1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.2
6 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
7 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
8 matches the given regular expression.
10 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
12 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
13 dumping the instruction opcodes.
15 * New command line options
17 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
18 This is mostly for testing purposes.
20 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
21 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
23 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
24 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
25 source path list instead of augmenting it.
27 * GDB now understands thread names.
29 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
30 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
32 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
33 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
36 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
37 has been integrated into GDB.
41 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
43 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
44 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
45 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
46 that function like so:
48 result = some_value (10,20)
50 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
51 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
52 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
54 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
55 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
56 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
57 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
58 New function: register_pretty_printer.
60 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
61 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
63 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
65 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
68 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
69 holds the thread's name.
71 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
72 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
73 occurring in the process being debugged.
74 The following events are currently supported:
75 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
76 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
77 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
81 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
82 instantiation. For example, if you have:
84 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
86 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
87 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
90 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
91 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
92 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
93 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
94 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
95 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
97 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
98 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
99 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
100 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
101 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
103 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
104 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
105 execution to a label.
107 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
108 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
109 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
110 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
112 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
113 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
114 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
117 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
119 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
120 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
121 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
122 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
123 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
124 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
127 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
129 While now you see this:
132 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
134 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
137 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
138 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
139 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
140 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
142 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
144 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
145 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
147 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
149 * New native configurations
151 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
155 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
157 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
158 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
159 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
160 in the GDB user manual.
162 * Guile support was removed.
164 * New features in the GNU simulator
166 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
168 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
170 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
172 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
173 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
174 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
175 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
176 was always disabled for such configurations.
180 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
182 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
183 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
193 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
194 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
195 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
197 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
199 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
200 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
201 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
202 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
204 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
205 mentioned flavors of operators.
207 ** static const class members
209 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
210 class definition has been fixed.
212 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
214 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
215 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
216 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
217 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
218 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
219 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
223 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
224 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
225 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
226 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
227 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
228 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
229 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
230 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
231 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
232 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
233 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
234 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
235 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
236 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
237 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
238 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
239 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
240 the "New remote packets" section below.
242 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
244 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
245 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
246 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
247 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
251 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
252 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
253 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
254 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
255 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
256 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
257 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
259 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
266 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
270 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
271 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
272 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
273 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
274 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
275 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
279 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
283 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
286 qXfer:statictrace:read
288 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
289 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
290 to gdb's qSupported query.
294 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
298 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
299 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
301 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
302 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
305 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
307 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
308 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
309 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
310 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
312 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
313 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
314 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
315 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
316 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
317 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
318 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
320 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
321 for static tracepoints support.
323 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
325 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
326 it understands register description.
328 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
330 * X86 general purpose registers
332 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
333 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
334 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
335 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
336 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
338 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
339 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
340 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
341 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
342 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
343 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
345 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
346 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
347 in the specified file.
349 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
350 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
351 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
352 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
353 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
354 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
355 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
356 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
357 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
358 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
362 eval template, expressions...
363 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
364 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
366 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
367 show target-file-system-kind
368 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
371 save breakpoints <filename>
372 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
373 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
374 definitions, use the `source' command.
376 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
379 info static-tracepoint-markers
380 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
382 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
383 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
384 function, line, address, or marker ID.
388 Enable and disable observer mode.
390 set may-write-registers on|off
391 set may-write-memory on|off
392 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
393 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
394 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
395 set may-interrupt on|off
396 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
397 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
398 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
399 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
400 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
401 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
402 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
404 set record memory-query on|off
405 show record memory-query
406 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
407 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
412 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
416 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
417 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
418 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
419 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
420 GDB using Python' in the manual.
422 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
423 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
424 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
425 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
427 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
428 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
430 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
432 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
434 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
436 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
437 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
438 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
440 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
441 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
442 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
447 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
449 * D language support.
450 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
453 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
454 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
455 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
456 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
457 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
459 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
460 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
461 conditions of the form:
463 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
465 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
466 interface mentioned above.
468 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
474 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
475 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
476 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
477 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
478 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
482 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
483 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
488 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
489 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
493 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
498 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
501 * Multi-program debugging.
503 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
504 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
505 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
506 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
507 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
508 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
509 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
510 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
512 * New tracing features
514 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
516 ** Trace state variables
518 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
519 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
520 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
521 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
522 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
523 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
524 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
525 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
526 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
527 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
531 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
532 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
533 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
534 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
535 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
536 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
537 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
538 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
539 the regular trace command.
541 ** Disconnected tracing
543 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
544 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
545 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
546 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
547 connection is lost unexpectedly.
551 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
552 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
553 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
554 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
555 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
556 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
559 ** Circular trace buffer
561 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
562 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
563 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
564 not be available for all target agents.
569 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
570 the arguments to be comma-separated.
573 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
574 which only declare a variable are not shown.
