1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
4 *** Changes since GDB 6.3
7 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
9 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
11 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
12 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
13 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
14 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
15 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
17 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
19 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
21 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
22 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
25 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
27 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
28 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
29 IRIX long double values).
33 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
34 command. This problem has been fixed.
36 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
38 * Fix for ``many threads''
40 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
41 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
44 ptrace: No such process.
45 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
47 This problem has been fixed.
49 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
51 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
54 * New ``start'' command.
56 This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
58 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
60 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
61 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
62 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
64 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
65 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
66 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
67 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
68 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
69 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
70 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
71 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
72 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
74 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
76 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
77 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
78 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
79 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
80 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
82 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
83 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
84 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
86 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
88 * New native configurations
90 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
91 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
92 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
93 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
94 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
95 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
96 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
98 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
100 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
101 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
102 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
103 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
104 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
105 work, was also included.
107 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
108 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
118 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
119 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
121 * REMOVED configurations and files
123 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
124 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
125 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
126 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
127 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
128 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
129 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
130 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
131 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
133 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
135 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
137 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
139 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
140 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
141 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
142 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
145 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
147 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
148 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
149 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
150 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
151 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
152 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
155 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
157 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
159 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
160 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
161 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
163 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
165 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
166 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
168 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
170 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
171 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
172 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
174 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
176 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
177 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
179 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
181 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
182 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
183 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
185 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
187 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
188 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
189 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
191 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
193 * Removed --with-mmalloc
195 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
196 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
198 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
200 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
201 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
202 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
203 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
205 * Revised SPARC target
207 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
208 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
209 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
210 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
211 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
215 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
216 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
217 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
220 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
222 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
223 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
226 * C++ nested types and namespaces
228 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
229 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
230 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
231 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
232 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
233 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
234 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
235 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
236 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
238 * New native configurations
240 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
241 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
242 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
243 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
244 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
246 * New debugging protocols
248 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
250 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
252 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
253 and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
254 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
256 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
258 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
259 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
260 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
263 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
264 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
265 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
266 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
267 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
268 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
269 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
270 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
271 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
273 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
275 * REMOVED configurations and files
277 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
278 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
279 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
280 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
281 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
282 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
283 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
284 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
285 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
286 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
287 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
288 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
289 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
290 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
291 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
292 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
293 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
295 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
299 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
302 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
304 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
305 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
306 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
309 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
310 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
315 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
316 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
317 remote protocol documentation for details.
319 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
321 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
322 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
323 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
326 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
328 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
329 per-thread variables.
331 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
333 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
334 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
336 * Separate debug info.
338 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
339 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
340 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
341 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
342 and optional debug files.
344 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
346 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
347 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
350 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
351 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
355 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
356 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
357 considered "useable".
359 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
361 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
362 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
365 * GDB supports logging output to a file
367 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
368 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
370 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
372 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
373 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
376 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
378 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
379 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
383 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
384 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
385 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
386 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
387 data, for more informative profiling results.
389 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
391 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
392 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
393 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
395 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
398 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
399 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
400 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
401 in a subsequent -var-update.
403 * New native configurations.
405 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
407 * Multi-arched targets.
409 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
410 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
412 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
414 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
415 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
416 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
419 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
420 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
421 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
422 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
423 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
424 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
425 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
426 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
427 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
428 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
429 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
430 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
432 * REMOVED configurations and files
435 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
436 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
437 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
438 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
439 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
440 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
442 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
443 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
444 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
445 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
446 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
447 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
449 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
451 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
452 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
453 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
454 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
455 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
457 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
459 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
461 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
462 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
463 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
464 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
465 shared libs like mad''.
467 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
469 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
470 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
471 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
472 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
474 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
476 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
477 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
480 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
481 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
483 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
484 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
486 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
487 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
488 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
489 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
491 * Multi-arched targets.
493 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
494 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
496 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
497 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
498 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
502 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
505 * New native configurations
507 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
508 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
509 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
510 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
512 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
514 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
515 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
516 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
519 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
520 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
521 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
522 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
523 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
524 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
525 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
526 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
527 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
528 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
530 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
531 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
535 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
537 * REMOVED configurations and files
539 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
540 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
541 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
542 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
543 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
545 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
547 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
549 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
550 commands. The default is 1024.
552 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
554 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
556 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
558 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
559 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
560 from a file into memory (restore).
562 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
564 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
565 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
566 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
568 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
576 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
577 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
578 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
580 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
581 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
582 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
584 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
585 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
586 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
588 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
589 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
590 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
592 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
594 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
596 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
597 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
598 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
599 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
600 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
601 (notably embedded) targets.
603 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
605 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
606 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
607 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
608 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
610 * New command line option
612 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
614 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
616 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
617 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
618 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
619 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
620 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
621 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
622 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
623 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
624 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
625 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
627 * Changes in ARM configurations.
629 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
630 configuration is fully multi-arch.
632 * New native configurations
634 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
635 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
636 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
637 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
641 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
643 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
645 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
646 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
647 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
650 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
651 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
652 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
653 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
654 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
656 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
658 * REMOVED configurations and files
660 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
662 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
663 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
664 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
665 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
666 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
667 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
668 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
669 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
670 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
671 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
672 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
674 * Changes to command line processing
676 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
677 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
679 * Changes to key bindings
681 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
683 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
685 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
687 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
690 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
692 Numerous documentation fixes.
694 Numerous testsuite fixes.
696 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
698 * New native configurations
700 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
701 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
702 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
703 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
705 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
709 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
711 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
713 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
715 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
716 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
717 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
718 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
719 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
721 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
722 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
723 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
724 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
725 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
726 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
727 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
728 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
730 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
731 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
733 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
734 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
735 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
738 * REMOVED configurations and files
740 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
741 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
743 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
747 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
749 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
750 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
755 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
757 * The MI enabled by default.
759 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
760 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
761 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
762 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
763 which is now deprecated.
765 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
767 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
768 main features are supported:
770 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
772 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
775 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
777 - a Pascal expression parser.
779 However, some important features are not yet supported.
781 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
783 - there are some problems with boolean types;
785 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
786 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
788 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
790 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
792 * Changes in completion.
794 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
795 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
796 users expect at the shell prompt.
798 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
799 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
800 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
801 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
802 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
803 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
804 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
806 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
808 * New platform-independent commands:
810 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
811 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
812 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
814 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
816 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
817 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
818 many threads as your system allows you to have.
820 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
822 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
823 multi-threaded programs though.
825 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
827 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
829 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
830 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
833 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
835 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
836 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
837 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
838 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
839 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
842 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
843 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
844 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
846 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
848 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
849 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
851 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
852 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
855 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
856 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
857 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
858 a given linear address.
860 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
861 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
862 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
864 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
866 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
868 * Changes in documentation.
870 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
871 Documentation License.
873 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
876 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
878 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
881 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
882 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
883 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
885 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
887 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
888 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
889 contents of this file.
893 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
895 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
897 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
899 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
900 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
901 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
902 greater level of detail.
904 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
906 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
907 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
908 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
911 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
913 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
914 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
915 machines ``out of the box''.
917 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
918 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
919 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
920 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
921 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
923 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
924 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
925 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
926 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
927 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
929 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
930 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
933 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
936 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
937 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
938 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
939 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
941 * New native configurations
943 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
944 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
948 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
949 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
950 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
951 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
953 * OBSOLETE configurations
955 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
956 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
958 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
961 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
962 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
963 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
964 be permanently REMOVED.
966 * Gould support removed
968 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
970 * New features for SVR4
972 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
973 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
974 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
976 * Many C++ enhancements
978 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
979 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
981 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
983 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
984 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
985 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
986 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
988 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
989 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
991 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
993 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
994 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
995 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
997 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
998 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
1000 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
1002 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
1003 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
1004 include ``set remote P-packet''.
1006 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
1008 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
1009 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
1010 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
1012 * ``apropos'' command added.
1014 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
1015 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
1016 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
1020 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
1021 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
1022 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
1023 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
1024 enabled by configuring with:
1026 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
1028 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
1030 * New native configurations
1032 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
1033 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
1034 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
1038 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
1039 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
1040 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
1042 * OBSOLETE configurations
1044 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
1046 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
1047 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
1048 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
1049 be permanently REMOVED.
1053 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
1054 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
1055 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
1056 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
1057 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
1058 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
1059 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
1064 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
1066 * set extension-language
1068 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
1069 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
1070 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
1071 set extension-language .c c++
1072 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
1073 and their associated languages.
1075 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
1077 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
1078 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
1079 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
1083 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
1084 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
1086 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
1087 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
1089 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
1090 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
1091 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
1092 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
1093 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
1094 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
1095 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
1096 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
1098 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
1099 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
1100 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
1101 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
1105 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
1106 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
1107 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
1108 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
1109 for xdb and dbx commands.
1113 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
1114 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
1115 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
1117 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
1118 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
1119 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
1121 * Debugging across forks
1123 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
1128 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
1129 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
1130 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
1132 * GDB remote protocol additions
1134 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
1135 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
1136 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
1137 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
1139 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
1140 full 64-bit address. The command
1142 set remoteaddresssize 32
1144 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
1145 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
1148 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
1149 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
1151 maint packet heythere
1153 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
1154 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
1157 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
1158 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
1159 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
1161 * Tracing can collect general expressions
1163 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
1164 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
1165 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
1167 * mask-address variable for Mips
1169 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
1170 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
1171 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
1173 * Higher serial baud rates
1175 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
1176 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
1177 to achieve all of these rates.)
1181 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
1182 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
1185 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
1187 * New native configurations
1189 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
1190 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
1191 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
1192 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
1193 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
1194 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
1195 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
1199 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
1200 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
1201 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
1202 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
1203 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
1204 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
1205 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
1206 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
1207 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
1208 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1209 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
1211 * New debugging protocols
1213 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
1214 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
1215 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
1216 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1217 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1218 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
1222 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
1223 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
1228 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
1229 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
1231 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
1233 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
1234 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
1235 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
1237 * Live range splitting
1239 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
1240 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
1241 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
1245 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
1246 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
1250 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
1251 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
1252 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
1257 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
1262 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
1263 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
1264 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
1265 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
1266 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
1267 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
1271 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
1272 the symbol at the specified address.
1276 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
1277 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
1278 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
1279 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
1280 file tracepoint.c for more details.
1284 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
1285 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
1286 of most MIPS variants.
1290 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
1291 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
1292 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
1296 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
1297 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
1298 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
1299 the possible architectures.
1301 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
1303 * New native configurations
1305 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
1306 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
1307 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
1308 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
1309 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
1310 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
1314 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
1315 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
1316 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
1317 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
1318 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
1320 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
1324 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
1325 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
1326 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
1327 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
1328 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
1332 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
1334 * Windows 95/NT native
1336 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
1337 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
1338 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
1339 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
1340 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
1342 * dont-repeat command
1344 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
1345 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
1346 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
1347 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
1349 * Send break instead of ^C
1351 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
1352 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
1353 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
1355 * Remote protocol timeout
1357 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
1358 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
1359 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
1361 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
1363 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
1364 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
1365 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
1366 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
1367 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
1369 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
1370 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
1371 automatically on hpux10.
1373 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
1375 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
1377 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
1379 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
1380 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
1381 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
1382 every character. The default value is 1050.
1384 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
1386 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
1387 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
1388 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
1389 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
1390 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
1391 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
1393 * Speedups for remote debugging
1395 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
1396 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
1397 and more efficient S-record downloading.
1399 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
1401 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
1402 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
1404 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
1406 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
1408 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
1409 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
1411 * Remote targets use caching
1413 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
1414 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
1415 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
1416 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
1417 off' turns the the data cache off.
1419 * Remote targets may have threads
1421 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
1422 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
1423 gdb/remote.c for details.
1427 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
1428 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
1429 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
1430 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
1431 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
1432 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
1433 sequence is something like
1435 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
1437 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
1441 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
1442 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
1443 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
1444 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
1445 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
1446 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
1447 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
1448 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
1452 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
1453 but does simplify configuration and building.
1457 GDB now supports hpux10.
1459 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
1461 * New native configurations
1463 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
1464 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
1465 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
1466 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
1470 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
1471 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
1472 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
1473 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
1476 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
1478 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
1479 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
1480 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
1481 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
1482 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
1484 * Arguments to user-defined commands
1486 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
1487 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
1490 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
1492 To execute the command use:
1495 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
1496 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
1497 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
1499 * New `if' and `while' commands
1501 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
1502 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
1503 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
1504 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
1505 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
1506 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
1507 if the expression is zero.
1509 * Fortran source language mode
1511 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
1512 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
1513 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
1514 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
1517 * Better HPUX support
1519 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
1520 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
1521 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
1522 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
1523 that behavior do the following before running the program:
1529 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
1530 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
1536 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
1537 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
1540 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
1541 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
1543 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
1545 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
1546 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
1547 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
1548 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
1549 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
1550 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
1552 * New DOS host serial code
1554 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
1555 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
1558 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
1560 * New "complete" command
1562 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
1563 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
1565 * Trailing space optional in prompt
1567 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
1568 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
1570 * Breakpoint hit counts
1572 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
1573 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
1574 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
1575 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
1576 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
1579 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
1581 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
1582 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
1583 arrays actually contain only short strings.
1585 * Shared library breakpoints
1587 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
1588 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
1590 * Hardware watchpoints
1592 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
1593 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
1595 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
1599 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
1600 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
1602 * Improved Irix 5 support
1604 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
1606 * Improved HPPA support
1608 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
1610 * New native configurations
1612 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
1613 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
1614 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
1615 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
1619 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1620 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
1623 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
1625 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
1626 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
1630 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
1631 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
1633 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
1635 * Irix 5 is now supported
1639 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
1640 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
1641 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
1642 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
1643 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
1646 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
1648 * User visible changes:
1652 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
1653 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
1654 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
1655 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
1656 debugging info for the mips target).
1658 * DEC Alpha native support
1660 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
1661 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
1662 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
1663 Alpha-specific notes.
1665 * Preliminary thread implementation
1667 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
1669 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
1671 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
1672 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
1675 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
1677 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
1678 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
1679 call methods, ...etc.
1681 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
1683 * User visible changes:
1685 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
1686 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
1687 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
1688 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
1690 Filename completion now works.
1692 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
1693 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
1694 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
1696 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
1697 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
1698 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
1699 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
1700 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
1704 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
1705 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
1708 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
1712 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
1713 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
1714 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
1718 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
1719 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
1720 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
1721 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
1722 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
1726 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
1727 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
1728 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
1730 * New targets supported
1732 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
1733 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
1734 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
1735 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
1736 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
1738 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
1739 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
1740 GO32 memory extender.
1742 * New remote protocols
1744 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
1746 * New source languages supported
1748 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
1749 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
1750 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
1753 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
1755 * HP Precision Architecture supported
1757 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
1758 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
1759 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
1760 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
1761 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
1762 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
1764 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
1766 * Faster and better demangling
1768 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
1769 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
1770 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
1771 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
1772 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
1773 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
1776 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
1777 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
1778 compiler does not actually implement.
1780 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
1782 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
1783 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
1784 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
1785 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
1786 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
1787 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
1790 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
1791 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
1793 * Improved configure script
1795 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
1796 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
1797 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
1798 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
1800 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
1801 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
1802 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
1803 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
1804 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
1805 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
1807 * Documentation improvements
1809 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
1810 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
1811 before submitting changes.
1813 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
1814 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
1815 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
1816 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
1817 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
1819 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
1820 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
1821 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
1822 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
1823 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
1824 around this problem.
1828 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
1829 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
1830 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
1833 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
1834 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
1836 * New native hosts supported
1838 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
1839 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
1841 * New targets supported
1843 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
1845 * New file formats supported
1847 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
1848 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
1852 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
1854 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
1855 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
1857 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
1858 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
1859 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
1861 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
1862 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
1864 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
1865 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
1866 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
1869 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
1870 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
1871 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
1872 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
1873 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
1875 * Internal improvements
1877 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
1878 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
1880 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
1881 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
1882 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
1883 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
1884 shared code that handles any of them.
1886 * New command line options
1888 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
1892 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
1893 General Public License.
1895 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
1897 * Host/native/target split
1899 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
1900 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
1901 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
1902 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
1903 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
1905 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
1906 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
1907 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
1908 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
1909 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
1910 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
1911 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
1913 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
1914 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
1915 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
1917 * New hosts supported
1919 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
1920 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1921 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
1923 * New targets supported
1925 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
1926 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
1928 * New native hosts supported
1930 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
1931 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
1932 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
1934 * New file formats supported
1936 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
1937 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
1938 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
1942 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
1943 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
1944 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
1946 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
1948 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
1949 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
1950 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
1951 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
1955 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
1956 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
1957 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
1959 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
1963 The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
1964 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
1967 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
1968 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
1970 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
1971 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
1972 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
1973 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
1974 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
1975 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
1977 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
1978 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
1979 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
1980 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
1984 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
1985 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
1986 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
1987 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
1988 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
1990 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
1991 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
1992 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
1993 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
1997 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
1998 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
1999 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
2000 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
2001 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
2002 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
2003 each instruction being stepped through.
2005 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
2006 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
2008 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
2009 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
2010 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
2011 processor with a serial port.
2015 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
2016 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
2017 supported, and what files each one uses.
2021 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
2022 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
2023 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
2024 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
2026 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
2027 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
2028 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
2029 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
2033 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
2034 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
2035 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
2036 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
2037 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
2038 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
2040 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
2043 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
2045 * Better support for C++ function names
2047 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
2048 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
2049 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
2050 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
2051 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
2053 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
2054 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
2055 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
2056 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
2057 for the list of formats.
2059 * G++ symbol mangling problem
2061 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
2062 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
2063 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
2064 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
2065 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
2066 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
2069 * New 'maintenance' command
2071 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
2072 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
2073 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
2075 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
2076 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
2077 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
2078 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
2079 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
2080 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
2082 The following commands are new:
2084 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
2085 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
2086 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
2088 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
2090 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
2091 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
2092 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
2093 read after argv processing.
2095 * New hosts supported
2097 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
2099 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
2101 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
2102 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
2103 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
2104 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
2105 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
2108 * New targets supported
2110 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
2112 * More smarts about finding #include files
2114 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
2115 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
2116 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
2117 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
2118 the one that contains your sources.
2120 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
2121 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
2122 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
2124 * Interesting infernals change
2126 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
2127 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
2128 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
2129 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
2131 * Bug fixes (of course!)
2133 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
2134 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
2135 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
2137 See the ChangeLog for details.
2139 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
2141 * New machines supported (host and target)
2143 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
2145 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2147 * New malloc package
2149 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
2150 Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
2151 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
2152 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
2153 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
2154 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
2158 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
2159 'help info proc' for details.
2161 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
2163 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
2164 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
2167 * File name changes for MS-DOS
2169 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
2170 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
2171 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
2172 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
2173 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
2174 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
2176 * Cross byte order fixes
2178 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
2179 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
2181 * New -mapped and -readnow options
2183 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
2184 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
2185 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
2186 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
2187 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
2188 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
2189 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
2190 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
2191 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
2192 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
2194 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
2195 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
2196 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
2197 slower, but makes future operations faster.
2199 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
2200 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
2201 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
2204 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
2206 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
2207 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
2208 shared across multiple host platforms.
2210 * longjmp() handling
2212 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
2213 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
2214 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
2215 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
2219 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
2220 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
2225 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
2226 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
2227 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
2229 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
2231 * New machines supported (host and target)
2233 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2235 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
2236 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
2238 * New machines supported (target)
2240 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2244 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
2245 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
2246 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
2248 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
2249 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
2250 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
2251 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
2252 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
2255 * New features for SVR4
2257 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
2258 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
2259 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
2261 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
2262 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
2263 it prints the address mappings of the process.
2265 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
2266 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
2268 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
2270 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
2271 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
2272 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
2273 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
2274 same code linked statically.
2278 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
2279 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
2280 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
2281 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
2282 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
2283 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
2287 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2288 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2289 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2292 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
2294 * New machines supported (host and target)
2296 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
2297 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
2298 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2300 * Almost SCO Unix support
2302 We had hoped to support:
2303 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
2304 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
2305 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
2306 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
2308 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
2310 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
2311 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
2312 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
2313 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
2318 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
2319 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
2320 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
2324 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
2325 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
2326 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
2328 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
2330 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
2331 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
2332 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
2334 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
2335 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
2336 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
2337 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
2340 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
2341 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
2342 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
2343 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
2346 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
2347 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
2350 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
2351 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
2352 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
2355 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
2357 * Improved configuration
2359 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
2360 Porting BFD is simpler.
2364 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
2365 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
2366 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
2367 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
2371 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
2373 * New host supported (not target)
2375 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
2378 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
2380 * Multiple source language support
2382 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
2383 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
2384 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
2385 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
2386 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
2387 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
2391 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
2392 currently under development at the State University of New York at
2393 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
2394 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
2396 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
2397 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
2398 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
2400 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
2401 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
2405 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
2406 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
2407 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
2408 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
2411 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
2413 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
2414 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
2415 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
2416 examining core files.
2420 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
2423 * New machines supported (host and target)
2425 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
2426 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
2427 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
2429 * New hosts supported (not targets)
2431 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
2433 * New targets supported (not hosts)
2435 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2436 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2437 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
2439 * New remote interfaces
2445 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
2449 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
2451 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
2452 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
2453 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
2454 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
2455 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
2456 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
2457 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
2458 stub on the target system.
2460 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
2462 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
2463 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
2464 object file types such as a.out and coff.
2466 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
2467 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
2470 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
2472 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
2473 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
2475 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
2476 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
2477 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
2479 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
2480 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
2481 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
2482 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
2484 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
2485 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
2486 it is already running. Default is ON.
2488 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
2489 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
2490 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
2491 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
2494 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
2495 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
2496 or the value of the environment variable
2499 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
2500 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
2503 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
2504 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
2505 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
2507 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
2508 history expansion will be performed on
2509 command line input. The default is OFF.
2511 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
2512 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
2513 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
2515 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
2516 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
2517 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2520 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
2521 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
2522 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
2525 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
2526 ``set width'' instead.
2528 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
2529 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
2530 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
2531 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
2533 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
2536 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
2539 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
2542 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
2545 * Support for Epoch Environment.
2547 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
2548 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
2549 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
2553 * Support for Shared Libraries
2555 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
2556 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
2557 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
2558 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
2559 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
2560 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
2561 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
2562 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
2564 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
2565 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
2566 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
2568 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
2573 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
2574 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
2575 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
2576 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
2577 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
2578 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
2580 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
2582 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
2584 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2585 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2586 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
2589 * C++ multiple inheritance
2591 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
2594 * C++ exception handling
2596 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
2597 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
2598 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
2601 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
2602 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
2603 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
2605 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
2606 current stack frame.
2609 * Minor command changes
2611 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
2612 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
2613 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
2615 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
2616 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
2617 frames without printing.
2619 * New directory command
2621 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
2622 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
2623 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
2624 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
2625 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
2627 * Configuring GDB for compilation
2629 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
2632 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
2633 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
2634 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
2635 where the program that you are debugging will run.
projects / deliverable / binutils-gdb.git / blob