1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 5.3:
6 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
8 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
9 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
10 "mi1", can be enabled by sepcifying the option "-i=mi1".
12 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
15 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
16 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
17 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
18 in a subsequent -var-update.
20 * REMOVED configurations and files
24 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
26 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
27 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
28 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
29 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
30 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
32 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
34 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
36 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
37 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
38 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
39 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
40 shared libs like mad''.
42 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
44 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
45 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
46 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
47 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
49 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
51 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
52 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
55 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
56 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
58 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
59 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
61 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
62 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
63 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
64 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
66 * Multi-arched targets.
68 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
69 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
71 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
72 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
73 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
77 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
80 * New native configurations
82 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
83 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
84 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
85 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
87 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
89 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
90 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
91 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
94 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
95 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
96 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
97 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
98 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
99 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
100 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
101 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
102 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
103 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
105 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
106 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
110 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
112 * REMOVED configurations and files
114 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
115 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
116 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
117 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
118 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
120 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
122 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
124 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
125 commands. The default is 1024.
127 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
129 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
131 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
133 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
134 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
135 from a file into memory (restore).
137 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
139 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
140 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
141 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
143 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
151 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
152 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
153 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
155 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
156 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
157 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
159 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
160 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
161 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
163 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
164 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
165 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
167 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
169 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
171 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
172 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
173 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
174 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
175 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
176 (notably embedded) targets.
178 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
180 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
181 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
182 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
183 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
185 * New command line option
187 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
189 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
191 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
192 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
193 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
194 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
195 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
196 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
197 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
198 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
199 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
200 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
202 * Changes in ARM configurations.
204 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
205 configuration is fully multi-arch.
207 * New native configurations
209 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
210 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
211 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
212 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
216 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
218 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
220 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
221 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
222 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
225 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
226 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
227 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
228 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
229 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
231 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
233 * REMOVED configurations and files
235 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
237 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
238 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
239 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
240 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
241 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
242 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
243 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
244 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
245 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
246 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
247 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
249 * Changes to command line processing
251 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
252 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
254 * Changes to key bindings
256 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
258 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
260 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
262 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
265 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
267 Numerous documentation fixes.
269 Numerous testsuite fixes.
271 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
273 * New native configurations
275 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
276 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
277 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
278 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
280 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
284 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
286 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
288 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
290 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
291 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
292 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
293 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
294 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
296 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
297 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
298 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
299 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
300 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
301 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
302 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
303 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
305 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
306 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
308 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
309 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
310 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
313 * REMOVED configurations and files
315 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
316 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
318 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
322 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
324 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
325 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
330 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
332 * The MI enabled by default.
334 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
335 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
336 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
337 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
338 which is now deprecated.
340 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
342 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
343 main features are supported:
345 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
347 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
350 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
352 - a Pascal expression parser.
354 However, some important features are not yet supported.
356 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
358 - there are some problems with boolean types;
360 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
361 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
363 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
365 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
367 * Changes in completion.
369 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
370 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
371 users expect at the shell prompt.
373 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
374 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
375 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
376 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
377 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
378 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
379 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
381 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
383 * New platform-independent commands:
385 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
386 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
387 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
389 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
391 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
392 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
393 many threads as your system allows you to have.
395 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
397 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
398 multi-threaded programs though.
400 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
402 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
404 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
405 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
408 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
410 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
411 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
412 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
413 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
414 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
417 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
418 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
419 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
421 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
423 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
424 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
426 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
427 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
430 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
431 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
432 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
433 a given linear address.
435 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
436 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
437 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
439 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
441 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
443 * Changes in documentation.
445 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
446 Documentation License.
448 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
451 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
453 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
456 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
457 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
458 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
460 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
462 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
463 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
464 contents of this file.
468 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
470 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
472 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
474 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
475 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
476 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
477 greater level of detail.
479 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
481 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
482 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
483 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
486 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
488 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
489 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
490 machines ``out of the box''.
492 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
493 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
494 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
495 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
496 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
498 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
499 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
500 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
501 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
502 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
504 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
505 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
508 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
511 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
512 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
513 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
514 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
516 * New native configurations
518 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
519 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
523 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
524 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
525 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
526 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
528 * OBSOLETE configurations
530 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
531 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
533 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
536 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
537 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
538 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
539 be permanently REMOVED.
541 * Gould support removed
543 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
545 * New features for SVR4
547 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
548 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
549 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
551 * Many C++ enhancements
553 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
554 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
556 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
558 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
559 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
560 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
561 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
563 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
564 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
566 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
568 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
569 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
570 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
572 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
573 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
575 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
577 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
578 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
579 include ``set remote P-packet''.
581 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
583 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
584 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
585 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
587 * ``apropos'' command added.
589 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
590 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
591 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
595 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
596 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
597 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
598 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
599 enabled by configuring with:
601 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
603 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
605 * New native configurations
607 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
608 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
609 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
613 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
614 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
615 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
617 * OBSOLETE configurations
619 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
621 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
622 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
623 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
624 be permanently REMOVED.
628 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
629 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
630 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
631 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
632 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
633 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
634 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
639 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
641 * set extension-language
643 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
644 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
645 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
646 set extension-language .c c++
647 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
648 and their associated languages.
650 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
652 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
653 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
654 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
658 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
659 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
661 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
662 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
664 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
665 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
666 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
667 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
668 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
669 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
670 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
671 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
673 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
674 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
675 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
676 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
680 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
681 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
682 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
683 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
684 for xdb and dbx commands.
688 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
689 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
690 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
692 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
693 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
694 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
696 * Debugging across forks
698 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
703 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
704 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
705 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
707 * GDB remote protocol additions
709 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
710 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
711 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
712 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
714 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
715 full 64-bit address. The command
717 set remoteaddresssize 32
719 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
720 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
723 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
724 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
726 maint packet heythere
728 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
729 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
732 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
733 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
734 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
736 * Tracing can collect general expressions
738 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
739 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
740 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
742 * mask-address variable for Mips
744 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
745 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
746 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
748 * Higher serial baud rates
750 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
751 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
752 to achieve all of these rates.)
756 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
757 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
760 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
762 * New native configurations
764 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
765 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
766 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
767 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
768 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
769 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
770 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
774 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
775 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
776 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
777 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
778 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
779 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
780 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
781 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
782 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
783 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
784 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
786 * New debugging protocols
788 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
789 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
790 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
791 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
792 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
793 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
797 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
798 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
803 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
804 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
806 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
808 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
809 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
810 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
812 * Live range splitting
814 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
815 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
816 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
820 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
821 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
825 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
826 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
827 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
832 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
837 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
838 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
839 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
840 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
841 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
842 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
846 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
847 the symbol at the specified address.
851 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
852 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
853 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
854 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
855 file tracepoint.c for more details.
859 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
860 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
861 of most MIPS variants.
865 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
866 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
867 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
871 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
872 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
873 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
874 the possible architectures.
876 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
878 * New native configurations
880 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
881 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
882 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
883 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
884 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
885 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
889 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
890 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
891 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
892 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
893 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
895 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
899 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
900 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
901 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
902 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
903 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
907 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
909 * Windows 95/NT native
911 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
912 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
913 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
914 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
915 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
917 * dont-repeat command
919 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
920 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
921 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
922 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
924 * Send break instead of ^C
926 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
927 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
928 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
930 * Remote protocol timeout
932 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
933 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
934 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
936 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
938 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
939 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
940 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
941 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
942 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
944 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
945 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
946 automatically on hpux10.
948 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
950 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
952 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
954 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
955 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
956 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
957 every character. The default value is 1050.
959 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
961 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
962 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
963 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
964 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
965 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
966 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
968 * Speedups for remote debugging
970 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
971 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
972 and more efficient S-record downloading.
974 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
976 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
977 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
979 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
983 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
984 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
986 * Remote targets use caching
988 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
989 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
990 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
991 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
992 off' turns the the data cache off.
994 * Remote targets may have threads
996 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
997 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
998 gdb/remote.c for details.
1002 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1003 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1004 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1005 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1006 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1007 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1008 sequence is something like
1010 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1012 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1016 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1017 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1018 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1019 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1020 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1021 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1022 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1023 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1027 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1028 but does simplify configuration and building.
1032 GDB now supports hpux10.
1034 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1036 * New native configurations
1038 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1039 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1040 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1041 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1045 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1046 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1047 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1048 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1051 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1053 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1054 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1055 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1056 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1057 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1059 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1061 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1062 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1065 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1067 To execute the command use:
1070 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1071 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1072 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1074 * New `if' and `while' commands
1076 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1077 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1078 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1079 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1080 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1081 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1082 if the expression is zero.
