 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
3259 and allows for more dynamic content.
3260
3261 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
3262 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
3263 have an is_valid method.
3264
3265 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3266 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
3267 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
3268
3269 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
3270
3271 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
3272 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
3273 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
3274 that function like so:
3275
3276 result = some_value (10,20)
3277
3278 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
3279 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
3280 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
3281
3282 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
3283 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
3284 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
3285 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
3286 New function: register_pretty_printer.
3287
3288 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
3289 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
3290
3291 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
3292
3293 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
3294 selected thread.
3295
3296 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
3297 holds the thread's name.
3298
3299 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
3300 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
3301 occurring in the process being debugged.
3302 The following events are currently supported:
3303 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
3304 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
3305 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
3306
3307 * C++ Improvements:
3308
3309 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
3310 instantiation. For example, if you have:
3311
3312 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
3313
3314 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
3315 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
3316 was added to GCC 4.5.
3317
3318 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
3319 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
3320 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
3321 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
3322 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
3323 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
3324
3325 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
3326 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
3327 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
3328 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
3329 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
3330
3331 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
3332 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
3333 execution to a label.
3334
3335 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
3336 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
3337 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
3338 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
3339
3340 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
3341 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
3342 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
3343 of scope.
3344
3345 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
3346
3347 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
3348 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
3349 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
3350 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
3351 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
3352 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
3353
3354 (gdb) info threads
3355 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
3356
3357 While now you see this:
3358
3359 (gdb) info threads
3360 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
3361
3362 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
3363 dumps.
3364
3365 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
3366 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
3367 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
3368 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
3369
3370 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3371 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
3372 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
3373 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3374 section in the user manual for more details.
3375
3376 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3377
3378 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
3379 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
3380
3381 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
3382
3383 * New native configurations
3384
3385 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3386
3387 * New targets:
3388
3389 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
3390
3391 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
3392 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
3393 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
3394 in the GDB user manual.
3395
3396 * Guile support was removed.
3397
3398 * New features in the GNU simulator
3399
3400 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
3401
3402 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
3403
3404 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
3405
3406 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
3407
3408 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
3409 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
3410 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
3411 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
3412 was always disabled for such configurations.
3413
3414 * C++ Improvements:
3415
3416 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
3417
3418 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
3419 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
3420 For example:
3421 namespace A
3422 {
3423 class B { };
3424 void foo (B) { }
3425 }
3426 ...
3427 A::B b
3428 foo(b)
3429 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
3430 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
3431 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
3432
3433 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
3434
3435 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
3436 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
3437 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
3438 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
3439 entry.
3440 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
3441 mentioned flavors of operators.
3442
3443 ** static const class members
3444
3445 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
3446 class definition has been fixed.
3447
3448 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
3449
3450 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
3451 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
3452 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
3453 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
3454 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
3455 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
3456
3457 * Static tracepoints
3458
3459 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
3460 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
3461 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
3462 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
3463 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
3464 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
3465 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
3466 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
3467 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
3468 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
3469 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
3470 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
3471 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
3472 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
3473 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
3474 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
3475 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
3476 the "New remote packets" section below.
3477
3478 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
3479
3480 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
3481 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
3482 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
3483 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
3484
3485 * Observer mode
3486
3487 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
3488 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3489 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3490 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3491 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3492 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3493 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3494
3495 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3496 current thread.
3497
3498 * New remote packets
3499
3500 qGetTIBAddr
3501
3502 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3503
3504 qRelocInsn
3505
3506 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3507 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3508 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3509 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3510 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3511 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3512
3513 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
3514
3515 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
3516
3517 qTSTMat
3518
3519 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
3520 program.
3521
3522 qXfer:statictrace:read
3523
3524 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
3525 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
3526 to gdb's qSupported query.
3527
3528 QAllow
3529
3530 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
3531
3532 QTDPsrc
3533
3534 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
3535 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
3536
3537 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
3538 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
3539 a directory.
3540
3541 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3542
3543 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
3544 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
3545 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
3546 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
3547
3548 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
3549 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
3550 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
3551 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
3552 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
3553 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
3554 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
3555
3556 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
3557 for static tracepoints support.
3558
3559 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
3560
3561 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
3562 it understands register description.
3563
3564 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
3565
3566 * X86 general purpose registers
3567
3568 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
3569 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
3570 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
3571 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
3572 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
3573
3574 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
3575 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
3576 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
3577 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
3578 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
3579 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
3580
3581 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
3582 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
3583 in the specified file.
3584
3585 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
3586 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
3587 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
3588 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
3589 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
3590 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
3591 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
3592 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
3593 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
3594 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
3595
3596 * New commands
3597
3598 eval template, expressions...
3599 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3600 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3601
3602 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3603 show target-file-system-kind
3604 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3605 names.
3606
3607 save breakpoints <filename>
3608 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3609 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3610 definitions, use the `source' command.
3611
3612 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
3613 is now deprecated.
3614
3615 info static-tracepoint-markers
3616 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
3617
3618 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3619 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3620 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3621
3622 set observer on|off
3623 show observer
3624 Enable and disable observer mode.
3625
3626 set may-write-registers on|off
3627 set may-write-memory on|off
3628 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3629 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3630 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3631 set may-interrupt on|off
3632 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3633 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3634 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3635 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3636 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3637 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3638 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3639
3640 set record memory-query on|off
3641 show record memory-query
3642 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3643 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3644
3645 * Changed commands
3646
3647 disassemble
3648 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3649
3650 * Python scripting
3651
3652 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3653 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3654 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3655 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3656 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3657
3658 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3659 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3660 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3661 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3662
3663 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3664 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3665
3666 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3667
3668 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3669
3670 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3671
3672 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3673 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3674 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3675
3676 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3677 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3678 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3679 regular breakpoints.
3680
3681 * New targets
3682
3683 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3684
3685 * D language support.
3686 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3687 language.
3688
3689 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3690 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3691 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3692 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3693 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3694
3695 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3696 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3697 conditions of the form:
3698
3699 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3700
3701 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3702 interface mentioned above.
3703
3704 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
3705
3706 * C++ Improvements
3707
3708 ** Namespace Support
3709
3710 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3711 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3712 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3713 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3714 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3715
3716 ** Bug Fixes
3717
3718 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3719 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3720 qualified name.
3721
3722 ** Cast Operators
3723
3724 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3725 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3726
3727 * New targets
3728
3729 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3730 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
3731
3732 * New Simulators
3733
3734 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3735 Renesas RX rx
3736
3737 * Multi-program debugging.
3738
3739 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3740 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3741 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3742 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3743 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3744 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3745 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3746 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3747
3748 * New tracing features
3749
3750 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3751
3752 ** Trace state variables
3753
3754 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3755 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3756 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3757 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3758 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3759 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3760 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3761 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3762 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3763 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3764
3765 ** Fast tracepoints
3766
3767 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3768 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3769 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3770 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3771 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3772 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3773 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3774 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3775 the regular trace command.
3776
3777 ** Disconnected tracing
3778
3779 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3780 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3781 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3782 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3783 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3784
3785 ** Trace files
3786
3787 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3788 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3789 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3790 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3791 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3792 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3793 <name>".
3794
3795 ** Circular trace buffer
3796
3797 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3798 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3799 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3800 not be available for all target agents.
3801
3802 * Changed commands
3803
3804 disassemble
3805 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3806 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3807
3808 info variables
3809 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3810 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3811
3812 source
3813 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3814 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3815 support.
3816
3817 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3818 "set script-extension" (see below).
3819
3820 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3821
3822 record save [<FILENAME>]
3823 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3824 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3825
3826 record restore <FILENAME>
3827 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3828 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3829
3830 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3831 Add a new inferior.