577 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
578 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
581 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
582 "set script-extension" (see below).
584 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
586 record save [<FILENAME>]
587 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
588 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
590 record restore <FILENAME>
591 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
592 earlier time, for replay debugging.
594 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
597 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
598 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
604 maint info program-spaces
605 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
607 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
608 show remote interrupt-sequence
609 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
610 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
611 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
612 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
613 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
615 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
616 show remote interrupt-on-connect
617 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
618 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
621 set remotebreak [on | off]
623 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
625 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
626 Create or modify a trace state variable.
629 List trace state variables and their values.
631 delete tvariable $NAME ...
632 Delete one or more trace state variables.
635 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
636 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
638 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
639 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
641 * New expression syntax
643 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
644 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
648 set follow-exec-mode new|same
649 show follow-exec-mode
650 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
651 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
652 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
654 set default-collect EXPR, ...
656 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
657 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
658 such as registers or a critical global variable.
660 set disconnected-tracing
661 show disconnected-tracing
662 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
663 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
666 set circular-trace-buffer
667 show circular-trace-buffer
668 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
669 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
670 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
671 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
673 set script-extension off|soft|strict
674 show script-extension
675 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
676 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
677 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
678 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
680 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
682 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
683 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
684 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
685 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
686 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
687 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
688 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
691 * Python API Improvements
693 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
694 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
695 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
697 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
698 `is_base_class' attribute.
700 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
702 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
703 evaluate an expression.
708 Define a trace state variable.
711 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
714 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
717 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
720 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
724 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
726 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
727 much more reliable. In particular:
728 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
729 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
730 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
731 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
732 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
733 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
734 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
735 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
736 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
737 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
738 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
739 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
740 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
741 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
742 non-threaded programs.
744 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
745 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
746 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
749 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
751 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
752 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
753 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
754 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
755 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
757 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
758 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
759 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
760 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
761 for tracepoint actions.
763 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
764 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
765 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
767 * Process record and replay
769 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
770 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
771 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
774 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
775 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
776 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
779 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
780 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
783 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
784 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
785 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
786 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
787 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
788 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
789 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
790 the installation instructions for more information.
792 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
793 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
794 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
795 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
797 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
798 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
800 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
801 now complete on file names.
803 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
804 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
805 For instance, consider:
807 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
808 # struct example variable;
811 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
812 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
814 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
815 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
817 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
818 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
821 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
822 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
823 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
825 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
826 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
827 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
828 and simulator targets may also provide them.
833 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
836 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
837 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
838 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
841 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
842 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
845 Obtains additional operating system information
849 Read or write additional signal information.
851 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
853 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
854 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
855 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
857 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
858 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
860 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
861 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
862 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
864 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
865 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
867 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
869 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
871 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
872 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
874 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
875 list of section offsets.
877 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
878 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
879 have also been fixed.
881 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
882 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
883 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
885 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
888 template<typename T> class C { };
891 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
893 ptype C<char const *>
895 ptype C<const char *>
898 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
900 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
901 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
903 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
904 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
905 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
907 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
908 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
910 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
913 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
914 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
916 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
917 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
922 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
923 available is determined at configure time.
925 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
927 * Ada tasking support
929 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
933 Print the list of Ada tasks.
935 Print detailed information about task number N.
937 Print the task number of the current task.
939 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
941 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
942 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
944 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
946 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
947 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
948 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
949 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
950 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
951 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
954 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
955 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
958 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
959 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
960 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
961 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
964 * Multi-architecture debugging.
966 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
967 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
968 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
969 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
970 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
972 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
973 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
974 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
975 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
976 --enable-targets configure option.
978 * Non-stop mode debugging.
980 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
981 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
982 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
983 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
984 section in the user manual for more information.
986 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
987 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
988 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
989 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
990 extensions on linux targets.
992 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
994 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
995 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
996 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
997 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
998 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
999 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1000 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1001 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1002 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1004 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1006 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1008 maint set python print-stack
1009 maint show python print-stack
1010 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1013 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1018 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1022 Show operating system information about processes.
1025 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1028 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1031 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1034 Kill inferior number NUM.
1038 set spu stop-on-load
1039 show spu stop-on-load
1040 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1042 set spu auto-flush-cache
1043 show spu auto-flush-cache
1044 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1045 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1047 set sh calling-convention
1048 show sh calling-convention
1049 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1052 show debug timestamp
1053 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1055 set disassemble-next-line
1056 show disassemble-next-line
1057 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1060 set remote noack-packet
1061 show remote noack-packet
1062 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1063 under "New remote packets."
