1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
7 now complete on file names.
9 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
10 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
11 For instance, consider:
13 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
14 # struct example variable;
17 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
18 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
23 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
25 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
27 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
28 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
29 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
31 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
34 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
35 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
37 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
38 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
39 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
41 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
42 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
44 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
46 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
47 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
49 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
50 list of section offsets.
52 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
53 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
56 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
58 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
59 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
61 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
62 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
63 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
67 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
69 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
71 set print symbol-loading
72 show print symbol-loading
73 Control printing of symbol loading messages.
77 Display timestamps with GDB debugging output.
82 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
84 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
86 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
87 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
88 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
90 set breakpoint always-inserted
91 show breakpoint always-inserted
92 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
93 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
94 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
96 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
97 show arm fallback-mode
98 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
100 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
101 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
102 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
103 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
105 set disable-randomization
106 show disable-randomization
107 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
108 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
109 multiple debugging sessions.
113 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
115 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
117 * New native configurations
119 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
120 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
124 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
125 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
127 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
129 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
130 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
131 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
132 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
134 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
135 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
137 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
140 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
141 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
142 and in inlined functions.
144 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
145 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
146 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
148 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
150 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
151 registers on PowerPC targets.
153 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
154 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
156 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
157 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
159 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
160 extended-remote mode.
162 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
163 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
164 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
165 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
167 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
168 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
169 target architectures.
171 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
172 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
173 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
174 stored in two consecutive float registers.
176 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
179 * Improved support for debugging Ada
180 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
182 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
183 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
184 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
185 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
187 - Improved command completion in Ada
190 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
195 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
196 show print frame-arguments
197 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
198 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
203 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
210 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
219 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
222 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
226 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
228 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
230 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
231 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
232 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
234 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
235 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
236 -Bsymbolic linker option.
238 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
239 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
242 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
243 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
245 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
246 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
248 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
250 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
251 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
252 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
254 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
255 automatically displayed as character or string data.
257 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
258 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
261 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
262 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
263 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
265 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
268 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
269 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
270 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
272 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
274 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
276 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
277 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
278 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
280 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
281 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
283 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
284 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
285 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
286 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
287 Windows and SymbianOS).
289 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
290 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
292 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
293 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
299 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
300 when debugging using remote targets.
302 set mem inaccessible-by-default
303 show mem inaccessible-by-default
304 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
305 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
306 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
307 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
308 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
310 set breakpoint auto-hw
311 show breakpoint auto-hw
312 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
313 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
314 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
315 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
316 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
317 including "next" and "finish".
320 catch exception unhandled
321 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
324 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
328 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
329 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
330 an alias to "set sysroot".
333 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
334 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
337 * New native configurations
339 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
344 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
345 not query the target for its built-in description.
349 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
350 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
351 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
356 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
357 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
360 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
365 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
366 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
368 qXfer:libraries:read:
369 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
370 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
371 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
372 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
376 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
385 i[34567]86-*-netware*
386 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
387 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
389 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
392 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
393 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
402 * Other removed features
409 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
416 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
421 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
422 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
427 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
428 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
430 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
432 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
433 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
434 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
435 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
439 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
440 in debugging information.
444 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
445 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
447 set mips stack-arg-size
448 set mips saved-gpreg-size
450 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
452 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
457 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
459 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
460 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
461 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
463 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
464 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
467 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
468 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
470 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
471 stub provides the required support.
473 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
474 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
479 unset substitute-path
481 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
482 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
483 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
484 between compilation and debugging.
488 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
489 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
490 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
494 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
496 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
497 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
499 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
504 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
505 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
506 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
507 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
511 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
512 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
514 qXfer:memory-map:read:
515 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
516 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
521 Erase and program a flash memory device.
523 * Removed remote packets
526 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
527 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
529 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
533 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
535 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
539 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
540 only if it doesn't already have a value.
542 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
544 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
546 restart <n> Return the program state to a
547 previously saved state.
549 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
551 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
553 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
554 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
556 info forks List forks of the user program that
557 are available to be debugged.
559 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
560 forks of the user program that are
561 available to be debugged.
563 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
564 that are available to be debugged (and
565 kill the forked process).
567 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
568 that are available to be debugged (and
569 allow the process to continue).
573 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
575 * Improved Windows host support
577 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
578 native console support, and remote communications using either
579 network sockets or serial ports.
