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