1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * Process record and replay
8 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
9 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
10 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
13 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
14 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
15 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
18 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
19 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
22 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
23 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
24 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
25 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
26 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
27 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
28 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
29 the installation instructions for more information.
31 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
32 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
33 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
34 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
36 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
37 now complete on file names.
39 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
40 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
41 For instance, consider:
43 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
44 # struct example variable;
47 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
48 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
50 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
51 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
54 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
55 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
56 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
61 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
64 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
65 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
66 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
69 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
70 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
73 Obtains additional operating system information
77 Read or write additional signal information.
79 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
81 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
82 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
83 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
85 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
88 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
89 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
91 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
92 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
93 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
95 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
96 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
98 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
100 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
102 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
103 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
105 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
106 list of section offsets.
108 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
109 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
110 have also been fixed.
112 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
113 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
114 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
116 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
119 template<typename T> class C { };
122 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
124 ptype C<char const *>
126 ptype C<const char *>
129 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
131 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
132 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
134 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
135 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
136 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
138 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
139 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
141 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
146 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
147 available is determined at configure time.
149 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
151 * Ada tasking support
153 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
157 Print the list of Ada tasks.
159 Print detailed information about task number N.
161 Print the task number of the current task.
163 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
165 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
166 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
168 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
170 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
172 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
174 maint set python print-stack
175 maint show python print-stack
176 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
179 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
184 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
188 Show operating system information about processes.
192 set sh calling-convention
193 show sh calling-convention
194 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
196 set print symbol-loading
197 show print symbol-loading
198 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
202 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
204 set disassemble-next-line
205 show disassemble-next-line
206 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
209 set remote noack-packet
210 show remote noack-packet
211 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
212 under "New remote packets."
214 set remote query-attached-packet
215 show remote query-attached-packet
216 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
218 set remote read-siginfo-object
219 show remote read-siginfo-object
220 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
223 set remote write-siginfo-object
224 show remote write-siginfo-object
225 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
228 set displaced-stepping
229 show displaced-stepping
230 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
231 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
232 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
236 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
238 maint set internal-error
239 maint show internal-error
240 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
242 maint set internal-warning
243 maint show internal-warning
244 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
249 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
251 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
252 show multiple-symbols
253 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
254 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
255 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
257 set breakpoint always-inserted
258 show breakpoint always-inserted
259 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
260 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
261 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
263 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
264 show arm fallback-mode
265 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
267 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
268 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
269 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
270 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
272 set disable-randomization
273 show disable-randomization
274 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
275 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
276 multiple debugging sessions.
280 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
285 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
286 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
287 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
288 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
290 set target-wide-charset
291 show target-wide-charset
292 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
293 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
295 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
297 set tcp connect-timeout
298 show tcp connect-timeout
299 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
300 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
301 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
303 set libthread-db-search-path
304 show libthread-db-search-path
305 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
308 * New native configurations
310 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
312 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
316 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
317 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
318 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
320 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
321 (mingw32ce) debugging.
327 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
329 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
331 * New native configurations
333 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
334 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
338 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
339 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
341 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
343 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
344 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
345 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
346 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
348 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
349 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
351 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
354 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
355 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
356 and in inlined functions.
358 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
359 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
360 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
362 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
364 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
365 registers on PowerPC targets.
367 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
368 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
370 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
371 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
373 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
374 extended-remote mode.
376 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
377 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
378 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
379 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
381 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
382 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
383 target architectures.
385 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
386 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
387 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
388 stored in two consecutive float registers.
390 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
393 * Improved support for debugging Ada
394 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
396 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
397 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
398 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
399 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
401 - Improved command completion in Ada
404 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
409 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
410 show print frame-arguments
411 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
412 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
417 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
424 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
433 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
436 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
440 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
442 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
444 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
445 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
446 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
448 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
449 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
450 -Bsymbolic linker option.
452 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
453 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
456 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
457 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
459 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
460 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
462 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
464 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
465 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
466 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
468 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
469 automatically displayed as character or string data.
471 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
472 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
475 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
476 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
477 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
479 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
482 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
483 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
484 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
486 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
488 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
490 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
491 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
492 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
494 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
495 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
497 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
498 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
499 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
500 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
501 Windows and SymbianOS).
503 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
504 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
506 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
507 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
513 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
514 when debugging using remote targets.