581 * Improved Modula-2 language support
583 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
584 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
585 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
586 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
587 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
588 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
592 The ARM rdi-share module.
594 The Netware NLM debug server.
596 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
598 * New native configurations
600 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
601 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
605 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
607 * New command line options
609 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
610 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
611 the child (debugged) program exited with.
612 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
613 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
614 specified multiple times and in conjunction
615 with the --command (-x) option.
617 * Deprecated commands removed
619 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
623 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
624 othernames set arm disassembler
625 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
626 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
627 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
630 * New BSD user-level threads support
632 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
633 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
636 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
637 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
638 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
640 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
641 are not yet supported.
643 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
644 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
646 * REMOVED configurations and files
648 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
649 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
650 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
652 * New "set print array-indexes" command
654 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
655 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
658 * VAX floating point support
660 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
662 * User-defined command support
664 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
665 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
666 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
668 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
670 * New command line option
672 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
675 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
677 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
678 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
679 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
680 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
681 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
683 * Internationalization
685 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
686 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
687 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
691 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
692 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
693 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
695 * New native configurations
697 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
701 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
702 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
704 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
706 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
707 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
708 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
711 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
712 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
713 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
725 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
726 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
728 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
730 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
731 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
732 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
742 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
744 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
746 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
747 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
750 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
752 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
753 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
754 IRIX long double values).
758 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
759 command. This problem has been fixed.
761 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
763 * Fix for ``many threads''
765 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
766 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
769 ptrace: No such process.
770 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
772 This problem has been fixed.
774 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
776 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
779 * New ``start'' command.
781 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
783 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
785 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
786 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
787 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
789 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
790 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
791 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
792 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
793 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
794 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
795 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
796 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
797 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
799 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
801 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
802 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
803 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
804 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
805 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
807 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
808 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
809 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
811 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
813 * New native configurations
815 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
816 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
817 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
818 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
819 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
820 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
821 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
823 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
825 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
826 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
827 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
828 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
829 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
830 work, was also included.
832 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
833 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
843 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
844 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
846 * REMOVED configurations and files
848 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
849 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
850 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
851 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
852 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
853 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
854 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
855 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
856 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
858 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
860 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
862 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
864 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
865 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
866 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
867 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
870 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
872 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
873 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
874 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
875 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
876 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
877 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
880 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
882 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
884 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
885 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
886 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
888 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
890 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
891 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
893 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
895 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
896 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
897 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
899 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
901 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
902 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
904 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
906 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
907 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
908 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
910 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
912 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
913 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
914 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
916 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
918 * Removed --with-mmalloc
920 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
921 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
923 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
925 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
926 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
927 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
928 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
930 * Revised SPARC target
932 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
933 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
934 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
935 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
936 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
940 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
941 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
942 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
945 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
947 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
948 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
951 * C++ nested types and namespaces
953 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
954 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
955 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
956 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
957 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
958 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
959 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
960 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
961 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
963 * New native configurations
965 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
966 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
967 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
968 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
969 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
971 * New debugging protocols
973 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
975 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
977 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
978 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
979 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
981 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
983 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
984 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
985 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
988 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
989 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
990 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
991 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
992 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
993 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
994 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
995 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
996 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
998 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
1000 * REMOVED configurations and files
1002 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1003 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1004 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1005 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1006 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1007 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1008 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1009 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1010 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1011 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1012 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1013 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1014 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1015 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1016 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1017 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1018 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1020 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1024 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1025 integrated into GDB.
1027 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1029 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1030 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1031 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1034 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1035 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1036 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1040 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1041 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1042 remote protocol documentation for details.
1044 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1046 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1047 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1048 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1051 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1053 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1054 per-thread variables.
1056 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1058 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1059 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1061 * Separate debug info.
1063 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1064 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1065 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1066 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1067 and optional debug files.
1069 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1071 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1072 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1075 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1076 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1080 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1081 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1082 considered "useable".
1084 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1086 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1087 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1090 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1092 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1093 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1095 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1097 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1098 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1101 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1103 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1104 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1108 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1109 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1110 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1111 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1112 data, for more informative profiling results.
1114 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1116 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1117 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1118 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1120 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1123 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1124 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1125 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1126 in a subsequent -var-update.
1128 * New native configurations.
1130 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1132 * Multi-arched targets.
1134 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1135 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1137 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1139 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1140 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1141 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1142 permanently REMOVED.