1065 set remote query-attached-packet
1066 show remote query-attached-packet
1067 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1069 set remote read-siginfo-object
1070 show remote read-siginfo-object
1071 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1074 set remote write-siginfo-object
1075 show remote write-siginfo-object
1076 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1079 set remote reverse-continue
1080 show remote reverse-continue
1081 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1083 set remote reverse-step
1084 show remote reverse-step
1085 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1087 set displaced-stepping
1088 show displaced-stepping
1089 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1090 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1091 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1094 show debug displaced
1095 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1097 maint set internal-error
1098 maint show internal-error
1099 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1101 maint set internal-warning
1102 maint show internal-warning
1103 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
1108 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1110 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1111 show multiple-symbols
1112 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1113 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1114 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1116 set breakpoint always-inserted
1117 show breakpoint always-inserted
1118 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1119 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1120 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1122 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1123 show arm fallback-mode
1124 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1126 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1127 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1128 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1129 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1131 set disable-randomization
1132 show disable-randomization
1133 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1134 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1135 multiple debugging sessions.
1139 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1144 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1145 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1146 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1147 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1149 set target-wide-charset
1150 show target-wide-charset
1151 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1152 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1154 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1156 set tcp connect-timeout
1157 show tcp connect-timeout
1158 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1159 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1160 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1162 set libthread-db-search-path
1163 show libthread-db-search-path
1164 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1167 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1168 show schedule-multiple
1169 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1170 the current process.
1174 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1175 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1176 affecting correctness.
1178 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1179 show interactive-mode
1180 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1181 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1182 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1183 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1184 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1189 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1190 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1191 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1195 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1196 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1197 alias for the `fork' command.
1200 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1201 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1202 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1205 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1206 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1207 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1211 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1212 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1213 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1216 * New native configurations
1218 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1220 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1224 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
1225 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
1226 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
1229 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1230 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1236 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1238 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
1240 * New native configurations
1242 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
1243 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
1247 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
1248 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
1250 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1252 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1253 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1254 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1255 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1257 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1258 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1260 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
1263 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
1264 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1265 and in inlined functions.
1267 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1268 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1269 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1271 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1273 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1274 registers on PowerPC targets.
1276 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1277 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1279 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1280 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1282 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1283 extended-remote mode.
1285 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
1286 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1287 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1288 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
1290 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1291 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1292 target architectures.
1294 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1295 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1296 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1297 stored in two consecutive float registers.
1299 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1302 * Improved support for debugging Ada
1303 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1305 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1306 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1307 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1308 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1310 - Improved command completion in Ada
1313 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1318 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1319 show print frame-arguments
1320 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1321 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1326 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1333 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1335 * New remote packets
1342 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
1345 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1349 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1351 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
1353 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1354 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1355 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1357 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1358 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1359 -Bsymbolic linker option.
1361 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1362 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1365 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1366 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1368 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
1369 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
1371 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1373 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1374 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1375 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1377 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1378 automatically displayed as character or string data.
1380 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1381 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1384 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1385 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
1386 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
1388 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1391 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1392 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1393 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1395 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1397 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1399 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1400 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1401 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1403 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1404 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1406 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1407 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1408 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1409 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1410 Windows and SymbianOS).
1412 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1413 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
1415 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1416 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
1422 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1423 when debugging using remote targets.
1425 set mem inaccessible-by-default
1426 show mem inaccessible-by-default
1427 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1428 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1429 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1430 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1431 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1433 set breakpoint auto-hw
1434 show breakpoint auto-hw
1435 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1436 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1437 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1438 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1439 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1440 including "next" and "finish".
1443 catch exception unhandled
1444 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1447 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1451 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1452 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1453 an alias to "set sysroot".
1456 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1457 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1460 * New native configurations
1462 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1465 unset tdesc filename
1467 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1468 not query the target for its built-in description.
1472 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1473 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1474 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1476 * New remote packets
1479 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1480 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1482 qXfer:features:read:
1483 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1488 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1489 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1491 qXfer:libraries:read:
1492 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1493 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1494 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1495 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1499 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1507 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1508 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1509 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1510 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1512 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1515 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1516 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1525 * Other removed features
1532 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1539 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1544 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1545 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1550 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1551 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1553 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1555 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1556 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1557 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1558 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1560 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1562 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1563 in debugging information.
1567 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1568 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1570 set mips stack-arg-size
1571 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1573 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1575 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1580 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1582 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1583 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1584 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1586 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1587 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1590 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1591 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1593 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1594 stub provides the required support.
1596 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1597 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1602 unset substitute-path
1603 show substitute-path
1604 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1605 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1606 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1607 between compilation and debugging.
1611 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1612 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1613 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1617 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1619 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1620 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1622 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1624 * New remote packets
1627 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1628 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1629 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1630 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1634 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1635 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1637 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1638 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1639 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1644 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1646 * Removed remote packets
1649 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1650 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1652 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1656 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1658 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1662 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1663 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1665 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1667 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1669 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1670 previously saved state.
1672 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1674 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1676 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1677 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1679 info forks List forks of the user program that
1680 are available to be debugged.
1682 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1683 forks of the user program that are
1684 available to be debugged.
1686 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1687 that are available to be debugged (and
1688 kill the forked process).
1690 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1691 that are available to be debugged (and
1692 allow the process to continue).
1696 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1698 * Improved Windows host support
1700 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1701 native console support, and remote communications using either
1702 network sockets or serial ports.
1704 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1706 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1707 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1708 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1709 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1710 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1711 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1715 The ARM rdi-share module.
1717 The Netware NLM debug server.
1719 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1721 * New native configurations
1723 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1724 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1728 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1730 * New command line options
1732 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1733 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1734 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1735 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1736 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1737 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1738 with the --command (-x) option.
1740 * Deprecated commands removed
1742 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1746 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1747 othernames set arm disassembler
1748 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1749 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1750 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1753 * New BSD user-level threads support
1755 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1756 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1759 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1760 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1761 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1763 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1764 are not yet supported.
1766 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1767 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1769 * REMOVED configurations and files
1771 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1772 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1773 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1775 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1777 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1778 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1781 * VAX floating point support
1783 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1785 * User-defined command support
1787 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1788 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1789 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1791 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1793 * New command line option
1795 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1798 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1800 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1801 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1802 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1803 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1804 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1806 * Internationalization
1808 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1809 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1810 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1814 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1815 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
1816 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
1818 * New native configurations
1820 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
1824 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
1825 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
1827 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
1829 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1830 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
1831 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
1834 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
1835 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
1836 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
1846 powerpc bdm protocol
1848 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1849 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
1851 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1853 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1854 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1855 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1856 permanently REMOVED.
1865 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
1867 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
1869 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
1870 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
1873 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
1875 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
1876 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
1877 IRIX long double values).
1881 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
1882 command. This problem has been fixed.
1884 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
1886 * Fix for ``many threads''
1888 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
1889 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
1892 ptrace: No such process.
1893 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
1895 This problem has been fixed.
1897 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
1899 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
1902 * New ``start'' command.
1904 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
1906 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
1908 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
1909 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
1910 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
1912 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1913 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
1914 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
1915 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
1916 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
1917 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
1918 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
1919 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
1920 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
1922 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
1924 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
1925 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
1926 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
1927 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
1928 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
1930 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
1931 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
1932 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
1934 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
1936 * New native configurations
1938 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
1939 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
1940 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
1941 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
1942 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
1943 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
1944 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
1946 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
1948 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
1949 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
1950 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
1951 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
1952 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
1953 work, was also included.
1955 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
1956 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
1966 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
1967 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
1969 * REMOVED configurations and files
1971 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
1972 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
1973 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
1974 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
1975 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
1976 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
1977 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
1978 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
1979 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
1980 sonymips mips-sony-*
1981 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1983 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
1985 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
1987 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
1988 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
1989 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
1990 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
1993 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
1995 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
1996 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
1997 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
1998 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
1999 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2000 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2003 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2005 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
2007 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2008 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2009 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2011 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2013 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2014 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2016 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2018 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2019 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2020 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2022 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2024 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2025 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2027 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2029 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2030 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2031 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2033 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2035 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2036 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2037 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2039 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
2041 * Removed --with-mmalloc
2043 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2044 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2046 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
2048 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2049 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2050 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2051 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2053 * Revised SPARC target
2055 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2056 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
2057 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2058 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2059 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
2063 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2064 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2065 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2068 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2070 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2071 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2074 * C++ nested types and namespaces
2076 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2077 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2078 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2079 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2080 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2081 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2082 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2083 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2084 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2086 * New native configurations
2088 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
2089 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2090 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
2091 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2092 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
2094 * New debugging protocols
2096 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2098 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2100 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2101 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2102 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2104 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2106 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2107 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2108 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2109 permanently REMOVED.
2111 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2112 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2113 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2114 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2115 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2116 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2117 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2118 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2119 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2120 sonymips mips-sony-*
2121 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2123 * REMOVED configurations and files
2125 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2126 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2127 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2128 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2129 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2130 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2131 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2132 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2133 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2134 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
2135 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2136 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2137 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2138 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2139 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
2140 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2141 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2143 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2147 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2148 integrated into GDB.
2150 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2152 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2153 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2154 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2157 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2158 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2159 DWARF 2 CFI support.
2163 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2164 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2165 remote protocol documentation for details.
2167 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
2169 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2170 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2171 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2174 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2176 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2177 per-thread variables.
2179 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2181 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2182 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2184 * Separate debug info.
2186 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2187 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2188 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2189 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2190 and optional debug files.
2192 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2194 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2195 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2198 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2199 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2203 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2204 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2205 considered "useable".
2207 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2209 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2210 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2213 * GDB supports logging output to a file
2215 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2216 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
2218 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2220 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2221 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2224 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
2226 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2227 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2231 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2232 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2233 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2234 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2235 data, for more informative profiling results.
2237 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2239 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2240 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
2241 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
2243 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2246 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2247 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2248 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2249 in a subsequent -var-update.
2251 * New native configurations.
2253 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2255 * Multi-arched targets.
2257 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
2258 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2260 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2262 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2263 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2264 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2265 permanently REMOVED.
2267 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2268 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2269 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2270 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2271 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2272 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2273 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2274 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2275 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2276 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2277 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2278 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2280 * REMOVED configurations and files
2283 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2284 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2285 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2286 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2287 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2288 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2290 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2291 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2292 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2293 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2294 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2295 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2297 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
2299 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2300 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2301 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2302 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2303 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2305 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
2307 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2309 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2310 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2311 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2312 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2313 shared libs like mad''.
2315 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
2317 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2318 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2319 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2320 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
2322 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2324 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2325 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2328 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2329 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2331 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2332 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2334 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2335 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2336 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2337 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2339 * Multi-arched targets.
2341 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2342 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2344 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
2345 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2346 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2350 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2353 * New native configurations
2355 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
2356 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
2357 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
2358 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
2360 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2362 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2363 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2364 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2365 permanently REMOVED.
2367 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2368 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2369 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2370 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2371 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2372 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2373 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2374 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2375 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2376 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2378 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2379 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2381 * OBSOLETE languages
2383 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2385 * REMOVED configurations and files
2387 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2388 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2389 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2390 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2391 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2393 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2395 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2397 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2398 commands. The default is 1024.
2400 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2402 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2404 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2406 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2407 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2408 from a file into memory (restore).
2410 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2412 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2413 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2414 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2416 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2424 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2425 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2426 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2428 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2429 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2430 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2432 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2433 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2434 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2436 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2437 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2438 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2440 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
2442 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2444 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2445 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2446 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2447 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2448 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2449 (notably embedded) targets.
2451 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2453 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2454 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2455 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2456 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2458 * New command line option
2460 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2462 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2464 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2465 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2466 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2467 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2468 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2469 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2470 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2471 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2472 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2473 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2475 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2477 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2478 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2480 * New native configurations
2482 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2483 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2484 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2485 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2489 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2491 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2493 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2494 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2495 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2496 permanently REMOVED.
2498 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2499 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2500 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2501 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2502 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2504 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2506 * REMOVED configurations and files
2508 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2510 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2511 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2512 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2513 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2514 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2515 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2516 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2517 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2518 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2519 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2520 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2522 * Changes to command line processing
2524 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2525 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2527 * Changes to key bindings
2529 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2531 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2533 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2535 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2538 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2540 Numerous documentation fixes.
2542 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2544 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2546 * New native configurations
2548 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2549 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2550 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2551 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2552 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2553 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2557 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2559 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2561 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2563 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2564 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2565 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2566 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2567 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2569 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2570 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2571 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2572 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2573 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2574 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2575 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2576 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2578 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2579 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2581 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2582 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2583 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2584 permanently REMOVED.
2586 * REMOVED configurations and files
2588 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2589 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2591 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2595 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2597 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2598 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2603 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2605 * The MI enabled by default.
2607 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2608 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2609 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2610 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2611 which is now deprecated.
2613 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2615 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2616 main features are supported:
2618 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2620 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2623 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2625 - a Pascal expression parser.
2627 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2629 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2631 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2633 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2634 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2636 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2638 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2640 * Changes in completion.
2642 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2643 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2644 users expect at the shell prompt.
2646 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2647 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2648 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2649 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2650 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2651 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2652 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2654 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2656 * New platform-independent commands:
2658 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2659 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2660 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2662 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2664 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2665 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2666 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2668 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2670 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2671 multi-threaded programs though.
2673 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2675 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2677 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2678 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2681 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2683 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2684 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2685 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2686 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2687 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2690 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2691 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2692 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2694 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2696 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2697 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2699 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2700 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2703 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2704 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2705 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2706 a given linear address.
2708 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2709 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2710 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2712 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2714 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2716 * Changes in documentation.
2718 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2719 Documentation License.
2721 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2724 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2726 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2729 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2730 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2731 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2733 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2735 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2736 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2737 contents of this file.
2741 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2743 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2745 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2747 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2748 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2749 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2750 greater level of detail.
2752 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2754 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2755 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2756 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2759 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2761 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2762 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2763 machines ``out of the box''.
2765 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2766 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2767 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2768 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2769 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2771 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2772 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2773 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2774 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2775 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2777 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2778 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2781 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2784 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2785 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2786 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2787 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2789 * New native configurations
2791 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2792 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2796 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2797 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2798 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2799 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2801 * OBSOLETE configurations
2803 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2804 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2806 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2809 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2810 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2811 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2812 be permanently REMOVED.
2814 * Gould support removed
2816 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
2818 * New features for SVR4
2820 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
2821 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
2822 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
2824 * Many C++ enhancements
2826 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
2827 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
2829 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
2831 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
2832 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
2833 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
2834 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
2836 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
2837 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
2839 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
2841 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
2842 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
2843 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
2845 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
2846 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2848 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
2850 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
2851 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
2852 include ``set remote P-packet''.
2854 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
2856 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
2857 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
2858 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
2860 * ``apropos'' command added.
2862 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
2863 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
2864 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
2868 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
2869 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
2870 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
2871 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
2872 enabled by configuring with:
2874 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
2876 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
2878 * New native configurations
2880 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
2881 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
2882 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
2886 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2887 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
2888 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2890 * OBSOLETE configurations
2892 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
2894 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2895 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2896 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2897 be permanently REMOVED.
2901 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
2902 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
2903 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
2904 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
2905 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
2906 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
2907 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
2912 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
2914 * set extension-language
2916 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
2917 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
2918 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
2919 set extension-language .c c++
2920 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
2921 and their associated languages.
2923 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
2925 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
2926 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
2927 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
2931 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
2932 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
2934 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
2935 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
2937 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
2938 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
2939 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
2940 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
2941 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
2942 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
2943 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
2944 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
2946 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
2947 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
2948 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
2949 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
2953 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
2954 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
2955 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
2956 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
2957 for xdb and dbx commands.
2961 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
2962 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
2963 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
2965 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
2966 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
2967 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
2969 * Debugging across forks
2971 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
2976 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
2977 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
2978 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
2980 * GDB remote protocol additions
2982 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
2983 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
2984 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
2985 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
2987 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
2988 full 64-bit address. The command
2990 set remoteaddresssize 32
2992 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
2993 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
2996 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
2997 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
2999 maint packet heythere
3001 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3002 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3005 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3006 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3007 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3009 * Tracing can collect general expressions
3011 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3012 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3013 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3015 * mask-address variable for Mips
3017 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3018 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3019 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3021 * Higher serial baud rates
3023 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3024 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3025 to achieve all of these rates.)
3029 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3030 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3033 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3035 * New native configurations
3037 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3038 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3039 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3040 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3041 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3042 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3043 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3047 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3048 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3049 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3050 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3051 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3052 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3053 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3054 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3055 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3056 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3057 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3059 * New debugging protocols
3061 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3062 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3063 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3064 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3065 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3066 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3070 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3071 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3076 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3077 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3079 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3081 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3082 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3083 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3085 * Live range splitting
3087 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3088 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3089 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3093 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3094 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3098 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3099 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3100 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3105 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3110 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3111 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3112 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3113 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3114 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3115 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3119 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3120 the symbol at the specified address.
3124 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3125 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3126 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3127 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3128 file tracepoint.c for more details.
3132 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3133 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3134 of most MIPS variants.
3138 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3139 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3140 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3144 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3145 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3146 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3147 the possible architectures.
3149 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3151 * New native configurations
3153 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3154 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3155 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3156 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3157 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3158 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3162 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3163 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3164 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3165 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3166 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3168 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3172 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3173 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3174 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3175 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3176 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3180 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3182 * Windows 95/NT native
3184 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3185 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3186 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3187 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3188 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3190 * dont-repeat command
3192 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3193 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3194 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3195 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3197 * Send break instead of ^C
3199 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3200 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3201 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3203 * Remote protocol timeout
3205 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3206 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3207 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3209 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3211 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3212 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3213 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3214 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3215 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3217 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3218 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3219 automatically on hpux10.
3221 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3223 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3225 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3227 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3228 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3229 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3230 every character. The default value is 1050.
3232 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3234 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3235 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3236 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3237 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3238 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3239 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3241 * Speedups for remote debugging
3243 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3244 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3245 and more efficient S-record downloading.
3247 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3249 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3250 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3252 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3254 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
3256 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3257 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3259 * Remote targets use caching
3261 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3262 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3263 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3264 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3265 off' turns the the data cache off.
3267 * Remote targets may have threads
3269 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3270 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3271 gdb/remote.c for details.
3275 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3276 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3277 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3278 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3279 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3280 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3281 sequence is something like
3283 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3285 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3289 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3290 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3291 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3292 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3293 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3294 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3295 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3296 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3300 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3301 but does simplify configuration and building.
3305 GDB now supports hpux10.
3307 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3309 * New native configurations
3311 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3312 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3313 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3314 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3318 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3319 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3320 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3321 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3324 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3326 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3327 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3328 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3329 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3330 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3332 * Arguments to user-defined commands
3334 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3335 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3338 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3340 To execute the command use:
3343 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3344 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3345 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3347 * New `if' and `while' commands
3349 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3350 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3351 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3352 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3353 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3354 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3355 if the expression is zero.
3357 * Fortran source language mode
3359 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3360 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3361 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3362 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3365 * Better HPUX support
3367 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3368 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3369 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3370 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3371 that behavior do the following before running the program:
3377 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3378 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3384 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3385 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3388 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3389 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3391 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3393 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3394 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3395 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3396 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3397 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3398 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3400 * New DOS host serial code
3402 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3403 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3406 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3408 * New "complete" command
3410 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3411 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3413 * Trailing space optional in prompt
3415 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3416 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3418 * Breakpoint hit counts
3420 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3421 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3422 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3423 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3424 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3427 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3429 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3430 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3431 arrays actually contain only short strings.
3433 * Shared library breakpoints
3435 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3436 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3438 * Hardware watchpoints
3440 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3441 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3443 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
3447 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3448 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3450 * Improved Irix 5 support
3452 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3454 * Improved HPPA support
3456 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3458 * New native configurations
3460 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3461 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3462 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3463 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3467 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3468 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3471 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3473 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3474 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3478 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3479 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3481 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3483 * Irix 5 is now supported
3487 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3488 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3489 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3490 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3491 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3494 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3496 * User visible changes:
3500 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3501 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3502 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3503 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3504 debugging info for the mips target).
3506 * DEC Alpha native support
3508 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3509 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3510 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3511 Alpha-specific notes.
3513 * Preliminary thread implementation
3515 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3517 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3519 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3520 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3523 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3525 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3526 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3527 call methods, ...etc.
3529 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3531 * User visible changes:
3533 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3534 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3535 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3536 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3538 Filename completion now works.
3540 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3541 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3542 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3544 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3545 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3546 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3547 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3548 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3552 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3553 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3556 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3560 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3561 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3562 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3566 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3567 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3568 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3569 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3570 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3574 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3575 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3576 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3578 * New targets supported
3580 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3581 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3582 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3583 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3584 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3586 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3587 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3588 GO32 memory extender.
3590 * New remote protocols
3592 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3594 * New source languages supported
3596 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3597 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3598 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3601 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3603 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3605 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3606 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3607 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3608 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3609 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3610 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3612 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3614 * Faster and better demangling
3616 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3617 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3618 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3619 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3620 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3621 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3624 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3625 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3626 compiler does not actually implement.
3628 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3630 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3631 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3632 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3633 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3634 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3635 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3638 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3639 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3641 * Improved configure script
3643 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3644 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3645 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3646 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3648 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3649 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3650 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3651 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3652 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3653 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3655 * Documentation improvements
3657 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3658 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3659 before submitting changes.
3661 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3662 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3663 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3664 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3665 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3667 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3668 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3669 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3670 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3671 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3672 around this problem.
3676 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3677 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3678 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3681 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3682 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3684 * New native hosts supported
3686 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3687 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3689 * New targets supported
3691 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3693 * New file formats supported
3695 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3696 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3700 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3702 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3703 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3705 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3706 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3707 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3709 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3710 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3712 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3713 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3714 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3717 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3718 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3719 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3720 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3721 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3723 * Internal improvements
3725 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3726 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3728 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3729 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3730 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3731 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3732 shared code that handles any of them.
3734 * New command line options
3736 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3740 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3741 General Public License.
3743 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3745 * Host/native/target split
3747 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3748 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3749 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3750 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3751 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3753 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3754 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3755 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3756 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3757 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3758 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3759 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3761 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3762 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3763 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3765 * New hosts supported
3767 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3768 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3769 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3771 * New targets supported
3773 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3774 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3776 * New native hosts supported
3778 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3779 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3780 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3782 * New file formats supported
3784 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3785 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3786 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3790 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3791 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3792 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3794 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3796 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3797 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3798 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3799 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3803 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3804 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3805 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3807 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3811 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3812 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3815 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
3816 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
3818 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
3819 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
3820 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
3821 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
3822 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
3823 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
3825 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
3826 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
3827 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
3828 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
3832 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
3833 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
3834 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
3835 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
3836 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
3838 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
3839 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
3840 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
3841 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
3845 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
3846 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
3847 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
3848 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
3849 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
3850 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
3851 each instruction being stepped through.
3853 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
3854 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
3856 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
3857 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
3858 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
3859 processor with a serial port.
3863 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
3864 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
3865 supported, and what files each one uses.
3869 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
3870 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
3871 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
3872 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
3874 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
3875 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
3876 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
3877 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
3881 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
3882 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
3883 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
3884 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
3885 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
3886 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
3888 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
3891 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
3893 * Better support for C++ function names
3895 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
3896 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
3897 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
3898 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
3899 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
3901 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
3902 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
3903 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
3904 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
3905 for the list of formats.
3907 * G++ symbol mangling problem
3909 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
3910 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
3911 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
3912 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
3913 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
3914 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
3917 * New 'maintenance' command
3919 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
3920 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
3921 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
3923 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
3924 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
3925 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
3926 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
3927 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
3928 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
3930 The following commands are new:
3932 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
3933 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
3934 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
3936 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
3938 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
3939 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
3940 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
3941 read after argv processing.
3943 * New hosts supported
3945 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
3947 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
3949 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
3950 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
3951 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
3952 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
3953 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
3956 * New targets supported
3958 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3960 * More smarts about finding #include files
3962 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
3963 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
3964 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
3965 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
3966 the one that contains your sources.
3968 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
3969 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
3970 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
3972 * Interesting infernals change
3974 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
3975 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
3976 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
3977 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
3979 * Bug fixes (of course!)
3981 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
3982 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
3983 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
3985 See the ChangeLog for details.
3987 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
3989 * New machines supported (host and target)
3991 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
3993 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3995 * New malloc package
3997 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
3998 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
3999 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4000 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4001 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4002 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4006 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4007 'help info proc' for details.
4009 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4011 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4012 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4015 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4017 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4018 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4019 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4020 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4021 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4022 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4024 * Cross byte order fixes
4026 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4027 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4029 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4031 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4032 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4033 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4034 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4035 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4036 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4037 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4038 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4039 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4040 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4042 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4043 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4044 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4045 slower, but makes future operations faster.
4047 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4048 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4049 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4052 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4054 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4055 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4056 shared across multiple host platforms.
4058 * longjmp() handling
4060 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4061 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4062 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4063 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4067 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4068 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4073 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4074 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4075 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4077 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4079 * New machines supported (host and target)
4081 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4083 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4084 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4086 * New machines supported (target)
4088 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4092 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4093 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4094 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4096 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4097 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4098 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4099 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4100 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4103 * New features for SVR4
4105 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4106 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4107 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4109 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4110 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4111 it prints the address mappings of the process.
4113 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4114 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4116 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4118 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4119 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4120 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4121 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4122 same code linked statically.
4126 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4127 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4128 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4129 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4130 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4131 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4135 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4136 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4137 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4140 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4142 * New machines supported (host and target)
4144 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4145 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4146 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4148 * Almost SCO Unix support
4150 We had hoped to support:
4151 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4152 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4153 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4154 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4156 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4158 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4159 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4160 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4161 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4166 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4167 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4168 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4172 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4173 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4174 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4176 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4178 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4179 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4180 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4182 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4183 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4184 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4185 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4188 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4189 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4190 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4191 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4194 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4195 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4198 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4199 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4200 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4203 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4205 * Improved configuration
4207 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4208 Porting BFD is simpler.
4212 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4213 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4214 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4215 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4219 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4221 * New host supported (not target)
4223 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4226 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4228 * Multiple source language support
4230 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4231 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4232 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4233 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4234 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4235 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4239 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4240 currently under development at the State University of New York at
4241 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4242 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4244 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4245 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4246 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4248 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4249 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4253 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4254 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4255 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4256 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4259 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4261 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4262 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4263 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4264 examining core files.
4268 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4271 * New machines supported (host and target)
4273 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4274 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4275 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4277 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4279 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4281 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4283 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4284 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4285 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4287 * New remote interfaces
4293 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4297 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4299 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4300 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4301 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4302 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4303 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4304 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4305 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4306 stub on the target system.
4308 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4310 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4311 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4312 object file types such as a.out and coff.
4314 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4315 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4318 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4320 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4321 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4323 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4324 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4325 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4327 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4328 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4329 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4330 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4332 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4333 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4334 it is already running. Default is ON.
4336 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4337 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4338 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4339 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4342 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4343 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4344 or the value of the environment variable
4347 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4348 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4351 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4352 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4353 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4355 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4356 history expansion will be performed on
4357 command line input. The default is OFF.
4359 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4360 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4361 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4363 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4364 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4365 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4368 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4369 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4370 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4373 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4374 ``set width'' instead.
4376 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4377 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4378 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4379 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4381 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4384 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4387 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4390 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4393 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4395 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4396 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4397 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4401 * Support for Shared Libraries
4403 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4404 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4405 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4406 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4407 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4408 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4409 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4410 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4412 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4413 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4414 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4416 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4421 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4422 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4423 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4424 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4425 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4426 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4428 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4430 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4432 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4433 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4434 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4437 * C++ multiple inheritance
4439 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4442 * C++ exception handling
4444 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4445 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4446 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4449 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4450 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4451 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4453 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4454 current stack frame.
4457 * Minor command changes
4459 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4460 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4461 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4463 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4464 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4465 frames without printing.
4467 * New directory command
4469 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4470 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4471 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4472 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4473 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4475 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4477 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4480 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4481 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4482 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4483 where the program that you are debugging will run.