1084 * Fortran source language mode
1086 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1087 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1088 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1089 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1092 * Better HPUX support
1094 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1095 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1096 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1097 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1098 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1104 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1105 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1111 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1112 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1115 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1116 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1118 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1120 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1121 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1122 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1123 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1124 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1125 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1127 * New DOS host serial code
1129 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1130 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1133 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1135 * New "complete" command
1137 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1138 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1140 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1142 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1143 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1145 * Breakpoint hit counts
1147 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1148 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1149 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1150 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1151 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1154 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1156 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1157 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1158 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1160 * Shared library breakpoints
1162 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1163 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1165 * Hardware watchpoints
1167 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1168 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1170 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1174 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1175 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1177 * Improved Irix 5 support
1179 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1181 * Improved HPPA support
1183 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1185 * New native configurations
1187 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1188 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1189 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1190 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1194 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1195 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1198 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1200 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1201 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1205 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1206 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1208 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1210 * Irix 5 is now supported
1214 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1215 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1216 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1217 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1218 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1221 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1223 * User visible changes:
1227 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1228 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1229 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1230 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1231 debugging info for the mips target).
1233 * DEC Alpha native support
1235 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1236 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1237 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1238 Alpha-specific notes.
1240 * Preliminary thread implementation
1242 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1244 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1246 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1247 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1250 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1252 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1253 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1254 call methods, ...etc.
1256 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1258 * User visible changes:
1260 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1261 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1262 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1263 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1265 Filename completion now works.
1267 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1268 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1269 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1271 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1272 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1273 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1274 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1275 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1279 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1280 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1283 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1287 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1288 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1289 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1293 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1294 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1295 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1296 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1297 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1301 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1302 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1303 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1305 * New targets supported
1307 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1308 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1309 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1310 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1311 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1313 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1314 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1315 GO32 memory extender.
1317 * New remote protocols
1319 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1321 * New source languages supported
1323 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1324 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1325 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1328 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1330 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1332 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1333 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1334 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1335 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1336 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1337 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1339 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1341 * Faster and better demangling
1343 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1344 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1345 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1346 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1347 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1348 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1351 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1352 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1353 compiler does not actually implement.
1355 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1357 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1358 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1359 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1360 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1361 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1362 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1365 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1366 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1368 * Improved configure script
1370 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1371 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1372 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1373 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1375 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1376 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1377 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1378 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1379 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1380 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1382 * Documentation improvements
1384 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1385 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1386 before submitting changes.
1388 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1389 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1390 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1391 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1392 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1394 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1395 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1396 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1397 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1398 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1399 around this problem.
1403 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1404 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1405 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1408 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1409 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1411 * New native hosts supported
1413 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1414 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1416 * New targets supported
1418 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1420 * New file formats supported
1422 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1423 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1427 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1429 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1430 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1432 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1433 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1434 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1436 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1437 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1439 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1440 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1441 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1444 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1445 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1446 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1447 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1448 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1450 * Internal improvements
1452 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1453 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1455 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1456 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1457 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1458 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1459 shared code that handles any of them.
1461 * New command line options
1463 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1467 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1468 General Public License.
1470 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1472 * Host/native/target split
1474 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1475 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1476 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1477 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1478 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1480 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1481 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1482 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1483 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1484 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1485 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1486 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1488 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1489 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1490 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1492 * New hosts supported
1494 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1495 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1496 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1498 * New targets supported
1500 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1501 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1503 * New native hosts supported
1505 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1506 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1507 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1509 * New file formats supported
1511 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1512 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1513 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1517 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1518 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1519 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1521 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1523 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1524 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1525 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1526 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1530 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1531 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1532 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1534 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1538 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1539 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1542 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1543 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1545 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1546 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1547 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1548 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1549 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1550 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1552 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1553 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1554 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1555 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1559 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1560 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1561 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1562 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1563 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1565 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1566 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1567 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1568 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1572 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1573 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1574 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
1575 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
1576 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
1577 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
1578 each instruction being stepped through.
1580 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
1581 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
1583 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
1584 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
1585 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
1586 processor with a serial port.
1590 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
1591 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
1592 supported, and what files each one uses.
1596 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
1597 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
1598 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
1599 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
1601 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
1602 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
1603 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
1604 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
1608 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
1609 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
1610 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
1611 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
1612 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
1613 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
1615 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
1618 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
1620 * Better support for C++ function names
1622 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
1623 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
1624 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
1625 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
1626 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
1628 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
1629 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
1630 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
1631 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
1632 for the list of formats.
1634 * G++ symbol mangling problem
1636 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
1637 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
1638 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
1639 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
1640 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
1641 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
1644 * New 'maintenance' command
1646 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
1647 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
1648 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
1650 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
1651 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
1652 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
1653 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
1654 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
1655 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
1657 The following commands are new:
1659 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
1660 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
1661 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
1663 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
1665 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
1666 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
1667 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
1668 read after argv processing.
1670 * New hosts supported
1672 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
1674 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
1676 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
1677 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
1678 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
1679 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
1680 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
1683 * New targets supported
1685 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1687 * More smarts about finding #include files
1689 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
1690 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
1691 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
1692 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
1693 the one that contains your sources.
1695 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
1696 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
1697 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
1699 * Interesting infernals change
1701 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
1702 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
1703 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
1704 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
1706 * Bug fixes (of course!)
1708 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
1709 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
1710 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
1712 See the ChangeLog for details.
1714 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
1716 * New machines supported (host and target)
1718 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
1720 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
1722 * New malloc package
1724 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
1725 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
1726 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
1727 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
1728 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
1729 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
1733 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
1734 'help info proc' for details.
1736 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
1738 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
1739 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
1742 * File name changes for MS-DOS
1744 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
1745 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
1746 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
1747 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
1748 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
1749 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
1751 * Cross byte order fixes
1753 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
1754 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
1756 * New -mapped and -readnow options
1758 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
1759 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
1760 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
1761 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
1762 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
1763 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
1764 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
1765 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
1766 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
1767 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
1769 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
1770 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
1771 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
1772 slower, but makes future operations faster.
1774 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
1775 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
1776 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
1779 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
1781 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
1782 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
1783 shared across multiple host platforms.
1785 * longjmp() handling
1787 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
1788 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
1789 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
1790 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
1794 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
1795 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
1800 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
1801 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
1802 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
1804 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
1806 * New machines supported (host and target)
1808 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1810 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
1811 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
1813 * New machines supported (target)
1815 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1819 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
1820 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
1821 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
1823 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
1824 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
1825 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
1826 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
1827 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
1830 * New features for SVR4
1832 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
1833 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
1834 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
1836 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
1837 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
1838 it prints the address mappings of the process.
1840 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
1841 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
1843 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
1845 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
1846 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
1847 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
1848 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
1849 same code linked statically.
1853 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
1854 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
1855 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
1856 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
1857 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
1858 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
1862 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1863 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1864 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1867 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
1869 * New machines supported (host and target)
1871 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
1872 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
1873 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1875 * Almost SCO Unix support
1877 We had hoped to support:
1878 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
1879 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
1880 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
1881 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
1883 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
1885 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
1886 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
1887 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
1888 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
1893 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
1894 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
1895 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
1899 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
1900 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
1901 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
1903 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
1905 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
1906 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
1907 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
1909 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
1910 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
1911 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
1912 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
1915 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
1916 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
1917 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
1918 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
1921 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
1922 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
1925 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
1926 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
1927 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
1930 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
1932 * Improved configuration
1934 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
1935 Porting BFD is simpler.
1939 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
1940 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
1941 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
1942 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
1946 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
1948 * New host supported (not target)
1950 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
1953 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
1955 * Multiple source language support
1957 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
1958 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
1959 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
1960 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
1961 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
1962 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
1966 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
1967 currently under development at the State University of New York at
1968 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
1969 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
1971 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
1972 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
1973 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
1975 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
1976 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
1980 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
1981 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
1982 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
1983 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
1986 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
1988 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
1989 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
1990 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
1991 examining core files.
1995 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
1998 * New machines supported (host and target)
2000 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2001 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2002 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2004 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2006 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2008 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2010 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2011 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2012 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2014 * New remote interfaces
2020 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2024 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2026 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2027 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2028 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2029 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2030 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2031 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2032 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2033 stub on the target system.
2035 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2037 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2038 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2039 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2041 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2042 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2045 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2047 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2048 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2050 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2051 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2052 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2054 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2055 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2056 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2057 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2059 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2060 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2061 it is already running. Default is ON.
2063 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2064 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2065 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2066 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2069 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2070 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2071 or the value of the environment variable
2074 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2075 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2078 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2079 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2080 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2082 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2083 history expansion will be performed on
2084 command line input. The default is OFF.
2086 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2087 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2088 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2090 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2091 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2092 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2095 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2096 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2097 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2100 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2101 ``set width'' instead.
2103 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2104 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2105 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2106 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2108 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2111 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2114 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2117 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2120 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2122 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2123 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2124 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2128 * Support for Shared Libraries
2130 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2131 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2132 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2133 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2134 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2135 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2136 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2137 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2139 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2140 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2141 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2143 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2148 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2149 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2150 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2151 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2152 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2153 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2155 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2157 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2159 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2160 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2161 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2164 * C++ multiple inheritance
2166 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2169 * C++ exception handling
2171 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2172 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2173 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2176 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2177 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2178 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2180 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2181 current stack frame.
2184 * Minor command changes
2186 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2187 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2188 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2190 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2191 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2192 frames without printing.
2194 * New directory command
2196 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2197 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2198 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2199 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2200 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2202 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2204 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2207 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2208 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2209 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2210 where the program that you are debugging will run.