1144 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1145 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1146 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1147 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1148 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1149 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1150 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1151 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1152 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1153 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1154 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1155 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1157 * REMOVED configurations and files
1160 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1161 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1162 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1163 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1164 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1165 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1167 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1168 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1169 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1170 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1171 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1172 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1174 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1176 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1177 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1178 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1179 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1180 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1182 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1184 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1186 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1187 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1188 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1189 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1190 shared libs like mad''.
1192 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1194 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1195 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1196 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1197 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1199 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1201 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1202 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1205 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1206 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1208 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1209 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1211 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1212 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1213 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1214 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1216 * Multi-arched targets.
1218 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1219 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1221 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1222 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1223 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1227 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1230 * New native configurations
1232 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1233 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1234 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1235 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1237 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1239 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1240 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1241 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1242 permanently REMOVED.
1244 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1245 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1246 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1247 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1248 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1249 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1250 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1251 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1252 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1253 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1255 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1256 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1258 * OBSOLETE languages
1260 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1262 * REMOVED configurations and files
1264 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1265 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1266 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1267 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1268 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1270 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1272 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1274 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1275 commands. The default is 1024.
1277 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1279 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1281 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1283 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1284 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1285 from a file into memory (restore).
1287 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1289 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1290 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1291 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1293 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1301 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1302 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1303 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1305 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1306 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1307 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1309 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1310 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1311 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1313 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1314 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1315 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1317 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1319 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1321 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1322 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1323 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1324 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1325 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1326 (notably embedded) targets.
1328 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1330 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1331 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1332 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1333 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1335 * New command line option
1337 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1339 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1341 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1342 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1343 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1344 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1345 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1346 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1347 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1348 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1349 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1350 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1352 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1354 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1355 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1357 * New native configurations
1359 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1360 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1361 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1362 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1366 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1368 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1370 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1371 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1372 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1373 permanently REMOVED.
1375 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1376 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1377 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1378 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1379 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1381 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1383 * REMOVED configurations and files
1385 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1387 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1388 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1389 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1390 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1391 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1392 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1393 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1394 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1395 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1396 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1397 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1399 * Changes to command line processing
1401 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1402 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1404 * Changes to key bindings
1406 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1408 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1410 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1412 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1415 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1417 Numerous documentation fixes.
1419 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1421 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1423 * New native configurations
1425 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1426 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1427 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1428 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1429 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1430 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1434 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1436 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1438 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1440 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1441 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1442 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1443 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1444 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1446 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1447 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1448 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1449 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1450 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1451 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1452 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1453 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1455 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1456 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1458 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1459 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1460 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1461 permanently REMOVED.
1463 * REMOVED configurations and files
1465 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1466 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1468 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1472 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1474 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1475 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1480 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1482 * The MI enabled by default.
1484 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1485 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1486 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1487 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1488 which is now deprecated.
1490 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1492 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1493 main features are supported:
1495 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1497 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1500 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1502 - a Pascal expression parser.
1504 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1506 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1508 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1510 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1511 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1513 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1515 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1517 * Changes in completion.
1519 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1520 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1521 users expect at the shell prompt.
1523 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1524 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1525 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1526 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1527 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1528 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1529 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1531 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1533 * New platform-independent commands:
1535 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1536 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1537 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1539 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1541 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1542 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1543 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1545 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1547 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1548 multi-threaded programs though.
1550 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1552 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1554 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1555 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1558 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1560 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1561 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1562 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1563 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1564 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1567 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1568 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1569 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1571 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1573 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1574 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1576 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1577 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1580 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1581 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1582 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1583 a given linear address.
1585 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1586 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1587 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1589 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1591 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1593 * Changes in documentation.
1595 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1596 Documentation License.
1598 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1601 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1603 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1606 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1607 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1608 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1610 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1612 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1613 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1614 contents of this file.
1618 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1620 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1622 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1624 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1625 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1626 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1627 greater level of detail.
1629 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1631 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1632 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1633 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1636 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1638 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1639 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1640 machines ``out of the box''.
1642 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1643 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1644 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1645 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1646 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1648 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1649 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1650 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1651 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1652 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1654 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1655 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1658 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1661 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1662 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1663 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1664 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1666 * New native configurations
1668 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1669 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1673 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1674 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1675 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1676 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1678 * OBSOLETE configurations
1680 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1681 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1683 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1686 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1687 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1688 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1689 be permanently REMOVED.
