1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 9
8 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
10 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
11 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
12 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
13 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
14 such as in system-wide init files.
16 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
17 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
18 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
19 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
22 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
23 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
24 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
25 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
27 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
28 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
31 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
32 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
34 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
35 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
36 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
38 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
39 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
42 * Command names can now use the . character.
44 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
46 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
49 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
51 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
52 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
54 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
55 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
56 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
58 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
60 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
61 not visible in the current scope.
63 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
64 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
65 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
66 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
67 compiled with support for that language.
69 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
70 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
71 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
75 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
76 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
77 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
78 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
79 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
81 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
84 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
85 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
86 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
89 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
90 symbols with static linkage.
92 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
93 all static symbols with static linkage.
95 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
96 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
98 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
99 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
103 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
104 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
105 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
106 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
107 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
108 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
109 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
111 define-prefix COMMAND
112 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
114 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
115 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
116 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
117 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
118 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
119 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
120 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
121 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
122 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
123 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
124 of array elements to print.
126 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
127 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
129 set may-call-functions [on|off]
130 show may-call-functions
131 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
132 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
133 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
134 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
135 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
136 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
139 set print finish [on|off]
141 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
142 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
143 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
148 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
149 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
150 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
151 the old behavior back.
153 set print raw-values [on|off]
154 show print raw-values
155 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
156 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
157 of commands. The default is 'off'.
159 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
160 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
161 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
163 set style title foreground COLOR
164 set style title background COLOR
165 set style title intensity VALUE
166 Control the styling of titles.
168 set style highlight foreground COLOR
169 set style highlight background COLOR
170 set style highlight intensity VALUE
171 Control the styling of highlightings.
173 maint set worker-threads
174 maint show worker-threads
175 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
176 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
177 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
178 the names of linker symbols.
180 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
181 set style tui-border background COLOR
182 Control the styling of TUI borders.
184 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
185 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
186 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
188 maint set test-settings KIND
189 maint show test-settings KIND
190 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
193 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
194 maint show tui-resize-message
195 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
196 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
199 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
200 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
201 show print frame-info
202 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
203 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
204 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
205 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
207 set tui compact-source
208 show tui compact-source
210 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
211 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
212 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
213 line numbers from the source.
215 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
216 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
219 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
220 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
221 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
222 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
223 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
224 matches against the function name.
226 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
227 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
228 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
229 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
230 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
231 against the variable name.
233 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
234 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
235 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
237 The default is 512 bytes.
242 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
243 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
247 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
248 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
249 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
250 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
251 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
255 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
256 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
257 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
258 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
260 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
261 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
262 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
263 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
267 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
268 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
269 the user visualize the different styles.
271 set print frame-arguments
272 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
273 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
275 set print raw-frame-arguments
276 show print raw-frame-arguments
278 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
279 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
280 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
283 maint test-options require-delimiter
284 maint test-options unknown-is-error
285 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
286 maint show test-options-completion-result
287 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
290 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
291 These commands are now case-sensitive.
293 * New command options, command completion
295 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
296 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
297 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
298 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
299 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
300 number of commands got support for new command options in this
303 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
304 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
305 set by "set print" subcommands:
309 -array-indexes [on|off]
310 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
315 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
316 -static-members [on|off]
321 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
322 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
323 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
324 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
326 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
327 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
328 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
330 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
331 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
332 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
333 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
334 |location-and-address|short-location
338 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
339 exposed as command options too:
345 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
346 support the following options:
351 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
352 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
354 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
355 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
356 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
359 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
361 The above is equivalent to:
363 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
365 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
366 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
367 variables" and "info functions".
369 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
370 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
371 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
374 * Completion improvements
376 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
377 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
380 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
381 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
384 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
385 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
386 completes on filenames.
388 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
389 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
391 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
393 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
399 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
400 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
401 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
403 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
404 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
405 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
407 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
408 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
409 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
411 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
414 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
415 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
416 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
420 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
422 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
423 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
424 the following commands and events:
428 - =breakpoint-created
429 - =breakpoint-modified
431 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
432 this behavior with previous MI versions.
434 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
435 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
436 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
441 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
442 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
443 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
444 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
446 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
448 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
449 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
451 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
453 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
454 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
456 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
457 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
458 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
460 * Removed targets and native configurations
462 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
463 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
464 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
470 * Removed targets and native configurations
472 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
475 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
477 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
478 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
481 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
482 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
483 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
486 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
489 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
490 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
491 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
493 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
494 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
496 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
497 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
498 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
499 in the GDB user manual.
501 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
504 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
506 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
507 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
508 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
509 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
510 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
511 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
512 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
513 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
514 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
515 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
516 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
517 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
519 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
520 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
521 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
524 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
529 set debug compile-cplus-types
530 show debug compile-cplus-types
531 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
532 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiliong
537 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
540 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
541 Apply a command to some frames.
542 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
543 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
546 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
547 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
550 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
551 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
554 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
556 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
558 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
559 maint show dwarf unwinders
560 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
563 Display a list of open files for a process.
567 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
568 These commands all now take a frame specification which
569 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
570 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
571 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
572 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
573 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
575 target remote FILENAME
576 target extended-remote FILENAME
577 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
578 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
580 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
581 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
582 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
583 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
584 These commands can now print only the searched entities
585 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
586 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
587 printing headers or informations messages.
593 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
594 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
595 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
598 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
599 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
600 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
601 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
603 set tui tab-width NCHARS
604 show tui tab-width NCHARS
605 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
607 set style enabled [on|off]
609 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
610 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
612 set style sources [on|off]
614 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
615 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
616 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
618 set style filename foreground COLOR
619 set style filename background COLOR
620 set style filename intensity VALUE
621 Control the styling of file names.
623 set style function foreground COLOR
624 set style function background COLOR
625 set style function intensity VALUE
626 Control the styling of function names.
628 set style variable foreground COLOR
629 set style variable background COLOR
630 set style variable intensity VALUE
631 Control the styling of variable names.
633 set style address foreground COLOR
634 set style address background COLOR
635 set style address intensity VALUE
636 Control the styling of addresses.
640 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
641 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
642 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
643 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
644 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
646 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
647 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
649 * New native configurations
651 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
652 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
656 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
658 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
659 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
661 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
665 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
670 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
672 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
673 space associated to that inferior.
675 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
676 of objfiles associated to that program space.
678 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
679 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
682 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
683 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
684 correct and did not work properly.
686 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
687 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
693 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
694 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
695 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
696 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
697 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
699 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
701 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
704 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
705 offset to all sections.
707 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
708 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
709 address of individual sections using '-s'.
711 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
712 (address of the text section).
714 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
715 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
716 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
717 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
720 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
721 for the rest of the current command.
723 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
724 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
726 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
727 files created on FreeBSD systems.
729 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
732 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
733 the vector length while the process is running.
739 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
741 set|show varsize-limit
742 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
743 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
744 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
746 set|show record btrace cpu
747 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
750 maint check libthread-db
751 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
754 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
755 maint show check-libthread-db
756 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
757 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
762 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
764 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
765 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
767 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
769 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
770 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
771 of convenience variables.
773 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
774 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
775 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
779 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
781 * Removed targets and native configurations
783 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
784 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
785 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
786 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
788 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
790 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
791 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
792 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
793 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
794 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
795 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
800 --enable-codesign=CERT
801 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
802 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
803 gdb to work properly.
805 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
806 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
808 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
810 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
811 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
812 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
814 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
815 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
817 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
818 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
819 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
820 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
821 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
823 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
824 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
825 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
826 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
828 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
829 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
831 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
832 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
833 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
835 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
836 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
837 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
839 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
840 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
841 environment" command.
843 * Completion improvements
845 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
846 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
847 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
848 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
851 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
852 (gdb) b function(int)
854 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
855 C++ anonymous namespaces:
858 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
859 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
860 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
862 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
863 completion support, that better understands what you're
864 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
865 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
866 setting a breakpoint.
868 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
870 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
872 * New command line options (gcore)
875 Dump all memory mappings.
877 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
879 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
880 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
881 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
883 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
888 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
891 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
892 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
893 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
894 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
895 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
896 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
897 a breakpoint from Python.
899 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
901 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
902 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
903 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
905 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
907 function[abi:cxx11](int)
910 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
913 (gdb) b function(int)
915 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
917 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
919 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
923 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
924 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
925 description of these.
927 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
928 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
929 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
931 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
932 manual for a further description of this feature.
935 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
937 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
938 specified initial working directory.
940 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
941 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
943 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
944 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
946 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
947 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
949 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
950 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
951 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
952 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
953 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
955 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
956 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
957 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
959 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
960 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
961 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
962 in the *stopped notification.
964 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
965 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
969 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
970 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
971 the inferior when starting it.
974 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
975 before starting the remote inferior.
978 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
979 user-set environment variables should be unset).
982 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
985 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
988 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
989 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
991 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
992 filter the tests to be run.
994 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
995 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
1000 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
1002 set|show compile-gcc
1003 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
1004 with the 'compile' commands.
1006 set debug separate-debug-file
1007 show debug separate-debug-file
1008 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
1010 set dump-excluded-mappings
1011 show dump-excluded-mappings
1012 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
1013 dumped when generating a core file.
1015 maint info selftests
1016 List the registered selftests.
1019 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
1022 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
1024 set|show print type nested-type-limit
1025 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
1026 type printer will show.
1028 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
1031 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
1033 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
1036 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
1037 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
1038 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
1039 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
1041 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
1042 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
1043 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
1044 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1045 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
1046 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1048 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
1049 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
1050 unless you tell it the variable's type:
1053 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
1057 * New native configurations
1059 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1060 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1064 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1065 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1066 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
1068 * Removed targets and native configurations
1070 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
1072 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
1074 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
1075 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
1076 available in future Intel CPUs.
1078 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
1082 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
1083 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
1085 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
1088 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
1090 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
1092 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
1093 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
1096 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
1098 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
1099 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
1101 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
1103 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
1104 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
1105 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
1106 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
1109 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
1111 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
1112 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
1115 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
1117 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
1118 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
1120 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
1122 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
1127 eval "print $arg%d", $i
1132 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
1134 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
1135 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
1137 * New native configurations
1139 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1143 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1144 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1146 * Removed targets and native configurations
1148 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1149 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1154 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1156 maint print arc arc-instruction address
1157 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1161 set disassembler-options
1162 show disassembler-options
1163 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1164 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1165 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1166 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1167 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
1172 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
1173 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1175 -file-list-shared-libraries
1176 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
1177 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1180 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
1181 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
1183 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
1185 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
1187 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
1188 default. One must now explicitly configure with
1189 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
1190 option will be removed in a future release.
1192 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
1195 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
1196 memory backward from the given address. For example:
1199 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
1200 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
1201 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
1202 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
1203 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
1204 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
1205 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
1206 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
1207 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
1209 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
1210 arrays of dynamic types.
1212 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
1213 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1214 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1215 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1216 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1217 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
1219 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
1222 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
1223 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
1224 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
1226 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
1228 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
1229 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
1230 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
1231 signal received and code location.
1235 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
1236 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
1237 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
1238 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
1240 * Rust language support.
1241 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
1242 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
1245 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
1247 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
1248 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
1249 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
1250 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
1251 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
1252 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
1253 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
1254 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
1255 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
1256 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
1259 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
1261 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
1262 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
1267 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
1268 skip -function function
1269 skip -rfunction regular-expression
1270 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
1271 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
1272 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
1274 maint info line-table REGEXP
1275 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data struture.
1278 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
1281 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
1282 using the TTY file for input/output.
1286 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
1287 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
1288 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
1289 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
1290 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
1292 signal-event EVENTID
1293 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
1294 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
1295 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
1296 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
1297 signalling an event.
1299 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
1300 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
1301 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
1303 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
1306 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
1307 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
1308 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
1309 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
1310 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
1311 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
1313 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
1314 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
1315 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
1316 bytecode into native code.
1318 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
1319 recording. For example:
1321 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
1323 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
1325 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
1329 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
1331 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
1333 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
1335 * Per-inferior thread numbers
1337 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
1338 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
1339 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
1343 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
1344 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
1345 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
1346 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
1348 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
1349 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
1350 are no longer unique between inferiors.
1352 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
1353 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
1354 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
1356 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
1359 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
1360 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
1363 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
1366 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
1367 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
1368 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
1369 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
1372 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
1375 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
1378 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
1381 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
1382 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
1385 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
1386 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
1388 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
1390 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
1392 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
1393 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
1395 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
1396 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
1399 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1400 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
1403 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
1404 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
1407 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1409 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
1410 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
1411 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
1413 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
1414 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
1418 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
1419 maint show target-non-stop
1420 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
1421 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
1422 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
1424 maint set bfd-sharing
1425 maint show bfd-sharing
1426 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
1429 show debug bfd-cache
1430 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
1434 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
1436 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1437 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1438 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
1440 set remote thread-events
1441 show remote thread-events
1442 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
1444 set ada print-signatures on|off
1445 show ada print-signatures"
1446 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
1447 selection menus. It is activaled (@code{on}) by default.
1451 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
1452 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
1453 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
1455 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1456 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
1457 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
1458 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
1459 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
1460 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
1462 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1463 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
1465 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
1466 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
1468 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
1470 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
1471 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
1472 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
1473 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
1474 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
1475 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
1477 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
1478 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
1481 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
1483 * New remote packets
1486 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
1488 exec-events feature in qSupported
1489 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
1490 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
1491 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
1492 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
1495 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
1498 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
1499 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
1501 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
1502 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
1505 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
1506 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
1507 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
1508 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
1509 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
1510 stop for that same thread.
1513 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
1514 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
1515 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
1518 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
1519 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
1521 syscall_entry stop reason
1522 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
1524 syscall_return stop reason
1525 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
1527 * Extended-remote exec events
1529 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
1530 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1531 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1533 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1534 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1535 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1537 * Thread names in remote protocol
1539 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1542 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
1544 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1545 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1546 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1547 fork and exec catchpoints.
1549 * Remote syscall events
1551 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1552 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1554 set remote catch-syscall-packet
1555 show remote catch-syscall-packet
1556 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
1560 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
1561 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
1566 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
1567 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
1568 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
1569 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
1570 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
1571 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
1573 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
1575 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
1576 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
1577 including advance SIMD instructions.
1579 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
1581 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
1582 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
1583 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
1584 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
1585 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
1586 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
1587 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
1589 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1591 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
1593 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
1594 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
1597 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
1598 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
1599 and may include things like its command line arguments.
1601 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
1602 is now available on all platforms.
1604 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
1605 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
1606 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
1607 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
1608 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
1609 backward compatibility.
1611 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
1612 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
1613 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
1614 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
1616 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
1617 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
1618 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
1619 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
1622 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
1624 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
1626 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
1627 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
1628 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
1629 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
1630 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
1631 See "New remote packets" below.
1633 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
1634 available register groups, including target specific groups.
1636 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
1637 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
1638 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1639 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1644 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1648 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1649 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1650 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
1651 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
1652 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
1653 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
1654 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
1655 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
1656 "const" version of the value respectively.
1660 maint print symbol-cache
1661 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1663 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1664 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1666 maint flush-symbol-cache
1667 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1671 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1674 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1678 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1681 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
1682 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
1686 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
1689 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1691 maint btrace packet-history
1692 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1694 maint btrace clear-packet-history
1695 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1698 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1699 anew by the next "record" command.
1704 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1705 show debug dwarf-die
1706 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1708 set debug dwarf-read
1709 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1710 show debug dwarf-read
1711 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1713 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1714 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1715 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1716 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1718 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1719 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1720 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1721 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1723 set debug dwarf-line
1724 show debug dwarf-line
1725 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1728 show max-completions
1729 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1730 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1731 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1732 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1734 set history remove-duplicates
1735 show history remove-duplicates
1736 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1738 maint set symbol-cache-size
1739 maint show symbol-cache-size
1740 Control the size of the symbol cache.
1742 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
1743 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1745 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1746 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1748 set debug linux-namespaces
1749 show debug linux-namespaces
1750 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
1752 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
1753 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
1754 Intel Processor Trace format.
1755 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
1756 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
1758 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
1759 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
1762 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
1763 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
1765 * Python/Guile scripting
1767 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
1768 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
1770 * New remote packets
1772 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
1773 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
1775 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
1776 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
1779 Enable Intel Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
1780 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
1783 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
1784 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
1788 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
1789 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
1790 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
1794 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
1795 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
1798 Return information about files on the remote system.
1800 qXfer:exec-file:read
1801 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
1802 create a process running on the remote system.
1805 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
1806 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
1807 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
1808 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
1811 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
1814 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
1816 vforkdone stop reason
1817 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
1818 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
1820 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
1821 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
1822 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
1823 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
1824 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
1825 whether these features are enabled.
1827 * Extended-remote fork events
1829 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
1830 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
1831 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
1832 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
1834 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
1835 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
1836 the btrace record target.
1837 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
1839 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
1840 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
1842 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
1845 * Removed command line options
1847 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
1849 * Removed targets and native configurations
1851 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
1852 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1854 * New configure options
1857 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
1858 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
1860 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
1861 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
1862 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
1863 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
1865 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
1869 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
1871 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
1873 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
1877 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
1878 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
1879 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
1880 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
1881 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
1882 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
1883 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
1884 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
1885 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
1886 selecting a new file to debug.
1887 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
1888 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
1890 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
1893 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
1894 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
1895 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
1896 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
1898 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1900 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1901 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1902 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
1903 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
1905 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
1906 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
1907 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
1908 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
1909 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
1910 interface with this new feature are:
1912 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
1913 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
1917 demangle [-l language] [--] name
1918 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
1919 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
1920 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
1921 as "maint demangler-warning".
1923 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
1924 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
1926 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
1927 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
1930 maint print user-registers
1931 List all currently available "user" registers.
1933 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
1934 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
1935 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
1937 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
1938 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
1939 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
1942 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
1943 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
1944 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
1945 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
1948 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
1949 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
1950 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
1951 switched threads meanwhile.
1953 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
1955 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
1956 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
1957 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
1958 is now the default mode.
1962 set debug symbol-lookup
1963 show debug symbol-lookup
1964 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
1968 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
1969 inferiors that have exited.
1973 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
1977 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1979 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
1980 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
1981 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
1982 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
1983 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
1985 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
1986 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
1987 its alias "share", instead.
1989 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
1991 * New command line options
1994 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
1996 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
1997 as specified in ISO C99.
1999 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
2000 with or without disassembly.
2004 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
2005 available is determined at configure time.
2006 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
2007 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
2009 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2013 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
2017 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
2019 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
2020 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
2022 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
2023 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
2027 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
2028 show print symbol-loading
2029 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
2030 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
2031 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
2032 becomes less useful.
2034 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
2035 show guile print-stack
2036 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
2038 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
2039 show auto-load guile-scripts
2040 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
2042 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
2043 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
2044 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
2045 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
2046 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
2047 usage of this option.
2049 set auto-connect-native-target
2051 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
2052 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
2053 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
2055 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
2056 show record btrace replay-memory-access
2057 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
2059 maint set target-async (on|off)
2060 maint show target-async
2061 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
2062 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
2063 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
2064 occurring only in synchronous mode.
2066 set mi-async (on|off)
2068 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
2069 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
2071 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
2072 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
2074 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
2075 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
2076 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
2077 "set target-async on" command.
2079 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2081 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
2082 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
2083 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
2084 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
2085 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
2087 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
2088 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
2089 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
2091 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
2092 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
2093 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
2094 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
2095 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
2096 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
2097 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
2099 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
2100 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
2102 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
2103 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
2104 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
2106 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
2107 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
2108 memory or registers.
2110 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
2112 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
2113 remote. It now works with all targets.
2115 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
2116 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
2117 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
2118 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
2119 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
2120 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
2121 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
2122 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
2123 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
2126 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
2127 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
2128 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
2130 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
2132 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
2133 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
2134 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
2136 * New remote packets
2138 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
2139 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2140 branch trace incrementally.
2144 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2145 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2147 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2148 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2149 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2150 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2151 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2154 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2156 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2157 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2158 its alias "share", instead.
2160 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2161 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2166 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2167 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2168 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2169 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2170 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2171 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
2172 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
2173 commands and CLI execution commands.
2175 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
2177 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
2178 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
2179 recording has been added.
2181 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2183 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
2184 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
2186 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
2187 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
2188 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
2189 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
2190 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
2191 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
2194 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
2196 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
2198 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
2199 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
2200 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
2201 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
2206 (gdb) info registers rax
2209 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
2210 "*value not available*".
2212 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
2217 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
2218 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
2219 ** Line tables representation has been added.
2220 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
2221 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
2222 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
2226 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
2227 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
2228 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
2230 * Removed native configurations
2232 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
2233 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
2235 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2236 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2237 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
2238 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
2239 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2240 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2241 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2245 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
2246 maint check-psymtabs
2247 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
2249 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
2250 maint expand-symtabs
2251 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
2254 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2256 maint set|show per-command
2257 maint set|show per-command space
2258 maint set|show per-command time
2259 maint set|show per-command symtab
2260 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
2262 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
2263 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
2264 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
2265 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
2266 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
2269 info exceptions REGEXP
2270 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
2271 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
2276 set debug symfile off|on
2278 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
2279 symbol tables within those files
2281 set print raw frame-arguments
2282 show print raw frame-arguments
2283 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
2284 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
2286 set remote trace-status-packet
2287 show remote trace-status-packet
2288 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
2292 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
2296 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
2298 set startup-with-shell
2299 show startup-with-shell
2300 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
2305 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
2306 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
2308 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
2309 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
2310 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
2311 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
2314 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
2315 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
2316 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
2318 * New command-line options
2320 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2322 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
2323 buffer in Common Trace Format.
2325 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
2328 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
2330 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
2331 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
2333 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
2334 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
2336 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
2337 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
2338 due to an uncaught signal.
2342 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
2343 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
2344 command, which should contain "language-option".
2346 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
2347 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
2349 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
2350 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
2351 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
2352 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2353 "undefined-command-error-code".
2355 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
2358 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
2360 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
2361 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
2364 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
2365 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
2367 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
2368 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
2369 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
2371 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
2372 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
2373 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
2374 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
2375 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2376 "exec-run-start-option".
2378 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
2379 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
2381 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
2382 the new "info exceptions" command.
2384 * New system-wide configuration scripts
2385 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
2386 configuration scripts for the following systems:
2390 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
2391 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
2392 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
2395 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
2396 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
2398 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
2399 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
2400 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
2402 * New remote packets
2406 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
2407 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
2408 involvemement at each single-step.
2410 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
2411 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
2412 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
2413 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
2414 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
2415 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
2418 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2420 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
2421 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
2423 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
2424 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
2425 trace state variables.
2427 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
2430 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
2431 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
2433 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
2435 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
2436 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
2437 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
2438 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2440 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
2442 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
2443 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
2444 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
2445 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
2447 set|show record full insn-number-max
2448 set|show record full stop-at-limit
2449 set|show record full memory-query
2451 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
2452 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
2453 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
2454 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
2455 This new recording method can be enabled using:
2459 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
2460 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
2462 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
2463 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
2464 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
2466 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
2467 instruction granularity
2469 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
2470 function granularity
2472 * New native configurations
2474 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
2475 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
2476 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2477 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
2481 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
2482 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
2483 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
2484 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2485 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
2487 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
2488 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
2489 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
2490 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
2491 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
2492 --data-directory command-line option.
2494 * New command line options:
2496 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
2497 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
2499 * Removed command line options
2501 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
2504 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
2507 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
2511 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
2513 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
2515 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
2517 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
2519 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
2520 of architecture in the Python API.
2522 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
2523 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
2525 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2527 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
2528 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
2530 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2532 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2535 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2536 default for GCC since November 2000.
2538 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2540 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2541 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2543 * New configure options
2545 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2546 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2547 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2548 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2549 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2550 options allow the user to override that default.
2551 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2552 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2553 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2555 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2558 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
2559 conditions to be attached.
2562 List the BFDs known to GDB.
2564 python-interactive [command]
2566 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
2567 and print the result of expressions.
2570 "py" is a new alias for "python".
2572 enable type-printer [name]...
2573 disable type-printer [name]...
2574 Enable or disable type printers.
2578 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
2579 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
2584 set print type methods (on|off)
2585 show print type methods
2586 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
2587 The default is to show them.
2589 set print type typedefs (on|off)
2590 show print type typedefs
2591 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
2592 The default is to show them.
2594 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
2595 show filename-display
2596 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
2597 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
2599 set trace-buffer-size
2600 show trace-buffer-size
2601 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
2603 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
2604 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
2605 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
2609 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
2612 set debug coff-pe-read
2613 show debug coff-pe-read
2614 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
2619 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
2622 set debug notification
2623 show debug notification
2624 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
2628 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
2629 "=cmd-param-changed".
2630 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
2631 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
2632 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
2633 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
2634 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
2635 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
2636 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
2637 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
2639 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
2640 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
2641 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2642 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
2643 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2644 library load/unload events.
2645 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2646 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2647 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
2648 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2649 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2650 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
2651 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2652 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
2654 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
2655 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
2656 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
2657 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
2659 * New remote packets
2662 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2663 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2666 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2667 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2671 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2672 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2675 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2676 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2678 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
2680 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2681 for more x32 ABI info.
2683 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2685 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2687 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2688 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2689 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2690 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2691 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2692 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2693 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2694 "info os msg" lists message queues
2695 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2697 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2698 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2699 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2700 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2701 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2702 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2704 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2705 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2706 record/replay support.
2708 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2712 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2715 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2717 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2718 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2720 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2722 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2723 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2725 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2726 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2727 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2730 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2731 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2733 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2734 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2735 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2737 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
2738 object associated with a PC value.
2740 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
2741 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
2743 * Go language support.
2744 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
2747 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
2748 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
2750 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
2751 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
2753 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
2754 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
2755 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
2756 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
2757 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
2760 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
2761 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
2762 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
2763 build/libcpp/expr.c.
2765 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
2766 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
2768 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
2769 since December 2007.
2771 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
2772 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
2773 command does. For instance:
2775 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
2777 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
2778 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
2779 created, using the "condition" command.
2781 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
2782 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
2784 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
2786 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
2787 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
2788 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
2789 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
2790 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
2791 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
2792 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
2793 files with older .gdb_index sections.
2795 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
2796 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
2797 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
2798 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
2799 the .gdb_index section.
2801 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
2803 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
2808 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
2810 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
2814 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2815 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
2816 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
2818 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
2819 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
2821 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
2824 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
2825 C++ and Java objects.
2827 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
2828 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
2829 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
2830 configured with '--with-python'.
2832 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
2833 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
2834 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
2835 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
2836 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
2837 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
2838 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
2840 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
2841 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
2842 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
2843 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
2845 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
2846 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
2847 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
2848 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
2850 ** "set print symbol"
2852 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
2853 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
2854 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
2856 * Deprecated commands
2858 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
2859 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
2863 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
2864 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
2866 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
2867 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
2868 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
2869 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
2874 set mips compression
2875 show mips compression
2876 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
2877 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
2880 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
2882 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
2883 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
2884 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
2885 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
2887 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
2891 Disable auto-loading globally.
2894 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
2896 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
2897 show auto-load gdb-scripts
2898 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
2900 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
2901 show auto-load python-scripts
2902 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
2904 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
2905 show auto-load local-gdbinit
2906 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
2908 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
2909 show auto-load libthread-db
2910 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
2912 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2913 show auto-load scripts-directory
2914 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
2915 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
2916 of the directories listed by this option.
2917 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2919 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
2920 show auto-load safe-path
2921 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
2922 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
2924 set debug auto-load on|off
2925 show debug auto-load
2926 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
2928 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
2930 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
2931 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
2932 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
2933 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
2935 set dprintf-function <expr>
2936 show dprintf-function
2937 set dprintf-channel <expr>
2938 show dprintf-channel
2939 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
2940 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
2942 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
2943 show disconnected-dprintf
2944 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
2945 after GDB disconnects.
2947 * New configure options
2949 --with-auto-load-dir
2950 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
2951 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
2952 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
2953 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
2954 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
2956 --with-auto-load-safe-path
2957 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
2958 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
2960 --without-auto-load-safe-path
2961 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
2964 * New remote packets
2966 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
2968 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
2969 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
2970 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
2971 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
2975 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
2976 program without GDB involvement.
2978 * New command line options
2980 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
2981 before loading inferior.
2982 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
2983 execute it before loading inferior.
2985 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
2987 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
2988 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
2989 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
2990 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
2993 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
2994 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
2996 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
2997 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
2998 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
2999 target hardware watchpoint.
3001 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
3002 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
3003 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
3004 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
3008 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
3009 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
3012 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
3013 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
3014 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
3015 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
3016 now "message", which just prints the error message without
3019 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3022 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
3023 modules library. This module provides functionality for
3024 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
3025 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
3026 corresponding value.
3028 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
3029 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
3030 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
3033 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
3034 static_block will return the global and static blocks
3035 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
3036 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
3038 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
3040 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
3043 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
3044 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
3045 available in the CLI.
3047 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
3048 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
3049 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
3050 "some_type.items()".
3052 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
3055 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
3056 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
3057 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
3058 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
3059 any anonymous fields.
3063 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
3066 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
3067 "=breakpoint-modified".
3069 ** New command -ada-task-info.
3071 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
3072 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
3073 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
3076 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
3077 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
3078 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
3079 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
3080 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
3082 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
3083 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
3085 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
3086 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
3087 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
3088 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
3089 use this option to specify where to find it.
3091 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3092 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
3093 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
3094 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
3095 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
3096 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3097 section in the user manual for more details.
3099 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
3100 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
3101 become available after that.
3103 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
3105 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
3106 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
3112 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
3113 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
3117 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
3118 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
3119 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
3121 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
3122 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
3123 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
3125 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
3126 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
3127 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
3128 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
3129 name starts with a hyphen.
3131 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
3132 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
3133 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
3134 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
3135 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
3136 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
3137 number of bytes that will be collected.
3140 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3141 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3142 setting the variable trace-notes.
3145 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3146 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3147 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3150 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3151 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3152 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3153 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3154 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3157 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3158 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3159 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3163 set debug dwarf2-read
3164 show debug dwarf2-read
3165 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3166 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3168 set debug symtab-create
3169 show debug symtab-create
3170 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3171 creation. The default is off.
3174 show extended-prompt
3175 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
3176 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
3177 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
3178 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
3179 prompt is displayed.
3181 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
3182 show print entry-values
3183 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
3184 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
3185 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
3187 set debug entry-values
3188 show debug entry-values
3189 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
3190 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
3192 set basenames-may-differ
3193 show basenames-may-differ
3194 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
3195 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
3196 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
3197 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
3198 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
3199 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
3200 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
3201 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
3207 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
3208 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
3209 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
3210 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
3212 set trace-stop-notes
3213 show trace-stop-notes
3214 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
3215 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
3216 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
3217 started by someone else.
3219 * New remote packets
3223 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3227 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3231 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
3235 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
3239 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
3242 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
3243 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
3247 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
3251 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3253 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
3255 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
3257 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
3259 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
3260 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
3261 matches the given regular expression.
3263 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
3265 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
3266 dumping the instruction opcodes.
3268 * New command line options
3270 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
3271 This is mostly for testing purposes.
3273 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
3274 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
3276 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
3277 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
3278 source path list instead of augmenting it.
3280 * GDB now understands thread names.
3282 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
3283 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
3285 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
3286 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
3289 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
3290 has been integrated into GDB.
3294 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
3295 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
3296 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
3298 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3299 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
3300 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
3301 and allows for more dynamic content.
3303 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
3304 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
3305 have an is_valid method.
3307 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3308 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
3309 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
3311 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
3313 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
3314 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
3315 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
3316 that function like so:
3318 result = some_value (10,20)
3320 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
3321 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
3322 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
3324 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
3325 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
3326 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
3327 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
3328 New function: register_pretty_printer.
3330 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
3331 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
3333 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
3335 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
3338 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
3339 holds the thread's name.
3341 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
3342 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
3343 occurring in the process being debugged.
3344 The following events are currently supported:
3345 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
3346 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
3347 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
3351 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
3352 instantiation. For example, if you have:
3354 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
3356 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
3357 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
3358 was added to GCC 4.5.
3360 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
3361 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
3362 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
3363 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
3364 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
3365 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
3367 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
3368 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
3369 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
3370 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
3371 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
3373 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
3374 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
3375 execution to a label.
3377 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
3378 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
3379 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
3380 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
3382 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
3383 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
3384 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
3387 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
3389 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
3390 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
3391 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
3392 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
3393 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
3394 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
3397 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
3399 While now you see this:
3402 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
3404 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
3407 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
3408 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
3409 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
3410 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
3412 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3413 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
3414 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
3415 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3416 section in the user manual for more details.
3418 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3420 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
3421 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
3423 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
3425 * New native configurations
3427 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3431 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
3433 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
3434 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
3435 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
3436 in the GDB user manual.
3438 * Guile support was removed.
3440 * New features in the GNU simulator
3442 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
3444 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
3446 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
3448 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
3450 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
3451 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
3452 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
3453 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
3454 was always disabled for such configurations.
3458 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
3460 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
3461 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
3471 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
3472 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
3473 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
3475 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
3477 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
3478 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
3479 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
3480 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
3482 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
3483 mentioned flavors of operators.
3485 ** static const class members
3487 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
3488 class definition has been fixed.
3490 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
3492 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
3493 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
3494 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
3495 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
3496 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
3497 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
3499 * Static tracepoints
3501 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
3502 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
3503 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
3504 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
3505 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
3506 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
3507 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
3508 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
3509 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
3510 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
3511 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
3512 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
3513 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
3514 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
3515 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
3516 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
3517 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
3518 the "New remote packets" section below.
3520 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
3522 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
3523 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
3524 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
3525 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
3529 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
3530 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3531 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3532 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3533 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3534 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3535 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3537 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3540 * New remote packets
3544 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3548 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3549 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3550 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3551 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3552 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3553 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3557 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
3561 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
3564 qXfer:statictrace:read
3566 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
3567 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
3568 to gdb's qSupported query.
3572 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
3576 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
3577 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
3579 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
3580 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
3583 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3585 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
3586 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
3587 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
3588 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
3590 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
3591 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
3592 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
3593 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
3594 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
3595 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
3596 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
3598 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
3599 for static tracepoints support.
3601 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
3603 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
3604 it understands register description.
3606 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
3608 * X86 general purpose registers
3610 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
3611 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
3612 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
3613 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
3614 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
3616 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
3617 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
3618 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
3619 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
3620 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
3621 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
3623 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
3624 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
3625 in the specified file.
3627 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
3628 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
3629 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
3630 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
3631 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
3632 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
3633 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
3634 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
3635 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
3636 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
3640 eval template, expressions...
3641 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3642 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3644 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3645 show target-file-system-kind
3646 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3649 save breakpoints <filename>
3650 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3651 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3652 definitions, use the `source' command.
3654 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
3657 info static-tracepoint-markers
3658 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
3660 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3661 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3662 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3666 Enable and disable observer mode.
3668 set may-write-registers on|off
3669 set may-write-memory on|off
3670 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3671 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3672 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3673 set may-interrupt on|off
3674 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3675 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3676 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3677 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3678 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3679 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3680 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3682 set record memory-query on|off
3683 show record memory-query
3684 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3685 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3690 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3694 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3695 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3696 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3697 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3698 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3700 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3701 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3702 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3703 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3705 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3706 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3708 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3710 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3712 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3714 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3715 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3716 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3718 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3719 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3720 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3721 regular breakpoints.
3725 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3727 * D language support.
3728 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3731 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3732 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3733 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3734 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3735 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3737 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
3738 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
3739 conditions of the form:
3741 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
3743 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
3744 interface mentioned above.
3746 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
3750 ** Namespace Support
3752 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
3753 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
3754 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
3755 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
3756 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
3760 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
3761 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
3766 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
3767 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
3771 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
3776 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
3779 * Multi-program debugging.
3781 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
3782 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
3783 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
3784 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
3785 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
3786 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
3787 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
3788 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
3790 * New tracing features
3792 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
3794 ** Trace state variables
3796 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
3797 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
3798 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
3799 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
3800 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
3801 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
3802 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
3803 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
3804 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
3805 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
3809 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
3810 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
3811 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
3812 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
3813 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
3814 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
3815 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
3816 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
3817 the regular trace command.
3819 ** Disconnected tracing
3821 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
3822 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
3823 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
3824 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
3825 connection is lost unexpectedly.
3829 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
3830 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
3831 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
3832 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
3833 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
3834 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
3837 ** Circular trace buffer
3839 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
3840 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
3841 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
3842 not be available for all target agents.
3847 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
3848 the arguments to be comma-separated.
3851 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
3852 which only declare a variable are not shown.
3855 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
3856 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
3859 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
3860 "set script-extension" (see below).
3862 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
3864 record save [<FILENAME>]
3865 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
3866 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
3868 record restore <FILENAME>
3869 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
3870 earlier time, for replay debugging.
3872 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
3875 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
3876 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
3877 inferior has loaded.
3882 maint info program-spaces
3883 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
3885 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
3886 show remote interrupt-sequence
3887 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
3888 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
3889 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
3890 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
3891 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
3893 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
3894 show remote interrupt-on-connect
3895 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
3896 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
3899 set remotebreak [on | off]
3901 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
3903 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
3904 Create or modify a trace state variable.
3907 List trace state variables and their values.
3909 delete tvariable $NAME ...
3910 Delete one or more trace state variables.
3913 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
3914 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
3916 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
3917 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
3919 * New expression syntax
3921 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
3922 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
3926 set follow-exec-mode new|same
3927 show follow-exec-mode
3928 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
3929 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
3930 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
3932 set default-collect EXPR, ...
3933 show default-collect
3934 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
3935 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
3936 such as registers or a critical global variable.
3938 set disconnected-tracing
3939 show disconnected-tracing
3940 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
3941 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
3944 set circular-trace-buffer
3945 show circular-trace-buffer
3946 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
3947 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
3948 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
3949 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
3951 set script-extension off|soft|strict
3952 show script-extension
3953 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
3954 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
3955 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
3956 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
3958 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
3960 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
3961 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
3962 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
3963 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
3964 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
3965 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
3966 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
3969 * Python API Improvements
3971 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
3972 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
3973 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
3975 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
3976 `is_base_class' attribute.
3978 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
3980 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
3981 evaluate an expression.
3983 * New remote packets
3986 Define a trace state variable.
3989 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
3992 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
3995 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
3998 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
4002 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
4004 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
4005 much more reliable. In particular:
4006 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
4007 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
4008 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
4009 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
4010 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
4011 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
4012 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
4013 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
4014 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
4015 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
4016 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
4017 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
4018 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
4019 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
4020 non-threaded programs.
4022 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
4023 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
4024 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
4027 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
4029 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
4030 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
4031 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
4032 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
4033 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
4035 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
4036 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
4037 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
4038 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
4039 for tracepoint actions.
4041 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
4042 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
4043 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
4045 * Process record and replay
4047 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
4048 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
4049 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
4052 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
4053 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
4054 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
4057 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
4058 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4061 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
4062 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
4063 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
4064 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
4065 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
4066 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
4067 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
4068 the installation instructions for more information.
4070 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
4071 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
4072 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
4073 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
4075 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
4076 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
4078 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
4079 now complete on file names.
4081 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
4082 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
4083 For instance, consider:
4085 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
4086 # struct example variable;
4089 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
4090 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
4092 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
4093 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
4095 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
4096 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
4099 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
4100 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
4101 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
4103 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
4104 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
4105 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
4106 and simulator targets may also provide them.
4108 * New remote packets
4111 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4114 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
4115 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
4116 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
4119 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
4120 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
4123 Obtains additional operating system information
4127 Read or write additional signal information.
4129 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
4131 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
4132 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
4133 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
4135 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
4136 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
4138 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
4139 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4140 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
4142 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4143 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4145 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4147 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4149 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4150 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4152 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
4153 list of section offsets.
4155 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4156 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4157 have also been fixed.
4159 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4160 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4161 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4163 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4166 template<typename T> class C { };
4169 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4171 ptype C<char const *>
4172 ptype C<char const*>
4173 ptype C<const char *>
4174 ptype C<const char*>
4176 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
4178 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
4179 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4181 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
4182 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4183 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
4185 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
4186 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
4188 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
4191 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
4192 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4194 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
4195 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
4200 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
4201 available is determined at configure time.
4203 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
4205 * Ada tasking support
4207 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
4211 Print the list of Ada tasks.
4213 Print detailed information about task number N.
4215 Print the task number of the current task.
4217 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
4219 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
4220 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
4222 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
4224 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
4225 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
4226 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
4227 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
4228 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
4229 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
4232 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
4233 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
4236 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
4237 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
4238 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
4239 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
4242 * Multi-architecture debugging.
4244 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
4245 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
4246 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
4247 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
4248 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
4250 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
4251 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
4252 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
4253 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
4254 --enable-targets configure option.
4256 * Non-stop mode debugging.
4258 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
4259 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
4260 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
4261 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
4262 section in the user manual for more information.
4264 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
4265 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
4266 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
4267 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
4268 extensions on linux targets.
4270 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4272 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
4273 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
4274 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
4275 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
4276 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
4277 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
4278 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
4279 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
4280 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
4282 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
4284 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4286 maint set python print-stack
4287 maint show python print-stack
4288 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
4291 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
4296 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
4300 Show operating system information about processes.
4303 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
4306 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
4309 Detach from inferior number NUM.
4312 Kill inferior number NUM.
4316 set spu stop-on-load
4317 show spu stop-on-load
4318 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4320 set spu auto-flush-cache
4321 show spu auto-flush-cache
4322 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
4323 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4325 set sh calling-convention
4326 show sh calling-convention
4327 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
4330 show debug timestamp
4331 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
4333 set disassemble-next-line
4334 show disassemble-next-line
4335 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
4338 set remote noack-packet
4339 show remote noack-packet
4340 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
4341 under "New remote packets."
4343 set remote query-attached-packet
4344 show remote query-attached-packet
4345 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
4347 set remote read-siginfo-object
4348 show remote read-siginfo-object
4349 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
4352 set remote write-siginfo-object
4353 show remote write-siginfo-object
4354 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
4357 set remote reverse-continue
4358 show remote reverse-continue
4359 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
4361 set remote reverse-step
4362 show remote reverse-step
4363 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
4365 set displaced-stepping
4366 show displaced-stepping
4367 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
4368 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
4369 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
4372 show debug displaced
4373 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
4375 maint set internal-error
4376 maint show internal-error
4377 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
4379 maint set internal-warning
4380 maint show internal-warning
4381 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
4386 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4388 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
4389 show multiple-symbols
4390 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
4391 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
4392 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
4394 set breakpoint always-inserted
4395 show breakpoint always-inserted
4396 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
4397 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
4398 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
4400 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4401 show arm fallback-mode
4402 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4404 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
4405 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
4406 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
4407 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
4409 set disable-randomization
4410 show disable-randomization
4411 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
4412 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
4413 multiple debugging sessions.
4417 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
4422 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
4423 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
4424 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
4425 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
4427 set target-wide-charset
4428 show target-wide-charset
4429 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
4430 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
4432 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
4434 set tcp connect-timeout
4435 show tcp connect-timeout
4436 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
4437 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
4438 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
4440 set libthread-db-search-path
4441 show libthread-db-search-path
4442 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
4445 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
4446 show schedule-multiple
4447 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
4448 the current process.
4452 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
4453 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
4454 affecting correctness.
4456 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
4457 show interactive-mode
4458 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
4459 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
4460 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
4461 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
4462 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
4467 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
4468 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
4469 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
4473 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
4474 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
4475 alias for the `fork' command.
4478 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
4479 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
4480 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
4483 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
4484 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
4485 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
4489 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
4490 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
4491 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
4494 * New native configurations
4496 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
4498 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
4502 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
4503 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4504 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
4507 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
4508 (mingw32ce) debugging.
4514 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
4516 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
4518 * New native configurations
4520 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
4521 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4525 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
4526 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
4528 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4530 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4531 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4532 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4533 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4535 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4536 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4538 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4541 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4542 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4543 and in inlined functions.
4545 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4546 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4547 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4549 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4551 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4552 registers on PowerPC targets.
4554 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4555 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4557 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
4558 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
4560 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
4561 extended-remote mode.
4563 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
4564 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
4565 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
4566 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
4568 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
4569 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
4570 target architectures.
4572 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
4573 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
4574 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
4575 stored in two consecutive float registers.
4577 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
4580 * Improved support for debugging Ada
4581 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
4583 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
4584 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
4585 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
4586 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
4588 - Improved command completion in Ada
4591 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
4596 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
4597 show print frame-arguments
4598 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
4599 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
4604 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4611 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4613 * New remote packets
4620 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
4623 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
4627 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
4629 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
4631 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
4632 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
4633 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
4635 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
4636 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
4637 -Bsymbolic linker option.
4639 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4640 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4643 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4644 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4646 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
4647 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
4649 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4651 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4652 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
4653 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
4655 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
4656 automatically displayed as character or string data.
4658 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
4659 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
4662 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4663 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
4664 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
4666 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4669 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4670 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4671 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4673 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4675 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4677 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4678 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4679 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4681 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4682 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4684 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4685 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4686 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4687 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4688 Windows and SymbianOS).
4690 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4691 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
4693 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4694 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
4700 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4701 when debugging using remote targets.
4703 set mem inaccessible-by-default
4704 show mem inaccessible-by-default
4705 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4706 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4707 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4708 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4709 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4711 set breakpoint auto-hw
4712 show breakpoint auto-hw
4713 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4714 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4715 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4716 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4717 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4718 including "next" and "finish".
4721 catch exception unhandled
4722 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4725 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4729 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4730 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4731 an alias to "set sysroot".
4734 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4735 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4738 * New native configurations
4740 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
4743 unset tdesc filename
4745 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
4746 not query the target for its built-in description.
4750 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
4751 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
4752 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
4754 * New remote packets
4757 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
4758 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
4760 qXfer:features:read:
4761 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
4766 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
4767 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
4769 qXfer:libraries:read:
4770 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
4771 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
4772 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
4773 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
4777 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
4785 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
4786 i[34567]86-*-netware*
4787 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
4788 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
4790 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
4793 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
4794 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
4803 * Other removed features
4810 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
4817 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
4822 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
4823 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
4828 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
4829 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
4831 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
4833 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
4834 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
4835 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
4836 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
4838 MIPS ".pdr" sections
4840 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
4841 in debugging information.
4845 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
4846 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
4848 set mips stack-arg-size
4849 set mips saved-gpreg-size
4851 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
4853 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
4858 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
4860 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
4861 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
4862 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
4864 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
4865 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
4868 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
4869 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
4871 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
4872 stub provides the required support.
4874 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
4875 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
4880 unset substitute-path
4881 show substitute-path
4882 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
4883 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
4884 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
4885 between compilation and debugging.
4889 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
4890 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
4891 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
4895 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
4897 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
4898 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
4900 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
4902 * New remote packets
4905 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
4906 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
4907 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
4908 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
4912 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
4913 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
4915 qXfer:memory-map:read:
4916 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
4917 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
4922 Erase and program a flash memory device.
4924 * Removed remote packets
4927 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
4928 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
4930 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
4934 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
4936 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
4940 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
4941 only if it doesn't already have a value.
4943 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
4945 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
4947 restart <n> Return the program state to a
4948 previously saved state.
4950 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
4952 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
4954 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
4955 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
4957 info forks List forks of the user program that
4958 are available to be debugged.
4960 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
4961 forks of the user program that are
4962 available to be debugged.
4964 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4965 that are available to be debugged (and
4966 kill the forked process).
4968 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
4969 that are available to be debugged (and
4970 allow the process to continue).
4974 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
4976 * Improved Windows host support
4978 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
4979 native console support, and remote communications using either
4980 network sockets or serial ports.
4982 * Improved Modula-2 language support
4984 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
4985 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
4986 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
4987 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
4988 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
4989 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
4993 The ARM rdi-share module.
4995 The Netware NLM debug server.
4997 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
4999 * New native configurations
5001 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
5002 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
5006 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5008 * New command line options
5010 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
5011 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
5012 the child (debugged) program exited with.
5013 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
5014 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
5015 specified multiple times and in conjunction
5016 with the --command (-x) option.
5018 * Deprecated commands removed
5020 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
5024 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
5025 othernames set arm disassembler
5026 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
5027 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
5028 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
5031 * New BSD user-level threads support
5033 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
5034 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
5037 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5038 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
5039 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
5041 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
5042 are not yet supported.
5044 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
5045 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
5047 * REMOVED configurations and files
5049 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
5050 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5051 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
5053 * New "set print array-indexes" command
5055 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
5056 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
5059 * VAX floating point support
5061 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
5063 * User-defined command support
5065 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
5066 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
5067 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
5069 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
5071 * New command line option
5073 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
5076 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
5078 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
5079 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
5080 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
5081 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
5082 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
5084 * Internationalization
5086 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
5087 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
5088 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
5092 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
5093 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
5094 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
5096 * New native configurations
5098 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
5102 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
5103 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
5105 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
5107 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5108 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
5109 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
5112 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
5113 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
5114 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
5124 powerpc bdm protocol
5126 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5127 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
5129 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5131 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5132 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5133 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5134 permanently REMOVED.
5143 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5145 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5147 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5148 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5151 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5153 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5154 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5155 IRIX long double values).
5159 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5160 command. This problem has been fixed.
5162 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5164 * Fix for ``many threads''
5166 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
5167 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
5170 ptrace: No such process.
5171 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
5173 This problem has been fixed.
5175 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
5177 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
5180 * New ``start'' command.
5182 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
5184 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
5186 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
5187 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
5188 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
5190 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5191 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
5192 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
5193 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
5194 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
5195 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5196 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
5197 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
5198 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5200 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
5202 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
5203 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
5204 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
5205 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
5206 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
5208 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
5209 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
5210 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
5212 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
5214 * New native configurations
5216 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
5217 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
5218 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
5219 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
5220 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
5221 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
5222 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
5224 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
5226 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5227 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
5228 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
5229 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
5230 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
5231 work, was also included.
5233 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
5234 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
5244 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5245 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
5247 * REMOVED configurations and files
5249 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5250 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5251 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5252 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5253 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5254 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5255 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5256 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5257 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5258 sonymips mips-sony-*
5259 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5261 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
5263 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
5265 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
5266 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
5267 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
5268 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
5271 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
5273 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
5274 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
5275 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
5276 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
5277 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
5278 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
5281 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
5283 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
5285 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
5286 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
5287 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
5289 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
5291 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
5292 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
5294 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
5296 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
5297 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
5298 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
5300 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
5302 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
5303 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
5305 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
5307 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
5308 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
5309 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
5311 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
5313 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
5314 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
5315 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
5317 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
5319 * Removed --with-mmalloc
5321 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
5322 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
5324 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
5326 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
5327 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
5328 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
5329 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
5331 * Revised SPARC target
5333 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
5334 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
5335 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
5336 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
5337 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
5341 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
5342 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
5343 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
5346 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5348 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
5349 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
5352 * C++ nested types and namespaces
5354 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
5355 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
5356 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
5357 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
5358 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
5359 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
5360 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
5361 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
5362 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
5364 * New native configurations
5366 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
5367 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5368 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
5369 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5370 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
5372 * New debugging protocols
5374 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
5376 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
5378 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
5379 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
5380 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
5382 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5384 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5385 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5386 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5387 permanently REMOVED.
5389 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5390 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5391 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5392 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5393 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5394 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5395 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5396 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5397 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5398 sonymips mips-sony-*
5399 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5401 * REMOVED configurations and files
5403 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5404 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5405 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5406 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5407 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5408 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5409 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5410 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5411 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5412 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
5413 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5414 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5415 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5416 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
5417 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
5418 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5419 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5421 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
5425 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
5426 integrated into GDB.
5428 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
5430 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
5431 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
5432 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
5435 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
5436 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
5437 DWARF 2 CFI support.
5441 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
5442 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
5443 remote protocol documentation for details.
5445 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
5447 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
5448 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
5449 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
5452 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
5454 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
5455 per-thread variables.
5457 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
5459 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
5460 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
5462 * Separate debug info.
5464 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
5465 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
5466 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
5467 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
5468 and optional debug files.
5470 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5472 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
5473 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
5476 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
5477 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
5481 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
5482 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
5483 considered "useable".
5485 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
5487 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
5488 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
5491 * GDB supports logging output to a file
5493 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
5494 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
5496 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
5498 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
5499 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
5502 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5504 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
5505 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
5509 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
5510 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
5511 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
5512 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
5513 data, for more informative profiling results.
5515 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
5517 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
5518 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
5519 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
5521 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
5524 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
5525 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
5526 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
5527 in a subsequent -var-update.
5529 * New native configurations.
5531 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5533 * Multi-arched targets.
5535 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5536 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5538 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5540 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5541 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5542 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5543 permanently REMOVED.
5545 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5546 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5547 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5548 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5549 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5550 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5551 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5552 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5553 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5554 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5555 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5556 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5558 * REMOVED configurations and files
5561 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5562 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5563 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5564 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5565 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5566 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5568 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5569 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5570 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5571 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5572 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5573 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5575 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
5577 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
5578 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
5579 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
5580 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
5581 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
5583 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
5585 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
5587 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
5588 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
5589 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
5590 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
5591 shared libs like mad''.
5593 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
5595 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
5596 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
5597 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
5598 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
5600 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
5602 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
5603 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
5606 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
5607 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
5609 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
5610 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
5612 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
5613 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
5614 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
5615 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
5617 * Multi-arched targets.
5619 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
5620 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
5622 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
5623 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
5624 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5628 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
5631 * New native configurations
5633 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
5634 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
5635 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
5636 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
5638 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5640 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5641 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5642 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5643 permanently REMOVED.
5645 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5646 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5647 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5648 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5649 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5650 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5651 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5652 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5653 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5654 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5656 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5657 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5659 * OBSOLETE languages
5661 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5663 * REMOVED configurations and files
5665 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5666 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5667 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5668 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5669 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5671 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5673 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5675 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5676 commands. The default is 1024.
5678 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5680 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5682 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5684 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5685 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5686 from a file into memory (restore).
5688 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5690 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5691 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5692 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5694 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5702 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5703 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5704 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5706 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5707 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5708 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5710 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5711 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5712 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5714 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5715 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5716 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5718 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5720 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5722 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5723 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5724 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5725 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5726 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5727 (notably embedded) targets.
5729 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5731 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5732 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5733 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5734 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5736 * New command line option
5738 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
5740 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
5742 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
5743 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
5744 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
5745 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
5746 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
5747 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
5748 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
5749 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
5750 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
5751 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
5753 * Changes in ARM configurations.
5755 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
5756 configuration is fully multi-arch.
5758 * New native configurations
5760 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
5761 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
5762 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
5763 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
5767 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
5769 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5771 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5772 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5773 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5774 permanently REMOVED.
5776 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5777 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5778 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5779 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5780 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5782 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5784 * REMOVED configurations and files
5786 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5788 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5789 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5790 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5791 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5792 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5793 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5794 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5795 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5796 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5797 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5798 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
5800 * Changes to command line processing
5802 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
5803 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
5805 * Changes to key bindings
5807 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
5809 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
5811 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
5813 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
5816 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
5818 Numerous documentation fixes.
5820 Numerous testsuite fixes.
5822 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
5824 * New native configurations
5826 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
5827 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
5828 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
5829 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
5830 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
5831 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
5835 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
5837 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
5839 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5841 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
5842 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
5843 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
5844 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
5845 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
5847 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
5848 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
5849 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
5850 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5851 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
5852 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
5853 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
5854 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
5856 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
5857 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
5859 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5860 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5861 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5862 permanently REMOVED.
5864 * REMOVED configurations and files
5866 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
5867 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
5869 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
5873 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
5875 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
5876 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
5881 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
5883 * The MI enabled by default.
5885 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
5886 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
5887 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
5888 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
5889 which is now deprecated.
5891 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
5893 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
5894 main features are supported:
5896 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
5898 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
5901 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
5903 - a Pascal expression parser.
5905 However, some important features are not yet supported.
5907 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
5909 - there are some problems with boolean types;
5911 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
5912 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
5914 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
5916 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
5918 * Changes in completion.
5920 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
5921 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
5922 users expect at the shell prompt.
5924 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
5925 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
5926 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
5927 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
5928 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
5929 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
5930 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
5932 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
5934 * New platform-independent commands:
5936 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
5937 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
5938 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
5940 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
5942 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
5943 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
5944 many threads as your system allows you to have.
5946 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
5948 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
5949 multi-threaded programs though.
5951 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
5953 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
5955 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
5956 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
5959 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
5961 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
5962 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
5963 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
5964 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
5965 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
5968 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
5969 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
5970 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
5972 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
5974 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
5975 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
5977 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
5978 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
5981 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
5982 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
5983 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
5984 a given linear address.
5986 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
5987 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
5988 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
5990 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
5992 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
5994 * Changes in documentation.
5996 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
5997 Documentation License.
5999 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6002 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
6004 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6007 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
6008 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
6009 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
6011 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
6013 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
6014 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
6015 contents of this file.
6019 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
6021 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
6023 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
6025 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
6026 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
6027 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
6028 greater level of detail.
6030 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
6032 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
6033 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
6034 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
6037 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
6039 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
6040 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
6041 machines ``out of the box''.
6043 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
6044 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
6045 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
6046 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
6047 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
6049 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
6050 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
6051 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
6052 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
6053 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
6055 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
6056 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
6059 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
6062 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
6063 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
6064 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
6065 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
6067 * New native configurations
6069 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
6070 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6074 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
6075 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
6076 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
6077 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6079 * OBSOLETE configurations
6081 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6082 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6084 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6087 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6088 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6089 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6090 be permanently REMOVED.
6092 * Gould support removed
6094 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
6096 * New features for SVR4
6098 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
6099 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
6100 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
6102 * Many C++ enhancements
6104 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
6105 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
6107 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
6109 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
6110 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
6111 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
6112 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
6114 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
6115 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
6117 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
6119 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
6120 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
6121 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
6123 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
6124 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
6126 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
6128 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
6129 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
6130 include ``set remote P-packet''.
6132 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
6134 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
6135 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
6136 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
6138 * ``apropos'' command added.
6140 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6141 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6142 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6146 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6147 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6148 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6149 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6150 enabled by configuring with:
6152 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6154 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6156 * New native configurations
6158 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6159 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6160 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6164 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6165 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6166 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6168 * OBSOLETE configurations
6170 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
6172 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6173 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6174 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6175 be permanently REMOVED.
6179 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
6180 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
6181 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
6182 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
6183 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
6184 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
6185 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
6190 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
6192 * set extension-language
6194 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
6195 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
6196 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
6197 set extension-language .c c++
6198 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
6199 and their associated languages.
6201 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
6203 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
6204 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
6205 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
6209 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
6210 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
6212 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
6213 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
6215 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
6216 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
6217 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
6218 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
6219 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
6220 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
6221 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
6222 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
6224 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
6225 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
6226 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
6227 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
6231 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
6232 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
6233 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
6234 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
6235 for xdb and dbx commands.
6239 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
6240 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
6241 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
6243 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
6244 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
6245 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
6247 * Debugging across forks
6249 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
6254 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
6255 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
6256 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
6258 * GDB remote protocol additions
6260 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
6261 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
6262 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
6263 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
6265 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
6266 full 64-bit address. The command
6268 set remoteaddresssize 32
6270 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
6271 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
6274 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
6275 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
6277 maint packet heythere
6279 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
6280 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
6283 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
6284 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
6285 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
6287 * Tracing can collect general expressions
6289 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
6290 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
6291 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
6293 * mask-address variable for Mips
6295 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
6296 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
6297 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
6299 * Higher serial baud rates
6301 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
6302 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
6303 to achieve all of these rates.)
6307 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
6308 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
6311 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
6313 * New native configurations
6315 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
6316 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
6317 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6318 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6319 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6320 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
6321 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
6325 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6326 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
6327 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6328 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
6329 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
6330 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
6331 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
6332 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
6333 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6334 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6335 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
6337 * New debugging protocols
6339 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
6340 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
6341 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
6342 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6343 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6344 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6348 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
6349 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
6354 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
6355 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
6357 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
6359 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
6360 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
6361 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
6363 * Live range splitting
6365 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
6366 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
6367 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
6371 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
6372 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
6376 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
6377 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
6378 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
6383 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
6388 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
6389 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
6390 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
6391 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
6392 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
6393 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
6397 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
6398 the symbol at the specified address.
6402 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
6403 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
6404 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
6405 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
6406 file tracepoint.c for more details.
6410 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
6411 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
6412 of most MIPS variants.
6416 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
6417 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
6418 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
6422 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
6423 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
6424 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
6425 the possible architectures.
6427 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
6429 * New native configurations
6431 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
6432 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
6433 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
6434 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
6435 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6436 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
6440 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
6441 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6442 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
6443 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
6444 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
6446 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6450 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
6451 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
6452 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
6453 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
6454 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
6458 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
6460 * Windows 95/NT native
6462 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
6463 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
6464 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
6465 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
6466 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
6468 * dont-repeat command
6470 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
6471 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
6472 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
6473 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
6475 * Send break instead of ^C
6477 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
6478 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
6479 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
6481 * Remote protocol timeout
6483 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
6484 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
6485 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
6487 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
6489 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
6490 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
6491 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
6492 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
6493 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
6495 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
6496 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
6497 automatically on hpux10.
6499 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
6501 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
6503 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
6505 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
6506 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
6507 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
6508 every character. The default value is 1050.
6510 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
6512 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
6513 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
6514 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
6515 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
6516 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
6517 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
6519 * Speedups for remote debugging
6521 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
6522 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
6523 and more efficient S-record downloading.
6525 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
6527 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
6528 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
6530 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6532 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
6534 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6535 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6537 * Remote targets use caching
6539 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6540 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6541 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6542 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6543 off' turns the the data cache off.
6545 * Remote targets may have threads
6547 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6548 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6549 gdb/remote.c for details.
6553 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6554 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6555 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6556 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
6557 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
6558 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
6559 sequence is something like
6561 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
6563 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
6567 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
6568 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
6569 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
6570 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
6571 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
6572 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
6573 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
6574 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
6578 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
6579 but does simplify configuration and building.
6583 GDB now supports hpux10.
6585 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
6587 * New native configurations
6589 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
6590 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
6591 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
6592 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
6596 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6597 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
6598 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
6599 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
6602 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
6604 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
6605 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
6606 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
6607 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
6608 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
6610 * Arguments to user-defined commands
6612 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
6613 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
6616 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
6618 To execute the command use:
6621 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
6622 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
6623 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
6625 * New `if' and `while' commands
6627 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
6628 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
6629 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
6630 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
6631 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
6632 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
6633 if the expression is zero.
6635 * Fortran source language mode
6637 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
6638 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6639 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6640 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6643 * Better HPUX support
6645 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6646 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6647 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6648 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6649 that behavior do the following before running the program:
6655 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
6656 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
6662 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6663 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6666 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6667 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6669 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6671 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6672 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6673 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6674 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6675 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6676 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6678 * New DOS host serial code
6680 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6681 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6684 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6686 * New "complete" command
6688 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6689 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6691 * Trailing space optional in prompt
6693 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6694 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6696 * Breakpoint hit counts
6698 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6699 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6700 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6701 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6702 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6705 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6707 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6708 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6709 arrays actually contain only short strings.
6711 * Shared library breakpoints
6713 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6714 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6716 * Hardware watchpoints
6718 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6719 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6721 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6725 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6726 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6728 * Improved Irix 5 support
6730 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6732 * Improved HPPA support
6734 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6736 * New native configurations
6738 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
6739 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
6740 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
6741 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
6745 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
6746 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
6749 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
6751 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
6752 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
6756 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
6757 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
6759 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
6761 * Irix 5 is now supported
6765 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
6766 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
6767 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
6768 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
6769 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
6772 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
6774 * User visible changes:
6778 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
6779 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
6780 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
6781 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
6782 debugging info for the mips target).
6784 * DEC Alpha native support
6786 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
6787 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
6788 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
6789 Alpha-specific notes.
6791 * Preliminary thread implementation
6793 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
6795 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
6797 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
6798 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
6801 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
6803 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
6804 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
6805 call methods, ...etc.
6807 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
6809 * User visible changes:
6811 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
6812 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
6813 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
6814 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
6816 Filename completion now works.
6818 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
6819 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
6820 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
6822 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
6823 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
6824 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
6825 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
6826 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
6830 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
6831 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
6834 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
6838 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
6839 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
6840 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
6844 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
6845 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
6846 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
6847 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
6848 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
6852 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
6853 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
6854 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
6856 * New targets supported
6858 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
6859 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
6860 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
6861 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
6862 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
6864 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
6865 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
6866 GO32 memory extender.
6868 * New remote protocols
6870 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
6872 * New source languages supported
6874 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
6875 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
6876 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
6879 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
6881 * HP Precision Architecture supported
6883 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
6884 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
6885 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
6886 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
6887 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
6888 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
6890 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
6892 * Faster and better demangling
6894 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
6895 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
6896 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
6897 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
6898 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
6899 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
6902 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
6903 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
6904 compiler does not actually implement.
6906 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
6908 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
6909 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
6910 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
6911 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
6912 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
6913 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
6916 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
6917 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
6919 * Improved configure script
6921 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
6922 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
6923 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
6924 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
6926 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
6927 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
6928 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
6929 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
6930 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
6931 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
6933 * Documentation improvements
6935 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
6936 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
6937 before submitting changes.
6939 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
6940 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
6941 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
6942 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
6943 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
6945 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
6946 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
6947 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
6948 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
6949 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
6950 around this problem.
6954 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
6955 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
6956 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
6959 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
6960 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
6962 * New native hosts supported
6964 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
6965 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
6967 * New targets supported
6969 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
6971 * New file formats supported
6973 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
6974 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
6978 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
6980 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
6981 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
6983 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
6984 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
6985 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
6987 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
6988 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
6990 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
6991 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
6992 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
6995 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
6996 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
6997 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
6998 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
6999 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
7001 * Internal improvements
7003 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
7004 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
7006 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
7007 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
7008 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
7009 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
7010 shared code that handles any of them.
7012 * New command line options
7014 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
7018 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
7019 General Public License.
7021 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
7023 * Host/native/target split
7025 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
7026 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
7027 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
7028 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
7029 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
7031 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
7032 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
7033 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
7034 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
7035 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
7036 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
7037 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
7039 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
7040 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
7041 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
7043 * New hosts supported
7045 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
7046 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7047 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
7049 * New targets supported
7051 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7052 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
7054 * New native hosts supported
7056 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7057 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
7058 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
7060 * New file formats supported
7062 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
7063 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
7064 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
7068 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
7069 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
7070 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
7072 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
7074 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
7075 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
7076 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
7077 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
7081 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
7082 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
7083 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
7085 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
7089 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
7090 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
7093 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
7094 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
7096 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
7097 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
7098 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
7099 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
7100 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
7101 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
7103 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
7104 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
7105 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
7106 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
7110 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
7111 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
7112 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
7113 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
7114 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
7116 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
7117 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
7118 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
7119 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
7123 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
7124 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
7125 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
7126 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
7127 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
7128 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
7129 each instruction being stepped through.
7131 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
7132 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
7134 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
7135 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
7136 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
7137 processor with a serial port.
7141 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7142 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7143 supported, and what files each one uses.
7147 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7148 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7149 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7150 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7152 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7153 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7154 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7155 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7159 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7160 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7161 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7162 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7163 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7164 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7166 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
7169 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
7171 * Better support for C++ function names
7173 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
7174 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
7175 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
7176 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
7177 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
7179 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
7180 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
7181 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
7182 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
7183 for the list of formats.
7185 * G++ symbol mangling problem
7187 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
7188 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
7189 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
7190 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
7191 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
7192 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
7195 * New 'maintenance' command
7197 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
7198 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
7199 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
7201 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
7202 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
7203 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
7204 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
7205 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
7206 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
7208 The following commands are new:
7210 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
7211 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
7212 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
7214 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
7216 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
7217 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
7218 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
7219 read after argv processing.
7221 * New hosts supported
7223 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
7225 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
7227 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
7228 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
7229 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
7230 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
7231 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
7234 * New targets supported
7236 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7238 * More smarts about finding #include files
7240 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
7241 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
7242 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
7243 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
7244 the one that contains your sources.
7246 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
7247 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
7248 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
7250 * Interesting infernals change
7252 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
7253 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
7254 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
7255 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
7257 * Bug fixes (of course!)
7259 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
7260 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
7261 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
7263 See the ChangeLog for details.
7265 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
7267 * New machines supported (host and target)
7269 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
7271 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7273 * New malloc package
7275 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
7276 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
7277 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
7278 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
7279 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
7280 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
7284 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
7285 'help info proc' for details.
7287 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
7289 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
7290 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
7293 * File name changes for MS-DOS
7295 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
7296 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
7297 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
7298 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
7299 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
7300 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
7302 * Cross byte order fixes
7304 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
7305 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
7307 * New -mapped and -readnow options
7309 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
7310 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
7311 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
7312 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
7313 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
7314 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
7315 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
7316 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
7317 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
7318 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
7320 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
7321 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
7322 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
7323 slower, but makes future operations faster.
7325 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
7326 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
7327 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
7330 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
7332 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
7333 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
7334 shared across multiple host platforms.
7336 * longjmp() handling
7338 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
7339 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
7340 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
7341 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
7345 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
7346 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
7351 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
7352 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
7353 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
7355 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
7357 * New machines supported (host and target)
7359 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7361 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
7362 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
7364 * New machines supported (target)
7366 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7370 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
7371 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
7372 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
7374 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
7375 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
7376 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
7377 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
7378 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
7381 * New features for SVR4
7383 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
7384 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
7385 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
7387 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
7388 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
7389 it prints the address mappings of the process.
7391 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
7392 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
7394 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
7396 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
7397 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
7398 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
7399 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
7400 same code linked statically.
7404 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
7405 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
7406 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
7407 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
7408 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
7409 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
7413 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7414 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7415 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7418 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
7420 * New machines supported (host and target)
7422 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
7423 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
7424 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7426 * Almost SCO Unix support
7428 We had hoped to support:
7429 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7430 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
7431 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
7432 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
7434 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
7436 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
7437 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
7438 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
7439 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
7444 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
7445 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
7446 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
7450 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7451 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7452 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7454 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
7456 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
7457 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
7458 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
7460 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
7461 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
7462 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
7463 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
7466 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
7467 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
7468 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
7469 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
7472 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
7473 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
7476 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
7477 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
7478 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
7481 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
7483 * Improved configuration
7485 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
7486 Porting BFD is simpler.
7490 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
7491 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
7492 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
7493 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
7497 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
7499 * New host supported (not target)
7501 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
7504 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
7506 * Multiple source language support
7508 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
7509 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
7510 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
7511 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
7512 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
7513 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
7517 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
7518 currently under development at the State University of New York at
7519 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
7520 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
7522 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
7523 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
7524 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
7526 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
7527 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7531 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7532 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7533 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7534 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7537 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7539 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7540 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7541 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7542 examining core files.
7546 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7549 * New machines supported (host and target)
7551 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7552 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7553 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7555 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7557 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
7559 * New targets supported (not hosts)
7561 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7562 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7563 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
7565 * New remote interfaces
7571 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
7575 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
7577 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
7578 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
7579 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
7580 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
7581 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
7582 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
7583 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
7584 stub on the target system.
7586 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
7588 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
7589 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
7590 object file types such as a.out and coff.
7592 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
7593 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
7596 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
7598 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
7599 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
7601 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
7602 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
7603 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
7605 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
7606 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
7607 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
7608 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
7610 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
7611 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
7612 it is already running. Default is ON.
7614 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
7615 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
7616 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
7617 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
7620 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
7621 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
7622 or the value of the environment variable
7625 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
7626 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
7629 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
7630 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
7631 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
7633 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
7634 history expansion will be performed on
7635 command line input. The default is OFF.
7637 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
7638 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7639 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7641 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7642 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7643 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7646 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7647 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7648 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7651 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7652 ``set width'' instead.
7654 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
7655 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
7656 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
7657 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
7659 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
7662 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7665 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7668 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7671 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7673 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7674 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7675 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7679 * Support for Shared Libraries
7681 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7682 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7683 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7684 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7685 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7686 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7687 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7688 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7690 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7691 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7692 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7694 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7699 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7700 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7701 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7702 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7703 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7704 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7706 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7708 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7710 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7711 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7712 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7715 * C++ multiple inheritance
7717 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7720 * C++ exception handling
7722 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7723 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7724 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7727 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7728 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7729 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7731 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7732 current stack frame.
7735 * Minor command changes
7737 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
7738 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
7739 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
7741 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
7742 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
7743 frames without printing.
7745 * New directory command
7747 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
7748 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
7749 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
7750 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
7751 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
7753 * Configuring GDB for compilation
7755 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
7758 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
7759 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
7760 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
7761 where the program that you are debugging will run.