516 set mem inaccessible-by-default
517 show mem inaccessible-by-default
518 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
519 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
520 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
521 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
522 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
524 set breakpoint auto-hw
525 show breakpoint auto-hw
526 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
527 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
528 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
529 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
530 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
531 including "next" and "finish".
534 catch exception unhandled
535 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
538 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
542 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
543 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
544 an alias to "set sysroot".
547 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
548 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
551 * New native configurations
553 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
558 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
559 not query the target for its built-in description.
563 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
564 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
565 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
570 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
571 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
574 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
579 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
580 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
582 qXfer:libraries:read:
583 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
584 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
585 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
586 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
590 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
599 i[34567]86-*-netware*
600 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
601 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
603 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
606 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
607 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
616 * Other removed features
623 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
630 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
635 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
636 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
641 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
642 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
644 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
646 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
647 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
648 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
649 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
653 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
654 in debugging information.
658 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
659 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
661 set mips stack-arg-size
662 set mips saved-gpreg-size
664 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
666 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
671 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
673 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
674 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
675 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
677 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
678 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
681 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
682 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
684 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
685 stub provides the required support.
687 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
688 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
693 unset substitute-path
695 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
696 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
697 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
698 between compilation and debugging.
702 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
703 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
704 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
708 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
710 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
711 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
713 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
718 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
719 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
720 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
721 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
725 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
726 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
728 qXfer:memory-map:read:
729 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
730 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
735 Erase and program a flash memory device.
737 * Removed remote packets
740 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
741 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
743 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
747 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
749 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
753 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
754 only if it doesn't already have a value.
756 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
758 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
760 restart <n> Return the program state to a
761 previously saved state.
763 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
765 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
767 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
768 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
770 info forks List forks of the user program that
771 are available to be debugged.
773 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
774 forks of the user program that are
775 available to be debugged.
777 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
778 that are available to be debugged (and
779 kill the forked process).
781 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
782 that are available to be debugged (and
783 allow the process to continue).
787 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
789 * Improved Windows host support
791 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
792 native console support, and remote communications using either
793 network sockets or serial ports.
795 * Improved Modula-2 language support
797 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
798 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
799 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
800 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
801 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
802 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
806 The ARM rdi-share module.
808 The Netware NLM debug server.
810 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
812 * New native configurations
814 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
815 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
819 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
821 * New command line options
823 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
824 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
825 the child (debugged) program exited with.
826 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
827 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
828 specified multiple times and in conjunction
829 with the --command (-x) option.
831 * Deprecated commands removed
833 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
837 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
838 othernames set arm disassembler
839 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
840 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
841 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
844 * New BSD user-level threads support
846 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
847 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
850 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
851 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
852 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
854 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
855 are not yet supported.
857 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
858 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
860 * REMOVED configurations and files
862 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
863 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
864 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
866 * New "set print array-indexes" command
868 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
869 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
872 * VAX floating point support
874 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
876 * User-defined command support
878 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
879 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
880 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
882 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
884 * New command line option
886 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
889 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
891 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
892 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
893 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
894 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
895 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
897 * Internationalization
899 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
900 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
901 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
905 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
906 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
907 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
909 * New native configurations
911 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
915 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
916 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
918 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
920 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
921 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
922 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
925 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
926 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
927 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
939 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
940 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
942 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
944 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
945 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
946 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
956 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
958 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
960 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
961 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
964 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
966 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
967 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
968 IRIX long double values).
972 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
973 command. This problem has been fixed.
975 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
977 * Fix for ``many threads''
979 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
980 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
983 ptrace: No such process.
984 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
986 This problem has been fixed.
988 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
990 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
993 * New ``start'' command.
995 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
997 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
999 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1000 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1001 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1003 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1004 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1005 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1006 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1007 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1008 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1009 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1010 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1011 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1013 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1015 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1016 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1017 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1018 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1019 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1021 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1022 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1023 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1025 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1027 * New native configurations
1029 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1030 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1031 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1032 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1033 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1034 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1035 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1037 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1039 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1040 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1041 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1042 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1043 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1044 work, was also included.
1046 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1047 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1057 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1058 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1060 * REMOVED configurations and files
1062 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1063 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1064 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1065 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1066 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1067 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1068 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1069 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1070 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1071 sonymips mips-sony-*
1072 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1074 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1076 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1078 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1079 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1080 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1081 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1084 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1086 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1087 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1088 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1089 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1090 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
1091 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
1094 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
1096 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
1098 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
1099 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
1100 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
1102 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
1104 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
1105 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
1107 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
1109 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
1110 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
1111 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
1113 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
1115 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
1116 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
1118 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
1120 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
1121 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
1122 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
1124 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
1126 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
1127 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
1128 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
1130 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
1132 * Removed --with-mmalloc
1134 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
1135 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
1137 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
1139 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
1140 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
1141 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
1142 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
1144 * Revised SPARC target
1146 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
1147 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
1148 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
1149 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
1150 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
1154 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
1155 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
1156 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
1159 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1161 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
1162 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
1165 * C++ nested types and namespaces
1167 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
1168 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
1169 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
1170 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
1171 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
1172 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
1173 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
1174 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
1175 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
1177 * New native configurations
1179 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
1180 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1181 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
1182 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1183 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
1185 * New debugging protocols
1187 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
1189 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
1191 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
1192 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
1193 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
1195 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1197 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1198 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1199 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1200 permanently REMOVED.
1202 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1203 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1204 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1205 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1206 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1207 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1208 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1209 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1210 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1211 sonymips mips-sony-*
1212 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1214 * REMOVED configurations and files
1216 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1217 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1218 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1219 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1220 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1221 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1222 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1223 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1224 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1225 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1226 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1227 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1228 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1229 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1230 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1231 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1232 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1234 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1238 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1239 integrated into GDB.
1241 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1243 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1244 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1245 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1248 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1249 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1250 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1254 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1255 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1256 remote protocol documentation for details.
1258 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1260 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1261 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1262 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1265 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1267 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1268 per-thread variables.
1270 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1272 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1273 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1275 * Separate debug info.
1277 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1278 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1279 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1280 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1281 and optional debug files.
1283 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1285 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1286 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1289 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1290 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1294 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1295 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1296 considered "useable".
1298 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1300 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1301 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1304 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1306 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1307 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1309 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1311 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1312 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1315 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1317 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1318 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1322 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1323 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1324 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1325 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1326 data, for more informative profiling results.
1328 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1330 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1331 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1332 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1334 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1337 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1338 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1339 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1340 in a subsequent -var-update.
1342 * New native configurations.
1344 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1346 * Multi-arched targets.
1348 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1349 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1351 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1353 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1354 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1355 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1356 permanently REMOVED.
1358 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1359 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1360 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1361 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1362 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1363 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1364 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1365 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1366 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1367 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1368 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1369 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1371 * REMOVED configurations and files
1374 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1375 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1376 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1377 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1378 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1379 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1381 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1382 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1383 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1384 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1385 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1386 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1388 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1390 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1391 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1392 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1393 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1394 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1396 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1398 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1400 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1401 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1402 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1403 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1404 shared libs like mad''.
1406 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1408 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1409 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1410 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1411 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1413 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1415 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1416 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1419 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1420 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1422 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1423 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1425 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1426 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1427 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1428 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1430 * Multi-arched targets.
1432 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1433 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1435 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1436 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1437 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1441 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1444 * New native configurations
1446 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1447 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1448 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1449 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1451 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1453 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1454 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1455 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1456 permanently REMOVED.
1458 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1459 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1460 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1461 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1462 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1463 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1464 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1465 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1466 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1467 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1469 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1470 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1472 * OBSOLETE languages
1474 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1476 * REMOVED configurations and files
1478 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1479 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1480 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1481 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1482 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1484 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1486 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1488 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1489 commands. The default is 1024.
1491 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1493 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1495 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1497 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1498 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1499 from a file into memory (restore).
1501 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1503 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1504 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1505 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1507 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1515 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1516 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1517 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1519 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1520 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1521 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1523 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1524 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1525 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1527 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1528 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1529 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1531 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1533 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1535 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1536 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1537 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1538 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1539 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1540 (notably embedded) targets.