1691 * Gould support removed
1693 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1695 * New features for SVR4
1697 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1698 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1699 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1701 * Many C++ enhancements
1703 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1704 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1706 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1708 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1709 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1710 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1711 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1713 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1714 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1716 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1718 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1719 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1720 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1722 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1723 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1725 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1727 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1728 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1729 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1731 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1733 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1734 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1735 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1737 * ``apropos'' command added.
1739 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1740 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1741 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1745 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1746 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1747 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1748 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1749 enabled by configuring with:
1751 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1753 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1755 * New native configurations
1757 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1758 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1759 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1763 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1764 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1765 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1767 * OBSOLETE configurations
1769 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1771 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1772 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1773 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1774 be permanently REMOVED.
1778 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1779 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1780 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1781 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1782 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1783 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1784 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1789 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1791 * set extension-language
1793 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1794 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1795 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1796 set extension-language .c c++
1797 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1798 and their associated languages.
1800 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1802 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1803 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1804 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1808 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1809 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1811 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1812 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1814 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1815 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1816 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1817 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1818 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1819 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1820 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1821 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1823 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1824 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1825 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1826 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1830 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1831 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1832 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1833 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1834 for xdb and dbx commands.
1838 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1839 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1840 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1842 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1843 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1844 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1846 * Debugging across forks
1848 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1853 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1854 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1855 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1857 * GDB remote protocol additions
1859 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1860 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1861 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1862 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1864 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1865 full 64-bit address. The command
1867 set remoteaddresssize 32
1869 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1870 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1873 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1874 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1876 maint packet heythere
1878 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1879 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1882 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1883 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1884 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1886 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1888 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1889 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1890 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1892 * mask-address variable for Mips
1894 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1895 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1896 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1898 * Higher serial baud rates
1900 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1901 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1902 to achieve all of these rates.)
1906 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1907 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1910 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1912 * New native configurations
1914 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1915 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1916 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1917 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1918 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1919 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1920 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1924 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1925 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1926 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1927 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1928 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1929 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1930 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1931 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1932 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1933 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1934 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1936 * New debugging protocols
1938 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1939 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1940 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1941 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1942 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1943 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1947 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1948 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1953 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1954 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1956 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1958 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1959 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1960 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1962 * Live range splitting
1964 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1965 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1966 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1970 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1971 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1975 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1976 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1977 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1982 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1987 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1988 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1989 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1990 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1991 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1992 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1996 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1997 the symbol at the specified address.
2001 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
2002 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
2003 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2004 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2005 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2009 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2010 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2011 of most MIPS variants.
2015 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2016 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2017 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2021 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2022 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2023 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2024 the possible architectures.
2026 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2028 * New native configurations
2030 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2031 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2032 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2033 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2034 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2035 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2039 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2040 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2041 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2042 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2043 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2045 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2049 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2050 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2051 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2052 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2053 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2057 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2059 * Windows 95/NT native
2061 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2062 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2063 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2064 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2065 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2067 * dont-repeat command
2069 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2070 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2071 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2072 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2074 * Send break instead of ^C
2076 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2077 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2078 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2080 * Remote protocol timeout
2082 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2083 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2084 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2086 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2088 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2089 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2090 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2091 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2092 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2094 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2095 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2096 automatically on hpux10.
2098 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2100 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2102 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2104 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2105 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2106 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2107 every character. The default value is 1050.
2109 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2111 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2112 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2113 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2114 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2115 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2116 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2118 * Speedups for remote debugging
2120 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2121 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2122 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2124 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2126 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2127 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2129 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2131 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2133 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2134 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2136 * Remote targets use caching
2138 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2139 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2140 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2141 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2142 off' turns the the data cache off.
2144 * Remote targets may have threads
2146 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2147 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2148 gdb/remote.c for details.
2152 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2153 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2154 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2155 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2156 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2157 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2158 sequence is something like
2160 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2162 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2166 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2167 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2168 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2169 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2170 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2171 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2172 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2173 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2177 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2178 but does simplify configuration and building.
2182 GDB now supports hpux10.
2184 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2186 * New native configurations
2188 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2189 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2190 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2191 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2195 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2196 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2197 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2198 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2201 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2203 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2204 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2205 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2206 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2207 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2209 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2211 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2212 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2215 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2217 To execute the command use:
2220 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2221 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2222 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2224 * New `if' and `while' commands
2226 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2227 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2228 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2229 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2230 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2231 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2232 if the expression is zero.