3832
3833 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3834 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3835 inferior has loaded.
3836
3837 remove-inferior ID
3838 Remove an inferior.
3839
3840 maint info program-spaces
3841 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3842
3843 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3844 show remote interrupt-sequence
3845 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3846 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3847 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3848 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3849 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3850
3851 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3852 show remote interrupt-on-connect
3853 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3854 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3855 Linux kernel.
3856
3857 set remotebreak [on | off]
3858 show remotebreak
3859 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3860
3861 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3862 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3863
3864 info tvariables
3865 List trace state variables and their values.
3866
3867 delete tvariable $NAME ...
3868 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3869
3870 teval EXPR, ...
3871 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3872 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3873
3874 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3875 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3876
3877 * New expression syntax
3878
3879 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3880 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3881
3882 * New options
3883
3884 set follow-exec-mode new|same
3885 show follow-exec-mode
3886 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3887 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3888 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3889
3890 set default-collect EXPR, ...
3891 show default-collect
3892 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3893 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3894 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3895
3896 set disconnected-tracing
3897 show disconnected-tracing
3898 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
3899 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
3900 upon disconnection.
3901
3902 set circular-trace-buffer
3903 show circular-trace-buffer
3904 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
3905 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
3906 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
3907 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
3908
3909 set script-extension off|soft|strict
3910 show script-extension
3911 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
3912 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
3913 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
3914 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
3915 evaluation failed.
3916 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
3917
3918 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
3919 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
3920 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
3921 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
3922 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
3923 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
3924 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
3925 is on.
3926
3927 * Python API Improvements
3928
3929 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
3930 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
3931 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
3932
3933 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
3934 `is_base_class' attribute.
3935
3936 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
3937
3938 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
3939 evaluate an expression.
3940
3941 * New remote packets
3942
3943 QTDV
3944 Define a trace state variable.
3945
3946 qTV
3947 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
3948
3949 QTDisconnected
3950 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
3951
3952 QTBuffer:circular
3953 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
3954
3955 qTfP, qTsP
3956 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
3957
3958 * Bug fixes
3959
3960 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
3961
3962 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
3963 much more reliable. In particular:
3964 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
3965 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
3966 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
3967 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
3968 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
3969 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
3970 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
3971 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
3972 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
3973 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
3974 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
3975 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
3976 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
3977 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
3978 non-threaded programs.
3979
3980 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
3981 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
3982 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
3983 executable program.
3984
3985 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
3986
3987 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
3988 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
3989 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
3990 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
3991 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
3992
3993 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
3994 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
3995 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
3996 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
3997 for tracepoint actions.
3998
3999 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
4000 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
4001 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
4002
4003 * Process record and replay
4004
4005 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
4006 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
4007 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
4008 execute commands.
4009
4010 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
4011 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
4012 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
4013 reverse execution.
4014
4015 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
4016 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4017 2.6.28 or later.
4018
4019 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
4020 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
4021 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
4022 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
4023 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
4024 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
4025 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
4026 the installation instructions for more information.
4027
4028 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
4029 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
4030 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
4031 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
4032
4033 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
4034 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
4035
4036 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
4037 now complete on file names.
4038
4039 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
4040 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
4041 For instance, consider:
4042
4043 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
4044 # struct example variable;
4045 (gdb) p variable.
4046
4047 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
4048 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
4049
4050 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
4051 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
4052
4053 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
4054 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
4055 macros.
4056
4057 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
4058 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
4059 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
4060
4061 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
4062 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
4063 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
4064 and simulator targets may also provide them.
4065
4066 * New remote packets
4067
4068 qSearch:memory:
4069 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4070
4071 QStartNoAckMode
4072 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
4073 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
4074 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
4075
4076 vKill
4077 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
4078 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
4079
4080 qXfer:osdata:read
4081 Obtains additional operating system information
4082
4083 qXfer:siginfo:read
4084 qXfer:siginfo:write
4085 Read or write additional signal information.
4086
4087 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
4088
4089 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
4090 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
4091 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
4092
4093 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
4094 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
4095
4096 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
4097 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4098 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
4099
4100 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4101 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4102
4103 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4104
4105 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4106
4107 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4108 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4109
4110 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
4111 list of section offsets.
4112
4113 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4114 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4115 have also been fixed.
4116
4117 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4118 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4119 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4120
4121 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4122 example, given:
4123
4124 template<typename T> class C { };
4125 C<char const *> c;
4126
4127 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4128
4129 ptype C<char const *>
4130 ptype C<char const*>
4131 ptype C<const char *>
4132 ptype C<const char*>
4133
4134 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
4135
4136 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
4137 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4138
4139 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
4140 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4141 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
4142
4143 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
4144 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
4145
4146 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
4147 gdbserver.
4148
4149 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
4150 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4151
4152 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
4153 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
4154 as appropriate.
4155
4156 * Python scripting
4157
4158 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
4159 available is determined at configure time.
4160
4161 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
4162
4163 * Ada tasking support
4164
4165 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
4166 been introduced:
4167
4168 info tasks
4169 Print the list of Ada tasks.
4170 info task N
4171 Print detailed information about task number N.
4172 task
4173 Print the task number of the current task.
4174 task N
4175 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
4176
4177 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
4178 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
4179
4180 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
4181
4182 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
4183 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
4184 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
4185 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
4186 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
4187 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
4188 below.
4189
4190 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
4191 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
4192 information.
4193
4194 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
4195 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
4196 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
4197 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
4198 more information.
4199
4200 * Multi-architecture debugging.
4201
4202 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
4203 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
4204 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
4205 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
4206 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
4207
4208 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
4209 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
4210 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
4211 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
4212 --enable-targets configure option.
4213
4214 * Non-stop mode debugging.
4215
4216 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
4217 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
4218 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
4219 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
4220 section in the user manual for more information.
4221
4222 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
4223 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
4224 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
4225 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
4226 extensions on linux targets.
4227
4228 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4229
4230 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
4231 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
4232 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
4233 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
4234 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
4235 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
4236 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
4237 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
4238 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
4239
4240 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
4241 val1 [, val2, ...]
4242 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4243
4244 maint set python print-stack
4245 maint show python print-stack
4246 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
4247
4248 python [CODE]
4249 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
4250
4251 macro define
4252 macro list
4253 macro undef
4254 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
4255 interactively.
4256
4257 info os processes
4258 Show operating system information about processes.
4259
4260 info inferiors
4261 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
4262
4263 inferior NUM
4264 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
4265
4266 detach inferior NUM
4267 Detach from inferior number NUM.
4268
4269 kill inferior NUM
4270 Kill inferior number NUM.
4271
4272 * New options
4273
4274 set spu stop-on-load
4275 show spu stop-on-load
4276 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4277
4278 set spu auto-flush-cache
4279 show spu auto-flush-cache
4280 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
4281 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4282
4283 set sh calling-convention
4284 show sh calling-convention
4285 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
4286
4287 set debug timestamp
4288 show debug timestamp
4289 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
4290
4291 set disassemble-next-line
4292 show disassemble-next-line
4293 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
4294 the debuggee stops.
4295
4296 set remote noack-packet
4297 show remote noack-packet
4298 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
4299 under "New remote packets."
4300
4301 set remote query-attached-packet
4302 show remote query-attached-packet
4303 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
4304
4305 set remote read-siginfo-object
4306 show remote read-siginfo-object
4307 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
4308 packet.
4309
4310 set remote write-siginfo-object
4311 show remote write-siginfo-object
4312 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
4313 packet.
4314
4315 set remote reverse-continue
4316 show remote reverse-continue
4317 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
4318
4319 set remote reverse-step
4320 show remote reverse-step
4321 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
4322
4323 set displaced-stepping
4324 show displaced-stepping
4325 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
4326 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
4327 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
4328
4329 set debug displaced
4330 show debug displaced
4331 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
4332
4333 maint set internal-error
4334 maint show internal-error
4335 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
4336
4337 maint set internal-warning
4338 maint show internal-warning
4339 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
4340
4341 set exec-wrapper
4342 show exec-wrapper
4343 unset exec-wrapper
4344 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4345
4346 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
4347 show multiple-symbols
4348 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
4349 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
4350 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
4351
4352 set breakpoint always-inserted
4353 show breakpoint always-inserted
4354 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
4355 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
4356 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
4357
4358 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4359 show arm fallback-mode
4360 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4361 show arm force-mode
4362 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
4363 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
4364 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
4365 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
4366
4367 set disable-randomization
4368 show disable-randomization
4369 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
4370 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
4371 multiple debugging sessions.
4372
4373 set non-stop
4374 show non-stop
4375 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
4376 a breakpoint.
4377
4378 set target-async
4379 show target-async
4380 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
4381 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
4382 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
4383 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
4384
4385 set target-wide-charset
4386 show target-wide-charset
4387 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
4388 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
4389
4390 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
4391 show tcp auto-retry
4392 set tcp connect-timeout
4393 show tcp connect-timeout
4394 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
4395 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
4396 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
4397
4398 set libthread-db-search-path
4399 show libthread-db-search-path
4400 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
4401 libthread_db.
4402
4403 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
4404 show schedule-multiple
4405 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
4406 the current process.
4407
4408 set stack-cache
4409 show stack-cache
4410 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
4411 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
4412 affecting correctness.
4413
4414 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
4415 show interactive-mode
4416 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
4417 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
4418 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
4419 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
4420 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
4421
4422 * Removed commands
4423
4424 info forks
4425 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
4426 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
4427 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
4428 command.
4429
4430 fork NUM
4431 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
4432 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
4433 alias for the `fork' command.
4434
4435 process PID
4436 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
4437 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
4438 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
4439
4440 delete fork NUM
4441 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
4442 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
4443 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
4444 fork' command.
4445
4446 detach fork NUM
4447 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
4448 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
4449 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
4450 fork' command.
4451
4452 * New native configurations
4453
4454 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
4455
4456 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
4457
4458 * New targets
4459
4460 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
4461 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4462 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
4463 S+core 3 score-*-*
4464
4465 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
4466 (mingw32ce) debugging.
4467
4468 * Removed commands
4469
4470 catch load
4471 catch unload
4472 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
4473
4474 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
4475
4476 * New native configurations
4477
4478 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
4479 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4480
4481 * New targets
4482
4483 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
4484 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
4485
4486 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4487
4488 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4489 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4490 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4491 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4492
4493 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4494 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4495
4496 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4497 is resolved.
4498
4499 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4500 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4501 and in inlined functions.
4502
4503 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4504 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4505 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4506
4507 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4508
4509 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4510 registers on PowerPC targets.
4511
4512 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4513 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4514
4515 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
4516 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
4517
4518 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
4519 extended-remote mode.
4520
4521 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
4522 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
4523 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
4524 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
4525
4526 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
4527 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
4528 target architectures.
4529
4530 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
4531 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
4532 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
4533 stored in two consecutive float registers.
4534
4535 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
4536 breakpoints now.
4537
4538 * Improved support for debugging Ada
4539 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
4540 include:
4541 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
4542 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
4543 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
4544 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
4545 of an assignment
4546 - Improved command completion in Ada
4547 - Several bug fixes
4548
4549 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
4550 process.
4551
4552 * New commands
4553
4554 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
4555 show print frame-arguments
4556 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
4557 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
4558
4559 remote put
4560 remote get
4561 remote delete
4562 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4563
4564 * New MI commands
4565
4566 -target-file-put
4567 -target-file-get
4568 -target-file-delete
4569 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4570
4571 * New remote packets
4572
4573 vFile:open:
4574 vFile:close:
4575 vFile:pread:
4576 vFile:pwrite:
4577 vFile:unlink:
4578 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
4579
4580 vAttach
4581 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
4582 mode.
4583
4584 vRun
4585 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
4586
4587 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
4588
4589 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
4590 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
4591 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
4592
4593 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
4594 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
4595 -Bsymbolic linker option.
4596
4597 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4598 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4599 is not supported.
4600
4601 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4602 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4603
4604 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
4605 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
4606
4607 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4608
4609 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4610 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
4611 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
4612
4613 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
4614 automatically displayed as character or string data.
4615
4616 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
4617 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
4618 as strings.
4619
4620 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4621 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
4622 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
4623
4624 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4625 iWMMXt coprocessor.
4626
4627 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4628 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4629 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4630
4631 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4632
4633 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4634
4635 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4636 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4637 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4638
4639 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4640 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4641
4642 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4643 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4644 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4645 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4646 Windows and SymbianOS).
4647
4648 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4649 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
4650
4651 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4652 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
4653
4654 * New commands
4655
4656 set remoteflow
4657 show remoteflow
4658 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4659 when debugging using remote targets.
4660
4661 set mem inaccessible-by-default
4662 show mem inaccessible-by-default
4663 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4664 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4665 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4666 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4667 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4668
4669 set breakpoint auto-hw
4670 show breakpoint auto-hw
4671 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4672 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4673 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4674 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4675 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4676 including "next" and "finish".
4677
4678 catch exception
4679 catch exception unhandled
4680 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4681
4682 catch assert
4683 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4684
4685 set sysroot
4686 show sysroot
4687 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4688 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4689 an alias to "set sysroot".
4690
4691 info spu
4692 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4693 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4694 architecture.
4695
4696 * New native configurations
4697
4698 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4699
4700 set tdesc filename
4701 unset tdesc filename
4702 show tdesc filename
4703 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4704 not query the target for its built-in description.
4705
4706 * New targets
4707
4708 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4709 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4710 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4711
4712 * New remote packets
4713
4714 QPassSignals:
4715 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4716 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4717
4718 qXfer:features:read:
4719 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4720 features.
4721
4722 qXfer:spu:read:
4723 qXfer:spu:write:
4724 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4725 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4726
4727 qXfer:libraries:read:
4728 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4729 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4730 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4731 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4732
4733 * Removed targets
4734
4735 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4736
4737 alpha*-*-osf1*
4738 alpha*-*-osf2*
4739 d10v-*-*
4740 hppa*-*-hiux*
4741 i[34567]86-ncr-*
4742 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
4743 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4744 i[34567]86-*-netware*
4745 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4746 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4747 i[34567]86-*-sco*
4748 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4749 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
4750 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
4751 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4752 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4753 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
4754 i[34567]86-*-isc*
4755 m68*-cisco*-*
4756 m68*-tandem-*
4757 mips*-*-pe
4758 rs6000-*-lynxos*
4759 sh*-*-pe
4760
4761 * Other removed features
4762
4763 target abug
4764 target cpu32bug
4765 target est
4766 target rom68k
4767
4768 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4769
4770 target hms
4771 target e7000
4772 target sh3
4773 target sh3e
4774
4775 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4776 H8/300.
4777
4778 target ocd
4779
4780 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4781 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4782 interfaces.
4783
4784 DWARF 1 support
4785
4786 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4787 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4788
4789 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4790
4791 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4792 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4793 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4794 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4795
4796 MIPS ".pdr" sections
4797
4798 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4799 in debugging information.
4800
4801 Scheme support
4802
4803 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4804 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4805
4806 set mips stack-arg-size
4807 set mips saved-gpreg-size
4808
4809 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4810
4811 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
4812
4813 * New targets
4814
4815 Xtensa xtensa-elf
4816 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4817
4818 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4819 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4820 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4821
4822 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4823 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4824 supported.
4825
4826 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4827 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4828
4829 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4830 stub provides the required support.
4831
4832 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4833 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4834
4835 * New commands
4836
4837 set substitute-path
4838 unset substitute-path
4839 show substitute-path
4840 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4841 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4842 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4843 between compilation and debugging.
4844
4845 set trace-commands
4846 show trace-commands
4847 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4848 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4849 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4850
4851 * REMOVED features
4852
4853 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4854
4855 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4856 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4857
4858 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4859
4860 * New remote packets
4861
4862 qSupported:
4863 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4864 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4865 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4866 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4867 target.
4868
4869 qXfer:auxv:read:
4870 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4871 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4872
4873 qXfer:memory-map:read:
4874 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4875 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4876
4877 vFlashErase:
4878 vFlashWrite:
4879 vFlashDone:
4880 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4881
4882 * Removed remote packets
4883
4884 qPart:auxv:read:
4885 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4886 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4887
4888 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
4889
4890 * New targets
4891
4892 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4893
4894 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4895
4896 * New commands
4897
4898 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
4899 only if it doesn't already have a value.
4900
4901 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
4902
4903 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
4904
4905 restart <n> Return the program state to a
4906 previously saved state.
4907
4908 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
4909
4910 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
4911
4912 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
4913 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
4914
4915 info forks List forks of the user program that
4916 are available to be debugged.
4917
4918 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
4919 forks of the user program that are
4920 available to be debugged.
4921
4922 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4923 that are available to be debugged (and
4924 kill the forked process).
4925
4926 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4927 that are available to be debugged (and
4928 allow the process to continue).
4929
4930 * New architecture
4931
4932 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
4933
4934 * Improved Windows host support
4935
4936 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
4937 native console support, and remote communications using either
4938 network sockets or serial ports.
4939
4940 * Improved Modula-2 language support
4941
4942 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
4943 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
4944 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
4945 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
4946 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
4947 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
4948
4949 * REMOVED features
4950
4951 The ARM rdi-share module.
4952
4953 The Netware NLM debug server.
4954
4955 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
4956
4957 * New native configurations
4958
4959 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
4960 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
4961
4962 * New targets
4963
4964 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4965
4966 * New command line options
4967
4968 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
4969 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
4970 the child (debugged) program exited with.
4971 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
4972 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
4973 specified multiple times and in conjunction
4974 with the --command (-x) option.
4975
4976 * Deprecated commands removed
4977
4978 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
4979 removed:
4980
4981 Command Replacement
4982 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
4983 othernames set arm disassembler
4984 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
4985 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
4986 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
4987 regs info registers
4988
4989 * New BSD user-level threads support
4990
4991 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
4992 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
4993 configurations are:
4994
4995 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4996 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
4997 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
4998
4999 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
5000 are not yet supported.
5001
5002 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
5003 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
5004
5005 * REMOVED configurations and files
5006
5007 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
5008 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5009 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
5010
5011 * New "set print array-indexes" command
5012
5013 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
5014 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
5015 behavior.
5016
5017 * VAX floating point support
5018
5019 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
5020
5021 * User-defined command support
5022
5023 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
5024 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
5025 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
5026
5027 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
5028
5029 * New command line option
5030
5031 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
5032 debugging.
5033
5034 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
5035
5036 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
5037 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
5038 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
5039 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
5040 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
5041
5042 * Internationalization
5043
5044 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
5045 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
5046 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
5047
5048 * Ada
5049
5050 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
5051 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
5052 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
5053
5054 * New native configurations
5055
5056 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
5057
5058 * Remote 'p' packet
5059
5060 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
5061 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
5062
5063 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
5064
5065 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5066 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
5067 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
5068 i386 application).
5069
5070 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
5071 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
5072 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
5073 configurations:
5074
5075 hppa-*-hpux
5076 ia64-*-aix
5077 mips-*-irix*
5078 *-*-lynx
5079 mips-*-linux-gnu
5080 sds protocol
5081 xdr protocol
5082 powerpc bdm protocol
5083
5084 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5085 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
5086
5087 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5088
5089 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5090 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5091 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5092 permanently REMOVED.
5093
5094 h8300-*-*
5095 mcore-*-*
5096 mn10300-*-*
5097 ns32k-*-*
5098 sh64-*-*
5099 v850-*-*
5100
5101 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5102
5103 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5104
5105 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5106 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5107 been fixed.
5108
5109 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5110
5111 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5112 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5113 IRIX long double values).
5114
5115 * VAX and "next"
5116
5117 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5118 command. This problem has been fixed.
5119
5120 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5121
5122 * Fix for ``many threads''
5123
5124 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
5125 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
5126 error message:
5127
5128 ptrace: No such process.
5129 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
5130
5131 This problem has been fixed.
5132
5133 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
5134
5135 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
5136 GDB to dump core).
5137
5138 * New ``start'' command.
5139
5140 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
5141
5142 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
5143
5144 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
5145 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
5146 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
5147
5148 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5149 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
5150 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
5151 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
5152 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
5153 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5154 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
5155 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
5156 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5157
5158 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
5159
5160 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
5161 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
5162 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
5163 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
5164 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
5165
5166 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
5167 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
5168 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
5169
5170 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
5171
5172 * New native configurations
5173
5174 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
5175 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
5176 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
5177 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
5178 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
5179 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
5180 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
5181
5182 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
5183
5184 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5185 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
5186 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
5187 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
5188 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
5189 work, was also included.
5190
5191 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
5192 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
5193
5194 h8300-*-*
5195 mcore-*-*
5196 mn10300-*-*
5197 ns32k-*-*
5198 sh64-*-*
5199 v850-*-*
5200 xstormy16-*-*
5201
5202 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5203 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
5204
5205 * REMOVED configurations and files
5206
5207 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5208 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5209 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5210 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5211 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5212 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5213 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5214 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5215 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5216 sonymips mips-sony-*
5217 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5218
5219 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
5220
5221 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
5222
5223 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
5224 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
5225 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
5226 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
5227 with GDB".
5228
5229 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
5230
5231 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
5232 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
5233 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
5234 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
5235 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
5236 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
5237 are created.
5238
5239 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
5240
5241 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
5242
5243 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
5244 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
5245 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
5246
5247 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
5248
5249 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
5250 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
5251
5252 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
5253
5254 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
5255 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
5256 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
5257
5258 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
5259
5260 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
5261 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
5262
5263 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
5264
5265 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
5266 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
5267 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
5268
5269 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
5270
5271 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
5272 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
5273 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
5274
5275 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
5276
5277 * Removed --with-mmalloc
5278
5279 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
5280 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
5281
5282 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
5283
5284 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
5285 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
5286 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
5287 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
5288
5289 * Revised SPARC target
5290
5291 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
5292 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
5293 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
5294 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
5295 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
5296
5297 * New C++ demangler
5298
5299 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
5300 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
5301 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
5302 programs.
5303
5304 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5305
5306 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
5307 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
5308 encountered these.
5309
5310 * C++ nested types and namespaces
5311
5312 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
5313 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
5314 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
5315 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
5316 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
5317 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
5318 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
5319 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
5320 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
5321
5322 * New native configurations
5323
5324 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
5325 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5326 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
5327 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5328 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
5329
5330 * New debugging protocols
5331
5332 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
5333
5334 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
5335
5336 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
5337 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
5338 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
5339
5340 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5341
5342 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5343 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5344 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5345 permanently REMOVED.
