* python/lib/gdb/types.py (deep_items): Rename from deepitems.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 7.3.1
5
6 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
7 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
8 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
9 target hardware watchpoint.
10
11 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
12 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
13 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
14 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
15
16 * Python scripting
17
18 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
19 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
20 existing one.
21
22 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
23 deprecated, and a new command: "set python print-stack on|off" has
24 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is now
25 "off".
26
27 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
28 Python API.
29
30 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
31 modules library. This module provides functionality for
32 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
33 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
34 corresponding value.
35
36 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
37 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
38 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
39 on GDB start-up.
40
41 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
42 static_block will return the global and static blocks
43 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
44 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
45
46 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
47
48 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
49 "gdb.breakpoints".
50
51 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
52 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
53 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
54 "some_type.items()".
55
56 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
57 new object file.
58
59 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
60 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
61 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
62 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
63 any anonymous fields.
64
65 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
66 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
67 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
68 lives.
69
70 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
71 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
72 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
73 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
74 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
75
76 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
77 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
78
79 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
80 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
81 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
82 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
83 use this option to specify where to find it.
84
85 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
86 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
87 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
88 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
89 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
90 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
91 section in the user manual for more details.
92
93 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
94 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
95 become available after that.
96
97 * New commands "info macros", "info definitions",
98 and "alias" have been added.
99
100 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
101 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
102 gcc version 4.7.
103
104 * Changed commands
105
106 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
107 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
108 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
109
110 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
111 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
112 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
113
114 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
115 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
116 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
117 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
118 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
119 is running.
120
121 * New options
122
123 set extended-prompt
124 show extended-prompt
125 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
126 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
127 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
128 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
129 prompt is displayed.
130
131 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
132 show print entry-values
133 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
134 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
135 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
136
137 set debug entry-values
138 show debug entry-values
139 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
140 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
141
142 * New remote packets
143
144 QTEnable
145
146 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
147
148 QTDisable
149
150 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
151
152 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
153 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
154
155 * New targets
156
157 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
158
159 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
160
161 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
162
163 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
164
165 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
166 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
167 matches the given regular expression.
168
169 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
170
171 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
172 dumping the instruction opcodes.
173
174 * New command line options
175
176 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
177 This is mostly for testing purposes.
178
179 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
180 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
181
182 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
183 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
184 source path list instead of augmenting it.
185
186 * GDB now understands thread names.
187
188 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
189 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
190
191 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
192 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
193
194 * OpenCL C
195 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
196 has been integrated into GDB.
197
198 * Python scripting
199
200 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
201 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
202 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
203
204 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
205 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
206 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
207 and allows for more dynamic content.
208
209 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
210 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
211 have an is_valid method.
212
213 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
214 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
215 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
216
217 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
218
219 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
220 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
221 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
222 that function like so:
223
224 result = some_value (10,20)
225
226 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
227 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
228 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
229
230 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
231 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
232 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
233 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
234 New function: register_pretty_printer.
235
236 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
237 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
238
239 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
240
241 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
242 selected thread.
243
244 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
245 holds the thread's name.
246
247 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
248 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
249 occurring in the process being debugged.
250 The following events are currently supported:
251 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
252 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
253 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
254
255 * C++ Improvements:
256
257 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
258 instantiation. For example, if you have:
259
260 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
261
262 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
263 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
264 was added to GCC 4.5.
265
266 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
267 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
268 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
269 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
270 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
271 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
272
273 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
274 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
275 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
276 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
277 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
278
279 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
280 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
281 execution to a label.
282
283 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
284 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
285 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
286 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
287
288 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
289 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
290 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
291 of scope.
292
293 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
294
295 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
296 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
297 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
298 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
299 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
300 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
301
302 (gdb) info threads
303 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
304
305 While now you see this:
306
307 (gdb) info threads
308 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
309
310 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
311 dumps.
312
313 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
314 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
315 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
316 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
317
318 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
319 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
320 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
321 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
322 section in the user manual for more details.
323
324 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
325
326 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
327 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
328
329 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
330
331 * New native configurations
332
333 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
334
335 * New targets:
336
337 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
338
339 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
340 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
341 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
342 in the GDB user manual.
343
344 * Guile support was removed.
345
346 * New features in the GNU simulator
347
348 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
349
350 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
351
352 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
353
354 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
355
356 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
357 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
358 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
359 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
360 was always disabled for such configurations.
361
362 * C++ Improvements:
363
364 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
365
366 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
367 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
368 For example:
369 namespace A
370 {
371 class B { };
372 void foo (B) { }
373 }
374 ...
375 A::B b
376 foo(b)
377 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
378 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
379 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
380
381 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
382
383 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
384 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
385 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
386 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
387 entry.
388 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
389 mentioned flavors of operators.
390
391 ** static const class members
392
393 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
394 class definition has been fixed.
395
396 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
397
398 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
399 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
400 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
401 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
402 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
403 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
404
405 * Static tracepoints
406
407 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
408 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
409 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
410 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
411 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
412 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
413 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
414 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
415 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
416 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
417 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
418 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
419 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
420 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
421 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
422 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
423 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
424 the "New remote packets" section below.
425
426 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
427
428 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
429 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
430 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
431 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
432
433 * Observer mode
434
435 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
436 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
437 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
438 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
439 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
440 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
441 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
442
443 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
444 current thread.
445
446 * New remote packets
447
448 qGetTIBAddr
449
450 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
451
452 qRelocInsn
453
454 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
455 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
456 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
457 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
458 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
459 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
460
461 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
462
463 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
464
465 qTSTMat
466
467 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
468 program.
469
470 qXfer:statictrace:read
471
472 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
473 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
474 to gdb's qSupported query.
475
476 QAllow
477
478 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
479
480 QTDPsrc
481
482 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
483 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
484
485 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
486 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
487 a directory.
488
489 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
490
491 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
492 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
493 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
494 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
495
496 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
497 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
498 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
499 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
500 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
501 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
502 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
503
504 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
505 for static tracepoints support.
506
507 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
508
509 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
510 it understands register description.
511
512 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
513
514 * X86 general purpose registers
515
516 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
517 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
518 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
519 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
520 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
521
522 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
523 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
524 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
525 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
526 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
527 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
528
529 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
530 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
531 in the specified file.
532
533 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
534 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
535 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
536 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
537 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
538 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
539 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
540 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
541 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
542 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
543
544 * New commands
545
546 eval template, expressions...
547 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
548 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
549
550 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
551 show target-file-system-kind
552 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
553 names.
554
555 save breakpoints <filename>
556 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
557 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
558 definitions, use the `source' command.
559
560 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
561 is now deprecated.
562
563 info static-tracepoint-markers
564 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
565
566 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
567 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
568 function, line, address, or marker ID.
569
570 set observer on|off
571 show observer
572 Enable and disable observer mode.
573
574 set may-write-registers on|off
575 set may-write-memory on|off
576 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
577 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
578 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
579 set may-interrupt on|off
580 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
581 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
582 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
583 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
584 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
585 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
586 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
587
588 set record memory-query on|off
589 show record memory-query
590 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
591 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
592
593 * Changed commands
594
595 disassemble
596 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
597
598 * Python scripting
599
600 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
601 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
602 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
603 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
604 GDB using Python' in the manual.
605
606 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
607 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
608 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
609 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
610
611 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
612 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
613
614 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
615
616 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
617
618 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
619
620 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
621 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
622 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
623
624 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
625 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
626 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
627 regular breakpoints.
628
629 * New targets
630
631 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
632
633 * D language support.
634 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
635 language.
636
637 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
638 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
639 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
640 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
641 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
642
643 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
644 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
645 conditions of the form:
646
647 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
648
649 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
650 interface mentioned above.
651
652 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
653
654 * C++ Improvements
655
656 ** Namespace Support
657
658 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
659 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
660 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
661 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
662 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
663
664 ** Bug Fixes
665
666 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
667 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
668 qualified name.
669
670 ** Cast Operators
671
672 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
673 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
674
675 * New targets
676
677 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
678 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
679
680 * New Simulators
681
682 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
683 Renesas RX rx
684
685 * Multi-program debugging.
686
687 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
688 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
689 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
690 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
691 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
692 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
693 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
694 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
695
696 * New tracing features
697
698 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
699
700 ** Trace state variables
701
702 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
703 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
704 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
705 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
706 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
707 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
708 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
709 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
710 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
711 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
712
713 ** Fast tracepoints
714
715 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
716 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
717 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
718 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
719 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
720 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
721 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
722 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
723 the regular trace command.
724
725 ** Disconnected tracing
726
727 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
728 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
729 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
730 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
731 connection is lost unexpectedly.
732
733 ** Trace files
734
735 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
736 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
737 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
738 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
739 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
740 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
741 <name>".
742
743 ** Circular trace buffer
744
745 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
746 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
747 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
748 not be available for all target agents.
749
750 * Changed commands
751
752 disassemble
753 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
754 the arguments to be comma-separated.
755
756 info variables
757 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
758 which only declare a variable are not shown.
759
760 source
761 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
762 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
763 support.
764
765 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
766 "set script-extension" (see below).
767
768 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
769
770 record save [<FILENAME>]
771 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
772 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
773
774 record restore <FILENAME>
775 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
776 earlier time, for replay debugging.
777
778 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
779 Add a new inferior.
780
781 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
782 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
783 inferior has loaded.
784
785 remove-inferior ID
786 Remove an inferior.
787
788 maint info program-spaces
789 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
790
791 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
792 show remote interrupt-sequence
793 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
794 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
795 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
796 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
797 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
798
799 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
800 show remote interrupt-on-connect
801 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
802 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
803 Linux kernel.
804
805 set remotebreak [on | off]
806 show remotebreak
807 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
808
809 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
810 Create or modify a trace state variable.
811
812 info tvariables
813 List trace state variables and their values.
814
815 delete tvariable $NAME ...
816 Delete one or more trace state variables.
817
818 teval EXPR, ...
819 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
820 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
821
822 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
823 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
824
825 * New expression syntax
826
827 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
828 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
829
830 * New options
831
832 set follow-exec-mode new|same
833 show follow-exec-mode
834 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
835 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
836 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
837
838 set default-collect EXPR, ...
839 show default-collect
840 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
841 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
842 such as registers or a critical global variable.
843
844 set disconnected-tracing
845 show disconnected-tracing
846 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
847 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
848 upon disconnection.
849
850 set circular-trace-buffer
851 show circular-trace-buffer
852 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
853 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
854 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
855 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
856
857 set script-extension off|soft|strict
858 show script-extension
859 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
860 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
861 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
862 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
863 evaluation failed.
864 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
865
866 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
867 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
868 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
869 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
870 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
871 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
872 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
873 is on.
874
875 * Python API Improvements
876
877 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
878 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
879 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
880
881 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
882 `is_base_class' attribute.
883
884 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
885
886 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
887 evaluate an expression.
888
889 * New remote packets
890
891 QTDV
892 Define a trace state variable.
893
894 qTV
895 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
896
897 QTDisconnected
898 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
899
900 QTBuffer:circular
901 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
902
903 qTfP, qTsP
904 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
905
906 * Bug fixes
907
908 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
909
910 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
911 much more reliable. In particular:
912 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
913 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
914 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
915 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
916 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
917 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
918 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
919 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
920 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
921 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
922 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
923 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
924 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
925 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
926 non-threaded programs.
927
928 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
929 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
930 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
931 executable program.
932
933 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
934
935 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
936 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
937 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
938 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
939 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
940
941 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
942 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
943 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
944 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
945 for tracepoint actions.
946
947 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
948 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
949 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
950
951 * Process record and replay
952
953 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
954 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
955 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
956 execute commands.
957
958 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
959 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
960 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
961 reverse execution.
962
963 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
964 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
965 2.6.28 or later.
966
967 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
968 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
969 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
970 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
971 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
972 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
973 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
974 the installation instructions for more information.
975
976 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
977 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
978 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
979 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
980
981 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
982 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
983
984 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
985 now complete on file names.
986
987 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
988 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
989 For instance, consider:
990
991 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
992 # struct example variable;
993 (gdb) p variable.
994
995 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
996 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
997
998 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
999 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1000
1001 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1002 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1003 macros.
1004
1005 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
1006 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1007 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1008
1009 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1010 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1011 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1012 and simulator targets may also provide them.
1013
1014 * New remote packets
1015
1016 qSearch:memory:
1017 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1018
1019 QStartNoAckMode
1020 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1021 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1022 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1023
1024 vKill
1025 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1026 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1027
1028 qXfer:osdata:read
1029 Obtains additional operating system information
1030
1031 qXfer:siginfo:read
1032 qXfer:siginfo:write
1033 Read or write additional signal information.
1034
1035 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1036
1037 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1038 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1039 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1040
1041 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
1042 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
1043
1044 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
1045 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1046 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
1047
1048 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1049 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1050
1051 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1052
1053 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1054
1055 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1056 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1057
1058 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
1059 list of section offsets.
1060
1061 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1062 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1063 have also been fixed.
1064
1065 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
1066 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1067 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
1068
1069 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1070 example, given:
1071
1072 template<typename T> class C { };
1073 C<char const *> c;
1074
1075 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1076
1077 ptype C<char const *>
1078 ptype C<char const*>
1079 ptype C<const char *>
1080 ptype C<const char*>
1081
1082 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1083
1084 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1085 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1086
1087 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1088 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1089 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1090
1091 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1092 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1093
1094 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1095 gdbserver.
1096
1097 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1098 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1099
1100 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1101 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1102 as appropriate.
1103
1104 * Python scripting
1105
1106 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1107 available is determined at configure time.
1108
1109 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1110
1111 * Ada tasking support
1112
1113 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1114 been introduced:
1115
1116 info tasks
1117 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1118 info task N
1119 Print detailed information about task number N.
1120 task
1121 Print the task number of the current task.
1122 task N
1123 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1124
1125 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1126 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1127
1128 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1129
1130 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1131 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1132 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1133 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1134 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1135 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1136 below.
1137
1138 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1139 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1140 information.
1141
1142 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1143 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1144 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1145 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1146 more information.
1147
1148 * Multi-architecture debugging.
1149
1150 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1151 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1152 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1153 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1154 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1155
1156 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1157 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1158 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1159 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1160 --enable-targets configure option.
1161
1162 * Non-stop mode debugging.
1163
1164 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1165 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1166 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1167 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1168 section in the user manual for more information.
1169
1170 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1171 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1172 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1173 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1174 extensions on linux targets.
1175
1176 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1177
1178 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1179 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1180 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1181 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1182 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1183 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1184 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1185 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1186 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1187
1188 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1189 val1 [, val2, ...]
1190 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1191
1192 maint set python print-stack
1193 maint show python print-stack
1194 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1195
1196 python [CODE]
1197 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1198
1199 macro define
1200 macro list
1201 macro undef
1202 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1203 interactively.