2234 * Fortran source language mode
2236 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2237 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2238 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2239 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2242 * Better HPUX support
2244 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2245 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2246 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2247 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2248 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2254 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2255 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2261 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2262 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2265 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2266 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2268 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2270 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2271 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2272 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2273 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2274 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2275 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2277 * New DOS host serial code
2279 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2280 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2283 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2285 * New "complete" command
2287 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2288 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2290 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2292 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2293 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2295 * Breakpoint hit counts
2297 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2298 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2299 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2300 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2301 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2304 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2306 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2307 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2308 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2310 * Shared library breakpoints
2312 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2313 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2315 * Hardware watchpoints
2317 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2318 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2320 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2324 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2325 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2327 * Improved Irix 5 support
2329 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2331 * Improved HPPA support
2333 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2335 * New native configurations
2337 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2338 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2339 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2340 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2344 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2345 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2348 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2350 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2351 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2355 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2356 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2358 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2360 * Irix 5 is now supported
2364 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2365 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2366 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2367 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2368 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2371 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2373 * User visible changes:
2377 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2378 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2379 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2380 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2381 debugging info for the mips target).
2383 * DEC Alpha native support
2385 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2386 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2387 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2388 Alpha-specific notes.
2390 * Preliminary thread implementation
2392 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2394 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2396 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2397 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2400 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2402 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2403 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2404 call methods, ...etc.
2406 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2408 * User visible changes:
2410 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2411 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2412 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2413 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2415 Filename completion now works.
2417 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2418 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2419 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2421 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2422 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2423 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2424 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2425 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2429 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2430 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2433 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2437 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2438 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2439 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2443 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2444 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2445 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2446 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2447 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2451 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2452 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2453 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2455 * New targets supported
2457 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2458 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2459 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2460 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2461 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2463 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2464 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2465 GO32 memory extender.
2467 * New remote protocols
2469 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2471 * New source languages supported
2473 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2474 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2475 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2478 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2480 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2482 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2483 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2484 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2485 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2486 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2487 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2489 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2491 * Faster and better demangling
2493 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2494 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2495 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2496 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2497 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2498 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2501 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2502 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2503 compiler does not actually implement.
2505 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2507 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2508 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2509 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2510 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2511 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2512 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2515 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2516 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2518 * Improved configure script
2520 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2521 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2522 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2523 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2525 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2526 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2527 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2528 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2529 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2530 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2532 * Documentation improvements
2534 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2535 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2536 before submitting changes.
2538 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2539 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2540 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2541 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2542 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2544 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2545 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2546 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2547 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2548 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2549 around this problem.
2553 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2554 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2555 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2558 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2559 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2561 * New native hosts supported
2563 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2564 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2566 * New targets supported
2568 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2570 * New file formats supported
2572 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2573 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2577 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2579 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2580 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2582 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2583 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2584 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2586 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2587 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2589 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2590 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2591 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2594 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2595 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2596 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2597 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2598 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2600 * Internal improvements
2602 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2603 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2605 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2606 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2607 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2608 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2609 shared code that handles any of them.
2611 * New command line options
2613 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2617 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2618 General Public License.
2620 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2622 * Host/native/target split
2624 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2625 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2626 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2627 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2628 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2630 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2631 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2632 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2633 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2634 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2635 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2636 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2638 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2639 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2640 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2642 * New hosts supported
2644 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2645 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2646 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2648 * New targets supported
2650 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2651 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2653 * New native hosts supported
2655 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2656 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2657 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2659 * New file formats supported
2661 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2662 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2663 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2667 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2668 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2669 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2671 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2673 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2674 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2675 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2676 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2680 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2681 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2682 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2684 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2688 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2689 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2692 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2693 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2695 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2696 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2697 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2698 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2699 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2700 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2702 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2703 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2704 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2705 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2709 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2710 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2711 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2712 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2713 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2715 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2716 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2717 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2718 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2722 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2723 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2724 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2725 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2726 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2727 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2728 each instruction being stepped through.
2730 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2731 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2733 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2734 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2735 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2736 processor with a serial port.
2740 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2741 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2742 supported, and what files each one uses.
2746 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2747 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2748 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2749 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2751 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2752 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2753 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2754 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2758 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2759 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2760 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2761 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2762 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2763 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2765 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2768 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2770 * Better support for C++ function names
2772 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2773 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2774 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2775 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2776 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2778 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2779 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2780 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2781 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2782 for the list of formats.
