gdb: introduce new 'maint flush ' prefix command
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
4 *** Changes since GDB 10
5
6 * Building GDB now requires GMP (The GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic
7 Library).
8
9 * MI changes
10
11 ** '-break-insert --qualified' and '-dprintf-insert --qualified'
12
13 The MI -break-insert and -dprintf-insert commands now support a
14 new "--qualified" option that makes GDB interpret a specified
15 function name as a complete fully-qualified name. This is the
16 equivalent of the CLI's "break -qualified" and "dprintf
17 -qualified".
18
19 * GDB now supports core file debugging for x86_64 Cygwin programs.
20
21 * GDB will now look for the .gdbinit file in a config directory before
22 looking for ~/.gdbinit. The file is searched for in the following
23 locations: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.config/gdb/gdbinit,
24 $HOME/.gdbinit. On Apple hosts the search order is instead:
25 $HOME/Library/Preferences/gdb/gdbinit, $HOME/.gdbinit.
26
27 * GDB now supports fixed point types which are described in DWARF
28 as base types with a fixed-point encoding. Additionally, support
29 for the DW_AT_GNU_numerator and DW_AT_GNU_denominator has also
30 been added.
31
32 For Ada, this allows support for fixed point types without requiring
33 the use of the GNAT encoding (based on information added to the type's
34 name following a GNAT-specific format).
35
36 * New commands
37
38 set debug event-loop
39 show debug event-loop
40 Control the display of debug output about GDB's event loop.
41
42 maintenance flush symbol-cache
43 maintenance flush register-cache
44 These new commands are equivalent to the already existing commands
45 'maintenance flush-symbol-cache' and 'flushregs' respectively.
46
47 * Changed commands
48
49 break [PROBE_MODIFIER] [LOCATION] [thread THREADNUM]
50 [-force-condition] [if CONDITION]
51 This command would previously refuse setting a breakpoint if the
52 CONDITION expression is invalid at a location. It now accepts and
53 defines the breakpoint if there is at least one location at which
54 the CONDITION is valid. The locations for which the CONDITION is
55 invalid, are automatically disabled. If CONDITION is invalid at all
56 of the locations, setting the breakpoint is still rejected. However,
57 the '-force-condition' flag can be used in this case for forcing GDB to
58 define the breakpoint, making all the current locations automatically
59 disabled. This may be useful if the user knows the condition will
60 become meaningful at a future location, e.g. due to a shared library
61 load.
62
63 condition [-force] N COND
64 The behavior of this command is changed the same way for the 'break'
65 command as explained above. The '-force' flag can be used to force
66 GDB into defining the condition even when COND is invalid for all the
67 current locations of breakpoint N.
68
69 flushregs
70 maintenance flush-symbol-cache
71 These commands are deprecated in favor of the new commands
72 'maintenance flush register-cache' and 'maintenance flush
73 symbol-cache' respectively.
74
75 *** Changes in GDB 10
76
77 * There are new feature names for ARC targets: "org.gnu.gdb.arc.core"
78 and "org.gnu.gdb.arc.aux". The old names are still supported but
79 must be considered obsolete. They will be deprecated after some
80 grace period.
81
82 * Help and apropos commands will now show the documentation of a
83 command only once, even if that command has one or more aliases.
84 These commands now show the command name, then all of its aliases,
85 and finally the description of the command.
86
87 * 'help aliases' now shows only the user defined aliases. GDB predefined
88 aliases are shown together with their aliased command.
89
90 * GDB now supports debuginfod, an HTTP server for distributing ELF/DWARF
91 debugging information as well as source code.
92
93 When built with debuginfod, GDB can automatically query debuginfod
94 servers for the separate debug files and source code of the executable
95 being debugged.
96
97 To build GDB with debuginfod, pass --with-debuginfod to configure (this
98 requires libdebuginfod, the debuginfod client library).
99
100 debuginfod is distributed with elfutils, starting with version 0.178.
101
102 You can get the latest version from https://sourceware.org/elfutils.
103
104 * Multi-target debugging support
105
106 GDB now supports debugging multiple target connections
107 simultaneously. For example, you can now have each inferior
108 connected to different remote servers running in different machines,
109 or have one inferior debugging a local native process, an inferior
110 debugging a core dump, etc.
111
112 This support is experimental and comes with some limitations -- you
113 can only resume multiple targets simultaneously if all targets
114 support non-stop mode, and all remote stubs or servers must support
115 the same set of remote protocol features exactly. See also "info
116 connections" and "add-inferior -no-connection" below, and "maint set
117 target-non-stop" in the user manual.
118
119 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
120
121 ** GDBserver is now supported on ARC GNU/Linux.
122
123 ** GDBserver is now supported on RISC-V GNU/Linux.
124
125 ** GDBserver no longer supports these host triplets:
126
127 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
128 powerpc-*-lynxos*
129 i[34567]86-*-nto*
130 bfin-*-*linux*
131 crisv32-*-linux*
132 cris-*-linux*
133 m32r*-*-linux*
134 tilegx-*-linux*
135 arm*-*-mingw32ce*
136 i[34567]86-*-mingw32ce*
137
138 * Debugging MS-Windows processes now sets $_exitsignal when the
139 inferior is terminated by a signal, instead of setting $_exitcode.
140
141 * Multithreaded symbol loading has now been enabled by default on systems
142 that support it (see entry for GDB 9, below), providing faster
143 performance for programs with many symbols.
144
145 * The $_siginfo convenience variable now also works on Windows targets,
146 and will display the EXCEPTION_RECORD of the last handled exception.
147
148 * TUI windows can now be arranged horizontally.
149
150 * The command history filename can now be set to the empty string
151 either using 'set history filename' or by setting 'GDBHISTFILE=' in
152 the environment. The effect of setting this filename to the empty
153 string is that GDB will not try to load any previous command
154 history.
155
156 * On Windows targets, it is now possible to debug 32-bit programs with a
157 64-bit GDB.
158
159 * New commands
160
161 set exec-file-mismatch -- Set exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
162 show exec-file-mismatch -- Show exec-file-mismatch handling (ask|warn|off).
163 Set or show the option 'exec-file-mismatch'. When GDB attaches to a
164 running process, this new option indicates whether to detect
165 a mismatch between the current executable file loaded by GDB and the
166 executable file used to start the process. If 'ask', the default,
167 display a warning and ask the user whether to load the process
168 executable file; if 'warn', just display a warning; if 'off', don't
169 attempt to detect a mismatch.
170
171 tui new-layout NAME WINDOW WEIGHT [WINDOW WEIGHT]...
172 Define a new TUI layout, specifying its name and the windows that
173 will be displayed.
174
175 maintenance print xml-tdesc [FILE]
176 Prints the current target description as an XML document. If the
177 optional FILE is provided (which is an XML target description) then
178 the target description is read from FILE into GDB, and then
179 reprinted.
180
181 maintenance print core-file-backed-mappings
182 Prints file-backed mappings loaded from a core file's note section.
183 Output is expected to be similar to that of "info proc mappings".
184
185 set debug fortran-array-slicing on|off
186 show debug fortran-array-slicing
187 Print debugging when taking slices of Fortran arrays.
188
189 set fortran repack-array-slices on|off
190 show fortran repack-array-slices
191 When taking slices from Fortran arrays and strings, if the slice is
192 non-contiguous within the original value then, when this option is
193 on, the new value will be repacked into a single contiguous value.
194 When this option is off, then the value returned will consist of a
195 descriptor that describes the slice within the memory of the
196 original parent value.
197
198 * Changed commands
199
200 alias [-a] [--] ALIAS = COMMAND [DEFAULT-ARGS...]
201 The alias command can now specify default args for an alias.
202 GDB automatically prepends the alias default args to the argument list
203 provided explicitly by the user.
204 For example, to have a backtrace with full details, you can define
205 an alias 'bt_ALL' as
206 'alias bt_ALL = backtrace -entry-values both -frame-arg all
207 -past-main -past-entry -full'.
208 Alias default arguments can also use a set of nested 'with' commands,
209 e.g. 'alias pp10 = with print pretty -- with print elem 10 -- print'
210 defines the alias pp10 that will pretty print a maximum of 10 elements
211 of the given expression (if the expression is an array).
212
213 * New targets
214
215 GNU/Linux/RISC-V (gdbserver) riscv*-*-linux*
216 BPF bpf-unknown-none
217
218 * Python API
219
220 ** gdb.register_window_type can be used to implement new TUI windows
221 in Python.
222
223 ** Dynamic types can now be queried. gdb.Type has a new attribute,
224 "dynamic", and gdb.Type.sizeof can be None for a dynamic type. A
225 field of a dynamic type may have None for its "bitpos" attribute
226 as well.
227
228 ** Commands written in Python can be in the "TUI" help class by
229 registering with the new constant gdb.COMMAND_TUI.
230
231 ** New method gdb.PendingFrame.architecture () to retrieve the
232 architecture of the pending frame.
233
234 ** New gdb.Architecture.registers method that returns a
235 gdb.RegisterDescriptorIterator object, an iterator that returns
236 gdb.RegisterDescriptor objects. The new RegisterDescriptor is a
237 way to query the registers available for an architecture.
238
239 ** New gdb.Architecture.register_groups method that returns a
240 gdb.RegisterGroupIterator object, an iterator that returns
241 gdb.RegisterGroup objects. The new RegisterGroup is a way to
242 discover the available register groups.
243
244 * Guile API
245
246 ** GDB can now be built with GNU Guile 3.0 and 2.2 in addition to 2.0.
247
248 ** Procedures 'memory-port-read-buffer-size',
249 'set-memory-port-read-buffer-size!', 'memory-port-write-buffer-size',
250 and 'set-memory-port-write-buffer-size!' are deprecated. When
251 using Guile 2.2 and later, users who need to control the size of
252 a memory port's internal buffer can use the 'setvbuf' procedure.
253
254 *** Changes in GDB 9
255
256 * 'thread-exited' event is now available in the annotations interface.
257
258 * New built-in convenience variables $_gdb_major and $_gdb_minor
259 provide the GDB version. They are handy for conditionally using
260 features available only in or since specific GDB versions, in
261 scripts that should work error-free with many different versions,
262 such as in system-wide init files.
263
264 * New built-in convenience functions $_gdb_setting, $_gdb_setting_str,
265 $_gdb_maint_setting and $_gdb_maint_setting_str provide access to values
266 of the GDB settings and the GDB maintenance settings. They are handy
267 for changing the logic of user defined commands depending on the
268 current GDB settings.
269
270 * GDB now supports Thread Local Storage (TLS) variables on several
271 FreeBSD architectures (amd64, i386, powerpc, riscv). Other
272 architectures require kernel changes. TLS is not yet supported for
273 amd64 and i386 process core dumps.
274
275 * Support for Pointer Authentication (PAC) on AArch64 Linux. Return
276 addresses that required unmasking are shown in the backtrace with the
277 postfix [PAC].
278
279 * Two new convenience functions $_cimag and $_creal that extract the
280 imaginary and real parts respectively from complex numbers.
281
282 * New built-in convenience variables $_shell_exitcode and $_shell_exitsignal
283 provide the exitcode or exit status of the shell commands launched by
284 GDB commands such as "shell", "pipe" and "make".
285
286 * The command define-prefix can now define user defined prefix commands.
287 User defined commands can now be defined using these user defined prefix
288 commands.
289
290 * Command names can now use the . character.
291
292 * The RX port now supports XML target descriptions.
293
294 * GDB now shows the Ada task names at more places, e.g. in task switching
295 messages.
296
297 * GDB can now be compiled with Python 3 on Windows.
298
299 * New convenience variable $_ada_exception holds the address of the
300 Ada exception being thrown. This is set by Ada-related catchpoints.
301
302 * GDB can now place breakpoints on nested functions and subroutines in
303 Fortran code. The '::' operator can be used between parent and
304 child scopes when placing breakpoints, for example:
305
306 (gdb) break outer_function::inner_function
307
308 The 'outer_function::' prefix is only needed if 'inner_function' is
309 not visible in the current scope.
310
311 * In addition to the system-wide gdbinit file, if configured with
312 --with-system-gdbinit-dir, GDB will now also load files in that directory
313 as system gdbinit files, unless the -nx or -n flag is provided. Files
314 with extensions .gdb, .py and .scm are supported as long as GDB was
315 compiled with support for that language.
316
317 * GDB now supports multithreaded symbol loading for higher performance.
318 This feature is still in testing, so it is disabled by default. You
319 can turn it on using 'maint set worker-threads unlimited'.
320
321 * Python API
322
323 ** The gdb.Value type has a new method 'format_string' which returns a
324 string representing the value. The formatting is controlled by the
325 optional keyword arguments: 'raw', 'pretty_arrays', 'pretty_structs',
326 'array_indexes', 'symbols', 'unions', 'deref_refs', 'actual_objects',
327 'static_members', 'max_elements', 'repeat_threshold', and 'format'.
328
329 ** gdb.Type has a new property 'objfile' which returns the objfile the
330 type was defined in.
331
332 ** The frame information printed by the python frame filtering code
333 is now consistent with what the 'backtrace' command prints when
334 there are no filters, or when the 'backtrace' '-no-filters' option
335 is given.
336
337 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbol can be used to look up
338 symbols with static linkage.
339
340 ** The new function gdb.lookup_static_symbols can be used to look up
341 all static symbols with static linkage.
342
343 ** gdb.Objfile has new methods 'lookup_global_symbol' and
344 'lookup_static_symbol' to lookup a symbol from this objfile only.
345
346 ** gdb.Block now supports the dictionary syntax for accessing symbols in
347 this block (e.g. block['local_variable']).
348
349 * New commands
350
351 | [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
352 | -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
353 pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND
354 pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND
355 Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
356 With no COMMAND, repeat the last executed command
357 and send its output to SHELL_COMMAND.
358
359 define-prefix COMMAND
360 Define or mark a command as a user-defined prefix command.
361
362 with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
363 w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
364 Temporarily set SETTING, run COMMAND, and restore SETTING.
365 Usage: with SETTING -- COMMAND
366 With no COMMAND, repeats the last executed command.
367 SETTING is any GDB setting you can change with the "set"
368 subcommands. For example, 'with language c -- print someobj'
369 temporarily switches to the C language in order to print someobj.
370 Settings can be combined: 'w lang c -- w print elements unlimited --
371 usercmd' switches to the C language and runs usercmd with no limit
372 of array elements to print.
373
374 maint with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]
375 Like "with", but works with "maintenance set" settings.
376
377 set may-call-functions [on|off]
378 show may-call-functions
379 This controls whether GDB will attempt to call functions in
380 the program, such as with expressions in the print command. It
381 defaults to on. Calling functions in the program being debugged
382 can have undesired side effects. It is now possible to forbid
383 such function calls. If function calls are forbidden, GDB will throw
384 an error when a command (such as print expression) calls a function
385 in the program.
386
387 set print finish [on|off]
388 show print finish
389 This controls whether the `finish' command will display the value
390 that is returned by the current function. When `off', the value is
391 still entered into the value history, but it is not printed. The
392 default is `on'.
393
394 set print max-depth
395 show print max-depth
396 Allows deeply nested structures to be simplified when printing by
397 replacing deeply nested parts (beyond the max-depth) with ellipses.
398 The default max-depth is 20, but this can be set to unlimited to get
399 the old behavior back.
400
401 set print raw-values [on|off]
402 show print raw-values
403 By default, GDB applies the enabled pretty printers when printing a
404 value. This allows to ignore the enabled pretty printers for a series
405 of commands. The default is 'off'.
406
407 set logging debugredirect [on|off]
408 By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
409 Set if you want debug output to go only to the log file.
410
411 set style title foreground COLOR
412 set style title background COLOR
413 set style title intensity VALUE
414 Control the styling of titles.
415
416 set style highlight foreground COLOR
417 set style highlight background COLOR
418 set style highlight intensity VALUE
419 Control the styling of highlightings.
420
421 maint set worker-threads
422 maint show worker-threads
423 Control the number of worker threads that can be used by GDB. The
424 default is 0. "unlimited" lets GDB choose a number that is
425 reasonable. Currently worker threads are only used when demangling
426 the names of linker symbols.
427
428 set style tui-border foreground COLOR
429 set style tui-border background COLOR
430 Control the styling of TUI borders.
431
432 set style tui-active-border foreground COLOR
433 set style tui-active-border background COLOR
434 Control the styling of the active TUI border.
435
436 maint set test-settings KIND
437 maint show test-settings KIND
438 A set of commands used by the testsuite for exercising the settings
439 infrastructure.
440
441 maint set tui-resize-message [on|off]
442 maint show tui-resize-message
443 Control whether GDB prints a message each time the terminal is
444 resized when in TUI mode. This is primarily useful for testing the
445 TUI.
446
447 set print frame-info [short-location|location|location-and-address
448 |source-and-location|source-line|auto]
449 show print frame-info
450 This controls what frame information is printed by the commands printing
451 a frame. This setting will e.g. influence the behaviour of 'backtrace',
452 'frame', 'stepi'. The python frame filtering also respect this setting.
453 The 'backtrace' '-frame-info' option can override this global setting.
454
455 set tui compact-source
456 show tui compact-source
457
458 Enable the "compact" display mode for the TUI source window. The
459 compact display uses only as much space as is needed for the line
460 numbers in the current file, and only a single space to separate the
461 line numbers from the source.
462
463 info modules [-q] [REGEXP]
464 Return a list of Fortran modules matching REGEXP, or all modules if
465 no REGEXP is given.
466
467 info module functions [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
468 Return a list of functions within all modules, grouped by module.
469 The list of functions can be restricted with the optional regular
470 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
471 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the function type signature, and REGEXP
472 matches against the function name.
473
474 info module variables [-q] [-m MODULE_REGEXP] [-t TYPE_REGEXP] [REGEXP]
475 Return a list of variables within all modules, grouped by module.
476 The list of variables can be restricted with the optional regular
477 expressions. MODULE_REGEXP matches against the module name,
478 TYPE_REGEXP matches against the variable type, and REGEXP matches
479 against the variable name.
480
481 set debug remote-packet-max-chars
482 show debug remote-packet-max-chars
483 Controls the number of characters to output in a remote packet when using
484 "set debug remote".
485 The default is 512 bytes.
486
487 info connections
488 Lists the target connections currently in use.
489
490 * Changed commands
491
492 help
493 The "help" command uses the title style to enhance the
494 readibility of its output by styling the classes and
495 command names.
496
497 apropos [-v] REGEXP
498 Similarly to "help", the "apropos" command also uses the
499 title style for the command names. "apropos" accepts now
500 a flag "-v" (verbose) to show the full documentation
501 of matching commands and to use the highlight style to mark
502 the documentation parts matching REGEXP.
503
504 printf
505 eval
506 The GDB printf and eval commands can now print C-style and Ada-style
507 string convenience variables without calling functions in the program.
508 This allows to do formatted printing of strings without having
509 a running inferior, or when debugging a core dump.
510
511 info sources [-dirname | -basename] [--] [REGEXP]
512 This command has now optional arguments to only print the files
513 whose names match REGEXP. The arguments -dirname and -basename
514 allow to restrict matching respectively to the dirname and basename
515 parts of the files.
516
517 show style
518 The "show style" and its subcommands are now styling
519 a style name in their output using its own style, to help
520 the user visualize the different styles.
521
522 set print frame-arguments
523 The new value 'presence' indicates to only indicate the presence of
524 arguments using ..., instead of printing argument names and values.
525
526 set print raw-frame-arguments
527 show print raw-frame-arguments
528
529 These commands replace the similarly-named "set/show print raw
530 frame-arguments" commands (now with a dash instead of a space). The
531 old commands are now deprecated and may be removed in a future
532 release.
533
534 add-inferior [-no-connection]
535 The add-inferior command now supports a "-no-connection" flag that
536 makes the new inferior start with no target connection associated.
537 By default, the new inferior inherits the target connection of the
538 current inferior. See also "info connections".
539
540 info inferior
541 This command's output now includes a new "Connection" column
542 indicating which target connection an inferior is bound to. See
543 "info connections" above.
544
545 maint test-options require-delimiter
546 maint test-options unknown-is-error
547 maint test-options unknown-is-operand
548 maint show test-options-completion-result
549 Commands used by the testsuite to validate the command options
550 framework.
551
552 focus, winheight, +, -, >, <
553 These commands are now case-sensitive.
554
555 * New command options, command completion
556
557 GDB now has a standard infrastructure to support dash-style command
558 options ('-OPT'). One benefit is that commands that use it can
559 easily support completion of command line arguments. Try "CMD
560 -[TAB]" or "help CMD" to find options supported by a command. Over
561 time, we intend to migrate most commands to this infrastructure. A
562 number of commands got support for new command options in this
563 release:
564
565 ** The "print" and "compile print" commands now support a number of
566 options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as
567 set by "set print" subcommands:
568
569 -address [on|off]
570 -array [on|off]
571 -array-indexes [on|off]
572 -elements NUMBER|unlimited
573 -null-stop [on|off]
574 -object [on|off]
575 -pretty [on|off]
576 -raw-values [on|off]
577 -repeats NUMBER|unlimited
578 -static-members [on|off]
579 -symbol [on|off]
580 -union [on|off]
581 -vtbl [on|off]
582
583 Note that because the "print"/"compile print" commands accept
584 arbitrary expressions which may look like options (including
585 abbreviations), if you specify any command option, then you must
586 use a double dash ("--") to mark the end of argument processing.
587
588 ** The "backtrace" command now supports a number of options that
589 allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by "set
590 backtrace" and "set print" subcommands:
591
592 -entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default
593 -frame-arguments all|scalars|none
594 -raw-frame-arguments [on|off]
595 -frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location
596 |location-and-address|short-location
597 -past-main [on|off]
598 -past-entry [on|off]
599
600 In addition, the full/no-filters/hide qualifiers are now also
601 exposed as command options too:
602
603 -full
604 -no-filters
605 -hide
606
607 ** The "frame apply", "tfaas" and "faas" commands similarly now
608 support the following options:
609
610 -past-main [on|off]
611 -past-entry [on|off]
612
613 ** The new "info sources" options -dirname and -basename options
614 are using the standard '-OPT' infrastructure.