1204
1205 info os processes
1206 Show operating system information about processes.
1207
1208 info inferiors
1209 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1210
1211 inferior NUM
1212 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1213
1214 detach inferior NUM
1215 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1216
1217 kill inferior NUM
1218 Kill inferior number NUM.
1219
1220 * New options
1221
1222 set spu stop-on-load
1223 show spu stop-on-load
1224 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1225
1226 set spu auto-flush-cache
1227 show spu auto-flush-cache
1228 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1229 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1230
1231 set sh calling-convention
1232 show sh calling-convention
1233 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1234
1235 set debug timestamp
1236 show debug timestamp
1237 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1238
1239 set disassemble-next-line
1240 show disassemble-next-line
1241 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1242 the debuggee stops.
1243
1244 set remote noack-packet
1245 show remote noack-packet
1246 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1247 under "New remote packets."
1248
1249 set remote query-attached-packet
1250 show remote query-attached-packet
1251 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1252
1253 set remote read-siginfo-object
1254 show remote read-siginfo-object
1255 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1256 packet.
1257
1258 set remote write-siginfo-object
1259 show remote write-siginfo-object
1260 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1261 packet.
1262
1263 set remote reverse-continue
1264 show remote reverse-continue
1265 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1266
1267 set remote reverse-step
1268 show remote reverse-step
1269 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1270
1271 set displaced-stepping
1272 show displaced-stepping
1273 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1274 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1275 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1276
1277 set debug displaced
1278 show debug displaced
1279 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1280
1281 maint set internal-error
1282 maint show internal-error
1283 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1284
1285 maint set internal-warning
1286 maint show internal-warning
1287 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
1288
1289 set exec-wrapper
1290 show exec-wrapper
1291 unset exec-wrapper
1292 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1293
1294 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1295 show multiple-symbols
1296 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1297 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1298 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1299
1300 set breakpoint always-inserted
1301 show breakpoint always-inserted
1302 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1303 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1304 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1305
1306 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1307 show arm fallback-mode
1308 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1309 show arm force-mode
1310 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1311 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1312 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1313 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1314
1315 set disable-randomization
1316 show disable-randomization
1317 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1318 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1319 multiple debugging sessions.
1320
1321 set non-stop
1322 show non-stop
1323 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1324 a breakpoint.
1325
1326 set target-async
1327 show target-async
1328 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1329 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1330 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1331 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1332
1333 set target-wide-charset
1334 show target-wide-charset
1335 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1336 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1337
1338 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1339 show tcp auto-retry
1340 set tcp connect-timeout
1341 show tcp connect-timeout
1342 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1343 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1344 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1345
1346 set libthread-db-search-path
1347 show libthread-db-search-path
1348 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1349 libthread_db.
1350
1351 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1352 show schedule-multiple
1353 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1354 the current process.
1355
1356 set stack-cache
1357 show stack-cache
1358 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1359 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1360 affecting correctness.
1361
1362 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1363 show interactive-mode
1364 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1365 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1366 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1367 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1368 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1369
1370 * Removed commands
1371
1372 info forks
1373 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1374 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1375 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1376 command.
1377
1378 fork NUM
1379 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1380 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1381 alias for the `fork' command.
1382
1383 process PID
1384 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1385 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1386 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1387
1388 delete fork NUM
1389 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1390 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1391 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1392 fork' command.
1393
1394 detach fork NUM
1395 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1396 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1397 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1398 fork' command.
1399
1400 * New native configurations
1401
1402 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1403
1404 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1405
1406 * New targets
1407
1408 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
1409 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
1410 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
1411 S+core 3 score-*-*
1412
1413 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1414 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1415
1416 * Removed commands
1417
1418 catch load
1419 catch unload
1420 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1421
1422 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
1423
1424 * New native configurations
1425
1426 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
1427 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
1428
1429 * New targets
1430
1431 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
1432 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
1433
1434 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1435
1436 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1437 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1438 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1439 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1440
1441 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1442 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1443
1444 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
1445 is resolved.
1446
1447 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
1448 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1449 and in inlined functions.
1450
1451 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1452 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1453 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1454
1455 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1456
1457 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1458 registers on PowerPC targets.
1459
1460 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1461 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1462
1463 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1464 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1465
1466 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1467 extended-remote mode.
1468
1469 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
1470 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1471 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1472 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
1473
1474 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1475 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1476 target architectures.
1477
1478 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1479 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1480 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1481 stored in two consecutive float registers.
1482
1483 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1484 breakpoints now.
1485
1486 * Improved support for debugging Ada
1487 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1488 include:
1489 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1490 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1491 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1492 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1493 of an assignment
1494 - Improved command completion in Ada
1495 - Several bug fixes
1496
1497 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1498 process.
1499
1500 * New commands
1501
1502 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1503 show print frame-arguments
1504 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1505 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1506
1507 remote put
1508 remote get
1509 remote delete
1510 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1511
1512 * New MI commands
1513
1514 -target-file-put
1515 -target-file-get
1516 -target-file-delete
1517 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1518
1519 * New remote packets
1520
1521 vFile:open:
1522 vFile:close:
1523 vFile:pread:
1524 vFile:pwrite:
1525 vFile:unlink:
1526 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
1527
1528 vAttach
1529 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1530 mode.
1531
1532 vRun
1533 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1534
1535 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
1536
1537 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1538 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1539 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1540
1541 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1542 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1543 -Bsymbolic linker option.
1544
1545 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1546 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1547 is not supported.
1548
1549 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1550 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1551
1552 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
1553 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
1554
1555 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1556
1557 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1558 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1559 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1560
1561 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1562 automatically displayed as character or string data.
1563
1564 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1565 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1566 as strings.
1567
1568 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1569 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
1570 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
1571
1572 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1573 iWMMXt coprocessor.
1574
1575 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1576 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1577 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1578
1579 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1580
1581 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1582
1583 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1584 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1585 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1586
1587 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1588 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1589
1590 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1591 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1592 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1593 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1594 Windows and SymbianOS).
1595
1596 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1597 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
1598
1599 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1600 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
1601
1602 * New commands
1603
1604 set remoteflow
1605 show remoteflow
1606 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1607 when debugging using remote targets.
1608
1609 set mem inaccessible-by-default
1610 show mem inaccessible-by-default
1611 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1612 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1613 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1614 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1615 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1616
1617 set breakpoint auto-hw
1618 show breakpoint auto-hw
1619 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1620 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1621 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1622 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1623 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1624 including "next" and "finish".
1625
1626 catch exception
1627 catch exception unhandled
1628 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1629
1630 catch assert
1631 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1632
1633 set sysroot
1634 show sysroot
1635 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1636 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1637 an alias to "set sysroot".
1638
1639 info spu
1640 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1641 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1642 architecture.
1643
1644 * New native configurations
1645
1646 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1647
1648 set tdesc filename
1649 unset tdesc filename
1650 show tdesc filename
1651 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1652 not query the target for its built-in description.
1653
1654 * New targets
1655
1656 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
1657 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
1658 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
1659
1660 * New remote packets
1661
1662 QPassSignals:
1663 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1664 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1665
1666 qXfer:features:read:
1667 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1668 features.
1669
1670 qXfer:spu:read:
1671 qXfer:spu:write:
1672 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1673 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1674
1675 qXfer:libraries:read:
1676 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1677 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1678 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1679 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1680
1681 * Removed targets
1682
1683 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1684
1685 alpha*-*-osf1*
1686 alpha*-*-osf2*
1687 d10v-*-*
1688 hppa*-*-hiux*
1689 i[34567]86-ncr-*
1690 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1691 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1692 i[34567]86-*-netware*
1693 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1694 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1695 i[34567]86-*-sco*
1696 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1697 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1698 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1699 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1700 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1701 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1702 i[34567]86-*-isc*
1703 m68*-cisco*-*
1704 m68*-tandem-*
1705 mips*-*-pe
1706 rs6000-*-lynxos*
1707 sh*-*-pe
1708
1709 * Other removed features
1710
1711 target abug
1712 target cpu32bug
1713 target est
1714 target rom68k
1715
1716 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1717
1718 target hms
1719 target e7000
1720 target sh3
1721 target sh3e
1722
1723 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
1724 H8/300.
1725
1726 target ocd
1727
1728 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
1729 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
1730 interfaces.
1731
1732 DWARF 1 support
1733
1734 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
1735 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
1736
1737 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
1738
1739 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
1740 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
1741 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
1742 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
1743
1744 MIPS ".pdr" sections
1745
1746 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
1747 in debugging information.
1748
1749 Scheme support
1750
1751 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
1752 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
1753
1754 set mips stack-arg-size
1755 set mips saved-gpreg-size
1756
1757 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
1758
1759 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
1760
1761 * New targets
1762
1763 Xtensa xtensa-elf
1764 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
1765
1766 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
1767 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
1768 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
1769
1770 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
1771 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
1772 supported.
1773
1774 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
1775 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
1776
1777 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
1778 stub provides the required support.
1779
1780 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
1781 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
1782
1783 * New commands
1784
1785 set substitute-path
1786 unset substitute-path
1787 show substitute-path
1788 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
1789 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
1790 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
1791 between compilation and debugging.
1792
1793 set trace-commands
1794 show trace-commands
1795 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
1796 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
1797 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
1798
1799 * REMOVED features
1800
1801 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
1802
1803 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
1804 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
1805
1806 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
1807
1808 * New remote packets
1809
1810 qSupported:
1811 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
1812 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
1813 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
1814 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
1815 target.
1816
1817 qXfer:auxv:read:
1818 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
1819 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
1820
1821 qXfer:memory-map:read:
1822 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
1823 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
1824
1825 vFlashErase:
1826 vFlashWrite:
1827 vFlashDone:
1828 Erase and program a flash memory device.
1829
1830 * Removed remote packets
1831
1832 qPart:auxv:read:
1833 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
1834 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
1835
1836 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
1837
1838 * New targets
1839
1840 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
1841
1842 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1843
1844 * New commands
1845
1846 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
1847 only if it doesn't already have a value.
1848
1849 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
1850
1851 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
1852
1853 restart <n> Return the program state to a
1854 previously saved state.
1855
1856 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
1857
1858 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
1859
1860 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
1861 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
1862
1863 info forks List forks of the user program that
1864 are available to be debugged.
1865
1866 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
1867 forks of the user program that are
1868 available to be debugged.
1869
1870 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1871 that are available to be debugged (and
1872 kill the forked process).
1873
1874 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
1875 that are available to be debugged (and
1876 allow the process to continue).
1877
1878 * New architecture
1879
1880 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
1881
1882 * Improved Windows host support
1883
1884 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
1885 native console support, and remote communications using either
1886 network sockets or serial ports.
1887
1888 * Improved Modula-2 language support
1889
1890 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
1891 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
1892 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
1893 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
1894 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
1895 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
1896
1897 * REMOVED features
1898
1899 The ARM rdi-share module.
1900
1901 The Netware NLM debug server.
1902
1903 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
1904
1905 * New native configurations
1906
1907 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
1908 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
1909
1910 * New targets
1911
1912 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
1913
1914 * New command line options
1915
1916 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
1917 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
1918 the child (debugged) program exited with.
1919 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
1920 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
1921 specified multiple times and in conjunction
1922 with the --command (-x) option.
1923
1924 * Deprecated commands removed
1925
1926 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
1927 removed:
1928
1929 Command Replacement
1930 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
1931 othernames set arm disassembler
1932 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
1933 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
1934 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
1935 regs info registers
1936
1937 * New BSD user-level threads support
1938
1939 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
1940 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
1941 configurations are:
1942
1943 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1944 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
1945 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
1946
1947 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
1948 are not yet supported.
1949
1950 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
1951 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
1952
1953 * REMOVED configurations and files
1954
1955 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
1956 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1957 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
1958
1959 * New "set print array-indexes" command
1960
1961 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
1962 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
1963 behavior.
1964
1965 * VAX floating point support
1966
1967 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
1968
1969 * User-defined command support
1970
1971 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
1972 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
1973 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
1974
1975 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
1976
1977 * New command line option
1978
1979 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
1980 debugging.
1981
1982 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
1983
1984 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
1985 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
1986 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
1987 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
1988 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
1989
1990 * Internationalization
1991
1992 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
1993 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
1994 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
1995
1996 * Ada
1997
1998 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
1999 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2000 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2001
2002 * New native configurations
2003
2004 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2005
2006 * Remote 'p' packet
2007
2008 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2009 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2010
2011 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2012
2013 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2014 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2015 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2016 i386 application).
2017
2018 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2019 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2020 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2021 configurations:
2022
2023 hppa-*-hpux
2024 ia64-*-aix
2025 mips-*-irix*
2026 *-*-lynx
2027 mips-*-linux-gnu
2028 sds protocol
2029 xdr protocol
2030 powerpc bdm protocol
2031
2032 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2033 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2034
2035 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2036
2037 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2038 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2039 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2040 permanently REMOVED.
2041
2042 h8300-*-*
2043 mcore-*-*
2044 mn10300-*-*
2045 ns32k-*-*
2046 sh64-*-*
2047 v850-*-*
2048
2049 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2050
2051 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2052
2053 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2054 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2055 been fixed.
2056
2057 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2058
2059 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2060 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2061 IRIX long double values).
2062
2063 * VAX and "next"
2064
2065 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2066 command. This problem has been fixed.
2067
2068 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
2069
2070 * Fix for ``many threads''
2071
2072 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2073 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2074 error message:
2075
2076 ptrace: No such process.
2077 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2078
2079 This problem has been fixed.
2080
2081 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2082
2083 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2084 GDB to dump core).
2085
2086 * New ``start'' command.
2087
2088 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2089
2090 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2091
2092 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2093 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2094 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2095
2096 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2097 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2098 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2099 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2100 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2101 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2102 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2103 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2104 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2105
2106 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
2107
2108 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2109 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2110 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2111 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2112 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2113
2114 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2115 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2116 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
2117
2118 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2119
2120 * New native configurations
2121
2122 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
2123 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
2124 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2125 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
2126 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
2127 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
2128 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
2129
2130 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2131
2132 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2133 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2134 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2135 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2136 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2137 work, was also included.
2138
2139 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2140 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2141
2142 h8300-*-*
2143 mcore-*-*
2144 mn10300-*-*
2145 ns32k-*-*
2146 sh64-*-*
2147 v850-*-*
2148 xstormy16-*-*
2149
2150 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2151 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2152
2153 * REMOVED configurations and files
2154
2155 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2156 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2157 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2158 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2159 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2160 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2161 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2162 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2163 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2164 sonymips mips-sony-*
2165 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2166
2167 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2168
2169 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2170
2171 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2172 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2173 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2174 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2175 with GDB".
2176
2177 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2178
2179 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2180 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2181 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2182 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2183 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2184 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2185 are created.
2186
2187 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2188
2189 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
2190
2191 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2192 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2193 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2194
2195 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2196
2197 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2198 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2199
2200 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2201
2202 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2203 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2204 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2205
2206 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2207
2208 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2209 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2210
2211 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2212
2213 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2214 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2215 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2216
2217 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2218
2219 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2220 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2221 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2222
2223 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
2224
2225 * Removed --with-mmalloc
2226
2227 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2228 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2229
2230 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
2231
2232 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2233 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2234 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2235 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2236
2237 * Revised SPARC target
2238
2239 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2240 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
2241 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2242 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2243 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
2244
2245 * New C++ demangler
2246
2247 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2248 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2249 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2250 programs.
2251
2252 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2253
2254 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2255 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2256 encountered these.
2257
2258 * C++ nested types and namespaces
2259
2260 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2261 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2262 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2263 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2264 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2265 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2266 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2267 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2268 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2269
2270 * New native configurations
2271
2272 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
2273 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2274 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
2275 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2276 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
2277
2278 * New debugging protocols
2279
2280 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2281
2282 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2283
2284 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2285 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2286 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2287
2288 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2289
2290 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2291 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2292 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2293 permanently REMOVED.
2294
2295 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2296 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2297 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2298 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2299 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2300 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2301 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2302 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2303 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2304 sonymips mips-sony-*
2305 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2306
2307 * REMOVED configurations and files
2308
2309 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2310 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2311 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2312 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2313 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2314 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2315 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2316 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2317 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2318 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
2319 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2320 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2321 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2322 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2323 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
2324 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2325 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2326
2327 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2328
2329 * Objective-C
2330
2331 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2332 integrated into GDB.
2333
2334 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2335
2336 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2337 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2338 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2339 backtraces.
2340
2341 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2342 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2343 DWARF 2 CFI support.
2344
2345 * Hosted file I/O.
2346
2347 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2348 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2349 remote protocol documentation for details.
2350
2351 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
2352
2353 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2354 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2355 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2356 ppc32 on ppc64).
2357
2358 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2359
2360 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2361 per-thread variables.
2362
2363 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2364
2365 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2366 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2367
2368 * Separate debug info.
2369
2370 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2371 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2372 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2373 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2374 and optional debug files.
2375
2376 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2377
2378 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2379 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2380 debugger.
2381
2382 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2383 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2384
2385 * Java
2386
2387 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2388 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2389 considered "useable".
2390
2391 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2392
2393 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2394 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2395 kernel.
2396
2397 * GDB supports logging output to a file
2398
2399 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2400 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
2401
2402 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2403
2404 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2405 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2406 command.
2407
2408 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
2409
2410 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2411 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2412
2413 * Profiling support
2414
2415 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2416 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2417 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2418 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2419 data, for more informative profiling results.
2420
2421 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2422
2423 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2424 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
2425 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
2426
2427 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2428 removed.
2429
2430 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2431 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2432 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2433 in a subsequent -var-update.
2434
2435 * New native configurations.
2436
2437 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2438
2439 * Multi-arched targets.
2440
2441 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
2442 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
2443
2444 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2445
2446 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2447 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2448 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2449 permanently REMOVED.
2450
2451 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2452 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2453 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2454 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2455 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2456 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2457 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2458 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2459 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2460 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
2461 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2462 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2463
2464 * REMOVED configurations and files
2465
2466 V850EA ISA
2467 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2468 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2469 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2470 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2471 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2472 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2473 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2474 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2475 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2476 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2477 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2478 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2479 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2480
2481 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
2482
2483 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2484 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2485 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2486 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2487 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2488
2489 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
2490
2491 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2492
2493 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2494 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2495 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2496 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2497 shared libs like mad''.
2498
2499 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
2500
2501 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2502 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2503 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2504 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
2505
2506 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2507
2508 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2509 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2510 they expand.
2511
2512 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2513 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2514
2515 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2516 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2517
2518 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2519 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2520 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2521 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2522
2523 * Multi-arched targets.
2524
2525 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2526 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2527 NEC V850 v850-*-*
2528 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
2529 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2530 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2531
2532 * New targets.
2533
2534 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2535
2536
2537 * New native configurations
2538
2539 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
2540 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
2541 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
2542 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
2543
2544 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2545
2546 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2547 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2548 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2549 permanently REMOVED.
2550
2551 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2552 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2553 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2554 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2555 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2556 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2557 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2558 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2559 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2560 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2561 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2562 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2563 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2564
2565 * OBSOLETE languages
2566
2567 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2568
2569 * REMOVED configurations and files
2570
2571 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2572 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2573 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2574 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2575 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2576
2577 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2578
2579 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2580
2581 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2582 commands. The default is 1024.
2583
2584 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2585
2586 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2587
2588 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2589
2590 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2591 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2592 from a file into memory (restore).
2593
2594 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2595
2596 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2597 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2598 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2599
2600 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2601
2602 * New targets.
2603
2604 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2605
2606 * Bug fixes
2607
2608 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2609 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2610 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2611
2612 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2613 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2614 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2615
2616 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2617 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2618 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2619
2620 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2621 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2622 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2623
2624 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
2625
2626 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2627
2628 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2629 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2630 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2631 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2632 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2633 (notably embedded) targets.
2634
2635 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2636
2637 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2638 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2639 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2640 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
2641
2642 * New command line option
2643
2644 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2645
2646 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2647
2648 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2649 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2650 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2651 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2652 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2653 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2654 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2655 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2656 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2657 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2658
2659 * Changes in ARM configurations.
2660
2661 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2662 configuration is fully multi-arch.
2663
2664 * New native configurations
2665
2666 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
2667 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
2668 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
2669 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
2670
2671 * New targets
2672
2673 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2674
2675 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2676
2677 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2678 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2679 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2680 permanently REMOVED.
2681
2682 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2683 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2684 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2685 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2686 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2687
2688 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2689
2690 * REMOVED configurations and files
2691
2692 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2693 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2694 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2695 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2696 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2697 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2698 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2699 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2700 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2701 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2702 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2703 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2704 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
2705
2706 * Changes to command line processing
2707
2708 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2709 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2710
2711 * Changes to key bindings
2712
2713 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2714
2715 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2716
2717 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2718
2719 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2720 corrupted.
2721
2722 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
2723
2724 Numerous documentation fixes.
2725
2726 Numerous testsuite fixes.
2727
2728 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
2729
2730 * New native configurations
2731
2732 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
2733 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
2734 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
2735 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
2736 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
2737 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
2738
2739 * New targets
2740
2741 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
2742 CRIS cris-axis
2743 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
2744
2745 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
2746
2747 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
2748 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
2749 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2750 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
2751 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2752 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
2753 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
2754 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2755 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2756 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
2757 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
2758 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2759 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
2760 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
2761
2762 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
2763 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
2764
2765 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2766 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2767 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2768 permanently REMOVED.
2769
2770 * REMOVED configurations and files
2771
2772 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2773 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2774 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2775 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2776 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
2777 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
2778
2779 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
2780
2781 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
2782 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
2783 present.
2784
2785 * Other news:
2786
2787 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
2788
2789 * The MI enabled by default.
2790
2791 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
2792 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
2793 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
2794 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
2795 which is now deprecated.
2796
2797 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
2798
2799 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
2800 main features are supported:
2801
2802 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
2803
2804 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
2805 extension;
2806
2807 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
2808
2809 - a Pascal expression parser.
2810
2811 However, some important features are not yet supported.
2812
2813 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
2814
2815 - there are some problems with boolean types;
2816
2817 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
2818 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
2819
2820 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
2821
2822 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
2823
2824 * Changes in completion.
2825
2826 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
2827 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
2828 users expect at the shell prompt.
2829
2830 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
2831 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
2832 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
2833 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
2834 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
2835 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
2836 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
2837
2838 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
2839
2840 * New platform-independent commands:
2841
2842 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
2843 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
2844 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
2845
2846 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
2847
2848 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
2849 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
2850 many threads as your system allows you to have.
2851
2852 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
2853
2854 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
2855 multi-threaded programs though.
2856
2857 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
2858
2859 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
2860
2861 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
2862 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
2863 supported.)
2864
2865 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
2866
2867 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
2868 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
2869 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
2870 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
2871 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
2872 registers.
2873
2874 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
2875 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
2876 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
2877
2878 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
2879
2880 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
2881 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
2882
2883 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
2884 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
2885 IDT.
2886
2887 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
2888 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
2889 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
2890 a given linear address.
2891
2892 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
2893 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
2894 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
2895
2896 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
2897
2898 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
2899
2900 * Changes in documentation.
2901
2902 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
2903 Documentation License.
2904
2905 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2906 manual.
2907
2908 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
2909
2910 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
2911 manual.
2912
2913 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
2914 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
2915 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
2916
2917 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
2918
2919 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
2920 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
2921 contents of this file.
2922
2923 * gdba.el deleted
2924
2925 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
2926
2927 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
2928
2929 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
2930
2931 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
2932 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
2933 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
2934 greater level of detail.
2935
2936 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
2937
2938 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
2939 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
2940 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
2941 written.
2942
2943 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
2944
2945 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
2946 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
2947 machines ``out of the box''.
2948
2949 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
2950 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
2951 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
2952 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
2953 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
2954
2955 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
2956 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
2957 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
2958 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
2959 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
2960
2961 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
2962 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
2963 also works.
2964
2965 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
2966 GDB.
2967
2968 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
2969 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
2970 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
2971 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
2972
2973 * New native configurations
2974
2975 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
2976 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
2977
2978 * New targets
2979
2980 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
2981 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
2982 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
2983 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
2984
2985 * OBSOLETE configurations
2986
2987 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
2988 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
2989 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
2990 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
2991 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
2992
2993 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
2994 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
2995 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
2996 be permanently REMOVED.
2997
2998 * Gould support removed
2999
3000 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3001
3002 * New features for SVR4
3003
3004 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3005 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3006 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3007
3008 * Many C++ enhancements
3009
3010 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3011 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3012
3013 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3014
3015 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3016 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3017 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3018 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3019
3020 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3021 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3022
3023 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
3024
3025 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3026 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3027 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3028
3029 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3030 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3031
3032 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3033
3034 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3035 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3036 include ``set remote P-packet''.
3037
3038 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3039
3040 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3041 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3042 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3043
3044 * ``apropos'' command added.
3045
3046 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3047 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3048 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3049
3050 * New MI interface
3051
3052 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3053 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
3054 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3055 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3056 enabled by configuring with:
3057
3058 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3059
3060 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3061
3062 * New native configurations
3063
3064 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3065 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
3066 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
3067
3068 * New targets
3069
3070 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3071 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3072 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3073
3074 * OBSOLETE configurations
3075
3076 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3077
3078 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3079 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3080 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3081 be permanently REMOVED.
3082
3083 * ANSI/ISO C
3084
3085 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3086 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3087 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3088 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3089 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3090 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3091 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3092 already.
3093
3094 * Readline 2.2
3095
3096 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3097
3098 * set extension-language
3099
3100 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3101 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3102 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3103 set extension-language .c c++
3104 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3105 and their associated languages.
3106
3107 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3108
3109 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3110 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3111 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3112
3113 set processor NAME
3114
3115 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3116 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3117
3118 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3119 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3120 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3121 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3122 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3123 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3124 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3125 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3126 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3127 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3128 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3129
3130 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3131 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3132 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3133 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3134
3135 * HP-UX support
3136
3137 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3138 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3139 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3140 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3141 for xdb and dbx commands.
3142
3143 * Catchpoints
3144
3145 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3146 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3147 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3148
3149 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3150 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3151 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3152
3153 * Debugging across forks
3154
3155 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3156 in the inferior.
3157
3158 * TUI
3159
3160 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3161 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3162 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3163
3164 * GDB remote protocol additions
3165
3166 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3167 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3168 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3169 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3170
3171 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3172 full 64-bit address. The command
3173
3174 set remoteaddresssize 32
3175
3176 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3177 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3178 will be discarded.
3179
3180 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3181 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3182
3183 maint packet heythere
3184
3185 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3186 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3187 time.
3188
3189 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3190 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3191 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3192
3193 * Tracing can collect general expressions
3194
3195 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3196 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3197 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3198
3199 * mask-address variable for Mips
3200
3201 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3202 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3203 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3204
3205 * Higher serial baud rates
3206
3207 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3208 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3209 to achieve all of these rates.)
3210
3211 * i960 simulator
3212
3213 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3214 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3215
3216
3217 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3218
3219 * New native configurations
3220
3221 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3222 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3223 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3224 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3225 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3226 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3227 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3228
3229 * New targets
3230
3231 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3232 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3233 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3234 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3235 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3236 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3237 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3238 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3239 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3240 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3241 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3242
3243 * New debugging protocols
3244
3245 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3246 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3247 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3248 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3249 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3250 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3251
3252 * DWARF 2
3253
3254 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3255 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3256 information.
3257
3258 * Java frontend
3259
3260 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3261 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3262
3263 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3264
3265 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3266 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3267 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3268
3269 * Live range splitting
3270
3271 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3272 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3273 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3274
3275 * Hurd support
3276
3277 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3278 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3279
3280 * ARM Thumb support
3281
3282 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3283 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3284 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3285 accordingly.
3286
3287 * MIPS16 support
3288
3289 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3290 instruction set.
3291
3292 * Overlay support
3293
3294 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3295 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3296 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3297 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3298 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3299 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3300
3301 * info symbol
3302
3303 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3304 the symbol at the specified address.
3305
3306 * Trace support
3307
3308 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3309 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3310 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3311 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3312 file tracepoint.c for more details.
3313
3314 * MIPS simulator
3315
3316 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3317 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3318 of most MIPS variants.
3319
3320 * Sparc simulator
3321
3322 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3323 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3324 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3325
3326 * set architecture
3327
3328 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3329 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3330 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3331 the possible architectures.
3332
3333 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3334
3335 * New native configurations
3336
3337 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3338 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3339 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3340 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3341 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3342 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3343
3344 * New targets
3345
3346 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3347 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3348 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3349 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3350 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3351 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
3352 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3353
3354 * PowerPC simulator
3355
3356 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3357 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3358 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3359 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3360 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3361
3362 * Solaris 2.5
3363
3364 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3365
3366 * Windows 95/NT native
3367
3368 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3369 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3370 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3371 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3372 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3373
3374 * dont-repeat command
3375
3376 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3377 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3378 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3379 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3380
3381 * Send break instead of ^C
3382
3383 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3384 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3385 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3386
3387 * Remote protocol timeout
3388
3389 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3390 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3391 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3392
3393 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3394
3395 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3396 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3397 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3398 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3399 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3400
3401 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3402 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3403 automatically on hpux10.
3404
3405 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3406
3407 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3408
3409 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3410
3411 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3412 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3413 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3414 every character. The default value is 1050.
3415
3416 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3417
3418 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3419 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3420 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3421 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3422 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3423 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3424
3425 * Speedups for remote debugging
3426
3427 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3428 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3429 and more efficient S-record downloading.
3430
3431 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3432
3433 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3434 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3435
3436 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3437
3438 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
3439
3440 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3441 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3442
3443 * Remote targets use caching
3444
3445 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3446 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3447 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3448 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3449 off' turns the the data cache off.
3450
3451 * Remote targets may have threads
3452
3453 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3454 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3455 gdb/remote.c for details.
3456
3457 * NetROM support
3458
3459 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3460 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3461 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3462 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3463 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3464 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3465 sequence is something like
3466
3467 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3468 load <prog>
3469 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3470
3471 * Macintosh host
3472
3473 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3474 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3475 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3476 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3477 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3478 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3479 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3480 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3481
3482 * Autoconf
3483
3484 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3485 but does simplify configuration and building.
3486
3487 * hpux10
3488
3489 GDB now supports hpux10.
3490
3491 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3492
3493 * New native configurations
3494
3495 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3496 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3497 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3498 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3499
3500 * New targets
3501
3502 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3503 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3504 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3505 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3506 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3507
3508 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3509
3510 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3511 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3512 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3513 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3514 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3515
3516 * Arguments to user-defined commands
3517
3518 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3519 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3520 trivial example:
3521 define adder
3522 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3523
3524 To execute the command use:
3525 adder 1 2 3
3526
3527 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3528 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3529 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3530
3531 * New `if' and `while' commands
3532
3533 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3534 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3535 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3536 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3537 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3538 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3539 if the expression is zero.
3540
3541 * Fortran source language mode
3542
3543 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3544 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3545 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3546 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3547 Fortran compilers.
3548
3549 * Better HPUX support
3550
3551 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3552 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3553 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3554 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3555 that behavior do the following before running the program:
3556
3557 adb -w a.out
3558 __dld_flags?W 0x5
3559 control-d
3560
3561 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3562 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3563
3564 adb -w a.out
3565 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3566 control-d
3567
3568 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3569 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3570 external linkage.
3571
3572 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3573 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3574
3575 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3576
3577 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3578 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3579 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3580 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3581 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3582 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3583
3584 * New DOS host serial code
3585
3586 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3587 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3588 a PC's serial port.
3589
3590 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3591
3592 * New "complete" command
3593
3594 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3595 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3596
3597 * Trailing space optional in prompt
3598
3599 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3600 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3601
3602 * Breakpoint hit counts
3603
3604 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3605 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3606 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3607 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3608 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3609 that breakpoint.
3610
3611 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3612
3613 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3614 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3615 arrays actually contain only short strings.
3616
3617 * Shared library breakpoints
3618
3619 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3620 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3621
3622 * Hardware watchpoints
3623
3624 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3625 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3626
3627 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
3628
3629 * Annotations
3630
3631 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3632 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3633
3634 * Improved Irix 5 support
3635
3636 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3637
3638 * Improved HPPA support
3639
3640 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3641
3642 * New native configurations
3643
3644 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3645 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3646 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3647 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3648
3649 * New targets
3650
3651 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3652 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3653 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3654
3655 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3656
3657 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3658 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3659
3660 * Fixes
3661
3662 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3663 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3664
3665 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3666
3667 * Irix 5 is now supported
3668
3669 * HPPA support
3670
3671 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3672 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3673 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3674 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3675 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3676
3677
3678 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3679
3680 * User visible changes:
3681
3682 * Remote Debugging
3683
3684 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3685 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3686 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3687 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3688 debugging info for the mips target).
3689
3690 * DEC Alpha native support
3691
3692 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3693 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3694 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3695 Alpha-specific notes.
3696
3697 * Preliminary thread implementation
3698
3699 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3700
3701 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
3702
3703 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3704 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3705 for details).
3706
3707 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3708
3709 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3710 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3711 call methods, ...etc.
3712
3713 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3714
3715 * User visible changes:
3716
3717 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3718 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3719 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3720 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3721
3722 Filename completion now works.
3723
3724 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
3725 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
3726 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
3727
3728 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
3729 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
3730 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
3731 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
3732 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
3733
3734 * DEC alpha support
3735
3736 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
3737 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
3738
3739
3740 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
3741
3742 * Testsuite
3743
3744 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
3745 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
3746 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
3747
3748 * C++ demangling
3749
3750 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
3751 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
3752 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
3753 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
3754 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
3755
3756 * Simulators
3757
3758 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
3759 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
3760 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
3761
3762 * New targets supported
3763
3764 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
3765 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3766 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
3767 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3768 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
3769
3770 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
3771 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
3772 GO32 memory extender.
3773
3774 * New remote protocols
3775
3776 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
3777
3778 * New source languages supported
3779
3780 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
3781 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
3782 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
3783
3784
3785 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
3786
3787 * HP Precision Architecture supported
3788
3789 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
3790 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
3791 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
3792 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
3793 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
3794 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
3795
3796 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
3797
3798 * Faster and better demangling
3799
3800 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
3801 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
3802 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
3803 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
3804 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
3805 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
3806 symbol lookups.
3807
3808 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
3809 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
3810 compiler does not actually implement.
3811
3812 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
3813
3814 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
3815 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
3816 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
3817 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
3818 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
3819 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
3820 fix.
3821
3822 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
3823 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
3824
3825 * Improved configure script
3826
3827 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
3828 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
3829 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
3830 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
3831
3832 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
3833 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
3834 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
3835 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
3836 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
3837 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
3838
3839 * Documentation improvements
3840
3841 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
3842 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
3843 before submitting changes.
3844
3845 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
3846 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
3847 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
3848 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
3849 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
3850
3851 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
3852 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
3853 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
3854 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
3855 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
3856 around this problem.
3857
3858 * New features
3859
3860 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
3861 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
3862 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
3863 the target program.
3864
3865 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
3866 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
3867
3868 * New native hosts supported
3869
3870 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
3871 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
3872
3873 * New targets supported
3874
3875 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
3876
3877 * New file formats supported
3878
3879 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
3880 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
3881
3882 * Major bug fixes
3883
3884 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
3885
3886 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
3887 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
3888
3889 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
3890 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
3891 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
3892
3893 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
3894 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
3895
3896 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
3897 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
3898 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
3899 libraries.
3900
3901 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
3902 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
3903 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
3904 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
3905 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
3906
3907 * Internal improvements
3908
3909 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
3910 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
3911
3912 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
3913 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
3914 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
3915 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
3916 shared code that handles any of them.
3917
3918 * New command line options
3919
3920 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
3921
3922 * Mmalloc licensing
3923
3924 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
3925 General Public License.
3926
3927 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
3928
3929 * Host/native/target split
3930
3931 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
3932 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
3933 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
3934 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
3935 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
3936
3937 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
3938 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
3939 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
3940 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
3941 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
3942 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
3943 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
3944
3945 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
3946 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
3947 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
3948
3949 * New hosts supported
3950
3951 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
3952 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3953 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
3954
3955 * New targets supported
3956
3957 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
3958 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
3959
3960 * New native hosts supported
3961
3962 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
3963 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
3964 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
3965
3966 * New file formats supported
3967
3968 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
3969 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
3970 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
3971
3972 * New commands
3973
3974 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
3975 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
3976 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
3977
3978 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
3979
3980 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
3981 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
3982 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
3983 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
3984
3985 * C++ improvements
3986
3987 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
3988 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
3989 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
3990
3991 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
3992
3993 * Major bug fixes
3994
3995 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
3996 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
3997 by the compiler.
3998
3999 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4000 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4001
4002 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4003 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4004 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4005 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4006 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4007 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4008
4009 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4010 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4011 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4012 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4013
4014 * AMD 29k support
4015
4016 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4017 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4018 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4019 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4020 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4021
4022 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4023 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4024 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4025 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4026
4027 * Remote interfaces
4028
4029 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4030 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4031 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4032 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4033 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4034 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4035 each instruction being stepped through.
4036
4037 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4038 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4039
4040 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4041 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4042 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4043 processor with a serial port.
4044
4045 * Configuration
4046
4047 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4048 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4049 supported, and what files each one uses.
4050
4051 * Library changes
4052
4053 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4054 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4055 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4056 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4057
4058 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4059 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4060 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4061 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4062
4063 * Documentation
4064
4065 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4066 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4067 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4068 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4069 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4070 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4071
4072 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4073
4074
4075 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4076
4077 * Better support for C++ function names
4078
4079 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4080 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4081 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4082 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4083 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4084
4085 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4086 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4087 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4088 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4089 for the list of formats.
4090
4091 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4092
4093 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4094 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4095 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4096 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4097 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4098 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4099 this problem.)
4100
4101 * New 'maintenance' command
4102
4103 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4104 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4105 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4106
4107 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4108 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4109 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4110 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4111 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4112 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4113
4114 The following commands are new:
4115
4116 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4117 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4118 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4119
4120 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4121
4122 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4123 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4124 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4125 read after argv processing.
4126
4127 * New hosts supported
4128
4129 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4130
4131 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
4132
4133 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4134 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4135 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4136 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4137 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4138 It costs extra.
4139
4140 * New targets supported
4141
4142 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4143
4144 * More smarts about finding #include files
4145
4146 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4147 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4148 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4149 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4150 the one that contains your sources.
4151
4152 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4153 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4154 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4155
4156 * Interesting infernals change
4157
4158 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4159 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4160 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4161 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4162
4163 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4164
4165 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4166 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4167 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4168
4169 See the ChangeLog for details.
4170
4171 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4172
4173 * New machines supported (host and target)
4174
4175 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4176
4177 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4178
4179 * New malloc package
4180
4181 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4182 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4183 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4184 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4185 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4186 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4187
4188 * info proc
4189
4190 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4191 'help info proc' for details.
4192
4193 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4194
4195 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4196 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4197 possible.
4198
4199 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4200
4201 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4202 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4203 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4204 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4205 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4206 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4207
4208 * Cross byte order fixes
4209
4210 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4211 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4212
4213 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4214
4215 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4216 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4217 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4218 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4219 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4220 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4221 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4222 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4223 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4224 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4225
4226 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4227 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4228 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4229 slower, but makes future operations faster.
4230
4231 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4232 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4233 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4234 use is:
4235
4236 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4237
4238 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4239 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4240 shared across multiple host platforms.
4241
4242 * longjmp() handling
4243
4244 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4245 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4246 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4247 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4248
4249 * Solaris 2.0
4250
4251 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4252 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4253 reading symbols.
4254
4255 * Bug fixes
4256
4257 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4258 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4259 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4260
4261 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4262
4263 * New machines supported (host and target)
4264
4265 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4266 (except core files)
4267 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4268 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4269
4270 * New machines supported (target)
4271
4272 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4273
4274 * C++ support
4275
4276 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4277 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4278 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4279
4280 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4281 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4282 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4283 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4284 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4285 released.
4286
4287 * New features for SVR4
4288
4289 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4290 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4291 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4292
4293 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4294 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4295 it prints the address mappings of the process.
4296
4297 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4298 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4299
4300 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4301
4302 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4303 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4304 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4305 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4306 same code linked statically.
4307
4308 * New Getopt
4309
4310 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4311 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4312 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4313 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4314 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4315 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4316
4317 * Bugs fixed
4318
4319 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4320 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4321 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4322
4323
4324 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4325
4326 * New machines supported (host and target)
4327
4328 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4329 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4330 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4331
4332 * Almost SCO Unix support
4333
4334 We had hoped to support:
4335 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4336 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4337 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4338 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4339
4340 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4341
4342 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4343 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4344 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4345 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4346 reqired (if any).
4347
4348 * New Readline
4349
4350 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4351 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4352 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4353
4354 * Bugs fixed
4355
4356 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4357 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4358 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4359
4360 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4361
4362 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4363 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4364 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4365
4366 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4367 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4368 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4369 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4370 version 2.
4371
4372 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4373 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4374 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4375 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4376 situation somewhat.
4377
4378 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4379 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4380 methods.
4381
4382 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4383 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4384 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4385
4386
4387 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4388
4389 * Improved configuration
4390
4391 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4392 Porting BFD is simpler.
4393
4394 * Stepping improved
4395
4396 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4397 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4398 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4399 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4400
4401 * Bug fixing
4402
4403 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4404
4405 * New host supported (not target)
4406
4407 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4408
4409
4410 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4411
4412 * Multiple source language support
4413
4414 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4415 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4416 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4417 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4418 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4419 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4420
4421 * GDB and Modula-2
4422
4423 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4424 currently under development at the State University of New York at
4425 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4426 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4427
4428 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4429 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4430 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4431
4432 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4433 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4434
4435 * set write on/off
4436
4437 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4438 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4439 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4440 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4441 effect immediately.
4442
4443 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4444
4445 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4446 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4447 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4448 examining core files.
4449
4450 * set listsize
4451
4452 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4453 The default is 10.
4454
4455 * New machines supported (host and target)
4456
4457 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4458 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4459 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4460
4461 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4462
4463 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4464
4465 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4466
4467 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4468 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4469 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4470
4471 * New remote interfaces
4472
4473 AMD 29000 Adapt
4474 AMD 29000 Minimon
4475
4476
4477 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4478
4479 * New Facilities
4480
4481 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4482
4483 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4484 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4485 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4486 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4487 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4488 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4489 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4490 stub on the target system.
4491
4492 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4493
4494 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4495 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4496 object file types such as a.out and coff.
4497
4498 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4499 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4500
4501
4502 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4503
4504 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4505 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4506
4507 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4508 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4509 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4510
4511 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4512 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4513 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4514 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4515
4516 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4517 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4518 it is already running. Default is ON.
4519
4520 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4521 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4522 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4523 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4524 Default is ON.
4525
4526 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4527 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4528 or the value of the environment variable
4529 GDBHISTFILE.
4530
4531 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4532 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4533 HISTSIZE.
4534
4535 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4536 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4537 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4538
4539 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4540 history expansion will be performed on
4541 command line input. The default is OFF.
4542
4543 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4544 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4545 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4546
4547 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4548 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4549 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4550 variable TERM.
4551
4552 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4553 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4554 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4555 variable TERM.
4556
4557 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4558 ``set width'' instead.
4559
4560 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4561 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4562 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4563 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4564
4565 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4566 is OFF.
4567
4568 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4569 "raw" form if off.
4570
4571 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4572 like instructions.
4573
4574 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4575
4576
4577 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4578
4579 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4580 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4581 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4582 window.
4583
4584
4585 * Support for Shared Libraries
4586
4587 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4588 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4589 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4590 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4591 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4592 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4593 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4594 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4595
4596 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4597 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4598 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4599
4600 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4601
4602
4603 * Watchpoints
4604
4605 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4606 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4607 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4608 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4609 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4610 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4611
4612 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4613
4614 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4615
4616 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4617 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4618 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4619
4620
4621 * C++ multiple inheritance
4622
4623 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4624 for C++ programs.
4625
4626 * C++ exception handling
4627
4628 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4629 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4630 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4631 handler's context).
4632
4633 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4634 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4635 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4636
4637 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4638 current stack frame.
4639
4640
4641 * Minor command changes
4642
4643 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4644 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4645 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4646
4647 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4648 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4649 frames without printing.
4650
4651 * New directory command
4652
4653 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4654 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4655 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4656 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4657 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4658
4659 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4660
4661 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4662 for more details.
4663
4664 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4665 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4666 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4667 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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