2784 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2786 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2787 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2788 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2789 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2790 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2791 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2794 * New 'maintenance' command
2796 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2797 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2798 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2800 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2801 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2802 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2803 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2804 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2805 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2807 The following commands are new:
2809 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2810 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2811 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2813 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2815 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2816 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2817 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2818 read after argv processing.
2820 * New hosts supported
2822 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2824 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2826 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2827 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2828 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2829 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2830 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2833 * New targets supported
2835 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2837 * More smarts about finding #include files
2839 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2840 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2841 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2842 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2843 the one that contains your sources.
2845 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2846 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2847 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2849 * Interesting infernals change
2851 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2852 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2853 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2854 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2856 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2858 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2859 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2860 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2862 See the ChangeLog for details.
2864 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2866 * New machines supported (host and target)
2868 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2870 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2872 * New malloc package
2874 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2875 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2876 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2877 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2878 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2879 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2883 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2884 'help info proc' for details.
2886 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2888 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2889 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2892 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2894 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2895 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2896 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2897 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2898 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2899 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2901 * Cross byte order fixes
2903 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2904 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2906 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2908 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2909 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2910 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2911 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2912 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2913 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2914 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2915 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2916 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2917 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2919 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2920 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2921 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2922 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2924 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2925 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2926 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2929 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2931 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2932 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2933 shared across multiple host platforms.
2935 * longjmp() handling
2937 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2938 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2939 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2940 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2944 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2945 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2950 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2951 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2952 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2954 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2956 * New machines supported (host and target)
2958 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2960 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2961 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2963 * New machines supported (target)
2965 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2969 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2970 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2971 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2973 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2974 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2975 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2976 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2977 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2980 * New features for SVR4
2982 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2983 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2984 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2986 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2987 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2988 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2990 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2991 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2993 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2995 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2996 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2997 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2998 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2999 same code linked statically.
3003 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3004 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3005 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3006 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3007 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3008 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3012 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3013 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3014 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3017 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3019 * New machines supported (host and target)
3021 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3022 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3023 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3025 * Almost SCO Unix support
3027 We had hoped to support:
3028 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3029 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3030 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3031 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3033 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3035 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3036 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3037 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3038 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3043 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3044 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3045 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3049 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3050 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3051 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3053 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3055 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3056 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3057 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3059 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3060 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3061 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3062 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3065 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3066 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3067 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3068 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3071 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3072 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3075 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3076 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3077 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3080 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3082 * Improved configuration
3084 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3085 Porting BFD is simpler.
3089 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3090 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3091 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3092 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3096 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3098 * New host supported (not target)
3100 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3103 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3105 * Multiple source language support
3107 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3108 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3109 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3110 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3111 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3112 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3116 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3117 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3118 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3119 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3121 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3122 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3123 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3125 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3126 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3130 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3131 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3132 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3133 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3136 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3138 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3139 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3140 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3141 examining core files.
3145 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3148 * New machines supported (host and target)
3150 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3151 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3152 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3154 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3156 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3158 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3160 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3161 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3162 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3164 * New remote interfaces
3170 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3174 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3176 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3177 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3178 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3179 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3180 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3181 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3182 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3183 stub on the target system.
3185 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3187 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3188 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3189 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3191 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3192 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3195 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3197 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3198 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3200 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3201 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3202 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3204 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3205 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3206 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3207 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3209 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3210 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3211 it is already running. Default is ON.
3213 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3214 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3215 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3216 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3219 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3220 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3221 or the value of the environment variable
3224 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3225 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3228 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3229 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3230 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3232 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3233 history expansion will be performed on
3234 command line input. The default is OFF.
3236 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3237 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3238 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3240 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3241 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3242 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3245 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3246 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3247 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3250 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3251 ``set width'' instead.
3253 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3254 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3255 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3256 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3258 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3261 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3264 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3267 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3270 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3272 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3273 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3274 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3278 * Support for Shared Libraries
3280 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3281 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3282 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3283 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3284 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3285 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3286 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3287 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3289 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3290 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3291 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3293 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3298 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3299 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3300 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3301 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3302 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3303 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3305 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3307 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3309 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3310 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3311 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3314 * C++ multiple inheritance
3316 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3319 * C++ exception handling
3321 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3322 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3323 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3326 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3327 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3328 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3330 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3331 current stack frame.
3334 * Minor command changes
3336 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3337 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3338 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3340 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3341 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3342 frames without printing.
3344 * New directory command
3346 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3347 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3348 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3349 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3350 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3352 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3354 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3357 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3358 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3359 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3360 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob