1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.8
6 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
7 now complete on file names.
9 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
10 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
11 For instance, consider:
13 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
14 # struct example variable;
17 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
18 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
23 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
25 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
27 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
28 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
29 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
31 * The "disassemble" command now supports an optional /m modifier to print mixed
34 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
35 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
37 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
38 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
39 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
41 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
42 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
44 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
46 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
47 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
49 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
50 list of section offsets.
52 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
53 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
56 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
58 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
59 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
61 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
62 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
63 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
67 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
69 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
73 Display timestamps with GDB debugging output.
78 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
80 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
82 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
83 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
84 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
86 set breakpoint always-inserted
87 show breakpoint always-inserted
88 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
89 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
90 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
92 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
93 show arm fallback-mode
94 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
96 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
97 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
98 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
99 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
101 set disable-randomization
102 show disable-randomization
103 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
104 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
105 multiple debugging sessions.
109 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
111 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
113 * New native configurations
115 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
116 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
120 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
121 Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
123 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
125 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
126 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
127 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
128 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
130 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
131 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
133 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
136 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
137 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
138 and in inlined functions.
140 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
141 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
142 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
144 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
146 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
147 registers on PowerPC targets.
149 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
150 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
152 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
153 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
155 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
156 extended-remote mode.
158 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
159 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
160 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
161 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
163 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
164 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
165 target architectures.
167 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
168 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
169 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
170 stored in two consecutive float registers.
172 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
175 * Improved support for debugging Ada
176 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
178 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
179 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
180 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
181 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
183 - Improved command completion in Ada
186 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
191 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
192 show print frame-arguments
193 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
194 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
199 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
206 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
215 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
218 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
222 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
224 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
226 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
227 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
228 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
230 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
231 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
232 -Bsymbolic linker option.
234 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
235 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
238 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
239 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
241 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
242 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
244 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
246 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
247 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
248 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
250 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
251 automatically displayed as character or string data.
253 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
254 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
257 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
258 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
259 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
261 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
264 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
265 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
266 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
268 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
270 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
272 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
273 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
274 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
276 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
277 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
279 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
280 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
281 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
282 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
283 Windows and SymbianOS).
285 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
286 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
288 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
289 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
295 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
296 when debugging using remote targets.
298 set mem inaccessible-by-default
299 show mem inaccessible-by-default
300 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
301 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
302 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
303 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
304 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
306 set breakpoint auto-hw
307 show breakpoint auto-hw
308 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
309 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
310 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
311 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
312 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
313 including "next" and "finish".
316 catch exception unhandled
317 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
320 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
324 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
325 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
326 an alias to "set sysroot".
329 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
330 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
333 * New native configurations
335 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
340 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
341 not query the target for its built-in description.
345 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
346 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
347 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
352 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
353 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
356 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
361 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
362 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
364 qXfer:libraries:read:
365 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
366 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
367 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
368 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
372 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
381 i[34567]86-*-netware*
382 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
383 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
385 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
388 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
389 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
398 * Other removed features
405 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
412 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
417 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
418 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
423 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
424 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
426 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
428 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
429 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
430 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
431 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
435 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
436 in debugging information.
440 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
441 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
443 set mips stack-arg-size
444 set mips saved-gpreg-size
446 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
448 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
453 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
455 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
456 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
457 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
459 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
460 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
463 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
464 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
466 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
467 stub provides the required support.
469 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
470 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
475 unset substitute-path
477 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
478 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
479 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
480 between compilation and debugging.
484 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
485 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
486 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
490 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
492 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
493 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
495 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
500 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
501 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
502 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
503 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
507 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
508 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
510 qXfer:memory-map:read:
511 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
512 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
517 Erase and program a flash memory device.
519 * Removed remote packets
522 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
523 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
525 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
529 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
531 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
535 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
536 only if it doesn't already have a value.
538 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
540 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
542 restart <n> Return the program state to a
543 previously saved state.
545 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
547 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
549 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
550 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
552 info forks List forks of the user program that
553 are available to be debugged.
555 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
556 forks of the user program that are
557 available to be debugged.
559 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
560 that are available to be debugged (and
561 kill the forked process).
563 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
564 that are available to be debugged (and
565 allow the process to continue).
569 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
571 * Improved Windows host support
573 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
574 native console support, and remote communications using either
575 network sockets or serial ports.
577 * Improved Modula-2 language support
579 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
580 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
581 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
582 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
583 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
584 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
588 The ARM rdi-share module.
590 The Netware NLM debug server.
592 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
594 * New native configurations
596 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
597 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
601 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
603 * New command line options
605 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
606 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
607 the child (debugged) program exited with.
608 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
609 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
610 specified multiple times and in conjunction
611 with the --command (-x) option.
613 * Deprecated commands removed
615 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
619 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
620 othernames set arm disassembler
621 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
622 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
623 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
626 * New BSD user-level threads support
628 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
629 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
632 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
633 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
634 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
636 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
637 are not yet supported.
639 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
640 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
642 * REMOVED configurations and files
644 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
645 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
646 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
648 * New "set print array-indexes" command
650 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
651 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
654 * VAX floating point support
656 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
658 * User-defined command support
660 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
661 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
662 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
664 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
666 * New command line option
668 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
671 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
673 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
674 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
675 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
676 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
677 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
679 * Internationalization
681 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
682 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
683 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
687 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
688 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
689 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
691 * New native configurations
693 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
697 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
698 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
700 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
702 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
703 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
704 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
707 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
708 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
709 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
721 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
722 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
724 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
726 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
727 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
728 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
738 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
740 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
742 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
743 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
746 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
748 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
749 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
750 IRIX long double values).
754 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
755 command. This problem has been fixed.
757 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
759 * Fix for ``many threads''
761 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
762 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
765 ptrace: No such process.
766 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
768 This problem has been fixed.
770 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
772 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
775 * New ``start'' command.
777 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
779 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
781 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
782 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
783 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
785 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
786 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
787 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
788 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
789 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
790 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
791 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
792 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
793 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
795 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
797 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
798 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
799 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
800 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
801 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
803 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
804 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
805 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
807 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
809 * New native configurations
811 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
812 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
813 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
814 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
815 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
816 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
817 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
819 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
821 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
822 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
823 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
824 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
825 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
826 work, was also included.
828 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
829 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
839 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
840 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
842 * REMOVED configurations and files
844 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
845 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
846 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
847 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
848 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
849 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
850 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
851 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
852 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
854 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
856 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
858 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
860 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
861 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
862 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
863 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
866 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
868 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
869 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
870 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
871 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
872 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
873 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
876 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
878 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
880 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
881 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
882 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
884 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
886 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
887 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
889 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
891 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
892 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
893 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
895 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
897 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
898 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
900 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
902 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
903 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
904 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
906 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
908 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
909 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
910 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
912 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
914 * Removed --with-mmalloc
916 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
917 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
919 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
921 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
922 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
923 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
924 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
926 * Revised SPARC target
928 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
929 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
930 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
931 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
932 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
936 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
937 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
938 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
941 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
943 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
944 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
947 * C++ nested types and namespaces
949 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
950 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
951 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
952 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
953 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
954 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
955 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
956 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
957 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
959 * New native configurations
961 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
962 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
963 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
964 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
965 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
967 * New debugging protocols
969 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
971 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
973 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
974 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
975 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
977 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
979 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
980 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
981 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
984 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
985 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
986 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
987 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
988 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
989 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
990 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
991 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
992 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
994 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
996 * REMOVED configurations and files
998 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
999 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
1000 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1001 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1002 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1003 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1004 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1005 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1006 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1007 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
1008 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1009 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1010 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1011 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
1012 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
1013 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1014 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1016 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
1020 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
1021 integrated into GDB.
1023 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
1025 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
1026 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
1027 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
1030 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
1031 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
1032 DWARF 2 CFI support.
1036 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
1037 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
1038 remote protocol documentation for details.
1040 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
1042 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
1043 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
1044 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
1047 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
1049 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
1050 per-thread variables.
1052 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
1054 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
1055 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
1057 * Separate debug info.
1059 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
1060 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
1061 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
1062 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
1063 and optional debug files.
1065 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
1067 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
1068 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
1071 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
1072 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
1076 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
1077 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
1078 considered "useable".
1080 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
1082 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
1083 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
1086 * GDB supports logging output to a file
1088 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
1089 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
1091 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
1093 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
1094 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
1097 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
1099 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
1100 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
1104 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
1105 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
1106 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
1107 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
1108 data, for more informative profiling results.
1110 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
1112 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
1113 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
1114 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
1116 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
1119 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
1120 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
1121 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
1122 in a subsequent -var-update.
1124 * New native configurations.
1126 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
1128 * Multi-arched targets.
1130 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
1131 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1133 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1135 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1136 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1137 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1138 permanently REMOVED.
1140 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1141 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1142 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1143 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
1144 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1145 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
1146 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
1147 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
1148 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
1149 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
1150 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1151 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1153 * REMOVED configurations and files
1156 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1157 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1158 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1159 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1160 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1161 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1163 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1164 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1165 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1166 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1167 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1168 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1170 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
1172 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
1173 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
1174 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
1175 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
1176 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
1178 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
1180 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
1182 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
1183 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
1184 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
1185 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
1186 shared libs like mad''.
1188 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
1190 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
1191 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
1192 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
1193 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
1195 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
1197 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
1198 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
1201 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
1202 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
1204 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
1205 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
1207 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
1208 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
1209 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
1210 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
1212 * Multi-arched targets.
1214 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
1215 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
1217 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
1218 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
1219 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
1223 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
1226 * New native configurations
1228 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
1229 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
1230 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
1231 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
1233 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1235 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1236 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1237 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1238 permanently REMOVED.
1240 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1241 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1242 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
1243 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1244 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
1245 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1246 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
1247 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
1248 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
1249 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
1251 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
1252 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1254 * OBSOLETE languages
1256 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
1258 * REMOVED configurations and files
1260 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1261 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1262 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1263 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1264 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1266 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1268 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
1270 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
1271 commands. The default is 1024.
1273 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
1275 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
1277 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
1279 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
1280 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
1281 from a file into memory (restore).
1283 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
1285 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
1286 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
1287 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
1289 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
1297 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
1298 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
1299 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
1301 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
1302 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
1303 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
1305 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
1306 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
1307 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
1309 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
1310 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
1311 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
1313 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
1315 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
1317 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
1318 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
1319 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
1320 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
1321 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
1322 (notably embedded) targets.
1324 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
1326 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
1327 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
1328 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
1329 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
1331 * New command line option
1333 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
1335 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1337 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
1338 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
1339 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
1340 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
1341 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
1342 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
1343 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
1344 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
1345 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
1346 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
1348 * Changes in ARM configurations.
1350 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
1351 configuration is fully multi-arch.
1353 * New native configurations
1355 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
1356 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
1357 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
1358 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
1362 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
1364 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1366 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1367 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1368 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1369 permanently REMOVED.
1371 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
1372 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1373 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
1374 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
1375 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
1377 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
1379 * REMOVED configurations and files
1381 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1383 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1384 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1385 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1386 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1387 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1388 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1389 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1390 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1391 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1392 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1393 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
1395 * Changes to command line processing
1397 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
1398 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
1400 * Changes to key bindings
1402 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
1404 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
1406 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
1408 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
1411 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
1413 Numerous documentation fixes.
1415 Numerous testsuite fixes.
1417 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
1419 * New native configurations
1421 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1422 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
1423 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
1424 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1425 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
1426 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
1430 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
1432 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
1434 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
1436 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
1437 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1438 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
1439 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
1440 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1442 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1443 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1444 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1445 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
1446 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
1447 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
1448 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
1449 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
1451 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
1452 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
1454 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
1455 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
1456 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
1457 permanently REMOVED.
1459 * REMOVED configurations and files
1461 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1462 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1464 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1468 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
1470 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
1471 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
1476 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
1478 * The MI enabled by default.
1480 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
1481 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
1482 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
1483 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
1484 which is now deprecated.
1486 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
1488 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
1489 main features are supported:
1491 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
1493 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
1496 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
1498 - a Pascal expression parser.
1500 However, some important features are not yet supported.
1502 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
1504 - there are some problems with boolean types;
1506 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
1507 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
1509 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
1511 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
1513 * Changes in completion.
1515 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
1516 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
1517 users expect at the shell prompt.
1519 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
1520 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
1521 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
1522 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
1523 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
1524 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
1525 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
1527 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
1529 * New platform-independent commands:
1531 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
1532 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
1533 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
1535 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
1537 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
1538 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
1539 many threads as your system allows you to have.
1541 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
1543 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
1544 multi-threaded programs though.
1546 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
1548 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
1550 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
1551 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
1554 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
1556 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
1557 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
1558 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
1559 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
1560 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
1563 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
1564 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
1565 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
1567 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
1569 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
1570 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
1572 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
1573 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
1576 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
1577 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
1578 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
1579 a given linear address.
1581 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
1582 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
1583 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
1585 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
1587 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
1589 * Changes in documentation.
1591 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
1592 Documentation License.
1594 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1597 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
1599 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
1602 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
1603 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
1604 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
1606 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
1608 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
1609 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
1610 contents of this file.
1614 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
1616 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
1618 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
1620 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
1621 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
1622 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
1623 greater level of detail.
1625 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
1627 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
1628 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
1629 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
1632 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
1634 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
1635 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
1636 machines ``out of the box''.
1638 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
1639 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
1640 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
1641 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
1642 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
1644 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
1645 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
1646 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
1647 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
1648 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
1650 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
1651 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
1654 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
1657 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
1658 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
1659 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
1660 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
1662 * New native configurations
1664 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
1665 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1669 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
1670 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
1671 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
1672 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
1674 * OBSOLETE configurations
1676 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
1677 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
1679 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
1682 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1683 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1684 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1685 be permanently REMOVED.
1687 * Gould support removed
1689 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
1691 * New features for SVR4
1693 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
1694 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
1695 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
1697 * Many C++ enhancements
1699 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
1700 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
1702 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
1704 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
1705 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
1706 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
1707 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
1709 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
1710 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
1712 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
1714 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
1715 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
1716 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
1718 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
1719 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1721 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1723 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1724 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1725 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1727 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1729 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1730 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1731 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1733 * ``apropos'' command added.
1735 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1736 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1737 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1741 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1742 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1743 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1744 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1745 enabled by configuring with:
1747 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1749 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1751 * New native configurations
1753 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1754 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1755 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1759 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1760 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1761 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1763 * OBSOLETE configurations
1765 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1767 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1768 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1769 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1770 be permanently REMOVED.
1774 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1775 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1776 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1777 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1778 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1779 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1780 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1785 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1787 * set extension-language
1789 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1790 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1791 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1792 set extension-language .c c++
1793 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1794 and their associated languages.
1796 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1798 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1799 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1800 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1804 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1805 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1807 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1808 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1810 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1811 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1812 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1813 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1814 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1815 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1816 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1817 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1819 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1820 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1821 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1822 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1826 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1827 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1828 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1829 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1830 for xdb and dbx commands.
1834 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1835 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1836 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1838 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1839 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1840 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1842 * Debugging across forks
1844 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1849 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1850 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1851 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1853 * GDB remote protocol additions
1855 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1856 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1857 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1858 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1860 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1861 full 64-bit address. The command
1863 set remoteaddresssize 32
1865 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1866 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1869 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1870 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1872 maint packet heythere
1874 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1875 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1878 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1879 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1880 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1882 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1884 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1885 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1886 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1888 * mask-address variable for Mips
1890 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1891 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1892 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1894 * Higher serial baud rates
1896 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1897 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1898 to achieve all of these rates.)
1902 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1903 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1906 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1908 * New native configurations
1910 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1911 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1912 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1913 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1914 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1915 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1916 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1920 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1921 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1922 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1923 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1924 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1925 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1926 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1927 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1928 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1929 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1930 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1932 * New debugging protocols
1934 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1935 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1936 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1937 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1938 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1939 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1943 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1944 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1949 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1950 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1952 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1954 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1955 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1956 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1958 * Live range splitting
1960 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1961 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1962 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1966 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1967 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1971 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1972 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1973 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1978 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1983 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1984 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1985 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1986 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1987 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1988 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1992 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1993 the symbol at the specified address.
1997 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1998 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1999 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
2000 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
2001 file tracepoint.c for more details.
2005 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
2006 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
2007 of most MIPS variants.
2011 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
2012 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
2013 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
2017 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
2018 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
2019 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
2020 the possible architectures.
2022 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
2024 * New native configurations
2026 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
2027 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
2028 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
2029 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
2030 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2031 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
2035 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
2036 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
2037 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
2038 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
2039 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
2041 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2045 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
2046 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
2047 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
2048 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
2049 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
2053 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
2055 * Windows 95/NT native
2057 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
2058 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
2059 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
2060 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
2061 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
2063 * dont-repeat command
2065 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
2066 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
2067 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
2068 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
2070 * Send break instead of ^C
2072 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
2073 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
2074 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
2076 * Remote protocol timeout
2078 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
2079 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
2080 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
2082 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
2084 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
2085 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
2086 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
2087 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
2088 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
2090 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
2091 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
2092 automatically on hpux10.
2094 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
2096 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
2098 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
2100 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
2101 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
2102 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
2103 every character. The default value is 1050.
2105 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
2107 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
2108 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
2109 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
2110 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
2111 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
2112 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
2114 * Speedups for remote debugging
2116 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
2117 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
2118 and more efficient S-record downloading.
2120 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
2122 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
2123 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
2125 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
2127 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
2129 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
2130 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
2132 * Remote targets use caching
2134 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
2135 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
2136 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
2137 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
2138 off' turns the the data cache off.
2140 * Remote targets may have threads
2142 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
2143 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
2144 gdb/remote.c for details.
2148 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
2149 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
2150 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
2151 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
2152 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
2153 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
2154 sequence is something like
2156 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
2158 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
2162 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
2163 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
2164 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
2165 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
2166 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
2167 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
2168 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
2169 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
2173 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
2174 but does simplify configuration and building.
2178 GDB now supports hpux10.
2180 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
2182 * New native configurations
2184 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
2185 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
2186 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
2187 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
2191 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2192 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
2193 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
2194 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
2197 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
2199 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
2200 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
2201 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
2202 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
2203 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
2205 * Arguments to user-defined commands
2207 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
2208 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
2211 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
2213 To execute the command use:
2216 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
2217 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
2218 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
2220 * New `if' and `while' commands
2222 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
2223 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
2224 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
2225 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
2226 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
2227 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
2228 if the expression is zero.
2230 * Fortran source language mode
2232 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
2233 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
2234 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
2235 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
2238 * Better HPUX support
2240 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
2241 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
2242 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
2243 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
2244 that behavior do the following before running the program:
2250 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
2251 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
2257 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
2258 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
2261 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
2262 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
2264 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
2266 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
2267 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
2268 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
2269 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
2270 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
2271 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
2273 * New DOS host serial code
2275 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
2276 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
2279 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
2281 * New "complete" command
2283 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
2284 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
2286 * Trailing space optional in prompt
2288 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
2289 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
2291 * Breakpoint hit counts
2293 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
2294 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
2295 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
2296 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
2297 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
2300 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
2302 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
2303 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
2304 arrays actually contain only short strings.
2306 * Shared library breakpoints
2308 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
2309 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
2311 * Hardware watchpoints
2313 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
2314 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
2316 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
2320 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
2321 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
2323 * Improved Irix 5 support
2325 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
2327 * Improved HPPA support
2329 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
2331 * New native configurations
2333 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
2334 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2335 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
2336 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
2340 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2341 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
2344 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
2346 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
2347 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
2351 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
2352 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
2354 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
2356 * Irix 5 is now supported
2360 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
2361 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
2362 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
2363 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
2364 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
2367 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
2369 * User visible changes:
2373 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
2374 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
2375 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
2376 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
2377 debugging info for the mips target).
2379 * DEC Alpha native support
2381 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
2382 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
2383 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
2384 Alpha-specific notes.
2386 * Preliminary thread implementation
2388 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
2390 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
2392 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
2393 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
2396 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
2398 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
2399 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
2400 call methods, ...etc.
2402 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
2404 * User visible changes:
2406 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
2407 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
2408 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
2409 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
2411 Filename completion now works.
2413 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
2414 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
2415 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
2417 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
2418 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
2419 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
2420 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
2421 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
2425 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
2426 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
2429 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
2433 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
2434 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
2435 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
2439 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
2440 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
2441 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
2442 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
2443 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
2447 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
2448 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
2449 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
2451 * New targets supported
2453 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2454 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2455 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
2456 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2457 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
2459 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
2460 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
2461 GO32 memory extender.
2463 * New remote protocols
2465 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
2467 * New source languages supported
2469 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
2470 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
2471 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
2474 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
2476 * HP Precision Architecture supported
2478 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
2479 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
2480 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
2481 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
2482 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
2483 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
2485 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
2487 * Faster and better demangling
2489 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
2490 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
2491 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
2492 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
2493 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
2494 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
2497 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
2498 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
2499 compiler does not actually implement.
2501 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
2503 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
2504 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
2505 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
2506 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
2507 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
2508 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
2511 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
2512 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
2514 * Improved configure script
2516 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
2517 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
2518 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
2519 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
2521 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
2522 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
2523 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
2524 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
2525 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
2526 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
2528 * Documentation improvements
2530 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
2531 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
2532 before submitting changes.
2534 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
2535 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
2536 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
2537 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
2538 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
2540 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
2541 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
2542 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
2543 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
2544 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
2545 around this problem.
2549 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
2550 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
2551 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
2554 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
2555 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
2557 * New native hosts supported
2559 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
2560 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
2562 * New targets supported
2564 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
2566 * New file formats supported
2568 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
2569 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
2573 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
2575 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
2576 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
2578 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
2579 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
2580 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
2582 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
2583 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
2585 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
2586 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
2587 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
2590 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
2591 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
2592 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
2593 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
2594 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
2596 * Internal improvements
2598 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
2599 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
2601 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
2602 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
2603 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
2604 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
2605 shared code that handles any of them.
2607 * New command line options
2609 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
2613 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
2614 General Public License.
2616 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
2618 * Host/native/target split
2620 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
2621 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
2622 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
2623 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
2624 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
2626 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
2627 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
2628 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
2629 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
2630 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
2631 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
2632 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
2634 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
2635 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
2636 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
2638 * New hosts supported
2640 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
2641 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2642 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
2644 * New targets supported
2646 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
2647 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
2649 * New native hosts supported
2651 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
2652 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
2653 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
2655 * New file formats supported
2657 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
2658 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
2659 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
2663 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
2664 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
2665 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
2667 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
2669 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
2670 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
2671 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
2672 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
2676 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
2677 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
2678 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
2680 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
2684 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
2685 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
2688 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
2689 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
2691 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
2692 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
2693 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
2694 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
2695 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
2696 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
2698 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
2699 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
2700 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
2701 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
2705 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
2706 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
2707 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
2708 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
2709 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
2711 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
2712 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
2713 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
2714 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
2718 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
2719 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
2720 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2721 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2722 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2723 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2724 each instruction being stepped through.
2726 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2727 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2729 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2730 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2731 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2732 processor with a serial port.
2736 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2737 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2738 supported, and what files each one uses.
2742 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2743 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2744 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2745 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2747 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2748 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2749 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2750 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2754 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2755 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2756 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2757 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2758 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2759 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2761 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2764 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2766 * Better support for C++ function names
2768 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2769 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2770 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2771 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2772 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2774 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2775 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2776 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2777 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2778 for the list of formats.
2780 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2782 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2783 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2784 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2785 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2786 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2787 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2790 * New 'maintenance' command
2792 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2793 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2794 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2796 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2797 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2798 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2799 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2800 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2801 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2803 The following commands are new:
2805 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2806 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2807 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2809 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2811 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2812 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2813 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2814 read after argv processing.
2816 * New hosts supported
2818 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2820 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2822 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2823 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2824 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2825 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2826 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2829 * New targets supported
2831 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2833 * More smarts about finding #include files
2835 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2836 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2837 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2838 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2839 the one that contains your sources.
2841 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2842 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2843 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2845 * Interesting infernals change
2847 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2848 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2849 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2850 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2852 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2854 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2855 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2856 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2858 See the ChangeLog for details.
2860 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2862 * New machines supported (host and target)
2864 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2866 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2868 * New malloc package
2870 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2871 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2872 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2873 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2874 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2875 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2879 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2880 'help info proc' for details.
2882 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2884 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2885 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2888 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2890 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2891 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2892 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2893 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2894 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2895 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2897 * Cross byte order fixes
2899 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2900 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2902 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2904 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2905 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2906 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2907 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2908 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2909 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2910 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2911 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2912 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2913 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2915 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2916 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2917 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2918 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2920 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2921 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2922 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2925 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2927 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2928 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2929 shared across multiple host platforms.
2931 * longjmp() handling
2933 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2934 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2935 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2936 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2940 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2941 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2946 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2947 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2948 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2950 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2952 * New machines supported (host and target)
2954 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2956 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2957 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2959 * New machines supported (target)
2961 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2965 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2966 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2967 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2969 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2970 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2971 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2972 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2973 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2976 * New features for SVR4
2978 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2979 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2980 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2982 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2983 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2984 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2986 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2987 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2989 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2991 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2992 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2993 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2994 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2995 same code linked statically.
2999 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
3000 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
3001 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
3002 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
3003 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
3004 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
3008 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3009 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3010 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3013 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
3015 * New machines supported (host and target)
3017 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
3018 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
3019 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3021 * Almost SCO Unix support
3023 We had hoped to support:
3024 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
3025 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
3026 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
3027 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
3029 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
3031 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
3032 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
3033 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
3034 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
3039 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
3040 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
3041 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
3045 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
3046 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
3047 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
3049 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
3051 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
3052 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
3053 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
3055 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
3056 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
3057 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
3058 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
3061 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
3062 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
3063 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
3064 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
3067 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
3068 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
3071 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
3072 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
3073 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
3076 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
3078 * Improved configuration
3080 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
3081 Porting BFD is simpler.
3085 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
3086 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
3087 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
3088 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
3092 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
3094 * New host supported (not target)
3096 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
3099 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
3101 * Multiple source language support
3103 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
3104 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
3105 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
3106 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
3107 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
3108 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
3112 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
3113 currently under development at the State University of New York at
3114 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
3115 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
3117 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
3118 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
3119 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
3121 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
3122 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
3126 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
3127 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
3128 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
3129 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
3132 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
3134 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
3135 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
3136 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
3137 examining core files.
3141 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
3144 * New machines supported (host and target)
3146 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
3147 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
3148 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
3150 * New hosts supported (not targets)
3152 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
3154 * New targets supported (not hosts)
3156 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3157 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3158 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
3160 * New remote interfaces
3166 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
3170 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
3172 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
3173 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
3174 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
3175 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
3176 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
3177 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
3178 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
3179 stub on the target system.
3181 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
3183 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
3184 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
3185 object file types such as a.out and coff.
3187 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
3188 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
3191 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
3193 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
3194 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
3196 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
3197 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
3198 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
3200 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
3201 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
3202 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
3203 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
3205 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
3206 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
3207 it is already running. Default is ON.
3209 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
3210 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
3211 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
3212 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
3215 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
3216 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
3217 or the value of the environment variable
3220 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
3221 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
3224 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
3225 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
3226 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
3228 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
3229 history expansion will be performed on
3230 command line input. The default is OFF.
3232 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
3233 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
3234 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
3236 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
3237 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
3238 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3241 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
3242 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
3243 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
3246 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
3247 ``set width'' instead.
3249 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
3250 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
3251 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
3252 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
3254 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
3257 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
3260 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
3263 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
3266 * Support for Epoch Environment.
3268 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
3269 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
3270 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
3274 * Support for Shared Libraries
3276 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
3277 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
3278 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
3279 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
3280 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
3281 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
3282 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
3283 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
3285 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
3286 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
3287 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
3289 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
3294 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
3295 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
3296 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
3297 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
3298 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
3299 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
3301 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
3303 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
3305 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3306 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3307 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
3310 * C++ multiple inheritance
3312 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
3315 * C++ exception handling
3317 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
3318 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
3319 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
3322 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
3323 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
3324 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
3326 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
3327 current stack frame.
3330 * Minor command changes
3332 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
3333 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
3334 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
3336 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
3337 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
3338 frames without printing.
3340 * New directory command
3342 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
3343 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
3344 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
3345 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
3346 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
3348 * Configuring GDB for compilation
3350 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
3353 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
3354 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
3355 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
3356 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob