[ppc64le] Use skip_entrypoint for skip_trampoline_code
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.10
5
6 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
7
8 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
9 when using the Intel(R) Processor Trace recording format.
10
11 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
12 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
13 clients.
14
15 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
16 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
17 at the same time.
18
19 * New commands
20
21 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
22 maint show target-non-stop
23 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
24 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
25 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
26
27 maint set bfd-sharing
28 maint show bfd-sharing
29 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
30
31 set debug bfd-cache
32 show debug bfd-cache
33 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
34
35 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
36 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
37 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
38
39 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
40 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
41 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
42 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
43 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
44 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
45
46 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
47
48 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
49 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
50 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
51 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
52 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
53 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
54
55 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
56 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
57
58 * New remote packets
59
60 exec stop reason
61 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
62
63 exec-events feature in qSupported
64 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
65 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
66 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
67 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
68
69 * Extended-remote exec events
70
71 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
72 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
73 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
74
75 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
76 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
77 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
78
79 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
80
81 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
82 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
83 including advance SIMD instructions.
84
85 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
86
87 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
88 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
89 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
90 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
91 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
92 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
93 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
94
95 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
96 cpu information :
97 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
98
99 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
100 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
101 remote serial I/O.
102
103 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
104 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
105 and may include things like its command line arguments.
106
107 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
108 is now available on all platforms.
109
110 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
111 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
112 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
113 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
114 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
115 backward compatibility.
116
117 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
118 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
119 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
120 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
121
122 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
123 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
124 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
125 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
126 packets" below.
127
128 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
129
130 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
131
132 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
133 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
134 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
135 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
136 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
137 See "New remote packets" below.
138
139 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
140 available register groups, including target specific groups.
141
142 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
143 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
144 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
145 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
146 are ignored.
147
148 * Guile Scripting
149
150 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
151
152 * Python Scripting
153
154 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
155 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
156 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
157 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
158 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
159 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
160 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
161 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
162 "const" version of the value respectively.
163
164 * New commands
165
166 maint print symbol-cache
167 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
168
169 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
170 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
171
172 maint flush-symbol-cache
173 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
174
175 record btrace bts
176 record bts
177 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
178
179 compile print
180 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
181
182 tui enable
183 tui disable
184 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
185
186 show mpx bound
187 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
188 Support for bound table investigation on Intel(R) MPX enabled applications.
189
190 record btrace pt
191 record pt
192 Start branch trace recording using Intel(R) Processor Trace format.
193
194 maint info btrace
195 Print information about branch tracing internals.
196
197 maint btrace packet-history
198 Print the raw branch tracing data.
199
200 maint btrace clear-packet-history
201 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
202
203 maint btrace clear
204 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
205 anew by the next "record" command.
206
207 * New options
208
209 set debug dwarf-die
210 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
211 show debug dwarf-die
212 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
213
214 set debug dwarf-read
215 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
216 show debug dwarf-read
217 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
218
219 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
220 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
221 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
222 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
223
224 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
225 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
226 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
227 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
228
229 set debug dwarf-line
230 show debug dwarf-line
231 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
232
233 set max-completions
234 show max-completions
235 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
236 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
237 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
238 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
239
240 set history remove-duplicates
241 show history remove-duplicates
242 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
243
244 maint set symbol-cache-size
245 maint show symbol-cache-size
246 Control the size of the symbol cache.
247
248 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
249 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
250 BTS format.
251 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
252 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
253
254 set debug linux-namespaces
255 show debug linux-namespaces
256 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
257
258 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
259 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
260 Intel(R) Processor Trace format.
261 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
262 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
263
264 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
265 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
266 packet history.
267
268 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
269 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
270
271 * Python/Guile scripting
272
273 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
274 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
275
276 * New remote packets
277
278 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
279 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
280
281 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
282 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
283
284 Qbtrace:pt
285 Enable Intel(R) Procesor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
286 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
287 qSupported query.
288
289 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
290 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel(R) Processor
291 Trace format.
292
293 swbreak stop reason
294 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
295 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
296 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
297 mode operation.
298
299 hwbreak stop reason
300 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
301 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
302
303 vFile:fstat:
304 Return information about files on the remote system.
305
306 qXfer:exec-file:read
307 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
308 create a process running on the remote system.
309
310 vFile:setfs:
311 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
312 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
313 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
314 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
315
316 fork stop reason
317 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
318
319 vfork stop reason
320 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
321
322 vforkdone stop reason
323 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
324 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
325
326 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
327 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
328 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
329 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
330 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
331 whether these features are enabled.
332
333 * Extended-remote fork events
334
335 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
336 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
337 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
338 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
339
340 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
341 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
342 the btrace record target.
343 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
344
345 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
346 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
347
348 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
349 targets.
350
351 * Removed command line options
352
353 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
354
355 * Removed targets and native configurations
356
357 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
358 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
359
360 * New configure options
361
362 --with-intel-pt
363 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
364 Intel(R) Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
365
366 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
367 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
368 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
369 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
370
371 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
372
373 * Python Scripting
374
375 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
376
377 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
378
379 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
380
381 * Python Scripting
382
383 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
384 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
385 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
386 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
387 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
388 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
389 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
390 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
391 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
392 selecting a new file to debug.
393 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
394 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
395
396 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
397 inferior.
398
399 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
400 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
401 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
402 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
403
404 * New Python-based convenience functions:
405
406 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
407 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
408 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
409 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
410
411 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
412 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
413 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
414 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
415 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
416 interface with this new feature are:
417
418 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
419 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
420
421 * New commands
422
423 demangle [-l language] [--] name
424 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
425 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
426 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
427 as "maint demangler-warning".
428
429 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
430 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
431
432 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
433 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
434 scripts.
435
436 maint print user-registers
437 List all currently available "user" registers.
438
439 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
440 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
441 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
442
443 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
444 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
445 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
446 provided.
447
448 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
449 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
450 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
451 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
452 at resume time.
453
454 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
455 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
456 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
457 switched threads meanwhile.
458
459 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
460
461 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
462 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
463 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
464 is now the default mode.
465
466 * New options
467
468 set debug symbol-lookup
469 show debug symbol-lookup
470 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
471
472 * MI changes
473
474 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
475 inferiors that have exited.
476
477 * New targets
478
479 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
480
481 * Removed targets
482
483 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
484
485 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
486 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
487 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
488 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
489 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
490
491 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
492 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
493 its alias "share", instead.
494
495 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
496
497 * New command line options
498
499 -D data-directory
500 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
501
502 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
503 as specified in ISO C99.
504
505 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
506 with or without disassembly.
507
508 * Guile scripting
509
510 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
511 available is determined at configure time.
512 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
513 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
514
515 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
516
517 guile [code]
518 gu [code]
519 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
520
521 guile-repl
522 gr
523 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
524
525 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
526 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
527
528 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
529 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
530
531 * New options
532
533 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
534 show print symbol-loading
535 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
536 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
537 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
538 becomes less useful.
539
540 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
541 show guile print-stack
542 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
543
544 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
545 show auto-load guile-scripts
546 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
547
548 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
549 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
550 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
551 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
552 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
553 usage of this option.
554
555 set auto-connect-native-target
556
557 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
558 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
559 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
560
561 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
562 show record btrace replay-memory-access
563 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
564
565 maint set target-async (on|off)
566 maint show target-async
567 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
568 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
569 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
570 occurring only in synchronous mode.
571
572 set mi-async (on|off)
573 show mi-async
574 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
575 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
576
577 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
578 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
579
580 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
581 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
582 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
583 "set target-async on" command.
584
585 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
586
587 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
588 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
589 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
590 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
591 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
592
593 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
594 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
595 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
596
597 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
598 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
599 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
600 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
601 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
602 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
603 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
604
605 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
606 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
607
608 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
609 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
610 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
611
612 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
613 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
614 memory or registers.
615
616 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
617
618 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
619 remote. It now works with all targets.
620
621 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
622 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
623 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
624 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
625 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
626 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
627 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
628 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
629 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
630 target-stack".
631
632 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
633 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
634 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
635
636 * GDB now supports access to Intel(R) MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
637
638 * Support for Intel(R) AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
639 Support displaying and modifying Intel(R) AVX-512 registers
640 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
641
642 * New remote packets
643
644 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
645 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
646 branch trace incrementally.
647
648 * Python Scripting
649
650 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
651 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
652 available.
653 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
654 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
655 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
656 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
657 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
658
659 * New targets
660 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
661
662 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
663 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
664 its alias "share", instead.
665
666 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
667 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
668 instead.
669
670 * MI changes
671
672 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
673 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
674 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
675 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
676 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
677 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
678 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
679 commands and CLI execution commands.
680
681 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
682
683 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
684 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
685 recording has been added.
686
687 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
688
689 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
690 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
691
692 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
693 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
694 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
695 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
696 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
697 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
698 "void".
699
700 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
701
702 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
703
704 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
705 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
706 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
707 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
708
709 (gdb) p $rax
710 $1 = <not saved>
711
712 (gdb) info registers rax
713 rax <not saved>
714
715 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
716 "*value not available*".
717
718 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
719 to binaries.
720
721 * Python scripting
722
723 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
724 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
725 ** Line tables representation has been added.
726 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
727 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
728 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
729
730 * New targets
731
732 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
733 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
734 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
735
736 * Removed native configurations
737
738 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
739 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
740
741 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
742 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
743 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
744 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
745 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
746 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
747 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
748
749 * New commands:
750 catch rethrow
751 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
752 maint check-psymtabs
753 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
754 maint check-symtabs
755 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
756 maint expand-symtabs
757 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
758
759 show configuration
760 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
761
762 maint set|show per-command
763 maint set|show per-command space
764 maint set|show per-command time
765 maint set|show per-command symtab
766 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
767
768 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
769 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
770 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
771 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
772 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
773
774 info exceptions
775 info exceptions REGEXP
776 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
777 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
778 are listed.
779
780 * New options
781
782 set debug symfile off|on
783 show debug symfile
784 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
785 symbol tables within those files
786
787 set print raw frame-arguments
788 show print raw frame-arguments
789 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
790 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
791
792 set remote trace-status-packet
793 show remote trace-status-packet
794 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
795
796 set debug nios2
797 show debug nios2
798 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
799
800 set range-stepping
801 show range-stepping
802 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
803
804 set startup-with-shell
805 show startup-with-shell
806 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
807 directly.
808
809 set code-cache
810 show code-cache
811 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
812 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
813
814 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
815 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
816 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
817 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
818 "set height 0".
819
820 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
821 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
822 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
823
824 * New command-line options
825 --configuration
826 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
827
828 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
829 buffer in Common Trace Format.
830
831 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
832 GDB command gcore.
833
834 * GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
835
836 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
837 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
838
839 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
840 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
841
842 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
843 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
844 due to an uncaught signal.
845
846 * MI changes
847
848 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
849 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
850 command, which should contain "language-option".
851
852 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
853 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
854
855 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
856 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
857 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
858 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
859 "undefined-command-error-code".
860
861 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
862 Trace Format now.
863
864 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
865
866 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
867 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
868 are displayed.
869
870 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
871 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
872
873 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
874 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
875 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
876
877 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
878 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
879 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
880 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
881 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
882 "exec-run-start-option".
883
884 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
885 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
886
887 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
888 the new "info exceptions" command.
889
890 * New system-wide configuration scripts
891 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
892 configuration scripts for the following systems:
893 ** ElinOS
894 ** Wind River Linux
895
896 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
897 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
898 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
899 below.
900
901 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
902 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
903
904 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
905 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
906 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
907
908 * New remote packets
909
910 vCont;r
911
912 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
913 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
914 involvemement at each single-step.
915
916 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
917 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
918 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
919 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
920 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
921 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
922 speedup.
923
924 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
925
926 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
927 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
928
929 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
930 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
931 trace state variables.
932
933 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
934 target.
935
936 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
937 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
938
939 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
940
941 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
942 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
943 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
944 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
945
946 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
947
948 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
949 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
950 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
951 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
952
953 set|show record full insn-number-max
954 set|show record full stop-at-limit
955 set|show record full memory-query
956
957 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
958 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
959 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
960 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
961 This new recording method can be enabled using:
962
963 record btrace
964
965 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
966 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
967
968 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
969 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
970 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
971
972 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
973 instruction granularity
974
975 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
976 function granularity
977
978 * New native configurations
979
980 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
981 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
982 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
983 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
984
985 * New targets
986
987 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
988 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
989 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
990 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
991 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
992
993 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
994 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
995 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
996 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
997 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
998 --data-directory command-line option.
999
1000 * New command line options:
1001
1002 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
1003 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
1004
1005 * Removed command line options
1006
1007 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
1008 Emacs.
1009
1010 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
1011 type formatting.
1012
1013 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
1014
1015 * Python scripting
1016
1017 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
1018
1019 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
1020
1021 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
1022
1023 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
1024
1025 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
1026 of architecture in the Python API.
1027
1028 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
1029 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
1030
1031 * New Python-based convenience functions:
1032
1033 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
1034 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
1035 ** $_strlen(str)
1036 ** $_regex(str, regex)
1037
1038 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
1039 given an argument.
1040
1041 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
1042 default for GCC since November 2000.
1043
1044 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
1045
1046 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
1047 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
1048
1049 * New configure options
1050
1051 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
1052 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
1053 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
1054 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
1055 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
1056 options allow the user to override that default.
1057 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
1058 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
1059 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
1060
1061 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1062
1063 catch signal
1064 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
1065 conditions to be attached.
1066
1067 maint info bfds
1068 List the BFDs known to GDB.
1069
1070 python-interactive [command]
1071 pi [command]
1072 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
1073 and print the result of expressions.
1074
1075 py [command]
1076 "py" is a new alias for "python".
1077
1078 enable type-printer [name]...
1079 disable type-printer [name]...
1080 Enable or disable type printers.
1081
1082 * Removed commands
1083
1084 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
1085 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
1086 instead.
1087
1088 * New options
1089
1090 set print type methods (on|off)
1091 show print type methods
1092 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
1093 The default is to show them.
1094
1095 set print type typedefs (on|off)
1096 show print type typedefs
1097 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
1098 The default is to show them.
1099
1100 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
1101 show filename-display
1102 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
1103 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
1104
1105 set trace-buffer-size
1106 show trace-buffer-size
1107 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
1108
1109 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
1110 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
1111 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
1112
1113 set debug aarch64
1114 show debug aarch64
1115 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
1116 The default is off.
1117
1118 set debug coff-pe-read
1119 show debug coff-pe-read
1120 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
1121 exported symbols.
1122
1123 set debug mach-o
1124 show debug mach-o
1125 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
1126 processing.
1127
1128 set debug notification
1129 show debug notification
1130 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
1131
1132 * MI changes
1133
1134 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
1135 "=cmd-param-changed".
1136 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
1137 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
1138 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
1139 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
1140 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
1141 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
1142 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
1143 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
1144 "=memory-changed".
1145 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
1146 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
1147 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
1148 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
1149 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
1150 library load/unload events.
1151 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
1152 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
1153 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
1154 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
1155 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
1156 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
1157 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
1158 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
1159
1160 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
1161 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
1162 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
1163 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
1164
1165 * New remote packets
1166
1167 QTBuffer:size
1168 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
1169 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1170
1171 Qbtrace:bts
1172 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
1173 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
1174 qSupported query.
1175
1176 Qbtrace:off
1177 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
1178 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1179
1180 qXfer:btrace:read
1181 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
1182 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
1183
1184 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
1185
1186 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
1187 for more x32 ABI info.
1188
1189 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
1190
1191 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
1192
1193 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1194 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
1195 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
1196 "info os files" lists file descriptors
1197 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
1198 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
1199 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
1200 "info os msg" lists message queues
1201 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
1202
1203 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
1204 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
1205 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
1206 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
1207 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
1208 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
1209
1210 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
1211 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
1212 record/replay support.
1213
1214 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
1215
1216 * Python scripting
1217
1218 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
1219 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
1220
1221 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
1222
1223 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
1224 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
1225
1226 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
1227
1228 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
1229 the source at which the symbol was defined.
1230
1231 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
1232 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
1233 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
1234 symbol's value.
1235
1236 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
1237 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
1238
1239 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
1240 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
1241 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
1242
1243 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
1244 object associated with a PC value.
1245
1246 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
1247 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
1248
1249 * Go language support.
1250 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
1251 language.
1252
1253 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
1254 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
1255
1256 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
1257 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
1258
1259 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
1260 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
1261 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
1262 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
1263 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
1264 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
1265
1266 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
1267 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
1268 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
1269 build/libcpp/expr.c.
1270
1271 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
1272 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
1273
1274 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
1275 since December 2007.
1276
1277 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
1278 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
1279 command does. For instance:
1280
1281 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
1282
1283 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
1284 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
1285 created, using the "condition" command.
1286
1287 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
1288 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
1289
1290 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
1291
1292 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
1293 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
1294 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
1295 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
1296 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
1297 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
1298 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
1299 files with older .gdb_index sections.
1300
1301 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
1302 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
1303 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
1304 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
1305 the .gdb_index section.
1306
1307 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
1308
1309 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
1310 target.
1311
1312 * MI changes
1313
1314 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
1315
1316 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
1317
1318 * New commands
1319
1320 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1321 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1322 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
1323
1324 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
1325 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
1326
1327 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
1328 several hits.
1329
1330 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
1331 C++ and Java objects.
1332
1333 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
1334 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
1335 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
1336 configured with '--with-python'.
1337
1338 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
1339 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
1340 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
1341 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
1342 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
1343 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
1344 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
1345
1346 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
1347 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
1348 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
1349 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
1350
1351 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
1352 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
1353 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
1354 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
1355
1356 ** "set print symbol"
1357 "show print symbol"
1358 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
1359 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
1360 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
1361
1362 * Deprecated commands
1363
1364 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
1365 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
1366
1367 * New targets
1368
1369 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1370 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
1371
1372 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
1373 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
1374 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
1375 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
1376 evaluates to true.
1377
1378 * New options
1379
1380 set mips compression
1381 show mips compression
1382 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
1383 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
1384 mips16
1385 micromips
1386 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
1387
1388 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
1389 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
1390 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
1391 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
1392 available mode.
1393 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
1394 target.
1395
1396 set auto-load off
1397 Disable auto-loading globally.
1398
1399 show auto-load
1400 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
1401
1402 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
1403 show auto-load gdb-scripts
1404 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
1405
1406 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
1407 show auto-load python-scripts
1408 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
1409
1410 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
1411 show auto-load local-gdbinit
1412 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
1413
1414 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
1415 show auto-load libthread-db
1416 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
1417
1418 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1419 show auto-load scripts-directory
1420 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
1421 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
1422 of the directories listed by this option.
1423 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1424
1425 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1426 show auto-load safe-path
1427 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
1428 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1429
1430 set debug auto-load on|off
1431 show debug auto-load
1432 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1433
1434 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
1435 show dprintf-style
1436 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1437 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1438 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1439 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
1440
1441 set dprintf-function <expr>
1442 show dprintf-function
1443 set dprintf-channel <expr>
1444 show dprintf-channel
1445 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1446 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1447
1448 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1449 show disconnected-dprintf
1450 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1451 after GDB disconnects.
1452
1453 * New configure options
1454
1455 --with-auto-load-dir
1456 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1457 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1458 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1459 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1460 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
1461
1462 --with-auto-load-safe-path
1463 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
1464 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
1465
1466 --without-auto-load-safe-path
1467 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1468 security feature.
1469
1470 * New remote packets
1471
1472 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1473
1474 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1475 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
1476 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
1477 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
1478
1479 QProgramSignals:
1480
1481 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
1482 program without GDB involvement.
1483
1484 * New command line options
1485
1486 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
1487 before loading inferior.
1488 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
1489 execute it before loading inferior.
1490
1491 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
1492
1493 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
1494 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1495 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1496 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1497 inferior changes.
1498
1499 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1500 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1501
1502 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1503 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1504 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1505 target hardware watchpoint.
1506
1507 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1508 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1509 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1510 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1511
1512 * Python scripting
1513
1514 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
1515 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
1516 existing one.
1517
1518 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
1519 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1520 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1521 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1522 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1523 the stack trace.
1524
1525 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
1526 Python API.
1527
1528 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1529 modules library. This module provides functionality for
1530 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
1531 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1532 corresponding value.
1533
1534 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1535 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1536 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1537 on GDB start-up.
1538
1539 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1540 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1541 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1542 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1543
1544 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1545
1546 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1547 "gdb.breakpoints".
1548
1549 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1550 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1551 available in the CLI.
1552
1553 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1554 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1555 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1556 "some_type.items()".
1557
1558 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1559 new object file.
1560
1561 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1562 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1563 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1564 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1565 any anonymous fields.
1566
1567 * MI changes
1568
1569 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1570 "solib-event".
1571
1572 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1573 "=breakpoint-modified".
1574
1575 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1576
1577 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
1578 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
1579 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
1580 lives.
1581
1582 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
1583 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
1584 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
1585 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
1586 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
1587
1588 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
1589 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
1590
1591 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
1592 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
1593 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
1594 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
1595 use this option to specify where to find it.
1596
1597 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1598 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
1599 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
1600 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
1601 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
1602 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1603 section in the user manual for more details.
1604
1605 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
1606 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
1607 become available after that.
1608
1609 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
1610
1611 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
1612 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
1613 gcc version 4.7.
1614
1615 * New commands
1616
1617 !SHELL COMMAND
1618 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
1619 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
1620
1621 * Changed commands
1622
1623 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
1624 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
1625 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
1626
1627 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
1628 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
1629 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
1630
1631 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
1632 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
1633 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
1634 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
1635 name starts with a hyphen.
1636
1637 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
1638 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
1639 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
1640 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
1641 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
1642 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
1643 number of bytes that will be collected.
1644
1645 tstart [NOTES]
1646 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
1647 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
1648 setting the variable trace-notes.
1649
1650 tstop [NOTES]
1651 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
1652 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
1653 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
1654 trace-stop-notes.
1655
1656 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
1657 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
1658 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
1659 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
1660 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
1661 is running.
1662
1663 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
1664 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
1665 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
1666
1667 * New options
1668
1669 set debug dwarf2-read
1670 show debug dwarf2-read
1671 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
1672 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
1673
1674 set debug symtab-create
1675 show debug symtab-create
1676 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
1677 creation. The default is off.
1678
1679 set extended-prompt
1680 show extended-prompt
1681 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
1682 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
1683 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
1684 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
1685 prompt is displayed.
1686
1687 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
1688 show print entry-values
1689 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
1690 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
1691 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
1692
1693 set debug entry-values
1694 show debug entry-values
1695 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
1696 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
1697
1698 set basenames-may-differ
1699 show basenames-may-differ
1700 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
1701 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
1702 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
1703 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
1704 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
1705 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
1706 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
1707 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
1708
1709 set trace-user
1710 show trace-user
1711 set trace-notes
1712 show trace-notes
1713 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
1714 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
1715 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
1716 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
1717
1718 set trace-stop-notes
1719 show trace-stop-notes
1720 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
1721 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
1722 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
1723 started by someone else.
1724
1725 * New remote packets
1726
1727 QTEnable
1728
1729 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1730
1731 QTDisable
1732
1733 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1734
1735 QTNotes
1736
1737 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
1738
1739 qTP
1740
1741 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
1742
1743 qTMinFTPILen
1744
1745 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
1746 be placed.
1747
1748 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
1749 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
1750
1751 * New targets
1752
1753 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
1754
1755 * New Simulators
1756
1757 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1758
1759 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
1760
1761 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
1762
1763 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
1764
1765 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
1766 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
1767 matches the given regular expression.
1768
1769 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
1770
1771 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
1772 dumping the instruction opcodes.
1773
1774 * New command line options
1775
1776 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
1777 This is mostly for testing purposes.
1778
1779 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
1780 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
1781
1782 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
1783 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
1784 source path list instead of augmenting it.
1785
1786 * GDB now understands thread names.
1787
1788 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
1789 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
1790
1791 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
1792 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
1793
1794 * OpenCL C
1795 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
1796 has been integrated into GDB.
1797
1798 * Python scripting
1799
1800 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
1801 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
1802 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
1803
1804 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1805 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
1806 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
1807 and allows for more dynamic content.
1808
1809 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
1810 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
1811 have an is_valid method.
1812
1813 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1814 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
1815 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
1816
1817 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
1818
1819 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
1820 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
1821 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
1822 that function like so:
1823
1824 result = some_value (10,20)
1825
1826 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
1827 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
1828 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
1829
1830 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
1831 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
1832 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
1833 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
1834 New function: register_pretty_printer.
1835
1836 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
1837 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
1838
1839 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
1840
1841 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
1842 selected thread.
1843
1844 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
1845 holds the thread's name.
1846
1847 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
1848 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
1849 occurring in the process being debugged.
1850 The following events are currently supported:
1851 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
1852 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
1853 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
1854
1855 * C++ Improvements:
1856
1857 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
1858 instantiation. For example, if you have:
1859
1860 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
1861
1862 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
1863 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
1864 was added to GCC 4.5.
1865
1866 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
1867 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
1868 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
1869 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
1870 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
1871 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
1872
1873 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
1874 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
1875 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
1876 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
1877 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
1878
1879 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
1880 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
1881 execution to a label.
1882
1883 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
1884 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
1885 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
1886 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
1887
1888 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
1889 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
1890 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
1891 of scope.
1892
1893 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
1894
1895 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
1896 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
1897 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
1898 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
1899 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
1900 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
1901
1902 (gdb) info threads
1903 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1904
1905 While now you see this:
1906
1907 (gdb) info threads
1908 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1909
1910 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1911 dumps.
1912
1913 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1914 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1915 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1916 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1917
1918 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1919 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1920 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1921 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1922 section in the user manual for more details.
1923
1924 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1925
1926 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1927 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
1928
1929 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1930
1931 * New native configurations
1932
1933 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1934
1935 * New targets:
1936
1937 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1938
1939 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1940 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1941 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1942 in the GDB user manual.
1943
1944 * Guile support was removed.
1945
1946 * New features in the GNU simulator
1947
1948 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1949
1950 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1951
1952 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
1953
1954 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
1955
1956 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1957 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1958 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1959 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1960 was always disabled for such configurations.
1961
1962 * C++ Improvements:
1963
1964 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1965
1966 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1967 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1968 For example:
1969 namespace A
1970 {
1971 class B { };
1972 void foo (B) { }
1973 }
1974 ...
1975 A::B b
1976 foo(b)
1977 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1978 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1979 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1980
1981 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1982
1983 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1984 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1985 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1986 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1987 entry.
1988 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1989 mentioned flavors of operators.
1990
1991 ** static const class members
1992
1993 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1994 class definition has been fixed.
1995
1996 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
1997
1998 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1999 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
2000 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
2001 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
2002 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
2003 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
2004
2005 * Static tracepoints
2006
2007 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
2008 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
2009 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
2010 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
2011 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
2012 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
2013 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
2014 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
2015 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
2016 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
2017 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
2018 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
2019 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
2020 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
2021 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
2022 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
2023 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
2024 the "New remote packets" section below.
2025
2026 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
2027
2028 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
2029 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
2030 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
2031 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
2032
2033 * Observer mode
2034
2035 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
2036 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
2037 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
2038 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
2039 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
2040 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
2041 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
2042
2043 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
2044 current thread.
2045
2046 * New remote packets
2047
2048 qGetTIBAddr
2049
2050 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
2051
2052 qRelocInsn
2053
2054 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
2055 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
2056 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
2057 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
2058 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
2059 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
2060
2061 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
2062
2063 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
2064
2065 qTSTMat
2066
2067 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
2068 program.
2069
2070 qXfer:statictrace:read
2071
2072 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
2073 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
2074 to gdb's qSupported query.
2075
2076 QAllow
2077
2078 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
2079
2080 QTDPsrc
2081
2082 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
2083 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
2084
2085 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
2086 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
2087 a directory.
2088
2089 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2090
2091 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
2092 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
2093 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
2094 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
2095
2096 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
2097 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
2098 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
2099 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
2100 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
2101 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
2102 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
2103
2104 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
2105 for static tracepoints support.
2106
2107 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
2108
2109 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
2110 it understands register description.
2111
2112 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
2113
2114 * X86 general purpose registers
2115
2116 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
2117 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
2118 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
2119 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
2120 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
2121
2122 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
2123 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
2124 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
2125 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
2126 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
2127 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
2128
2129 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
2130 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
2131 in the specified file.
2132
2133 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
2134 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
2135 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
2136 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
2137 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
2138 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
2139 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
2140 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
2141 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
2142 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
2143
2144 * New commands
2145
2146 eval template, expressions...
2147 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
2148 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
2149
2150 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
2151 show target-file-system-kind
2152 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
2153 names.
2154
2155 save breakpoints <filename>
2156 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
2157 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
2158 definitions, use the `source' command.
2159
2160 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
2161 is now deprecated.
2162
2163 info static-tracepoint-markers
2164 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
2165
2166 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
2167 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
2168 function, line, address, or marker ID.
2169
2170 set observer on|off
2171 show observer
2172 Enable and disable observer mode.
2173
2174 set may-write-registers on|off
2175 set may-write-memory on|off
2176 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
2177 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
2178 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
2179 set may-interrupt on|off
2180 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
2181 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
2182 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
2183 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
2184 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
2185 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
2186 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
2187
2188 set record memory-query on|off
2189 show record memory-query
2190 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
2191 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
2192
2193 * Changed commands
2194
2195 disassemble
2196 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
2197
2198 * Python scripting
2199
2200 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
2201 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
2202 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
2203 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
2204 GDB using Python' in the manual.
2205
2206 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
2207 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
2208 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
2209 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
2210
2211 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
2212 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
2213
2214 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
2215
2216 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
2217
2218 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
2219
2220 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
2221 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
2222 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
2223
2224 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
2225 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
2226 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
2227 regular breakpoints.
2228
2229 * New targets
2230
2231 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
2232
2233 * D language support.
2234 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
2235 language.
2236
2237 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
2238 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
2239 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
2240 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
2241 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
2242
2243 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
2244 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
2245 conditions of the form:
2246
2247 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
2248
2249 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
2250 interface mentioned above.
2251
2252 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
2253
2254 * C++ Improvements
2255
2256 ** Namespace Support
2257
2258 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
2259 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
2260 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
2261 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
2262 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
2263
2264 ** Bug Fixes
2265
2266 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
2267 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
2268 qualified name.
2269
2270 ** Cast Operators
2271
2272 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
2273 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
2274
2275 * New targets
2276
2277 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
2278 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2279
2280 * New Simulators
2281
2282 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
2283 Renesas RX rx
2284
2285 * Multi-program debugging.
2286
2287 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
2288 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
2289 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
2290 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
2291 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
2292 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
2293 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
2294 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
2295
2296 * New tracing features
2297
2298 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
2299
2300 ** Trace state variables
2301
2302 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
2303 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
2304 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
2305 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
2306 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
2307 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
2308 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
2309 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
2310 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
2311 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
2312
2313 ** Fast tracepoints
2314
2315 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
2316 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
2317 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
2318 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
2319 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
2320 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
2321 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
2322 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
2323 the regular trace command.
2324
2325 ** Disconnected tracing
2326
2327 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
2328 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
2329 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
2330 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
2331 connection is lost unexpectedly.
2332
2333 ** Trace files
2334
2335 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
2336 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
2337 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
2338 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
2339 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
2340 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
2341 <name>".
2342
2343 ** Circular trace buffer
2344
2345 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
2346 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
2347 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
2348 not be available for all target agents.
2349
2350 * Changed commands
2351
2352 disassemble
2353 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
2354 the arguments to be comma-separated.
2355
2356 info variables
2357 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
2358 which only declare a variable are not shown.
2359
2360 source
2361 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
2362 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
2363 support.
2364
2365 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
2366 "set script-extension" (see below).
2367
2368 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2369
2370 record save [<FILENAME>]
2371 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
2372 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
2373
2374 record restore <FILENAME>
2375 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
2376 earlier time, for replay debugging.
2377
2378 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
2379 Add a new inferior.
2380
2381 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
2382 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
2383 inferior has loaded.
2384
2385 remove-inferior ID
2386 Remove an inferior.
2387
2388 maint info program-spaces
2389 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
2390
2391 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
2392 show remote interrupt-sequence
2393 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
2394 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
2395 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
2396 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
2397 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
2398
2399 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
2400 show remote interrupt-on-connect
2401 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
2402 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
2403 Linux kernel.
2404
2405 set remotebreak [on | off]
2406 show remotebreak
2407 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
2408
2409 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
2410 Create or modify a trace state variable.
2411
2412 info tvariables
2413 List trace state variables and their values.
2414
2415 delete tvariable $NAME ...
2416 Delete one or more trace state variables.
2417
2418 teval EXPR, ...
2419 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
2420 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
2421
2422 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
2423 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
2424
2425 * New expression syntax
2426
2427 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
2428 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
2429
2430 * New options
2431
2432 set follow-exec-mode new|same
2433 show follow-exec-mode
2434 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2435 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2436 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2437
2438 set default-collect EXPR, ...
2439 show default-collect
2440 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2441 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2442 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2443
2444 set disconnected-tracing
2445 show disconnected-tracing
2446 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2447 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2448 upon disconnection.
2449
2450 set circular-trace-buffer
2451 show circular-trace-buffer
2452 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2453 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2454 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2455 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2456
2457 set script-extension off|soft|strict
2458 show script-extension
2459 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2460 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2461 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2462 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2463 evaluation failed.
2464 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2465
2466 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2467 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2468 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2469 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2470 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2471 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2472 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2473 is on.
2474
2475 * Python API Improvements
2476
2477 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
2478 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
2479 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
2480
2481 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
2482 `is_base_class' attribute.
2483
2484 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
2485
2486 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
2487 evaluate an expression.
2488
2489 * New remote packets
2490
2491 QTDV
2492 Define a trace state variable.
2493
2494 qTV
2495 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2496
2497 QTDisconnected
2498 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2499
2500 QTBuffer:circular
2501 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2502
2503 qTfP, qTsP
2504 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2505
2506 * Bug fixes
2507
2508 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2509
2510 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2511 much more reliable. In particular:
2512 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2513 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2514 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2515 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2516 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2517 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2518 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2519 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2520 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2521 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2522 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2523 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2524 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2525 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2526 non-threaded programs.
2527
2528 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2529 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2530 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2531 executable program.
2532
2533 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
2534
2535 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2536 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2537 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2538 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2539 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2540
2541 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2542 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2543 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2544 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2545 for tracepoint actions.
2546
2547 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2548 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2549 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
2550
2551 * Process record and replay
2552
2553 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2554 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2555 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2556 execute commands.
2557
2558 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2559 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2560 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2561 reverse execution.
2562
2563 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2564 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
2565 2.6.28 or later.
2566
2567 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2568 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2569 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2570 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2571 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2572 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2573 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2574 the installation instructions for more information.
2575
2576 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2577 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
2578 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
2579 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
2580
2581 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
2582 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
2583
2584 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
2585 now complete on file names.
2586
2587 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
2588 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
2589 For instance, consider:
2590
2591 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
2592 # struct example variable;
2593 (gdb) p variable.
2594
2595 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
2596 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
2597
2598 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
2599 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
2600
2601 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
2602 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
2603 macros.
2604
2605 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
2606 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
2607 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
2608
2609 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
2610 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
2611 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
2612 and simulator targets may also provide them.
2613
2614 * New remote packets
2615
2616 qSearch:memory:
2617 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2618
2619 QStartNoAckMode
2620 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
2621 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
2622 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
2623
2624 vKill
2625 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
2626 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
2627
2628 qXfer:osdata:read
2629 Obtains additional operating system information
2630
2631 qXfer:siginfo:read
2632 qXfer:siginfo:write
2633 Read or write additional signal information.
2634
2635 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
2636
2637 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
2638 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
2639 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
2640
2641 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
2642 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
2643
2644 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
2645 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
2646 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
2647
2648 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
2649 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
2650
2651 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
2652
2653 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
2654
2655 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
2656 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
2657
2658 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
2659 list of section offsets.
2660
2661 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
2662 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
2663 have also been fixed.
2664
2665 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
2666 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
2667 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
2668
2669 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
2670 example, given:
2671
2672 template<typename T> class C { };
2673 C<char const *> c;
2674
2675 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
2676
2677 ptype C<char const *>
2678 ptype C<char const*>
2679 ptype C<const char *>
2680 ptype C<const char*>
2681
2682 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
2683
2684 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
2685 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2686
2687 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
2688 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2689 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
2690
2691 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
2692 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
2693
2694 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
2695 gdbserver.
2696
2697 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
2698 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2699
2700 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
2701 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
2702 as appropriate.
2703
2704 * Python scripting
2705
2706 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
2707 available is determined at configure time.
2708
2709 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
2710
2711 * Ada tasking support
2712
2713 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
2714 been introduced:
2715
2716 info tasks
2717 Print the list of Ada tasks.
2718 info task N
2719 Print detailed information about task number N.
2720 task
2721 Print the task number of the current task.
2722 task N
2723 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
2724
2725 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
2726 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
2727
2728 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
2729
2730 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
2731 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
2732 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
2733 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
2734 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
2735 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
2736 below.
2737
2738 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
2739 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
2740 information.
2741
2742 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
2743 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
2744 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
2745 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
2746 more information.
2747
2748 * Multi-architecture debugging.
2749
2750 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
2751 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
2752 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
2753 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
2754 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
2755
2756 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
2757 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
2758 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
2759 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
2760 --enable-targets configure option.
2761
2762 * Non-stop mode debugging.
2763
2764 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
2765 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
2766 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
2767 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
2768 section in the user manual for more information.
2769
2770 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
2771 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
2772 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
2773 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
2774 extensions on linux targets.
2775
2776 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2777
2778 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
2779 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
2780 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
2781 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
2782 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
2783 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
2784 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
2785 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
2786 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
2787
2788 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
2789 val1 [, val2, ...]
2790 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2791
2792 maint set python print-stack
2793 maint show python print-stack
2794 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
2795
2796 python [CODE]
2797 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
2798
2799 macro define
2800 macro list
2801 macro undef
2802 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
2803 interactively.
2804
2805 info os processes
2806 Show operating system information about processes.
2807
2808 info inferiors
2809 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
2810
2811 inferior NUM
2812 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
2813
2814 detach inferior NUM
2815 Detach from inferior number NUM.
2816
2817 kill inferior NUM
2818 Kill inferior number NUM.
2819
2820 * New options
2821
2822 set spu stop-on-load
2823 show spu stop-on-load
2824 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2825
2826 set spu auto-flush-cache
2827 show spu auto-flush-cache
2828 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
2829 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2830
2831 set sh calling-convention
2832 show sh calling-convention
2833 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
2834
2835 set debug timestamp
2836 show debug timestamp
2837 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
2838
2839 set disassemble-next-line
2840 show disassemble-next-line
2841 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
2842 the debuggee stops.
2843
2844 set remote noack-packet
2845 show remote noack-packet
2846 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
2847 under "New remote packets."
2848
2849 set remote query-attached-packet
2850 show remote query-attached-packet
2851 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
2852
2853 set remote read-siginfo-object
2854 show remote read-siginfo-object
2855 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
2856 packet.
2857
2858 set remote write-siginfo-object
2859 show remote write-siginfo-object
2860 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
2861 packet.
2862
2863 set remote reverse-continue
2864 show remote reverse-continue
2865 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
2866
2867 set remote reverse-step
2868 show remote reverse-step
2869 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
2870
2871 set displaced-stepping
2872 show displaced-stepping
2873 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
2874 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
2875 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
2876
2877 set debug displaced
2878 show debug displaced
2879 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
2880
2881 maint set internal-error
2882 maint show internal-error
2883 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
2884
2885 maint set internal-warning
2886 maint show internal-warning
2887 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
2888
2889 set exec-wrapper
2890 show exec-wrapper
2891 unset exec-wrapper
2892 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2893
2894 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
2895 show multiple-symbols
2896 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
2897 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
2898 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
2899
2900 set breakpoint always-inserted
2901 show breakpoint always-inserted
2902 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
2903 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2904 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2905
2906 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2907 show arm fallback-mode
2908 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2909 show arm force-mode
2910 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2911 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2912 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2913 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2914
2915 set disable-randomization
2916 show disable-randomization
2917 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2918 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2919 multiple debugging sessions.
2920
2921 set non-stop
2922 show non-stop
2923 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2924 a breakpoint.
2925
2926 set target-async
2927 show target-async
2928 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2929 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2930 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2931 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2932
2933 set target-wide-charset
2934 show target-wide-charset
2935 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2936 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2937
2938 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2939 show tcp auto-retry
2940 set tcp connect-timeout
2941 show tcp connect-timeout
2942 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2943 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2944 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2945
2946 set libthread-db-search-path
2947 show libthread-db-search-path
2948 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2949 libthread_db.
2950
2951 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2952 show schedule-multiple
2953 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2954 the current process.
2955
2956 set stack-cache
2957 show stack-cache
2958 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2959 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2960 affecting correctness.
2961
2962 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2963 show interactive-mode
2964 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2965 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2966 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2967 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2968 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2969
2970 * Removed commands
2971
2972 info forks
2973 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2974 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2975 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2976 command.
2977
2978 fork NUM
2979 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2980 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2981 alias for the `fork' command.
2982
2983 process PID
2984 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2985 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2986 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2987
2988 delete fork NUM
2989 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2990 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2991 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2992 fork' command.
2993
2994 detach fork NUM
2995 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2996 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2997 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2998 fork' command.
2999
3000 * New native configurations
3001
3002 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
3003
3004 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
3005
3006 * New targets
3007
3008 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
3009 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
3010 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
3011 S+core 3 score-*-*
3012
3013 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
3014 (mingw32ce) debugging.
3015
3016 * Removed commands
3017
3018 catch load
3019 catch unload
3020 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
3021
3022 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
3023
3024 * New native configurations
3025
3026 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
3027 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
3028
3029 * New targets
3030
3031 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
3032 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
3033
3034 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3035
3036 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
3037 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
3038 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
3039 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
3040
3041 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
3042 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
3043
3044 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
3045 is resolved.
3046
3047 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
3048 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
3049 and in inlined functions.
3050
3051 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
3052 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
3053 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
3054
3055 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
3056
3057 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
3058 registers on PowerPC targets.
3059
3060 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
3061 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
3062
3063 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
3064 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
3065
3066 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
3067 extended-remote mode.
3068
3069 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
3070 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
3071 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
3072 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
3073
3074 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
3075 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
3076 target architectures.
3077
3078 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
3079 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
3080 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
3081 stored in two consecutive float registers.
3082
3083 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
3084 breakpoints now.
3085
3086 * Improved support for debugging Ada
3087 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
3088 include:
3089 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
3090 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
3091 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
3092 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
3093 of an assignment
3094 - Improved command completion in Ada
3095 - Several bug fixes
3096
3097 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
3098 process.
3099
3100 * New commands
3101
3102 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
3103 show print frame-arguments
3104 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
3105 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
3106
3107 remote put
3108 remote get
3109 remote delete
3110 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3111
3112 * New MI commands
3113
3114 -target-file-put
3115 -target-file-get
3116 -target-file-delete
3117 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
3118
3119 * New remote packets
3120
3121 vFile:open:
3122 vFile:close:
3123 vFile:pread:
3124 vFile:pwrite:
3125 vFile:unlink:
3126 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
3127
3128 vAttach
3129 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
3130 mode.
3131
3132 vRun
3133 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
3134
3135 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
3136
3137 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
3138 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
3139 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
3140
3141 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
3142 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
3143 -Bsymbolic linker option.
3144
3145 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
3146 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
3147 is not supported.
3148
3149 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
3150 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
3151
3152 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
3153 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
3154
3155 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
3156
3157 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
3158 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
3159 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
3160
3161 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
3162 automatically displayed as character or string data.
3163
3164 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
3165 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
3166 as strings.
3167
3168 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
3169 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
3170 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
3171
3172 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
3173 iWMMXt coprocessor.
3174
3175 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
3176 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
3177 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
3178
3179 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
3180
3181 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
3182
3183 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
3184 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
3185 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
3186
3187 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
3188 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
3189
3190 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
3191 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
3192 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
3193 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
3194 Windows and SymbianOS).
3195
3196 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
3197 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
3198
3199 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
3200 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
3201
3202 * New commands
3203
3204 set remoteflow
3205 show remoteflow
3206 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
3207 when debugging using remote targets.
3208
3209 set mem inaccessible-by-default
3210 show mem inaccessible-by-default
3211 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3212 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3213 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
3214 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
3215 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
3216
3217 set breakpoint auto-hw
3218 show breakpoint auto-hw
3219 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
3220 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
3221 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
3222 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
3223 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
3224 including "next" and "finish".
3225
3226 catch exception
3227 catch exception unhandled
3228 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
3229
3230 catch assert
3231 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
3232
3233 set sysroot
3234 show sysroot
3235 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
3236 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
3237 an alias to "set sysroot".
3238
3239 info spu
3240 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
3241 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
3242 architecture.
3243
3244 * New native configurations
3245
3246 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
3247
3248 set tdesc filename
3249 unset tdesc filename
3250 show tdesc filename
3251 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
3252 not query the target for its built-in description.
3253
3254 * New targets
3255
3256 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
3257 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
3258 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
3259
3260 * New remote packets
3261
3262 QPassSignals:
3263 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
3264 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
3265
3266 qXfer:features:read:
3267 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
3268 features.
3269
3270 qXfer:spu:read:
3271 qXfer:spu:write:
3272 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
3273 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
3274
3275 qXfer:libraries:read:
3276 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
3277 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
3278 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
3279 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
3280
3281 * Removed targets
3282
3283 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
3284
3285 alpha*-*-osf1*
3286 alpha*-*-osf2*
3287 d10v-*-*
3288 hppa*-*-hiux*
3289 i[34567]86-ncr-*
3290 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
3291 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
3292 i[34567]86-*-netware*
3293 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
3294 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
3295 i[34567]86-*-sco*
3296 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
3297 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
3298 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
3299 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
3300 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
3301 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
3302 i[34567]86-*-isc*
3303 m68*-cisco*-*
3304 m68*-tandem-*
3305 mips*-*-pe
3306 rs6000-*-lynxos*
3307 sh*-*-pe
3308
3309 * Other removed features
3310
3311 target abug
3312 target cpu32bug
3313 target est
3314 target rom68k
3315
3316 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
3317
3318 target hms
3319 target e7000
3320 target sh3
3321 target sh3e
3322
3323 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
3324 H8/300.
3325
3326 target ocd
3327
3328 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
3329 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
3330 interfaces.
3331
3332 DWARF 1 support
3333
3334 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
3335 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
3336
3337 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
3338
3339 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
3340 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
3341 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
3342 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
3343
3344 MIPS ".pdr" sections
3345
3346 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
3347 in debugging information.
3348
3349 Scheme support
3350
3351 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
3352 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
3353
3354 set mips stack-arg-size
3355 set mips saved-gpreg-size
3356
3357 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
3358
3359 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
3360
3361 * New targets
3362
3363 Xtensa xtensa-elf
3364 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
3365
3366 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
3367 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
3368 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
3369
3370 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
3371 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
3372 supported.
3373
3374 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
3375 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
3376
3377 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
3378 stub provides the required support.
3379
3380 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
3381 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
3382
3383 * New commands
3384
3385 set substitute-path
3386 unset substitute-path
3387 show substitute-path
3388 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
3389 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
3390 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
3391 between compilation and debugging.
3392
3393 set trace-commands
3394 show trace-commands
3395 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
3396 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
3397 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
3398
3399 * REMOVED features
3400
3401 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
3402
3403 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
3404 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
3405
3406 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
3407
3408 * New remote packets
3409
3410 qSupported:
3411 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
3412 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
3413 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
3414 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
3415 target.
3416
3417 qXfer:auxv:read:
3418 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
3419 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
3420
3421 qXfer:memory-map:read:
3422 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
3423 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
3424
3425 vFlashErase:
3426 vFlashWrite:
3427 vFlashDone:
3428 Erase and program a flash memory device.
3429
3430 * Removed remote packets
3431
3432 qPart:auxv:read:
3433 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3434 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3435
3436 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
3437
3438 * New targets
3439
3440 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3441
3442 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3443
3444 * New commands
3445
3446 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3447 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3448
3449 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3450
3451 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3452
3453 restart <n> Return the program state to a
3454 previously saved state.
3455
3456 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3457
3458 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3459
3460 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3461 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3462
3463 info forks List forks of the user program that
3464 are available to be debugged.
3465
3466 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3467 forks of the user program that are
3468 available to be debugged.
3469
3470 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3471 that are available to be debugged (and
3472 kill the forked process).
3473
3474 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3475 that are available to be debugged (and
3476 allow the process to continue).
3477
3478 * New architecture
3479
3480 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
3481
3482 * Improved Windows host support
3483
3484 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
3485 native console support, and remote communications using either
3486 network sockets or serial ports.
3487
3488 * Improved Modula-2 language support
3489
3490 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
3491 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
3492 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
3493 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
3494 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3495 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3496
3497 * REMOVED features
3498
3499 The ARM rdi-share module.
3500
3501 The Netware NLM debug server.
3502
3503 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
3504
3505 * New native configurations
3506
3507 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
3508 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3509
3510 * New targets
3511
3512 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3513
3514 * New command line options
3515
3516 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3517 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3518 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3519 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3520 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3521 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3522 with the --command (-x) option.
3523
3524 * Deprecated commands removed
3525
3526 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3527 removed:
3528
3529 Command Replacement
3530 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3531 othernames set arm disassembler
3532 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3533 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3534 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3535 regs info registers
3536
3537 * New BSD user-level threads support
3538
3539 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3540 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3541 configurations are:
3542
3543 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3544 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3545 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3546
3547 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3548 are not yet supported.
3549
3550 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3551 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3552
3553 * REMOVED configurations and files
3554
3555 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
3556 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
3557 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
3558
3559 * New "set print array-indexes" command
3560
3561 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3562 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3563 behavior.
3564
3565 * VAX floating point support
3566
3567 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3568
3569 * User-defined command support
3570
3571 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3572 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3573 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3574
3575 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3576
3577 * New command line option
3578
3579 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
3580 debugging.
3581
3582 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
3583
3584 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
3585 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
3586 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
3587 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
3588 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
3589
3590 * Internationalization
3591
3592 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
3593 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
3594 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
3595
3596 * Ada
3597
3598 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
3599 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
3600 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
3601
3602 * New native configurations
3603
3604 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
3605
3606 * Remote 'p' packet
3607
3608 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
3609 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
3610
3611 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
3612
3613 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3614 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
3615 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
3616 i386 application).
3617
3618 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
3619 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
3620 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
3621 configurations:
3622
3623 hppa-*-hpux
3624 ia64-*-aix
3625 mips-*-irix*
3626 *-*-lynx
3627 mips-*-linux-gnu
3628 sds protocol
3629 xdr protocol
3630 powerpc bdm protocol
3631
3632 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3633 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
3634
3635 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3636
3637 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3638 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3639 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3640 permanently REMOVED.
3641
3642 h8300-*-*
3643 mcore-*-*
3644 mn10300-*-*
3645 ns32k-*-*
3646 sh64-*-*
3647 v850-*-*
3648
3649 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
3650
3651 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
3652
3653 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
3654 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
3655 been fixed.
3656
3657 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
3658
3659 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
3660 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
3661 IRIX long double values).
3662
3663 * VAX and "next"
3664
3665 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
3666 command. This problem has been fixed.
3667
3668 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
3669
3670 * Fix for ``many threads''
3671
3672 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
3673 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
3674 error message:
3675
3676 ptrace: No such process.
3677 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
3678
3679 This problem has been fixed.
3680
3681 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
3682
3683 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
3684 GDB to dump core).
3685
3686 * New ``start'' command.
3687
3688 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
3689
3690 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
3691
3692 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
3693 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
3694 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
3695
3696 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3697 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
3698 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
3699 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
3700 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
3701 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3702 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
3703 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
3704 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3705
3706 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
3707
3708 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
3709 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
3710 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
3711 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
3712 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
3713
3714 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
3715 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
3716 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3717
3718 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
3719
3720 * New native configurations
3721
3722 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
3723 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
3724 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
3725 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
3726 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
3727 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
3728 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
3729
3730 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
3731
3732 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3733 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
3734 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
3735 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
3736 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
3737 work, was also included.
3738
3739 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
3740 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
3741
3742 h8300-*-*
3743 mcore-*-*
3744 mn10300-*-*
3745 ns32k-*-*
3746 sh64-*-*
3747 v850-*-*
3748 xstormy16-*-*
3749
3750 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3751 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
3752
3753 * REMOVED configurations and files
3754
3755 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3756 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3757 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3758 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3759 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3760 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3761 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3762 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3763 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3764 sonymips mips-sony-*
3765 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3766
3767 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
3768
3769 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
3770
3771 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
3772 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
3773 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
3774 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
3775 with GDB".
3776
3777 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
3778
3779 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
3780 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
3781 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
3782 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
3783 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
3784 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
3785 are created.
3786
3787 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
3788
3789 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
3790
3791 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
3792 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
3793 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
3794
3795 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
3796
3797 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
3798 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
3799
3800 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
3801
3802 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
3803 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
3804 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
3805
3806 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
3807
3808 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
3809 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
3810
3811 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
3812
3813 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
3814 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
3815 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
3816
3817 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
3818
3819 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
3820 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
3821 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
3822
3823 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
3824
3825 * Removed --with-mmalloc
3826
3827 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
3828 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
3829
3830 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
3831
3832 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
3833 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
3834 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
3835 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
3836
3837 * Revised SPARC target
3838
3839 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
3840 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
3841 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
3842 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
3843 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
3844
3845 * New C++ demangler
3846
3847 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
3848 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
3849 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
3850 programs.
3851
3852 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3853
3854 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
3855 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
3856 encountered these.
3857
3858 * C++ nested types and namespaces
3859
3860 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
3861 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
3862 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
3863 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
3864 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
3865 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
3866 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
3867 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
3868 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
3869
3870 * New native configurations
3871
3872 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
3873 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3874 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
3875 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3876 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
3877
3878 * New debugging protocols
3879
3880 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
3881
3882 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
3883
3884 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
3885 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
3886 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
3887
3888 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
3889
3890 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3891 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3892 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3893 permanently REMOVED.
3894
3895 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3896 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3897 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3898 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3899 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3900 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3901 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3902 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3903 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3904 sonymips mips-sony-*
3905 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3906
3907 * REMOVED configurations and files
3908
3909 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3910 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3911 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3912 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3913 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3914 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3915 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3916 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3917 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
3918 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
3919 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3920 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3921 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
3922 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3923 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
3924 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3925 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3926
3927 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3928
3929 * Objective-C
3930
3931 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3932 integrated into GDB.
3933
3934 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3935
3936 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3937 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3938 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3939 backtraces.
3940
3941 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3942 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3943 DWARF 2 CFI support.
3944
3945 * Hosted file I/O.
3946
3947 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3948 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3949 remote protocol documentation for details.
3950
3951 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
3952
3953 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3954 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3955 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3956 ppc32 on ppc64).
3957
3958 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3959
3960 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3961 per-thread variables.
3962
3963 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3964
3965 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3966 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3967
3968 * Separate debug info.
3969
3970 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3971 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3972 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3973 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3974 and optional debug files.
3975
3976 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3977
3978 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3979 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3980 debugger.
3981
3982 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3983 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3984
3985 * Java
3986
3987 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3988 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3989 considered "useable".
3990
3991 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3992
3993 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3994 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3995 kernel.
3996
3997 * GDB supports logging output to a file
3998
3999 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
4000 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
4001
4002 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
4003
4004 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
4005 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
4006 command.
4007
4008 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
4009
4010 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
4011 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
4012
4013 * Profiling support
4014
4015 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
4016 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
4017 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
4018 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
4019 data, for more informative profiling results.
4020
4021 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
4022
4023 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
4024 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
4025 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
4026
4027 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
4028 removed.
4029
4030 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
4031 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
4032 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
4033 in a subsequent -var-update.
4034
4035 * New native configurations.
4036
4037 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
4038
4039 * Multi-arched targets.
4040
4041 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
4042 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4043
4044 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4045
4046 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4047 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4048 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4049 permanently REMOVED.
4050
4051 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4052 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4053 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4054 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
4055 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4056 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
4057 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
4058 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
4059 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
4060 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
4061 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4062 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
4063
4064 * REMOVED configurations and files
4065
4066 V850EA ISA
4067 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4068 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4069 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4070 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4071 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4072 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4073 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4074 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4075 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4076 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4077 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4078 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4079 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4080
4081 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
4082
4083 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
4084 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
4085 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
4086 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
4087 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
4088
4089 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
4090
4091 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
4092
4093 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
4094 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
4095 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
4096 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
4097 shared libs like mad''.
4098
4099 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
4100
4101 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
4102 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
4103 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
4104 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
4105
4106 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
4107
4108 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
4109 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
4110 they expand.
4111
4112 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
4113 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
4114
4115 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
4116 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
4117
4118 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
4119 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
4120 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
4121 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
4122
4123 * Multi-arched targets.
4124
4125 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
4126 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
4127 NEC V850 v850-*-*
4128 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
4129 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
4130 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
4131
4132 * New targets.
4133
4134 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
4135
4136
4137 * New native configurations
4138
4139 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
4140 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
4141 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
4142 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
4143
4144 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4145
4146 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4147 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4148 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4149 permanently REMOVED.
4150
4151 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4152 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4153 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
4154 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4155 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4156 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4157 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
4158 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
4159 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
4160 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
4161 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
4162 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4163 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4164
4165 * OBSOLETE languages
4166
4167 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
4168
4169 * REMOVED configurations and files
4170
4171 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4172 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4173 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4174 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4175 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4176
4177 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4178
4179 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
4180
4181 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
4182 commands. The default is 1024.
4183
4184 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
4185
4186 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
4187
4188 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
4189
4190 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
4191 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
4192 from a file into memory (restore).
4193
4194 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
4195
4196 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
4197 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
4198 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
4199
4200 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
4201
4202 * New targets.
4203
4204 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
4205
4206 * Bug fixes
4207
4208 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
4209 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
4210 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
4211
4212 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
4213 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
4214 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
4215
4216 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
4217 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
4218 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
4219
4220 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
4221 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
4222 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
4223
4224 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
4225
4226 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
4227
4228 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
4229 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
4230 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
4231 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
4232 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
4233 (notably embedded) targets.
4234
4235 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
4236
4237 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
4238 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
4239 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
4240 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
4241
4242 * New command line option
4243
4244 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
4245
4246 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4247
4248 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
4249 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
4250 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
4251 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
4252 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
4253 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
4254 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
4255 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
4256 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
4257 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
4258
4259 * Changes in ARM configurations.
4260
4261 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
4262 configuration is fully multi-arch.
4263
4264 * New native configurations
4265
4266 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
4267 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
4268 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
4269 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
4270
4271 * New targets
4272
4273 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
4274
4275 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4276
4277 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4278 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4279 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4280 permanently REMOVED.
4281
4282 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
4283 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4284 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4285 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4286 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4287
4288 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
4289
4290 * REMOVED configurations and files
4291
4292 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4293 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4294 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4295 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4296 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4297 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4298 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4299 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4300 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4301 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4302 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4303 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4304 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
4305
4306 * Changes to command line processing
4307
4308 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
4309 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
4310
4311 * Changes to key bindings
4312
4313 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
4314
4315 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
4316
4317 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
4318
4319 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
4320 corrupted.
4321
4322 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
4323
4324 Numerous documentation fixes.
4325
4326 Numerous testsuite fixes.
4327
4328 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
4329
4330 * New native configurations
4331
4332 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
4333 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
4334 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
4335 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4336 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
4337 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
4338
4339 * New targets
4340
4341 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
4342 CRIS cris-axis
4343 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
4344
4345 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
4346
4347 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
4348 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
4349 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4350 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
4351 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4352 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4353 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
4354 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4355 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4356 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
4357 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
4358 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4359 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
4360 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
4361
4362 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
4363 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
4364
4365 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4366 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4367 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4368 permanently REMOVED.
4369
4370 * REMOVED configurations and files
4371
4372 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4373 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4374 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
4375 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4376 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
4377 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
4378
4379 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
4380
4381 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
4382 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
4383 present.
4384
4385 * Other news:
4386
4387 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
4388
4389 * The MI enabled by default.
4390
4391 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
4392 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
4393 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
4394 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
4395 which is now deprecated.
4396
4397 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
4398
4399 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
4400 main features are supported:
4401
4402 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
4403
4404 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
4405 extension;
4406
4407 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
4408
4409 - a Pascal expression parser.
4410
4411 However, some important features are not yet supported.
4412
4413 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
4414
4415 - there are some problems with boolean types;
4416
4417 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
4418 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
4419
4420 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
4421
4422 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
4423
4424 * Changes in completion.
4425
4426 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
4427 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
4428 users expect at the shell prompt.
4429
4430 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
4431 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
4432 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4433 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4434 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4435 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4436 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4437
4438 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4439
4440 * New platform-independent commands:
4441
4442 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4443 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4444 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4445
4446 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4447
4448 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4449 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4450 many threads as your system allows you to have.
4451
4452 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4453
4454 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4455 multi-threaded programs though.
4456
4457 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
4458
4459 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4460
4461 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4462 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4463 supported.)
4464
4465 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4466
4467 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4468 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4469 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4470 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4471 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4472 registers.
4473
4474 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4475 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
4476 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
4477
4478 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
4479
4480 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
4481 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
4482
4483 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
4484 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
4485 IDT.
4486
4487 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
4488 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
4489 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
4490 a given linear address.
4491
4492 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
4493 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
4494 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4495
4496 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4497
4498 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4499
4500 * Changes in documentation.
4501
4502 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4503 Documentation License.
4504
4505 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4506 manual.
4507
4508 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4509
4510 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4511 manual.
4512
4513 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4514 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4515 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4516
4517 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4518
4519 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4520 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4521 contents of this file.
4522
4523 * gdba.el deleted
4524
4525 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
4526
4527 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
4528
4529 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4530
4531 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4532 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4533 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4534 greater level of detail.
4535
4536 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4537
4538 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4539 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4540 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4541 written.
4542
4543 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4544
4545 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4546 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4547 machines ``out of the box''.
4548
4549 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4550 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4551 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4552 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4553 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4554
4555 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4556 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4557 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4558 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4559 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4560
4561 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4562 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4563 also works.
4564
4565 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4566 GDB.
4567
4568 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4569 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4570 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4571 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4572
4573 * New native configurations
4574
4575 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
4576 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4577
4578 * New targets
4579
4580 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
4581 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
4582 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
4583 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4584
4585 * OBSOLETE configurations
4586
4587 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4588 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4589 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
4590 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4591 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
4592
4593 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4594 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4595 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4596 be permanently REMOVED.
4597
4598 * Gould support removed
4599
4600 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
4601
4602 * New features for SVR4
4603
4604 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
4605 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
4606 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
4607
4608 * Many C++ enhancements
4609
4610 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
4611 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
4612
4613 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
4614
4615 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
4616 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
4617 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
4618 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
4619
4620 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
4621 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
4622
4623 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
4624
4625 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
4626 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
4627 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
4628
4629 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
4630 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4631
4632 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
4633
4634 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
4635 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
4636 include ``set remote P-packet''.
4637
4638 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
4639
4640 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
4641 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
4642 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
4643
4644 * ``apropos'' command added.
4645
4646 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
4647 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
4648 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
4649
4650 * New MI interface
4651
4652 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
4653 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
4654 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
4655 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
4656 enabled by configuring with:
4657
4658 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
4659
4660 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
4661
4662 * New native configurations
4663
4664 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
4665 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
4666 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
4667
4668 * New targets
4669
4670 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4671 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
4672 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4673
4674 * OBSOLETE configurations
4675
4676 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
4677
4678 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4679 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4680 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4681 be permanently REMOVED.
4682
4683 * ANSI/ISO C
4684
4685 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
4686 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
4687 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
4688 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
4689 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
4690 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
4691 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
4692 already.
4693
4694 * Readline 2.2
4695
4696 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
4697
4698 * set extension-language
4699
4700 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
4701 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
4702 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
4703 set extension-language .c c++
4704 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
4705 and their associated languages.
4706
4707 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
4708
4709 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
4710 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
4711 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
4712
4713 set processor NAME
4714
4715 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
4716 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
4717
4718 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
4719 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
4720 403 IBM PowerPC 403
4721 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
4722 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
4723 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
4724 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
4725 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
4726 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
4727 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
4728 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
4729
4730 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
4731 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
4732 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
4733 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
4734
4735 * HP-UX support
4736
4737 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
4738 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
4739 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
4740 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
4741 for xdb and dbx commands.
4742
4743 * Catchpoints
4744
4745 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
4746 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
4747 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
4748
4749 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
4750 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
4751 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
4752
4753 * Debugging across forks
4754
4755 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
4756 in the inferior.
4757
4758 * TUI
4759
4760 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
4761 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
4762 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
4763
4764 * GDB remote protocol additions
4765
4766 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
4767 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
4768 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
4769 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
4770
4771 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
4772 full 64-bit address. The command
4773
4774 set remoteaddresssize 32
4775
4776 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
4777 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
4778 will be discarded.
4779
4780 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
4781 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
4782
4783 maint packet heythere
4784
4785 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
4786 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
4787 time.
4788
4789 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
4790 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
4791 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
4792
4793 * Tracing can collect general expressions
4794
4795 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
4796 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
4797 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
4798
4799 * mask-address variable for Mips
4800
4801 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
4802 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
4803 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
4804
4805 * Higher serial baud rates
4806
4807 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
4808 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
4809 to achieve all of these rates.)
4810
4811 * i960 simulator
4812
4813 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
4814 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
4815
4816
4817 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
4818
4819 * New native configurations
4820
4821 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
4822 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
4823 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4824 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4825 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4826 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
4827 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
4828
4829 * New targets
4830
4831 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4832 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
4833 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4834 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
4835 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
4836 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
4837 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
4838 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
4839 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4840 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4841 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
4842
4843 * New debugging protocols
4844
4845 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4846 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
4847 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
4848 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4849 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4850 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4851
4852 * DWARF 2
4853
4854 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
4855 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
4856 information.
4857
4858 * Java frontend
4859
4860 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
4861 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
4862
4863 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
4864
4865 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
4866 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
4867 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
4868
4869 * Live range splitting
4870
4871 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
4872 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
4873 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
4874
4875 * Hurd support
4876
4877 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
4878 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
4879
4880 * ARM Thumb support
4881
4882 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
4883 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
4884 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
4885 accordingly.
4886
4887 * MIPS16 support
4888
4889 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
4890 instruction set.
4891
4892 * Overlay support
4893
4894 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
4895 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
4896 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
4897 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
4898 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
4899 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
4900
4901 * info symbol
4902
4903 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4904 the symbol at the specified address.
4905
4906 * Trace support
4907
4908 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4909 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4910 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4911 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4912 file tracepoint.c for more details.
4913
4914 * MIPS simulator
4915
4916 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4917 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4918 of most MIPS variants.
4919
4920 * Sparc simulator
4921
4922 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4923 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4924 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4925
4926 * set architecture
4927
4928 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4929 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4930 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4931 the possible architectures.
4932
4933 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4934
4935 * New native configurations
4936
4937 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4938 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4939 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4940 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4941 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4942 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4943
4944 * New targets
4945
4946 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4947 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4948 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4949 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4950 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4951 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
4952 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4953
4954 * PowerPC simulator
4955
4956 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4957 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4958 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4959 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4960 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4961
4962 * Solaris 2.5
4963
4964 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4965
4966 * Windows 95/NT native
4967
4968 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4969 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4970 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4971 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4972 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4973
4974 * dont-repeat command
4975
4976 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4977 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4978 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4979 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4980
4981 * Send break instead of ^C
4982
4983 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4984 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4985 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4986
4987 * Remote protocol timeout
4988
4989 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4990 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4991 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4992
4993 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4994
4995 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4996 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4997 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4998 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4999 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
5000
5001 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
5002 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
5003 automatically on hpux10.
5004
5005 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
5006
5007 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
5008
5009 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
5010
5011 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
5012 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
5013 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
5014 every character. The default value is 1050.
5015
5016 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
5017
5018 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
5019 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
5020 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
5021 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
5022 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
5023 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
5024
5025 * Speedups for remote debugging
5026
5027 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
5028 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
5029 and more efficient S-record downloading.
5030
5031 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
5032
5033 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
5034 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
5035
5036 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
5037
5038 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
5039
5040 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
5041 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
5042
5043 * Remote targets use caching
5044
5045 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
5046 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
5047 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
5048 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
5049 off' turns the the data cache off.
5050
5051 * Remote targets may have threads
5052
5053 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
5054 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
5055 gdb/remote.c for details.
5056
5057 * NetROM support
5058
5059 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
5060 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
5061 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
5062 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
5063 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
5064 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
5065 sequence is something like
5066
5067 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
5068 load <prog>
5069 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
5070
5071 * Macintosh host
5072
5073 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
5074 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
5075 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
5076 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
5077 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
5078 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
5079 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
5080 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
5081
5082 * Autoconf
5083
5084 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
5085 but does simplify configuration and building.
5086
5087 * hpux10
5088
5089 GDB now supports hpux10.
5090
5091 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
5092
5093 * New native configurations
5094
5095 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
5096 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
5097 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
5098 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
5099
5100 * New targets
5101
5102 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5103 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
5104 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
5105 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
5106 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
5107
5108 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
5109
5110 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
5111 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
5112 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
5113 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
5114 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
5115
5116 * Arguments to user-defined commands
5117
5118 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
5119 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
5120 trivial example:
5121 define adder
5122 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
5123
5124 To execute the command use:
5125 adder 1 2 3
5126
5127 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
5128 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
5129 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
5130
5131 * New `if' and `while' commands
5132
5133 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
5134 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
5135 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
5136 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
5137 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
5138 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
5139 if the expression is zero.
5140
5141 * Fortran source language mode
5142
5143 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
5144 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
5145 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
5146 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
5147 Fortran compilers.
5148
5149 * Better HPUX support
5150
5151 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
5152 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
5153 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
5154 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
5155 that behavior do the following before running the program:
5156
5157 adb -w a.out
5158 __dld_flags?W 0x5
5159 control-d
5160
5161 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
5162 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
5163
5164 adb -w a.out
5165 __dld_flags?W 0x4
5166 control-d
5167
5168 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
5169 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
5170 external linkage.
5171
5172 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
5173 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
5174
5175 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
5176
5177 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
5178 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
5179 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
5180 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
5181 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
5182 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
5183
5184 * New DOS host serial code
5185
5186 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
5187 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
5188 a PC's serial port.
5189
5190 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
5191
5192 * New "complete" command
5193
5194 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
5195 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
5196
5197 * Trailing space optional in prompt
5198
5199 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
5200 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
5201
5202 * Breakpoint hit counts
5203
5204 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
5205 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
5206 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
5207 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
5208 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
5209 that breakpoint.
5210
5211 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
5212
5213 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
5214 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
5215 arrays actually contain only short strings.
5216
5217 * Shared library breakpoints
5218
5219 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
5220 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
5221
5222 * Hardware watchpoints
5223
5224 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
5225 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
5226
5227 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
5228
5229 * Annotations
5230
5231 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
5232 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
5233
5234 * Improved Irix 5 support
5235
5236 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
5237
5238 * Improved HPPA support
5239
5240 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
5241
5242 * New native configurations
5243
5244 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
5245 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5246 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
5247 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
5248
5249 * New targets
5250
5251 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5252 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
5253 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
5254
5255 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
5256
5257 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
5258 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
5259
5260 * Fixes
5261
5262 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
5263 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
5264
5265 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
5266
5267 * Irix 5 is now supported
5268
5269 * HPPA support
5270
5271 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
5272 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
5273 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
5274 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
5275 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
5276
5277
5278 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
5279
5280 * User visible changes:
5281
5282 * Remote Debugging
5283
5284 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
5285 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
5286 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
5287 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
5288 debugging info for the mips target).
5289
5290 * DEC Alpha native support
5291
5292 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
5293 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
5294 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
5295 Alpha-specific notes.
5296
5297 * Preliminary thread implementation
5298
5299 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
5300
5301 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
5302
5303 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
5304 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
5305 for details).
5306
5307 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
5308
5309 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
5310 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
5311 call methods, ...etc.
5312
5313 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
5314
5315 * User visible changes:
5316
5317 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
5318 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
5319 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
5320 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
5321
5322 Filename completion now works.
5323
5324 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
5325 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
5326 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
5327
5328 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
5329 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
5330 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
5331 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
5332 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
5333
5334 * DEC alpha support
5335
5336 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
5337 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
5338
5339
5340 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
5341
5342 * Testsuite
5343
5344 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
5345 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
5346 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
5347
5348 * C++ demangling
5349
5350 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
5351 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
5352 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
5353 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
5354 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
5355
5356 * Simulators
5357
5358 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
5359 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
5360 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
5361
5362 * New targets supported
5363
5364 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5365 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5366 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
5367 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5368 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
5369
5370 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
5371 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
5372 GO32 memory extender.
5373
5374 * New remote protocols
5375
5376 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
5377
5378 * New source languages supported
5379
5380 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
5381 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
5382 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
5383
5384
5385 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
5386
5387 * HP Precision Architecture supported
5388
5389 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
5390 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
5391 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
5392 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
5393 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
5394 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
5395
5396 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
5397
5398 * Faster and better demangling
5399
5400 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
5401 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
5402 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
5403 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
5404 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
5405 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
5406 symbol lookups.
5407
5408 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
5409 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
5410 compiler does not actually implement.
5411
5412 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
5413
5414 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
5415 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
5416 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
5417 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
5418 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
5419 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
5420 fix.
5421
5422 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
5423 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
5424
5425 * Improved configure script
5426
5427 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
5428 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
5429 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
5430 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
5431
5432 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5433 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5434 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5435 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5436 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5437 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5438
5439 * Documentation improvements
5440
5441 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5442 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5443 before submitting changes.