1542 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1544 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1545 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1546 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1547 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1549 * New command line option
1551 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1553 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1555 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1556 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1557 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1558 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1559 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1560 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1561 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1562 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1563 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1564 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1566 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1568 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1569 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1571 * New native configurations
1573 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1574 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1575 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1576 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1580 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1582 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1584 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1585 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1586 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1587 permanently REMOVED.
1589 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1590 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1591 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1592 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1593 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1595 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1597 * REMOVED configurations and files
1599 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1601 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1602 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1603 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1604 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1605 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1606 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1607 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1608 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1609 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1610 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1611 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1613 * Changes to command line processing
1615 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1616 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1618 * Changes to key bindings
1620 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1622 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1624 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1626 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1629 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1631 Numerous documentation fixes.
1633 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1635 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1637 * New native configurations
1639 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1640 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1641 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1642 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1643 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1644 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1648 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1650 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1652 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1654 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1655 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1656 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1657 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1658 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1660 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1661 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1662 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1663 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1664 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1665 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1666 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1667 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1669 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1670 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1672 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1673 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1674 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1675 permanently REMOVED.
1677 * REMOVED configurations and files
1679 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1680 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1682 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1686 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1688 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1689 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1694 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1696 * The MI enabled by default.
1698 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1699 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1700 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1701 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1702 which is now deprecated.
1704 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1706 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1707 main features are supported:
1709 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1711 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1714 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1716 - a Pascal expression parser.
1718 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1720 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1722 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1724 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1725 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1727 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1729 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1731 * Changes in completion.
1733 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1734 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1735 users expect at the shell prompt.
1737 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1738 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1739 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1740 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1741 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1742 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1743 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1745 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1747 * New platform-independent commands:
1749 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1750 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1751 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1753 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1755 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1756 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1757 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1759 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1761 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1762 multi-threaded programs though.
1764 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1766 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1768 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1769 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1772 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1774 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1775 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1776 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1777 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1778 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1781 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1782 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1783 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1785 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1787 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1788 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1790 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1791 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1794 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1795 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1796 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1797 a given linear address.
1799 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1800 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1801 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1803 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1805 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1807 * Changes in documentation.
1809 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1810 Documentation License.
1812 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1815 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1817 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1820 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1821 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1822 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1824 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1826 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1827 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1828 contents of this file.
1832 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1834 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1836 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1838 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1839 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1840 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1841 greater level of detail.
1843 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1845 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1846 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1847 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1850 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1852 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1853 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1854 machines ``out of the box''.
1856 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1857 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1858 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1859 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1860 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1862 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1863 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1864 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1865 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1866 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1868 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1869 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1872 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1875 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1876 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1877 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1878 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1880 * New native configurations
1882 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1883 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1887 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1888 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1889 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1890 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1892 * OBSOLETE configurations
1894 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1895 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1897 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1900 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1901 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1902 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1903 be permanently REMOVED.
1905 * Gould support removed
1907 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1909 * New features for SVR4
1911 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1912 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1913 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1915 * Many C++ enhancements
1917 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1918 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1920 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1922 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1923 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1924 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1925 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1927 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1928 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1930 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1932 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1933 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1934 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1936 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1937 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1939 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1941 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1942 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1943 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1945 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1947 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1948 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1949 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1951 * ``apropos'' command added.
1953 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1954 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1955 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1959 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1960 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1961 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1962 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1963 enabled by configuring with:
1965 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1967 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1969 * New native configurations
1971 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1972 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1973 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1977 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1978 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1979 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1981 * OBSOLETE configurations
1983 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1985 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1986 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1987 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1988 be permanently REMOVED.
1992 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1993 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1994 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1995 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1996 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1997 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1998 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2003 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2005 * set extension-language
2007 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2008 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2009 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2010 set extension-language .c c++
2011 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2012 and their associated languages.
2014 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2016 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2017 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2018 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2022 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2023 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2025 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2026 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2028 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2029 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2030 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2031 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2032 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2033 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2034 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2035 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2037 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2038 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2039 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2040 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2044 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2045 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2046 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2047 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2048 for xdb and dbx commands.
2052 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2053 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2054 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2056 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2057 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2058 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2060 * Debugging across forks
2062 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2067 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2068 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2069 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2071 * GDB remote protocol additions
2073 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2074 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2075 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2076 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2078 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2079 full 64-bit address. The command
2081 set remoteaddresssize 32
2083 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2084 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2087 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2088 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2090 maint packet heythere
2092 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
2093 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
2096 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
2097 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
2098 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
2100 * Tracing can collect general expressions
2102 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
2103 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
2104 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
2106 * mask-address variable for Mips
2108 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
2109 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
2110 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
2112 * Higher serial baud rates
2114 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
2115 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
2116 to achieve all of these rates.)
2120 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
2121 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
2124 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
2126 * New native configurations
2128 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
2129 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
2130 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2131 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2132 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2133 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
2134 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
2138 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2139 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
2140 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2141 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
2142 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
2143 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
2144 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
2145 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
2146 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2147 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2148 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
2150 * New debugging protocols
2152 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
2153 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
2154 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
2155 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2156 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2157 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
2161 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
2162 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
2167 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
2168 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
2170 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
2172 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
2173 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
2174 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
2176 * Live range splitting
2178 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
2179 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
2180 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
2184 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
2185 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
2189 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
2190 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
2191 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
2196 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
2201 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
2202 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
2203 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
2204 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
2205 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
2206 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
2210 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
2211 the symbol at the specified address.
2215 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2216 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2217 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2218 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2219 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2223 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2224 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2225 of most MIPS variants.
2229 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2230 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2231 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2235 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2236 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2237 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2238 the possible architectures.
2240 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2242 * New native configurations
2244 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2245 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2246 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2247 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2248 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2249 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2253 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2254 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2255 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2256 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2257 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2259 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2263 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2264 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2265 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2266 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2267 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2271 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2273 * Windows 95/NT native
2275 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2276 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2277 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2278 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2279 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2281 * dont-repeat command
2283 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2284 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2285 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2286 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2288 * Send break instead of ^C
2290 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2291 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2292 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2294 * Remote protocol timeout
2296 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2297 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2298 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2300 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2302 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2303 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2304 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2305 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2306 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2308 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2309 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2310 automatically on hpux10.
2312 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2314 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2316 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2318 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2319 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2320 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2321 every character. The default value is 1050.
2323 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2325 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2326 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2327 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2328 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2329 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2330 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2332 * Speedups for remote debugging
2334 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2335 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2336 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2338 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2340 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2341 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2343 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2345 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2347 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2348 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2350 * Remote targets use caching
2352 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2353 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2354 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2355 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2356 off' turns the the data cache off.
2358 * Remote targets may have threads
2360 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2361 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2362 gdb/remote.c for details.
2366 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2367 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2368 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2369 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2370 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2371 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2372 sequence is something like
2374 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2376 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2380 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2381 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2382 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2383 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2384 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2385 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2386 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2387 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2391 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2392 but does simplify configuration and building.
2396 GDB now supports hpux10.
2398 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2400 * New native configurations
2402 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2403 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2404 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2405 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2409 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2410 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2411 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2412 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2415 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2417 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2418 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2419 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2420 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2421 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2423 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2425 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2426 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2429 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2431 To execute the command use:
2434 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2435 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2436 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2438 * New `if' and `while' commands
2440 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2441 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2442 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2443 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2444 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2445 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2446 if the expression is zero.
2448 * Fortran source language mode
2450 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2451 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2452 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2453 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2456 * Better HPUX support
2458 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2459 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2460 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2461 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2462 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2468 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2469 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2475 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2476 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2479 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2480 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2482 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2484 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2485 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2486 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2487 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2488 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2489 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2491 * New DOS host serial code
2493 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2494 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2497 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2499 * New "complete" command
2501 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2502 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2504 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2506 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2507 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2509 * Breakpoint hit counts
2511 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2512 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2513 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2514 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2515 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2518 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2520 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2521 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2522 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2524 * Shared library breakpoints
2526 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2527 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2529 * Hardware watchpoints
2531 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2532 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2534 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2538 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2539 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2541 * Improved Irix 5 support
2543 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2545 * Improved HPPA support
2547 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2549 * New native configurations
2551 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2552 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2553 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2554 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2558 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2559 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2562 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2564 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2565 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2569 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2570 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2572 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2574 * Irix 5 is now supported
2578 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2579 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2580 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2581 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2582 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2585 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2587 * User visible changes:
2591 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2592 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2593 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2594 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2595 debugging info for the mips target).
2597 * DEC Alpha native support
2599 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2600 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2601 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2602 Alpha-specific notes.
2604 * Preliminary thread implementation
2606 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2608 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2610 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2611 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2614 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2616 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2617 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2618 call methods, ...etc.
2620 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2622 * User visible changes:
2624 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2625 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2626 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2627 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2629 Filename completion now works.
2631 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2632 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2633 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2635 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2636 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2637 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2638 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2639 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2643 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2644 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2647 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2651 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2652 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2653 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2657 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2658 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2659 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2660 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2661 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2665 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2666 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2667 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2669 * New targets supported
2671 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2672 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2673 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2674 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2675 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2677 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2678 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2679 GO32 memory extender.
2681 * New remote protocols
2683 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2685 * New source languages supported
2687 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2688 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2689 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2692 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2694 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2696 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2697 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2698 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2699 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2700 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2701 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2703 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2705 * Faster and better demangling
2707 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2708 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2709 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2710 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2711 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2712 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2715 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2716 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2717 compiler does not actually implement.
2719 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2721 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2722 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2723 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2724 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2725 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2726 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2729 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2730 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2732 * Improved configure script
2734 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2735 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2736 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2737 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2739 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2740 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2741 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2742 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2743 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2744 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2746 * Documentation improvements
2748 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2749 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2750 before submitting changes.
2752 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2753 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2754 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2755 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2756 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2758 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2759 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2760 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2761 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2762 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2763 around this problem.
2767 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2768 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2769 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2772 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2773 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2775 * New native hosts supported
2777 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2778 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2780 * New targets supported
2782 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2784 * New file formats supported
2786 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2787 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2791 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2793 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2794 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2796 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2797 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2798 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2800 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2801 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2803 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2804 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2805 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2808 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2809 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2810 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2811 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2812 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2814 * Internal improvements
2816 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2817 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2819 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2820 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2821 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2822 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2823 shared code that handles any of them.
2825 * New command line options
2827 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2831 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2832 General Public License.
2834 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2836 * Host/native/target split
2838 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2839 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2840 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2841 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2842 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2844 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2845 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2846 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2847 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2848 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2849 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2850 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2852 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2853 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2854 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2856 * New hosts supported
2858 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2859 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2860 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2862 * New targets supported
2864 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2865 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2867 * New native hosts supported
2869 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2870 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2871 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2873 * New file formats supported
2875 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2876 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2877 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2881 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2882 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2883 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2885 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2887 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2888 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2889 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2890 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2894 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2895 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2896 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2898 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2902 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2903 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2906 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2907 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2909 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2910 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2911 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2912 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2913 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2914 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2916 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2917 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2918 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2919 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2923 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2924 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2925 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2926 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2927 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2929 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2930 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2931 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2932 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2936 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2937 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2938 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2939 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2940 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2941 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2942 each instruction being stepped through.
2944 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2945 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2947 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2948 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2949 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2950 processor with a serial port.
2954 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2955 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2956 supported, and what files each one uses.
2960 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2961 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2962 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2963 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2965 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2966 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2967 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2968 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2972 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2973 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2974 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2975 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2976 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2977 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2979 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2982 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2984 * Better support for C++ function names
2986 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2987 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2988 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2989 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2990 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2992 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2993 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2994 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2995 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2996 for the list of formats.
2998 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3000 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3001 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3002 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3003 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3004 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3005 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3008 * New 'maintenance' command
3010 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3011 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3012 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3014 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3015 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3016 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3017 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3018 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3019 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3021 The following commands are new:
3023 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3024 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3025 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3027 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3029 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3030 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3031 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3032 read after argv processing.
3034 * New hosts supported
3036 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3038 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3040 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3041 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3042 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3043 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3044 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3047 * New targets supported
3049 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3051 * More smarts about finding #include files
3053 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3054 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3055 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3056 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3057 the one that contains your sources.
3059 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3060 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3061 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3063 * Interesting infernals change
3065 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3066 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3067 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3068 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3070 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3072 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3073 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3074 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3076 See the ChangeLog for details.
3078 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3080 * New machines supported (host and target)
3082 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3084 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3086 * New malloc package
3088 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3089 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3090 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
3091 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
3092 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
3093 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
3097 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
3098 'help info proc' for details.
3100 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
3102 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
3103 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
3106 * File name changes for MS-DOS
3108 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
3109 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
3110 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
3111 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
3112 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
3113 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
3115 * Cross byte order fixes
3117 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
3118 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
3120 * New -mapped and -readnow options
3122 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
3123 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
3124 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
3125 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
3126 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
3127 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
3128 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
3129 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
3130 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
3131 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
3133 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
3134 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
3135 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
3136 slower, but makes future operations faster.
3138 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
3139 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
3140 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
3143 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
3145 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
3146 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
3147 shared across multiple host platforms.
3149 * longjmp() handling
3151 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
3152 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
3153 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
3154 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
3158 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
3159 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
3164 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
3165 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
3166 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
3168 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
3170 * New machines supported (host and target)
3172 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3174 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
3175 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
3177 * New machines supported (target)
3179 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3183 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
3184 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
3185 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
3187 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
3188 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
3189 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
3190 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
3191 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
3194 * New features for SVR4
3196 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
3197 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
3198 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
3200 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
3201 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
3202 it prints the address mappings of the process.
3204 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
3205 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
3207 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
3209 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
3210 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
3211 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
3212 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
3213 same code linked statically.
3217 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3218 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3219 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3220 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3221 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3222 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3226 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3227 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3228 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3231 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3233 * New machines supported (host and target)
3235 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3236 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3237 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3239 * Almost SCO Unix support
3241 We had hoped to support:
3242 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3243 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3244 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3245 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3247 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3249 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3250 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3251 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3252 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3257 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3258 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3259 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3263 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3264 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3265 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3267 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3269 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3270 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3271 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3273 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3274 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3275 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3276 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3279 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3280 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3281 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3282 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3285 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3286 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3289 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3290 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3291 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3294 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3296 * Improved configuration
3298 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3299 Porting BFD is simpler.
3303 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3304 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3305 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3306 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3310 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3312 * New host supported (not target)
3314 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3317 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3319 * Multiple source language support
3321 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3322 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3323 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3324 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3325 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3326 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3330 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3331 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3332 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3333 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3335 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3336 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3337 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3339 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3340 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3344 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3345 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3346 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3347 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3350 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3352 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3353 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3354 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3355 examining core files.
3359 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3362 * New machines supported (host and target)
3364 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3365 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3366 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3368 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3370 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3372 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3374 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3375 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3376 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3378 * New remote interfaces
3384 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3388 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3390 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3391 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3392 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3393 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3394 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3395 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3396 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3397 stub on the target system.
3399 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3401 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3402 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3403 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3405 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3406 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3409 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3411 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3412 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3414 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3415 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3416 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3418 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3419 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3420 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3421 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3423 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3424 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3425 it is already running. Default is ON.
3427 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3428 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3429 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3430 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3433 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3434 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3435 or the value of the environment variable
3438 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3439 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3442 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3443 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3444 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3446 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3447 history expansion will be performed on
3448 command line input. The default is OFF.
3450 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3451 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3452 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3454 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3455 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3456 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3459 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3460 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3461 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3464 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3465 ``set width'' instead.
3467 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3468 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3469 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3470 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3472 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3475 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3478 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3481 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3484 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3486 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3487 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3488 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3492 * Support for Shared Libraries
3494 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3495 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3496 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3497 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3498 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3499 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3500 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3501 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3503 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3504 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3505 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3507 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3512 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3513 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3514 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3515 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3516 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3517 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3519 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3521 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3523 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3524 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3525 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3528 * C++ multiple inheritance
3530 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3533 * C++ exception handling
3535 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3536 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3537 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3540 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3541 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3542 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3544 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3545 current stack frame.
3548 * Minor command changes
3550 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3551 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3552 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3554 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3555 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3556 frames without printing.
3558 * New directory command
3560 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3561 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3562 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3563 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3564 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3566 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3568 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3571 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3572 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3573 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3574 where the program that you are debugging will run.