5346
5347 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5348 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5349 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5350 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5351 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5352 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5353 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5354 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5355 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5356 sonymips mips-sony-*
5357 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5358
5359 * REMOVED configurations and files
5360
5361 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5362 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5363 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5364 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5365 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5366 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5367 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5368 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5369 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5370 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
5371 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5372 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5373 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5374 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
5375 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
5376 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5377 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5378
5379 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
5380
5381 * Objective-C
5382
5383 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
5384 integrated into GDB.
5385
5386 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
5387
5388 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
5389 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
5390 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
5391 backtraces.
5392
5393 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
5394 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
5395 DWARF 2 CFI support.
5396
5397 * Hosted file I/O.
5398
5399 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
5400 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
5401 remote protocol documentation for details.
5402
5403 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
5404
5405 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
5406 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
5407 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
5408 ppc32 on ppc64).
5409
5410 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
5411
5412 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
5413 per-thread variables.
5414
5415 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
5416
5417 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
5418 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
5419
5420 * Separate debug info.
5421
5422 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
5423 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
5424 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
5425 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
5426 and optional debug files.
5427
5428 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5429
5430 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
5431 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
5432 debugger.
5433
5434 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
5435 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
5436
5437 * Java
5438
5439 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
5440 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
5441 considered "useable".
5442
5443 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
5444
5445 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
5446 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
5447 kernel.
5448
5449 * GDB supports logging output to a file
5450
5451 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
5452 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
5453
5454 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
5455
5456 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
5457 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
5458 command.
5459
5460 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5461
5462 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
5463 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
5464
5465 * Profiling support
5466
5467 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
5468 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
5469 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
5470 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
5471 data, for more informative profiling results.
5472
5473 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
5474
5475 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
5476 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
5477 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
5478
5479 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
5480 removed.
5481
5482 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
5483 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
5484 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
5485 in a subsequent -var-update.
5486
5487 * New native configurations.
5488
5489 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5490
5491 * Multi-arched targets.
5492
5493 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5494 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5495
5496 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5497
5498 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5499 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5500 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5501 permanently REMOVED.
5502
5503 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5504 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5505 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5506 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5507 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5508 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5509 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5510 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5511 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5512 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5513 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5514 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5515
5516 * REMOVED configurations and files
5517
5518 V850EA ISA
5519 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5520 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5521 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5522 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5523 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5524 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5525 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5526 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5527 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5528 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5529 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5530 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5531 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5532
5533 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
5534
5535 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
5536 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
5537 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
5538 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
5539 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
5540
5541 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
5542
5543 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
5544
5545 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
5546 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
5547 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
5548 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
5549 shared libs like mad''.
5550
5551 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
5552
5553 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
5554 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
5555 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
5556 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
5557
5558 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
5559
5560 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
5561 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
5562 they expand.
5563
5564 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
5565 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
5566
5567 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
5568 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
5569
5570 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
5571 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
5572 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
5573 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
5574
5575 * Multi-arched targets.
5576
5577 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
5578 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
5579 NEC V850 v850-*-*
5580 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
5581 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
5582 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5583
5584 * New targets.
5585
5586 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
5587
5588
5589 * New native configurations
5590
5591 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
5592 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
5593 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
5594 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
5595
5596 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5597
5598 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5599 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5600 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5601 permanently REMOVED.
5602
5603 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5604 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5605 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5606 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5607 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5608 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5609 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5610 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5611 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5612 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5613 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5614 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5615 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5616
5617 * OBSOLETE languages
5618
5619 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5620
5621 * REMOVED configurations and files
5622
5623 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5624 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5625 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5626 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5627 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5628
5629 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5630
5631 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5632
5633 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5634 commands. The default is 1024.
5635
5636 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5637
5638 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5639
5640 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5641
5642 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5643 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5644 from a file into memory (restore).
5645
5646 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5647
5648 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5649 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5650 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5651
5652 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5653
5654 * New targets.
5655
5656 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
5657
5658 * Bug fixes
5659
5660 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5661 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5662 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5663
5664 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5665 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5666 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5667
5668 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5669 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5670 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5671
5672 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5673 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5674 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5675
5676 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5677
5678 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5679
5680 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5681 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5682 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5683 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5684 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5685 (notably embedded) targets.
5686
5687 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5688
5689 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5690 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5691 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5692 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5693
5694 * New command line option
5695
5696 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5697
5698 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5699
5700 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5701 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5702 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5703 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5704 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5705 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5706 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5707 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5708 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5709 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5710
5711 * Changes in ARM configurations.
5712
5713 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5714 configuration is fully multi-arch.
5715
5716 * New native configurations
5717
5718 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5719 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5720 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5721 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5722
5723 * New targets
5724
5725 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5726
5727 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5728
5729 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5730 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5731 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5732 permanently REMOVED.
5733
5734 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5735 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5736 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5737 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5738 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5739
5740 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5741
5742 * REMOVED configurations and files
5743
5744 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5745 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5746 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5747 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5748 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5749 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5750 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5751 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5752 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5753 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5754 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5755 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5756 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5757
5758 * Changes to command line processing
5759
5760 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5761 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5762
5763 * Changes to key bindings
5764
5765 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5766
5767 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5768
5769 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5770
5771 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5772 corrupted.
5773
5774 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5775
5776 Numerous documentation fixes.
5777
5778 Numerous testsuite fixes.
5779
5780 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5781
5782 * New native configurations
5783
5784 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5785 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5786 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5787 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5788 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5789 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5790
5791 * New targets
5792
5793 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5794 CRIS cris-axis
5795 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5796
5797 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5798
5799 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5800 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5801 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5802 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5803 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5804 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5805 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5806 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5807 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5808 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5809 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5810 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5811 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5812 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5813
5814 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5815 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5816
5817 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5818 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5819 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5820 permanently REMOVED.
5821
5822 * REMOVED configurations and files
5823
5824 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5825 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5826 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
5827 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5828 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
5829 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
5830
5831 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5832
5833 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5834 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5835 present.
5836
5837 * Other news:
5838
5839 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5840
5841 * The MI enabled by default.
5842
5843 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5844 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5845 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5846 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5847 which is now deprecated.
5848
5849 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5850
5851 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5852 main features are supported:
5853
5854 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5855
5856 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5857 extension;
5858
5859 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5860
5861 - a Pascal expression parser.
5862
5863 However, some important features are not yet supported.
5864
5865 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5866
5867 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5868
5869 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5870 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5871
5872 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5873
5874 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5875
5876 * Changes in completion.
5877
5878 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5879 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5880 users expect at the shell prompt.
5881
5882 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5883 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5884 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5885 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5886 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5887 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5888 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5889
5890 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5891
5892 * New platform-independent commands:
5893
5894 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5895 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5896 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5897
5898 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
5899
5900 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
5901 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
5902 many threads as your system allows you to have.
5903
5904 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
5905
5906 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
5907 multi-threaded programs though.
5908
5909 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
5910
5911 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
5912
5913 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
5914 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
5915 supported.)
5916
5917 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
5918
5919 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
5920 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
5921 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
5922 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
5923 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
5924 registers.
5925
5926 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
5927 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
5928 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
5929
5930 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
5931
5932 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
5933 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
5934
5935 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
5936 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
5937 IDT.
5938
5939 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
5940 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
5941 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
5942 a given linear address.
5943
5944 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
5945 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
5946 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
5947
5948 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
5949
5950 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
5951
5952 * Changes in documentation.
5953
5954 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
5955 Documentation License.
5956
5957 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5958 manual.
5959
5960 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
5961
5962 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
5963 manual.
5964
5965 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
5966 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
5967 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
5968
5969 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
5970
5971 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
5972 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
5973 contents of this file.
5974
5975 * gdba.el deleted
5976
5977 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
5978
5979 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
5980
5981 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
5982
5983 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
5984 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
5985 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
5986 greater level of detail.
5987
5988 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
5989
5990 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
5991 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
5992 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
5993 written.
5994
5995 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
5996
5997 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
5998 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
5999 machines ``out of the box''.
6000
6001 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
6002 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
6003 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
6004 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
6005 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
6006
6007 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
6008 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
6009 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
6010 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
6011 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
6012
6013 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
6014 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
6015 also works.
6016
6017 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
6018 GDB.
6019
6020 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
6021 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
6022 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
6023 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
6024
6025 * New native configurations
6026
6027 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
6028 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6029
6030 * New targets
6031
6032 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
6033 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
6034 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
6035 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6036
6037 * OBSOLETE configurations
6038
6039 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6040 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6041 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6042 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6043 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6044
6045 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6046 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6047 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6048 be permanently REMOVED.
6049
6050 * Gould support removed
6051
6052 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
6053
6054 * New features for SVR4
6055
6056 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
6057 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
6058 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
6059
6060 * Many C++ enhancements
6061
6062 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
6063 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
6064
6065 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
6066
6067 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
6068 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
6069 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
6070 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
6071
6072 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
6073 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
6074
6075 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
6076
6077 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
6078 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
6079 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
6080
6081 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
6082 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
6083
6084 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
6085
6086 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
6087 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
6088 include ``set remote P-packet''.
6089
6090 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
6091
6092 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
6093 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
6094 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
6095
6096 * ``apropos'' command added.
6097
6098 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6099 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6100 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6101
6102 * New MI interface
6103
6104 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6105 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6106 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6107 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6108 enabled by configuring with:
6109
6110 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6111
6112 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6113
6114 * New native configurations
6115
6116 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6117 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6118 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6119
6120 * New targets
6121
6122 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6123 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6124 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6125
6126 * OBSOLETE configurations
6127
6128 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
6129
6130 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6131 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6132 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6133 be permanently REMOVED.
6134
6135 * ANSI/ISO C
6136
6137 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
6138 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
6139 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
6140 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
6141 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
6142 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
6143 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
6144 already.
6145
6146 * Readline 2.2
6147
6148 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
6149
6150 * set extension-language
6151
6152 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
6153 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
6154 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
6155 set extension-language .c c++
6156 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
6157 and their associated languages.
6158
6159 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
6160
6161 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
6162 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
6163 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
6164
6165 set processor NAME
6166
6167 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
6168 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
6169
6170 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
6171 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
6172 403 IBM PowerPC 403
6173 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
6174 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
6175 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
6176 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
6177 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
6178 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
6179 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
6180 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
6181
6182 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
6183 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
6184 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
6185 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
6186
6187 * HP-UX support
6188
6189 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
6190 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
6191 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
6192 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
6193 for xdb and dbx commands.
6194
6195 * Catchpoints
6196
6197 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
6198 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
6199 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
6200
6201 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
6202 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
6203 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
6204
6205 * Debugging across forks
6206
6207 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
6208 in the inferior.
6209
6210 * TUI
6211
6212 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
6213 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
6214 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
6215
6216 * GDB remote protocol additions
6217
6218 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
6219 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
6220 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
6221 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
6222
6223 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
6224 full 64-bit address. The command
6225
6226 set remoteaddresssize 32
6227
6228 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
6229 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
6230 will be discarded.
6231
6232 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
6233 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
6234
6235 maint packet heythere
6236
6237 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
6238 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
6239 time.
6240
6241 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
6242 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
6243 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
6244
6245 * Tracing can collect general expressions
6246
6247 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
6248 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
6249 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
6250
6251 * mask-address variable for Mips
6252
6253 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
6254 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
6255 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
6256
6257 * Higher serial baud rates
6258
6259 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
6260 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
6261 to achieve all of these rates.)
6262
6263 * i960 simulator
6264
6265 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
6266 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
6267
6268
6269 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
6270
6271 * New native configurations
6272
6273 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
6274 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
6275 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6276 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6277 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6278 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
6279 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
6280
6281 * New targets
6282
6283 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6284 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
6285 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6286 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
6287 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
6288 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
6289 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
6290 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
6291 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6292 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6293 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
6294
6295 * New debugging protocols
6296
6297 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
6298 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
6299 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
6300 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6301 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6302 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6303
6304 * DWARF 2
6305
6306 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
6307 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
6308 information.
6309
6310 * Java frontend
6311
6312 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
6313 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
6314
6315 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
6316
6317 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
6318 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
6319 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
6320
6321 * Live range splitting
6322
6323 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
6324 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
6325 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
6326
6327 * Hurd support
6328
6329 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
6330 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
6331
6332 * ARM Thumb support
6333
6334 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
6335 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
6336 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
6337 accordingly.
6338
6339 * MIPS16 support
6340
6341 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
6342 instruction set.
6343
6344 * Overlay support
6345
6346 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
6347 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
6348 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
6349 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
6350 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
6351 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
6352
6353 * info symbol
6354
6355 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
6356 the symbol at the specified address.
6357
6358 * Trace support
6359
6360 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
6361 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
6362 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
6363 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
6364 file tracepoint.c for more details.
6365
6366 * MIPS simulator
6367
6368 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
6369 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
6370 of most MIPS variants.
6371
6372 * Sparc simulator
6373
6374 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
6375 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
6376 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
6377
6378 * set architecture
6379
6380 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
6381 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
6382 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
6383 the possible architectures.
6384
6385 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
6386
6387 * New native configurations
6388
6389 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
6390 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
6391 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
6392 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
6393 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6394 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
6395
6396 * New targets
6397
6398 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
6399 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6400 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
6401 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
6402 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
6403 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
6404 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6405
6406 * PowerPC simulator
6407
6408 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
6409 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
6410 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
6411 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
6412 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
6413
6414 * Solaris 2.5
6415
6416 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
6417
6418 * Windows 95/NT native
6419
6420 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
6421 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
6422 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
6423 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
6424 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
6425
6426 * dont-repeat command
6427
6428 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
6429 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
6430 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
6431 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
6432
6433 * Send break instead of ^C
6434
6435 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
6436 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
6437 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
6438
6439 * Remote protocol timeout
6440
6441 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
6442 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
6443 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
6444
6445 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
6446
6447 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
6448 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
6449 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
6450 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
6451 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
6452
6453 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
6454 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
6455 automatically on hpux10.
6456
6457 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
6458
6459 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
6460
6461 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
6462
6463 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
6464 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
6465 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
6466 every character. The default value is 1050.
6467
6468 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
6469
6470 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
6471 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
6472 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
6473 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
6474 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
6475 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
6476
6477 * Speedups for remote debugging
6478
6479 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
6480 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
6481 and more efficient S-record downloading.
6482
6483 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
6484
6485 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
6486 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
6487
6488 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6489
6490 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
6491
6492 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6493 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6494
6495 * Remote targets use caching
6496
6497 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6498 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6499 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6500 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6501 off' turns the the data cache off.
6502
6503 * Remote targets may have threads
6504
6505 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6506 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6507 gdb/remote.c for details.
6508
6509 * NetROM support
6510
6511 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6512 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6513 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6514 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
6515 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
6516 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
6517 sequence is something like
6518
6519 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
6520 load <prog>
6521 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
6522
6523 * Macintosh host
6524
6525 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
6526 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
6527 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
6528 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
6529 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
6530 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
6531 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
6532 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
6533
6534 * Autoconf
6535
6536 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
6537 but does simplify configuration and building.
6538
6539 * hpux10
6540
6541 GDB now supports hpux10.
6542
6543 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
6544
6545 * New native configurations
6546
6547 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
6548 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
6549 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
6550 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
6551
6552 * New targets
6553
6554 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6555 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
6556 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
6557 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
6558 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6559
6560 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
6561
6562 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
6563 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
6564 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
6565 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
6566 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
6567
6568 * Arguments to user-defined commands
6569
6570 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
6571 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
6572 trivial example:
6573 define adder
6574 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
6575
6576 To execute the command use:
6577 adder 1 2 3
6578
6579 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
6580 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
6581 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
6582
6583 * New `if' and `while' commands
6584
6585 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
6586 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
6587 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
6588 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
6589 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
6590 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
6591 if the expression is zero.
6592
6593 * Fortran source language mode
6594
6595 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
6596 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6597 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6598 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6599 Fortran compilers.
6600
6601 * Better HPUX support
6602
6603 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6604 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6605 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6606 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6607 that behavior do the following before running the program:
6608
6609 adb -w a.out
6610 __dld_flags?W 0x5
6611 control-d
6612
6613 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
6614 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
6615
6616 adb -w a.out
6617 __dld_flags?W 0x4
6618 control-d
6619
6620 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6621 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6622 external linkage.
6623
6624 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6625 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6626
6627 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6628
6629 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6630 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6631 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6632 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6633 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6634 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6635
6636 * New DOS host serial code
6637
6638 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6639 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6640 a PC's serial port.
6641
6642 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6643
6644 * New "complete" command
6645
6646 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6647 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6648
6649 * Trailing space optional in prompt
6650
6651 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6652 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6653
6654 * Breakpoint hit counts
6655
6656 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6657 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6658 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6659 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6660 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6661 that breakpoint.
6662
6663 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6664
6665 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6666 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6667 arrays actually contain only short strings.
6668
6669 * Shared library breakpoints
6670
6671 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6672 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6673
6674 * Hardware watchpoints
6675
6676 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6677 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6678
6679 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6680
6681 * Annotations
6682
6683 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6684 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6685
6686 * Improved Irix 5 support
6687
6688 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6689
6690 * Improved HPPA support
6691
6692 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6693
6694 * New native configurations
6695
6696 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6697 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6698 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6699 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6700
6701 * New targets
6702
6703 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6704 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6705 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
6706
6707 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6708
6709 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6710 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6711
6712 * Fixes
6713
6714 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6715 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6716
6717 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6718
6719 * Irix 5 is now supported
6720
6721 * HPPA support
6722
6723 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6724 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6725 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6726 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6727 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6728
6729
6730 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6731
6732 * User visible changes:
6733
6734 * Remote Debugging
6735
6736 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6737 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6738 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6739 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6740 debugging info for the mips target).
6741
6742 * DEC Alpha native support
6743
6744 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6745 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6746 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6747 Alpha-specific notes.
6748
6749 * Preliminary thread implementation
6750
6751 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6752
6753 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
6754
6755 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6756 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6757 for details).
6758
6759 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6760
6761 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6762 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6763 call methods, ...etc.
6764
6765 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6766
6767 * User visible changes:
6768
6769 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6770 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6771 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6772 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6773
6774 Filename completion now works.
6775
6776 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6777 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6778 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6779
6780 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6781 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6782 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6783 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6784 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6785
6786 * DEC alpha support
6787
6788 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6789 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6790
6791
6792 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6793
6794 * Testsuite
6795
6796 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6797 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6798 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6799
6800 * C++ demangling
6801
6802 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6803 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6804 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6805 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6806 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6807
6808 * Simulators
6809
6810 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6811 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6812 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6813
6814 * New targets supported
6815
6816 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6817 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6818 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6819 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6820 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6821
6822 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6823 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6824 GO32 memory extender.
6825
6826 * New remote protocols
6827
6828 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6829
6830 * New source languages supported
6831
6832 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6833 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6834 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6835
6836
6837 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6838
6839 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6840
6841 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6842 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6843 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6844 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6845 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6846 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6847
6848 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6849
6850 * Faster and better demangling
6851
6852 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6853 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6854 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6855 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6856 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6857 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6858 symbol lookups.
6859
6860 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6861 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6862 compiler does not actually implement.
6863
6864 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6865
6866 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6867 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6868 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6869 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6870 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6871 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6872 fix.
6873
6874 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6875 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6876
6877 * Improved configure script
6878
6879 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6880 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6881 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6882 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6883
6884 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6885 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6886 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6887 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6888 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6889 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6890
6891 * Documentation improvements
6892
6893 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6894 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6895 before submitting changes.
6896
6897 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
6898 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
6899 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
6900 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
6901 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
6902
6903 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
6904 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
6905 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
6906 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
6907 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
6908 around this problem.
6909
6910 * New features
6911
6912 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
6913 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
6914 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
6915 the target program.
6916
6917 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
6918 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
6919
6920 * New native hosts supported
6921
6922 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
6923 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
6924
6925 * New targets supported
6926
6927 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
6928
6929 * New file formats supported
6930
6931 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
6932 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
6933
6934 * Major bug fixes
6935
6936 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
6937
6938 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
6939 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
6940
6941 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
6942 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
6943 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
6944
6945 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
6946 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
6947
6948 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
6949 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
6950 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
6951 libraries.
6952
6953 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
6954 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
6955 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
6956 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
6957 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
6958
6959 * Internal improvements
6960
6961 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
6962 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
6963
6964 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
6965 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
6966 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
6967 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
6968 shared code that handles any of them.
6969
6970 * New command line options
6971
6972 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
6973
6974 * Mmalloc licensing
6975
6976 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
6977 General Public License.
6978
6979 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
6980
6981 * Host/native/target split
6982
6983 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
6984 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
6985 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
6986 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
6987 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
6988
6989 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
6990 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
6991 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
6992 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
6993 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
6994 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
6995 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
6996
6997 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
6998 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
6999 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
7000
7001 * New hosts supported
7002
7003 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
7004 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7005 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
7006
7007 * New targets supported
7008
7009 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7010 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
7011
7012 * New native hosts supported
7013
7014 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7015 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
7016 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
7017
7018 * New file formats supported
7019
7020 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
7021 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
7022 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
7023
7024 * New commands
7025
7026 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
7027 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
7028 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
7029
7030 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
7031
7032 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
7033 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
7034 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
7035 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
7036
7037 * C++ improvements
7038
7039 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
7040 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
7041 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
7042
7043 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
7044
7045 * Major bug fixes
7046
7047 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
7048 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
7049 by the compiler.
7050
7051 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
7052 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
7053
7054 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
7055 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
7056 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
7057 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
7058 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
7059 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
7060
7061 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
7062 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
7063 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
7064 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
7065
7066 * AMD 29k support
7067
7068 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
7069 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
7070 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
7071 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
7072 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
7073
7074 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
7075 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
7076 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
7077 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
7078
7079 * Remote interfaces
7080
7081 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
7082 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
7083 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
7084 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
7085 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
7086 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
7087 each instruction being stepped through.
7088
7089 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
7090 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
7091
7092 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
7093 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
7094 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
7095 processor with a serial port.
7096
7097 * Configuration
7098
7099 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7100 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7101 supported, and what files each one uses.
7102
7103 * Library changes
7104
7105 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7106 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7107 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7108 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7109
7110 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7111 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7112 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7113 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7114
7115 * Documentation
7116
7117 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7118 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7119 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7120 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7121 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7122 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7123
7124 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
7125
7126
7127 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
7128
7129 * Better support for C++ function names
7130
7131 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
7132 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
7133 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
7134 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
7135 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
7136
7137 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
7138 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
7139 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
7140 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
7141 for the list of formats.
7142
7143 * G++ symbol mangling problem
7144
7145 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
7146 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
7147 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
7148 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
7149 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
7150 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
7151 this problem.)
7152
7153 * New 'maintenance' command
7154
7155 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
7156 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
7157 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
7158
7159 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
7160 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
7161 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
7162 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
7163 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
7164 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
7165
7166 The following commands are new:
7167
7168 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
7169 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
7170 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
7171
7172 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
7173
7174 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
7175 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
7176 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
7177 read after argv processing.
7178
7179 * New hosts supported
7180
7181 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
7182
7183 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
7184
7185 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
7186 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
7187 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
7188 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
7189 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
7190 It costs extra.
7191
7192 * New targets supported
7193
7194 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7195
7196 * More smarts about finding #include files
7197
7198 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
7199 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
7200 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
7201 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
7202 the one that contains your sources.
7203
7204 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
7205 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
7206 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
7207
7208 * Interesting infernals change
7209
7210 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
7211 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
7212 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
7213 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
7214
7215 * Bug fixes (of course!)
7216
7217 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
7218 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
7219 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
7220
7221 See the ChangeLog for details.
7222
7223 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
7224
7225 * New machines supported (host and target)
7226
7227 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
7228
7229 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7230
7231 * New malloc package
7232
7233 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
7234 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
7235 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
7236 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
7237 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
7238 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
7239
7240 * info proc
7241
7242 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
7243 'help info proc' for details.
7244
7245 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
7246
7247 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
7248 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
7249 possible.
7250
7251 * File name changes for MS-DOS
7252
7253 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
7254 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
7255 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
7256 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
7257 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
7258 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
7259
7260 * Cross byte order fixes
7261
7262 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
7263 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
7264
7265 * New -mapped and -readnow options
7266
7267 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
7268 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
7269 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
7270 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
7271 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
7272 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
7273 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
7274 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
7275 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
7276 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
7277
7278 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
7279 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
7280 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
7281 slower, but makes future operations faster.
7282
7283 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
7284 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
7285 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
7286 use is:
7287
7288 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
7289
7290 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
7291 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
7292 shared across multiple host platforms.
7293
7294 * longjmp() handling
7295
7296 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
7297 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
7298 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
7299 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
7300
7301 * Solaris 2.0
7302
7303 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
7304 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
7305 reading symbols.
7306
7307 * Bug fixes
7308
7309 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
7310 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
7311 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
7312
7313 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
7314
7315 * New machines supported (host and target)
7316
7317 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7318 (except core files)
7319 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
7320 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
7321
7322 * New machines supported (target)
7323
7324 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7325
7326 * C++ support
7327
7328 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
7329 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
7330 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
7331
7332 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
7333 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
7334 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
7335 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
7336 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
7337 released.
7338
7339 * New features for SVR4
7340
7341 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
7342 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
7343 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
7344
7345 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
7346 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
7347 it prints the address mappings of the process.
7348
7349 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
7350 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
7351
7352 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
7353
7354 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
7355 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
7356 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
7357 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
7358 same code linked statically.
7359
7360 * New Getopt
7361
7362 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
7363 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
7364 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
7365 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
7366 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
7367 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
7368
7369 * Bugs fixed
7370
7371 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7372 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7373 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7374
7375
7376 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
7377
7378 * New machines supported (host and target)
7379
7380 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
7381 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
7382 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7383
7384 * Almost SCO Unix support
7385
7386 We had hoped to support:
7387 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7388 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
7389 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
7390 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
7391
7392 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
7393
7394 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
7395 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
7396 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
7397 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
7398 reqired (if any).
7399
7400 * New Readline
7401
7402 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
7403 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
7404 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
7405
7406 * Bugs fixed
7407
7408 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7409 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7410 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7411
7412 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
7413
7414 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
7415 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
7416 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
7417
7418 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
7419 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
7420 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
7421 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
7422 version 2.
7423
7424 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
7425 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
7426 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
7427 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
7428 situation somewhat.
7429
7430 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
7431 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
7432 methods.
7433
7434 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
7435 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
7436 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
7437
7438
7439 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
7440
7441 * Improved configuration
7442
7443 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
7444 Porting BFD is simpler.
7445
7446 * Stepping improved
7447
7448 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
7449 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
7450 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
7451 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
7452
7453 * Bug fixing
7454
7455 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
7456
7457 * New host supported (not target)
7458
7459 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
7460
7461
7462 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
7463
7464 * Multiple source language support
7465
7466 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
7467 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
7468 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
7469 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
7470 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
7471 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
7472
7473 * GDB and Modula-2
7474
7475 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
7476 currently under development at the State University of New York at
7477 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
7478 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
7479
7480 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
7481 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
7482 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
7483
7484 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
7485 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7486
7487 * set write on/off
7488
7489 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7490 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7491 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7492 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7493 effect immediately.
7494
7495 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7496
7497 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7498 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7499 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7500 examining core files.
7501
7502 * set listsize
7503
7504 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7505 The default is 10.
7506
7507 * New machines supported (host and target)
7508
7509 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7510 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7511 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7512
7513 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7514
7515 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
7516
7517 * New targets supported (not hosts)
7518
7519 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7520 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7521 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
7522
7523 * New remote interfaces
7524
7525 AMD 29000 Adapt
7526 AMD 29000 Minimon
7527
7528
7529 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
7530
7531 * New Facilities
7532
7533 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
7534
7535 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
7536 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
7537 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
7538 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
7539 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
7540 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
7541 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
7542 stub on the target system.
7543
7544 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
7545
7546 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
7547 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
7548 object file types such as a.out and coff.
7549
7550 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
7551 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
7552
7553
7554 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
7555
7556 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
7557 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
7558
7559 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
7560 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
7561 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
7562
7563 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
7564 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
7565 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
7566 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
7567
7568 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
7569 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
7570 it is already running. Default is ON.
7571
7572 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
7573 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
7574 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
7575 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
7576 Default is ON.
7577
7578 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
7579 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
7580 or the value of the environment variable
7581 GDBHISTFILE.
7582
7583 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
7584 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
7585 HISTSIZE.
7586
7587 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
7588 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
7589 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
7590
7591 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
7592 history expansion will be performed on
7593 command line input. The default is OFF.
7594
7595 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
7596 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7597 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7598
7599 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7600 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7601 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7602 variable TERM.
7603
7604 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7605 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7606 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7607 variable TERM.
7608
7609 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7610 ``set width'' instead.
7611
7612 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
7613 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
7614 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
7615 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
7616
7617 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
7618 is OFF.
7619
7620 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7621 "raw" form if off.
7622
7623 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7624 like instructions.
7625
7626 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7627
7628
7629 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7630
7631 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7632 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7633 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7634 window.
7635
7636
7637 * Support for Shared Libraries
7638
7639 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7640 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7641 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7642 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7643 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7644 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7645 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7646 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7647
7648 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7649 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7650 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7651
7652 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7653
7654
7655 * Watchpoints
7656
7657 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7658 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7659 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7660 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7661 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7662 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7663
7664 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7665
7666 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7667
7668 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7669 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7670 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7671
7672
7673 * C++ multiple inheritance
7674
7675 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7676 for C++ programs.
7677
7678 * C++ exception handling
7679
7680 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7681 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7682 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7683 handler's context).
7684
7685 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7686 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7687 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7688
7689 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7690 current stack frame.
7691
7692
7693 * Minor command changes
7694
7695 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7696 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7697 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7698
7699 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7700 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7701 frames without printing.
7702
7703 * New directory command
7704
7705 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7706 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7707 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7708 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7709 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7710
7711 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7712
7713 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7714 for more details.
7715
7716 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7717 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7718 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7719 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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