5444
5445 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5446 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5447 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5448 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5449 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5450
5451 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5452 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5453 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5454 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5455 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5456 around this problem.
5457
5458 * New features
5459
5460 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5461 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5462 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5463 the target program.
5464
5465 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5466 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5467
5468 * New native hosts supported
5469
5470 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5471 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5472
5473 * New targets supported
5474
5475 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
5476
5477 * New file formats supported
5478
5479 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
5480 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
5481
5482 * Major bug fixes
5483
5484 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
5485
5486 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
5487 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
5488
5489 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
5490 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
5491 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
5492
5493 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
5494 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5495
5496 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5497 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5498 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5499 libraries.
5500
5501 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5502 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5503 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5504 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5505 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5506
5507 * Internal improvements
5508
5509 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5510 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5511
5512 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5513 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5514 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5515 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5516 shared code that handles any of them.
5517
5518 * New command line options
5519
5520 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5521
5522 * Mmalloc licensing
5523
5524 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5525 General Public License.
5526
5527 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5528
5529 * Host/native/target split
5530
5531 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5532 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5533 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5534 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5535 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5536
5537 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5538 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5539 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5540 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5541 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5542 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5543 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5544
5545 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5546 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5547 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5548
5549 * New hosts supported
5550
5551 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5552 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5553 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5554
5555 * New targets supported
5556
5557 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5558 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5559
5560 * New native hosts supported
5561
5562 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5563 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5564 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5565
5566 * New file formats supported
5567
5568 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5569 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5570 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5571
5572 * New commands
5573
5574 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5575 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5576 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5577
5578 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5579
5580 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
5581 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
5582 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
5583 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
5584
5585 * C++ improvements
5586
5587 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
5588 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
5589 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
5590
5591 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5592
5593 * Major bug fixes
5594
5595 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
5596 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
5597 by the compiler.
5598
5599 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
5600 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
5601
5602 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
5603 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
5604 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
5605 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
5606 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
5607 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
5608
5609 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
5610 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
5611 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
5612 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
5613
5614 * AMD 29k support
5615
5616 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
5617 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
5618 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
5619 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
5620 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
5621
5622 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
5623 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
5624 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
5625 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
5626
5627 * Remote interfaces
5628
5629 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
5630 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
5631 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
5632 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
5633 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
5634 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
5635 each instruction being stepped through.
5636
5637 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
5638 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
5639
5640 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
5641 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
5642 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
5643 processor with a serial port.
5644
5645 * Configuration
5646
5647 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
5648 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
5649 supported, and what files each one uses.
5650
5651 * Library changes
5652
5653 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
5654 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
5655 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
5656 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
5657
5658 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
5659 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
5660 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
5661 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
5662
5663 * Documentation
5664
5665 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
5666 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
5667 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
5668 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
5669 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
5670 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
5671
5672 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
5673
5674
5675 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
5676
5677 * Better support for C++ function names
5678
5679 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
5680 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
5681 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
5682 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
5683 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
5684
5685 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
5686 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
5687 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
5688 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
5689 for the list of formats.
5690
5691 * G++ symbol mangling problem
5692
5693 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
5694 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
5695 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
5696 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
5697 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
5698 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
5699 this problem.)
5700
5701 * New 'maintenance' command
5702
5703 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
5704 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
5705 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
5706
5707 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
5708 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
5709 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
5710 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
5711 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
5712 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
5713
5714 The following commands are new:
5715
5716 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
5717 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
5718 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
5719
5720 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
5721
5722 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
5723 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
5724 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
5725 read after argv processing.
5726
5727 * New hosts supported
5728
5729 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
5730
5731 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
5732
5733 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
5734 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
5735 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
5736 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
5737 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
5738 It costs extra.
5739
5740 * New targets supported
5741
5742 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5743
5744 * More smarts about finding #include files
5745
5746 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
5747 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
5748 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
5749 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
5750 the one that contains your sources.
5751
5752 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
5753 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
5754 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
5755
5756 * Interesting infernals change
5757
5758 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
5759 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
5760 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
5761 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
5762
5763 * Bug fixes (of course!)
5764
5765 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
5766 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
5767 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
5768
5769 See the ChangeLog for details.
5770
5771 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
5772
5773 * New machines supported (host and target)
5774
5775 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
5776
5777 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5778
5779 * New malloc package
5780
5781 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
5782 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
5783 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
5784 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
5785 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
5786 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
5787
5788 * info proc
5789
5790 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
5791 'help info proc' for details.
5792
5793 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
5794
5795 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
5796 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
5797 possible.
5798
5799 * File name changes for MS-DOS
5800
5801 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
5802 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
5803 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
5804 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
5805 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
5806 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
5807
5808 * Cross byte order fixes
5809
5810 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
5811 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
5812
5813 * New -mapped and -readnow options
5814
5815 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
5816 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
5817 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
5818 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
5819 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
5820 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
5821 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
5822 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
5823 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
5824 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
5825
5826 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
5827 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
5828 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
5829 slower, but makes future operations faster.
5830
5831 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
5832 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
5833 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
5834 use is:
5835
5836 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
5837
5838 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
5839 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
5840 shared across multiple host platforms.
5841
5842 * longjmp() handling
5843
5844 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
5845 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
5846 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
5847 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
5848
5849 * Solaris 2.0
5850
5851 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
5852 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
5853 reading symbols.
5854
5855 * Bug fixes
5856
5857 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
5858 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
5859 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
5860
5861 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
5862
5863 * New machines supported (host and target)
5864
5865 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5866 (except core files)
5867 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
5868 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
5869
5870 * New machines supported (target)
5871
5872 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5873
5874 * C++ support
5875
5876 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
5877 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
5878 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
5879
5880 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
5881 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
5882 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
5883 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
5884 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
5885 released.
5886
5887 * New features for SVR4
5888
5889 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
5890 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
5891 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
5892
5893 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
5894 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
5895 it prints the address mappings of the process.
5896
5897 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
5898 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
5899
5900 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
5901
5902 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
5903 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5904 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5905 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5906 same code linked statically.
5907
5908 * New Getopt
5909
5910 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5911 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5912 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5913 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5914 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5915 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5916
5917 * Bugs fixed
5918
5919 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5920 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5921 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5922
5923
5924 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5925
5926 * New machines supported (host and target)
5927
5928 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5929 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5930 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5931
5932 * Almost SCO Unix support
5933
5934 We had hoped to support:
5935 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5936 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5937 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5938 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5939
5940 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5941
5942 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5943 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5944 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5945 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5946 reqired (if any).
5947
5948 * New Readline
5949
5950 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5951 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5952 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5953
5954 * Bugs fixed
5955
5956 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5957 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5958 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5959
5960 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5961
5962 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5963 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5964 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5965
5966 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5967 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5968 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5969 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5970 version 2.
5971
5972 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5973 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5974 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5975 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5976 situation somewhat.
5977
5978 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5979 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5980 methods.
5981
5982 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5983 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5984 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5985
5986
5987 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5988
5989 * Improved configuration
5990
5991 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5992 Porting BFD is simpler.
5993
5994 * Stepping improved
5995
5996 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5997 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5998 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5999 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
6000
6001 * Bug fixing
6002
6003 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
6004
6005 * New host supported (not target)
6006
6007 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
6008
6009
6010 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
6011
6012 * Multiple source language support
6013
6014 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
6015 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
6016 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
6017 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
6018 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
6019 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
6020
6021 * GDB and Modula-2
6022
6023 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
6024 currently under development at the State University of New York at
6025 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
6026 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
6027
6028 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
6029 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
6030 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
6031
6032 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
6033 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
6034
6035 * set write on/off
6036
6037 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
6038 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
6039 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
6040 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
6041 effect immediately.
6042
6043 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
6044
6045 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
6046 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
6047 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
6048 examining core files.
6049
6050 * set listsize
6051
6052 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
6053 The default is 10.
6054
6055 * New machines supported (host and target)
6056
6057 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
6058 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
6059 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
6060
6061 * New hosts supported (not targets)
6062
6063 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
6064
6065 * New targets supported (not hosts)
6066
6067 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6068 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6069 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
6070
6071 * New remote interfaces
6072
6073 AMD 29000 Adapt
6074 AMD 29000 Minimon
6075
6076
6077 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
6078
6079 * New Facilities
6080
6081 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
6082
6083 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
6084 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
6085 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
6086 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
6087 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
6088 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
6089 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
6090 stub on the target system.
6091
6092 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
6093
6094 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
6095 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
6096 object file types such as a.out and coff.
6097
6098 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
6099 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
6100
6101
6102 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
6103
6104 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
6105 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
6106
6107 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
6108 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
6109 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
6110
6111 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
6112 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
6113 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
6114 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
6115
6116 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
6117 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
6118 it is already running. Default is ON.
6119
6120 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
6121 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
6122 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
6123 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
6124 Default is ON.
6125
6126 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
6127 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
6128 or the value of the environment variable
6129 GDBHISTFILE.
6130
6131 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
6132 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
6133 HISTSIZE.
6134
6135 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
6136 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
6137 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
6138
6139 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
6140 history expansion will be performed on
6141 command line input. The default is OFF.
6142
6143 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
6144 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
6145 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
6146
6147 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
6148 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
6149 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6150 variable TERM.
6151
6152 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
6153 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
6154 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
6155 variable TERM.
6156
6157 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
6158 ``set width'' instead.
6159
6160 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
6161 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
6162 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
6163 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
6164
6165 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
6166 is OFF.
6167
6168 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
6169 "raw" form if off.
6170
6171 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
6172 like instructions.
6173
6174 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
6175
6176
6177 * Support for Epoch Environment.
6178
6179 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
6180 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
6181 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
6182 window.
6183
6184
6185 * Support for Shared Libraries
6186
6187 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
6188 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
6189 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
6190 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
6191 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
6192 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
6193 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
6194 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
6195
6196 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
6197 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
6198 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
6199
6200 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
6201
6202
6203 * Watchpoints
6204
6205 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
6206 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
6207 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
6208 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
6209 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
6210 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
6211
6212 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
6213
6214 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
6215
6216 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6217 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6218 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
6219
6220
6221 * C++ multiple inheritance
6222
6223 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
6224 for C++ programs.
6225
6226 * C++ exception handling
6227
6228 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
6229 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
6230 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
6231 handler's context).
6232
6233 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
6234 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
6235 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
6236
6237 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
6238 current stack frame.
6239
6240
6241 * Minor command changes
6242
6243 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
6244 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
6245 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
6246
6247 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
6248 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
6249 frames without printing.
6250
6251 * New directory command
6252
6253 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
6254 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
6255 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
6256 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
6257 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
6258
6259 * Configuring GDB for compilation
6260
6261 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
6262 for more details.
6263
6264 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
6265 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
6266 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
6267 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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