615
616 All options above can also be abbreviated. The argument of boolean
617 (on/off) options can be 0/1 too, and also the argument is assumed
618 "on" if omitted. This allows writing compact command invocations,
619 like for example:
620
621 (gdb) p -ra -p -o 0 -- *myptr
622
623 The above is equivalent to:
624
625 (gdb) print -raw-values -pretty -object off -- *myptr
626
627 ** The "info types" command now supports the '-q' flag to disable
628 printing of some header information in a similar fashion to "info
629 variables" and "info functions".
630
631 ** The "info variables", "info functions", and "whereis" commands
632 now take a '-n' flag that excludes non-debug symbols (symbols
633 from the symbol table, not from the debug info such as DWARF)
634 from the results.
635
636 * Completion improvements
637
638 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "thread apply all" and
639 "taas" commands, and their "-ascending" option can now be
640 abbreviated.
641
642 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "info threads", "info
643 functions", "info variables", "info locals", and "info args"
644 commands.
645
646 ** GDB can now complete the options of the "compile file" and
647 "compile code" commands. The "compile file" command now
648 completes on filenames.
649
650 ** GDB can now complete the backtrace command's
651 "full/no-filters/hide" qualifiers.
652
653 * In settings, you can now abbreviate "unlimited".
654
655 E.g., "set print elements u" is now equivalent to "set print
656 elements unlimited".
657
658 * New MI commands
659
660 -complete
661 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
662 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by MI
663 frontends in cases when separate CLI and MI channels cannot be used.
664
665 -catch-throw, -catch-rethrow, and -catch-catch
666 These can be used to catch C++ exceptions in a similar fashion to
667 the CLI commands 'catch throw', 'catch rethrow', and 'catch catch'.
668
669 -symbol-info-functions, -symbol-info-types, and -symbol-info-variables
670 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
671 functions', 'info types', and 'info variables' respectively.
672
673 -symbol-info-modules, this is the MI equivalent of the CLI 'info
674 modules' command.
675
676 -symbol-info-module-functions and -symbol-info-module-variables.
677 These commands are the MI equivalent of the CLI commands 'info
678 module functions' and 'info module variables'.
679
680 * Other MI changes
681
682 ** The default version of the MI interpreter is now 3 (-i=mi3).
683
684 ** The output of information about multi-location breakpoints (which is
685 syntactically incorrect in MI 2) has changed in MI 3. This affects
686 the following commands and events:
687
688 - -break-insert
689 - -break-info
690 - =breakpoint-created
691 - =breakpoint-modified
692
693 The -fix-multi-location-breakpoint-output command can be used to enable
694 this behavior with previous MI versions.
695
696 ** Backtraces and frames include a new optional field addr_flags which is
697 given after the addr field. On AArch64 this contains PAC if the address
698 has been masked in the frame. On all other targets the field is not
699 present.
700
701 * Testsuite
702
703 The testsuite now creates the files gdb.cmd (containing the arguments
704 used to launch GDB) and gdb.in (containing all the commands sent to
705 GDB) in the output directory for each test script. Multiple invocations
706 are appended with .1, .2, .3 etc.
707
708 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.82.
709
710 Using another implementation of the make program or an earlier version of
711 GNU make to build GDB or GDBserver is not supported.
712
713 * Building GDB now requires GNU readline >= 7.0.
714
715 GDB now bundles GNU readline 8.0, but if you choose to use
716 --with-system-readline, only readline >= 7.0 can be used.
717
718 * The TUI SingleKey keymap is now named "SingleKey". This can be used
719 from .inputrc to bind keys in this keymap. This feature is only
720 available when gdb is built against GNU readline 8.0 or later.
721
722 * Removed targets and native configurations
723
724 GDB no longer supports debugging the Cell Broadband Engine. This includes
725 both debugging standalone Cell/B.E. SPU applications and integrated debugging
726 of Cell/B.E. applications that use both the PPU and SPU architectures.
727
728 * New Simulators
729
730 TI PRU pru-*-elf
731
732 * Removed targets and native configurations
733
734 Solaris 10 i?86-*-solaris2.10, x86_64-*-solaris2.10,
735 sparc*-*-solaris2.10
736
737 *** Changes in GDB 8.3
738
739 * GDB and GDBserver now support access to additional registers on
740 PowerPC GNU/Linux targets: PPR, DSCR, TAR, EBB/PMU registers, and
741 HTM registers.
742
743 * GDB now has experimental support for the compilation and injection of
744 C++ source code into the inferior. This beta release does not include
745 support for several language features, such as templates, constructors,
746 and operators.
747
748 This feature requires GCC 7.1 or higher built with libcp1.so
749 (the C++ plug-in).
750
751 * GDB and GDBserver now support IPv6 connections. IPv6 addresses
752 can be passed using the '[ADDRESS]:PORT' notation, or the regular
753 'ADDRESS:PORT' method.
754
755 * DWARF index cache: GDB can now automatically save indices of DWARF
756 symbols on disk to speed up further loading of the same binaries.
757
758 * Ada task switching is now supported on aarch64-elf targets when
759 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
760 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
761 in the GDB user manual.
762
763 * GDB in batch mode now exits with status 1 if the last command to be
764 executed failed.
765
766 * The RISC-V target now supports target descriptions.
767
768 * System call catchpoints now support system call aliases on FreeBSD.
769 When the ABI of a system call changes in FreeBSD, this is
770 implemented by leaving a compatibility system call using the old ABI
771 at the existing number and allocating a new system call number for
772 the new ABI. For example, FreeBSD 12 altered the layout of 'struct
773 kevent' used by the 'kevent' system call. As a result, FreeBSD 12
774 kernels ship with both 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent' system calls.
775 The 'freebsd11_kevent' system call is assigned an alias of 'kevent'
776 so that a system call catchpoint for the 'kevent' system call will
777 catch invocations of both the 'kevent' and 'freebsd11_kevent'
778 binaries. This ensures that 'kevent' system calls are caught for
779 binaries using either the old or new ABIs.
780
781 * Terminal styling is now available for the CLI and the TUI. GNU
782 Source Highlight can additionally be used to provide styling of
783 source code snippets. See the "set style" commands, below, for more
784 information.
785
786 * Removed support for old demangling styles arm, edg, gnu, hp and
787 lucid.
788
789 * New commands
790
791 set debug compile-cplus-types
792 show debug compile-cplus-types
793 Control the display of debug output about type conversion in the
794 C++ compile feature. Commands have no effect while compiling
795 for other languages.
796
797 set debug skip
798 show debug skip
799 Control whether debug output about files/functions skipping is
800 displayed.
801
802 frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [FLAG]... COMMAND
803 Apply a command to some frames.
804 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
805 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a frame.
806
807 taas COMMAND
808 Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output).
809 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND'.
810
811 faas COMMAND
812 Apply a command to all frames (ignoring errors and empty output).
813 Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
814
815 tfaas COMMAND
816 Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty
817 output).
818 Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND'.
819
820 maint set dwarf unwinders (on|off)
821 maint show dwarf unwinders
822 Control whether DWARF unwinders can be used.
823
824 info proc files
825 Display a list of open files for a process.
826
827 * Changed commands
828
829 Changes to the "frame", "select-frame", and "info frame" CLI commands.
830 These commands all now take a frame specification which
831 is either a frame level, or one of the keywords 'level', 'address',
832 'function', or 'view' followed by a parameter. Selecting a frame by
833 address, or viewing a frame outside the current backtrace now
834 requires the use of a keyword. Selecting a frame by level is
835 unchanged. The MI comment "-stack-select-frame" is unchanged.
836
837 target remote FILENAME
838 target extended-remote FILENAME
839 If FILENAME is a Unix domain socket, GDB will attempt to connect
840 to this socket instead of opening FILENAME as a character device.
841
842 info args [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
843 info functions [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
844 info locals [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
845 info variables [-q] [-t TYPEREGEXP] [NAMEREGEXP]
846 These commands can now print only the searched entities
847 matching the provided regexp(s), giving a condition
848 on the entity names or entity types. The flag -q disables
849 printing headers or informations messages.
850
851 info functions
852 info types
853 info variables
854 rbreak
855 These commands now determine the syntax for the shown entities
856 according to the language chosen by `set language'. In particular,
857 `set language auto' means to automatically choose the language of
858 the shown entities.
859
860 thread apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT] [FLAG]... COMMAND
861 The 'thread apply' command accepts new FLAG arguments.
862 FLAG arguments allow to control what output to produce and how to handle
863 errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread.
864
865 set tui tab-width NCHARS
866 show tui tab-width NCHARS
867 "set tui tab-width" replaces the "tabset" command, which has been deprecated.
868
869 set style enabled [on|off]
870 show style enabled
871 Enable or disable terminal styling. Styling is enabled by default
872 on most hosts, but disabled by default when in batch mode.
873
874 set style sources [on|off]
875 show style sources
876 Enable or disable source code styling. Source code styling is
877 enabled by default, but only takes effect if styling in general is
878 enabled, and if GDB was linked with GNU Source Highlight.
879
880 set style filename foreground COLOR
881 set style filename background COLOR
882 set style filename intensity VALUE
883 Control the styling of file names.
884
885 set style function foreground COLOR
886 set style function background COLOR
887 set style function intensity VALUE
888 Control the styling of function names.
889
890 set style variable foreground COLOR
891 set style variable background COLOR
892 set style variable intensity VALUE
893 Control the styling of variable names.
894
895 set style address foreground COLOR
896 set style address background COLOR
897 set style address intensity VALUE
898 Control the styling of addresses.
899
900 * MI changes
901
902 ** The '-data-disassemble' MI command now accepts an '-a' option to
903 disassemble the whole function surrounding the given program
904 counter value or function name. Support for this feature can be
905 verified by using the "-list-features" command, which should
906 contain "data-disassemble-a-option".
907
908 ** Command responses and notifications that include a frame now include
909 the frame's architecture in a new "arch" attribute.
910
911 * New native configurations
912
913 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
914 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
915
916 * New targets
917
918 GNU/Linux/RISC-V riscv*-*-linux*
919 CSKY ELF csky*-*-elf
920 CSKY GNU/LINUX csky*-*-linux
921 FreeBSD/riscv riscv*-*-freebsd*
922 NXP S12Z s12z-*-elf
923 GNU/Linux/OpenRISC or1k*-*-linux*
924
925 * Removed targets
926
927 GDB no longer supports native debugging on versions of MS-Windows
928 before Windows XP.
929
930 * Python API
931
932 ** GDB no longer supports Python versions less than 2.6.
933
934 ** The gdb.Inferior type has a new 'progspace' property, which is the program
935 space associated to that inferior.
936
937 ** The gdb.Progspace type has a new 'objfiles' method, which returns the list
938 of objfiles associated to that program space.
939
940 ** gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMMON_BLOCK, gdb.SYMBOL_MODULE_DOMAIN, and
941 gdb.SYMBOL_COMMON_BLOCK_DOMAIN were added to reflect changes to
942 the gdb core.
943
944 ** gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN, gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN, and
945 gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN are now deprecated. These were never
946 correct and did not work properly.
947
948 ** The gdb.Value type has a new constructor, which is used to construct a
949 gdb.Value from a Python buffer object and a gdb.Type.
950
951 * Configure changes
952
953 --enable-ubsan
954
955 Enable or disable the undefined behavior sanitizer. This is
956 disabled by default, but passing --enable-ubsan=yes or
957 --enable-ubsan=auto to configure will enable it. Enabling this can
958 cause a performance penalty. The undefined behavior sanitizer was
959 first introduced in GCC 4.9.
960
961 *** Changes in GDB 8.2
962
963 * The 'set disassembler-options' command now supports specifying options
964 for the MIPS target.
965
966 * The 'symbol-file' command now accepts an '-o' option to add a relative
967 offset to all sections.
968
969 * Similarly, the 'add-symbol-file' command also accepts an '-o' option to add
970 a relative offset to all sections, but it allows to override the load
971 address of individual sections using '-s'.
972
973 * The 'add-symbol-file' command no longer requires the second argument
974 (address of the text section).
975
976 * The endianness used with the 'set endian auto' mode in the absence of
977 an executable selected for debugging is now the last endianness chosen
978 either by one of the 'set endian big' and 'set endian little' commands
979 or by inferring from the last executable used, rather than the startup
980 default.
981
982 * The pager now allows a "c" response, meaning to disable the pager
983 for the rest of the current command.
984
985 * The commands 'info variables/functions/types' now show the source line
986 numbers of symbol definitions when available.
987
988 * 'info proc' now works on running processes on FreeBSD systems and core
989 files created on FreeBSD systems.
990
991 * C expressions can now use _Alignof, and C++ expressions can now use
992 alignof.
993
994 * Support for SVE on AArch64 Linux. Note that GDB does not detect changes to
995 the vector length while the process is running.
996
997 * New commands
998
999 set debug fbsd-nat
1000 show debug fbsd-nat
1001 Control display of debugging info regarding the FreeBSD native target.
1002
1003 set|show varsize-limit
1004 This new setting allows the user to control the maximum size of Ada
1005 objects being printed when those objects have a variable type,
1006 instead of that maximum size being hardcoded to 65536 bytes.
1007
1008 set|show record btrace cpu
1009 Controls the processor to be used for enabling errata workarounds for
1010 branch trace decode.
1011
1012 maint check libthread-db
1013 Run integrity checks on the current inferior's thread debugging
1014 library
1015
1016 maint set check-libthread-db (on|off)
1017 maint show check-libthread-db
1018 Control whether to run integrity checks on inferior specific thread
1019 debugging libraries as they are loaded. The default is not to
1020 perform such checks.
1021
1022 * Python API
1023
1024 ** Type alignment is now exposed via the "align" attribute of a gdb.Type.
1025
1026 ** The commands attached to a breakpoint can be set by assigning to
1027 the breakpoint's "commands" field.
1028
1029 ** gdb.execute can now execute multi-line gdb commands.
1030
1031 ** The new functions gdb.convenience_variable and
1032 gdb.set_convenience_variable can be used to get and set the value
1033 of convenience variables.
1034
1035 ** A gdb.Parameter will no longer print the "set" help text on an
1036 ordinary "set"; instead by default a "set" will be silent unless
1037 the get_set_string method returns a non-empty string.
1038
1039 * New targets
1040
1041 RiscV ELF riscv*-*-elf
1042
1043 * Removed targets and native configurations
1044
1045 m88k running OpenBSD m88*-*-openbsd*
1046 SH-5/SH64 ELF sh64-*-elf*, SH-5/SH64 support in sh*
1047 SH-5/SH64 running GNU/Linux SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-linux*
1048 SH-5/SH64 running OpenBSD SH-5/SH64 support in sh*-*-openbsd*
1049
1050 * Aarch64/Linux hardware watchpoints improvements
1051
1052 Hardware watchpoints on unaligned addresses are now properly
1053 supported when running Linux kernel 4.10 or higher: read and access
1054 watchpoints are no longer spuriously missed, and all watchpoints
1055 lengths between 1 and 8 bytes are supported. On older kernels,
1056 watchpoints set on unaligned addresses are no longer missed, with
1057 the tradeoff that there is a possibility of false hits being
1058 reported.
1059
1060 * Configure changes
1061
1062 --enable-codesign=CERT
1063 This can be used to invoke "codesign -s CERT" after building gdb.
1064 This option is useful on macOS, where code signing is required for
1065 gdb to work properly.
1066
1067 --disable-gdbcli has been removed
1068 This is now silently accepted, but does nothing.
1069
1070 *** Changes in GDB 8.1
1071
1072 * GDB now supports dynamically creating arbitrary register groups specified
1073 in XML target descriptions. This allows for finer grain grouping of
1074 registers on systems with a large amount of registers.
1075
1076 * The 'ptype' command now accepts a '/o' flag, which prints the
1077 offsets and sizes of fields in a struct, like the pahole(1) tool.
1078
1079 * New "--readnever" command line option instructs GDB to not read each
1080 symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster
1081 but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging.
1082 This option is intended for use cases where symbolic debugging will
1083 not be used, e.g., when you only need to dump the debuggee's core.
1084
1085 * GDB now uses the GNU MPFR library, if available, to emulate target
1086 floating-point arithmetic during expression evaluation when the target
1087 uses different floating-point formats than the host. At least version
1088 3.1 of GNU MPFR is required.
1089
1090 * GDB now supports access to the guarded-storage-control registers and the
1091 software-based guarded-storage broadcast control registers on IBM z14.
1092
1093 * On Unix systems, GDB now supports transmitting environment variables
1094 that are to be set or unset to GDBserver. These variables will
1095 affect the environment to be passed to the remote inferior.
1096
1097 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be transmitted to
1098 GDBserver, use the "set environment" command. Only user set
1099 environment variables are sent to GDBserver.
1100
1101 To inform GDB of environment variables that are to be unset before
1102 the remote inferior is started by the GDBserver, use the "unset
1103 environment" command.
1104
1105 * Completion improvements
1106
1107 ** GDB can now complete function parameters in linespecs and
1108 explicit locations without quoting. When setting breakpoints,
1109 quoting around functions names to help with TAB-completion is
1110 generally no longer necessary. For example, this now completes
1111 correctly:
1112
1113 (gdb) b function(in[TAB]
1114 (gdb) b function(int)
1115
1116 Related, GDB is no longer confused with completing functions in
1117 C++ anonymous namespaces:
1118
1119 (gdb) b (anon[TAB]
1120 (gdb) b (anonymous namespace)::[TAB][TAB]
1121 (anonymous namespace)::a_function()
1122 (anonymous namespace)::b_function()
1123
1124 ** GDB now has much improved linespec and explicit locations TAB
1125 completion support, that better understands what you're
1126 completing and offers better suggestions. For example, GDB no
1127 longer offers data symbols as possible completions when you're
1128 setting a breakpoint.
1129
1130 ** GDB now TAB-completes label symbol names.
1131
1132 ** The "complete" command now mimics TAB completion accurately.
1133
1134 * New command line options (gcore)
1135
1136 -a
1137 Dump all memory mappings.
1138
1139 * Breakpoints on C++ functions are now set on all scopes by default
1140
1141 By default, breakpoints on functions/methods are now interpreted as
1142 specifying all functions with the given name ignoring missing
1143 leading scopes (namespaces and classes).
1144
1145 For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named:
1146
1147 A::B::func()
1148 B::func()
1149
1150 both commands "break func()" and "break B::func()" set a breakpoint
1151 on both symbols.
1152
1153 You can use the new flag "-qualified" to override this. This makes
1154 GDB interpret the specified function name as a complete
1155 fully-qualified name instead. For example, using the same C++
1156 program, the "break -q B::func" command sets a breakpoint on
1157 "B::func", only. A parameter has been added to the Python
1158 gdb.Breakpoint constructor to achieve the same result when creating
1159 a breakpoint from Python.
1160
1161 * Breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1162
1163 GDB can now set breakpoints on functions marked with C++ ABI tags
1164 (e.g., [abi:cxx11]). See here for a description of ABI tags:
1165 https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/
1166
1167 Functions with a C++11 abi tag are demangled/displayed like this:
1168
1169 function[abi:cxx11](int)
1170 ^^^^^^^^^^^
1171
1172 You can now set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had
1173 no tag, like:
1174
1175 (gdb) b function(int)
1176
1177 Or if you need to disambiguate between tags, like:
1178
1179 (gdb) b function[abi:other_tag](int)
1180
1181 Tab completion was adjusted accordingly as well.
1182
1183 * Python Scripting
1184
1185 ** New events gdb.new_inferior, gdb.inferior_deleted, and
1186 gdb.new_thread are emitted. See the manual for further
1187 description of these.
1188
1189 ** A new function, "gdb.rbreak" has been added to the Python API.
1190 This function allows the setting of a large number of breakpoints
1191 via a regex pattern in Python. See the manual for further details.
1192
1193 ** Python breakpoints can now accept explicit locations. See the
1194 manual for a further description of this feature.
1195
1196
1197 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1198
1199 ** GDBserver is now able to start inferior processes with a
1200 specified initial working directory.
1201
1202 The user can set the desired working directory to be used from
1203 GDB using the new "set cwd" command.
1204
1205 ** New "--selftest" command line option runs some GDBserver self
1206 tests. These self tests are disabled in releases.
1207
1208 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now does globbing expansion and variable
1209 substitution in inferior command line arguments.
1210
1211 This is done by starting inferiors using a shell, like GDB does.
1212 See "set startup-with-shell" in the user manual for how to disable
1213 this from GDB when using "target extended-remote". When using
1214 "target remote", you can disable the startup with shell by using the
1215 new "--no-startup-with-shell" GDBserver command line option.
1216
1217 ** On Unix systems, GDBserver now supports receiving environment
1218 variables that are to be set or unset from GDB. These variables
1219 will affect the environment to be passed to the inferior.
1220
1221 * When catching an Ada exception raised with a message, GDB now prints
1222 the message in the catchpoint hit notification. In GDB/MI mode, that
1223 information is provided as an extra field named "exception-message"
1224 in the *stopped notification.
1225
1226 * Trait objects can now be inspected When debugging Rust code. This
1227 requires compiler support which will appear in Rust 1.24.
1228
1229 * New remote packets
1230
1231 QEnvironmentHexEncoded
1232 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be passed to
1233 the inferior when starting it.
1234
1235 QEnvironmentUnset
1236 Inform GDBserver of an environment variable that is to be unset
1237 before starting the remote inferior.
1238
1239 QEnvironmentReset
1240 Inform GDBserver that the environment should be reset (i.e.,
1241 user-set environment variables should be unset).
1242
1243 QStartupWithShell
1244 Indicates whether the inferior must be started with a shell or not.
1245
1246 QSetWorkingDir
1247 Tell GDBserver that the inferior to be started should use a specific
1248 working directory.
1249
1250 * The "maintenance print c-tdesc" command now takes an optional
1251 argument which is the file name of XML target description.
1252
1253 * The "maintenance selftest" command now takes an optional argument to
1254 filter the tests to be run.
1255
1256 * The "enable", and "disable" commands now accept a range of
1257 breakpoint locations, e.g. "enable 1.3-5".
1258
1259 * New commands
1260
1261 set|show cwd
1262 Set and show the current working directory for the inferior.
1263
1264 set|show compile-gcc
1265 Set and show compilation command used for compiling and injecting code
1266 with the 'compile' commands.
1267
1268 set debug separate-debug-file
1269 show debug separate-debug-file
1270 Control the display of debug output about separate debug file search.
1271
1272 set dump-excluded-mappings
1273 show dump-excluded-mappings
1274 Control whether mappings marked with the VM_DONTDUMP flag should be
1275 dumped when generating a core file.
1276
1277 maint info selftests
1278 List the registered selftests.
1279
1280 starti
1281 Start the debugged program stopping at the first instruction.
1282
1283 set|show debug or1k
1284 Control display of debugging messages related to OpenRISC targets.
1285
1286 set|show print type nested-type-limit
1287 Set and show the limit of nesting level for nested types that the
1288 type printer will show.
1289
1290 * TUI Single-Key mode now supports two new shortcut keys: `i' for stepi and
1291 `o' for nexti.
1292
1293 * Safer/improved support for debugging with no debug info
1294
1295 GDB no longer assumes functions with no debug information return
1296 'int'.
1297
1298 This means that GDB now refuses to call such functions unless you
1299 tell it the function's type, by either casting the call to the
1300 declared return type, or by casting the function to a function
1301 pointer of the right type, and calling that:
1302
1303 (gdb) p getenv ("PATH")
1304 'getenv' has unknown return type; cast the call to its declared return type
1305 (gdb) p (char *) getenv ("PATH")
1306 $1 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1307 (gdb) p ((char * (*) (const char *)) getenv) ("PATH")
1308 $2 = 0x7fffffffe "/usr/local/bin:/"...
1309
1310 Similarly, GDB no longer assumes that global variables with no debug
1311 info have type 'int', and refuses to print the variable's value
1312 unless you tell it the variable's type:
1313
1314 (gdb) p var
1315 'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
1316 (gdb) p (float) var
1317 $3 = 3.14
1318
1319 * New native configurations
1320
1321 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1322 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1323
1324 * New targets
1325
1326 FreeBSD/aarch64 aarch64*-*-freebsd*
1327 FreeBSD/arm arm*-*-freebsd*
1328 OpenRISC ELF or1k*-*-elf
1329
1330 * Removed targets and native configurations
1331
1332 Solaris 2.0-9 i?86-*-solaris2.[0-9], sparc*-*-solaris2.[0-9]
1333
1334 *** Changes in GDB 8.0
1335
1336 * GDB now supports access to the PKU register on GNU/Linux. The register is
1337 added by the Memory Protection Keys for Userspace feature which will be
1338 available in future Intel CPUs.
1339
1340 * GDB now supports C++11 rvalue references.
1341
1342 * Python Scripting
1343
1344 ** New functions to start, stop and access a running btrace recording.
1345 ** Rvalue references are now supported in gdb.Type.
1346
1347 * GDB now supports recording and replaying rdrand and rdseed Intel 64
1348 instructions.
1349
1350 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires a C++11 compiler.
1351
1352 For example, GCC 4.8 or later.
1353
1354 It is no longer possible to build GDB or GDBserver with a C
1355 compiler. The --disable-build-with-cxx configure option has been
1356 removed.
1357
1358 * Building GDB and GDBserver now requires GNU make >= 3.81.
1359
1360 It is no longer supported to build GDB or GDBserver with another
1361 implementation of the make program or an earlier version of GNU make.
1362
1363 * Native debugging on MS-Windows supports command-line redirection
1364
1365 Command-line arguments used for starting programs on MS-Windows can
1366 now include redirection symbols supported by native Windows shells,
1367 such as '<', '>', '>>', '2>&1', etc. This affects GDB commands such
1368 as "run", "start", and "set args", as well as the corresponding MI
1369 features.
1370
1371 * Support for thread names on MS-Windows.
1372
1373 GDB now catches and handles the special exception that programs
1374 running on MS-Windows use to assign names to threads in the
1375 debugger.
1376
1377 * Support for Java programs compiled with gcj has been removed.
1378
1379 * User commands now accept an unlimited number of arguments.
1380 Previously, only up to 10 was accepted.
1381
1382 * The "eval" command now expands user-defined command arguments.
1383
1384 This makes it easier to process a variable number of arguments:
1385
1386 define mycommand
1387 set $i = 0
1388 while $i < $argc
1389 eval "print $arg%d", $i
1390 set $i = $i + 1
1391 end
1392 end
1393
1394 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for sparc32 and sparc64.
1395
1396 * GDB now supports DWARF version 5 (debug information format).
1397 Its .debug_names index is not yet supported.
1398
1399 * New native configurations
1400
1401 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1402
1403 * New targets
1404
1405 Synopsys ARC arc*-*-elf32
1406 FreeBSD/mips mips*-*-freebsd
1407
1408 * Removed targets and native configurations
1409
1410 Alpha running FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
1411 Alpha running GNU/kFreeBSD alpha*-*-kfreebsd*-gnu
1412
1413 * New commands
1414
1415 flash-erase
1416 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target.
1417
1418 maint print arc arc-instruction address
1419 Print internal disassembler information about instruction at a given address.
1420
1421 * New options
1422
1423 set disassembler-options
1424 show disassembler-options
1425 Controls the passing of target specific information to the disassembler.
1426 If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option then
1427 multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated list.
1428 The default value is the empty string. Currently, the only supported
1429 targets are ARM, PowerPC and S/390.
1430
1431 * New MI commands
1432
1433 -target-flash-erase
1434 Erases all the flash memory regions reported by the target. This is
1435 equivalent to the CLI command flash-erase.
1436
1437 -file-list-shared-libraries
1438 List the shared libraries in the program. This is
1439 equivalent to the CLI command "info shared".
1440
1441 -catch-handlers
1442 Catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are
1443 handled. This is equivalent to the CLI command "catch handlers".
1444
1445 *** Changes in GDB 7.12
1446
1447 * GDB and GDBserver now build with a C++ compiler by default.
1448
1449 The --enable-build-with-cxx configure option is now enabled by
1450 default. One must now explicitly configure with
1451 --disable-build-with-cxx in order to build with a C compiler. This
1452 option will be removed in a future release.
1453
1454 * GDBserver now supports recording btrace without maintaining an active
1455 GDB connection.
1456
1457 * GDB now supports a negative repeat count in the 'x' command to examine
1458 memory backward from the given address. For example:
1459
1460 (gdb) bt
1461 #0 Func1 (n=42, p=0x40061c "hogehoge") at main.cpp:4
1462 #1 0x400580 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe5c8) at main.cpp:8
1463 (gdb) x/-5i 0x0000000000400580
1464 0x40056a <main(int, char**)+8>: mov %edi,-0x4(%rbp)
1465 0x40056d <main(int, char**)+11>: mov %rsi,-0x10(%rbp)
1466 0x400571 <main(int, char**)+15>: mov $0x40061c,%esi
1467 0x400576 <main(int, char**)+20>: mov $0x2a,%edi
1468 0x40057b <main(int, char**)+25>:
1469 callq 0x400536 <Func1(int, char const*)>
1470
1471 * Fortran: Support structures with fields of dynamic types and
1472 arrays of dynamic types.
1473
1474 * The symbol dumping maintenance commands have new syntax.
1475 maint print symbols [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1476 maint print symbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1477 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-pc address] [--] [filename]
1478 maint print psymbols [-objfile objfile] [-source source] [--] [filename]
1479 maint print msymbols [-objfile objfile] [--] [filename]
1480
1481 * GDB now supports multibit bitfields and enums in target register
1482 descriptions.
1483
1484 * New Python-based convenience function $_as_string(val), which returns
1485 the textual representation of a value. This function is especially
1486 useful to obtain the text label of an enum value.
1487
1488 * Intel MPX bound violation handling.
1489
1490 Segmentation faults caused by a Intel MPX boundary violation
1491 now display the kind of violation (upper or lower), the memory
1492 address accessed and the memory bounds, along with the usual
1493 signal received and code location.
1494
1495 For example:
1496
1497 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault
1498 Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3
1499 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3]
1500 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68
1501
1502 * Rust language support.
1503 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Rust programming
1504 language. See https://www.rust-lang.org/ for more information about
1505 Rust.
1506
1507 * Support for running interpreters on specified input/output devices
1508
1509 GDB now supports a new mechanism that allows frontends to provide
1510 fully featured GDB console views, as a better alternative to
1511 building such views on top of the "-interpreter-exec console"
1512 command. See the new "new-ui" command below. With that command,
1513 frontends can now start GDB in the traditional command-line mode
1514 running in an embedded terminal emulator widget, and create a
1515 separate MI interpreter running on a specified i/o device. In this
1516 way, GDB handles line editing, history, tab completion, etc. in the
1517 console all by itself, and the GUI uses the separate MI interpreter
1518 for its own control and synchronization, invisible to the command
1519 line.
1520
1521 * The "catch syscall" command catches groups of related syscalls.
1522
1523 The "catch syscall" command now supports catching a group of related
1524 syscalls using the 'group:' or 'g:' prefix.
1525
1526 * New commands
1527
1528 skip -file file
1529 skip -gfile file-glob-pattern
1530 skip -function function
1531 skip -rfunction regular-expression
1532 A generalized form of the skip command, with new support for
1533 glob-style file names and regular expressions for function names.
1534 Additionally, a file spec and a function spec may now be combined.
1535
1536 maint info line-table REGEXP
1537 Display the contents of GDB's internal line table data structure.
1538
1539 maint selftest
1540 Run any GDB unit tests that were compiled in.
1541
1542 new-ui INTERP TTY
1543 Start a new user interface instance running INTERP as interpreter,
1544 using the TTY file for input/output.
1545
1546 * Python Scripting
1547
1548 ** gdb.Breakpoint objects have a new attribute "pending", which
1549 indicates whether the breakpoint is pending.
1550 ** Three new breakpoint-related events have been added:
1551 gdb.breakpoint_created, gdb.breakpoint_modified, and
1552 gdb.breakpoint_deleted.
1553
1554 signal-event EVENTID
1555 Signal ("set") the given MS-Windows event object. This is used in
1556 conjunction with the Windows JIT debugging (AeDebug) support, where
1557 the OS suspends a crashing process until a debugger can attach to
1558 it. Resuming the crashing process, in order to debug it, is done by
1559 signalling an event.
1560
1561 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on s390-linux and s390x-linux
1562 was added in GDBserver, including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's
1563 conditional expression bytecode into native code.
1564
1565 * Support for various remote target protocols and ROM monitors has
1566 been removed:
1567
1568 target m32rsdi Remote M32R debugging over SDI
1569 target mips MIPS remote debugging protocol
1570 target pmon PMON ROM monitor
1571 target ddb NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300
1572 target rockhopper NEC RockHopper variant of PMON
1573 target lsi LSI variant of PMO
1574
1575 * Support for tracepoints and fast tracepoints on powerpc-linux,
1576 powerpc64-linux, and powerpc64le-linux was added in GDBserver,
1577 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression
1578 bytecode into native code.
1579
1580 * MI async record =record-started now includes the method and format used for
1581 recording. For example:
1582
1583 =record-started,thread-group="i1",method="btrace",format="bts"
1584
1585 * MI async record =thread-selected now includes the frame field. For example:
1586
1587 =thread-selected,id="3",frame={level="0",addr="0x00000000004007c0"}
1588
1589 * New targets
1590
1591 Andes NDS32 nds32*-*-elf
1592
1593 *** Changes in GDB 7.11
1594
1595 * GDB now supports debugging kernel-based threads on FreeBSD.
1596
1597 * Per-inferior thread numbers
1598
1599 Thread numbers are now per inferior instead of global. If you're
1600 debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using a
1601 qualified INF_NUM.THR_NUM form. For example:
1602
1603 (gdb) info threads
1604 Id Target Id Frame
1605 1.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8155) (running)
1606 1.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8168) (running)
1607 * 2.1 Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157) (running)
1608 2.2 Thread 0x7ffff7fc1700 (LWP 8190) (running)
1609
1610 As consequence, thread numbers as visible in the $_thread
1611 convenience variable and in Python's InferiorThread.num attribute
1612 are no longer unique between inferiors.
1613
1614 GDB now maintains a second thread ID per thread, referred to as the
1615 global thread ID, which is the new equivalent of thread numbers in
1616 previous releases. See also $_gthread below.
1617
1618 For backwards compatibility, MI's thread IDs always refer to global
1619 IDs.
1620
1621 * Commands that accept thread IDs now accept the qualified
1622 INF_NUM.THR_NUM form as well. For example:
1623
1624 (gdb) thread 2.1
1625 [Switching to thread 2.1 (Thread 0x7ffff7fc2740 (LWP 8157))] (running)
1626 (gdb)
1627
1628 * In commands that accept a list of thread IDs, you can now refer to
1629 all threads of an inferior using a star wildcard. GDB accepts
1630 "INF_NUM.*", to refer to all threads of inferior INF_NUM, and "*" to
1631 refer to all threads of the current inferior. For example, "info
1632 threads 2.*".
1633
1634 * You can use "info threads -gid" to display the global thread ID of
1635 all threads.
1636
1637 * The new convenience variable $_gthread holds the global number of
1638 the current thread.
1639
1640 * The new convenience variable $_inferior holds the number of the
1641 current inferior.
1642
1643 * GDB now displays the ID and name of the thread that hit a breakpoint
1644 or received a signal, if your program is multi-threaded. For
1645 example:
1646
1647 Thread 3 "bar" hit Breakpoint 1 at 0x40087a: file program.c, line 20.
1648 Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
1649
1650 * Record btrace now supports non-stop mode.
1651
1652 * Support for tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver.
1653
1654 * The 'record instruction-history' command now indicates speculative execution
1655 when using the Intel Processor Trace recording format.
1656
1657 * GDB now allows users to specify explicit locations, bypassing
1658 the linespec parser. This feature is also available to GDB/MI
1659 clients.
1660
1661 * Multi-architecture debugging is supported on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1662 GDB now is able to debug both AArch64 applications and ARM applications
1663 at the same time.
1664
1665 * Support for fast tracepoints on aarch64-linux was added in GDBserver,
1666 including JIT compiling fast tracepoint's conditional expression bytecode
1667 into native code.
1668
1669 * GDB now supports displaced stepping on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
1670
1671 * "info threads", "info inferiors", "info display", "info checkpoints"
1672 and "maint info program-spaces" now list the corresponding items in
1673 ascending ID order, for consistency with all other "info" commands.
1674
1675 * In Ada, the overloads selection menu has been enhanced to display the
1676 parameter types and the return types for the matching overloaded subprograms.
1677
1678 * New commands
1679
1680 maint set target-non-stop (on|off|auto)
1681 maint show target-non-stop
1682 Control whether GDB targets always operate in non-stop mode even if
1683 "set non-stop" is "off". The default is "auto", meaning non-stop
1684 mode is enabled if supported by the target.
1685
1686 maint set bfd-sharing
1687 maint show bfd-sharing
1688 Control the reuse of bfd objects.
1689
1690 set debug bfd-cache
1691 show debug bfd-cache
1692 Control display of debugging info regarding bfd caching.
1693
1694 set debug fbsd-lwp
1695 show debug fbsd-lwp
1696 Control display of debugging info regarding FreeBSD threads.
1697
1698 set remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1699 show remote multiprocess-extensions-packet
1700 Set/show the use of the remote protocol multiprocess extensions.
1701
1702 set remote thread-events
1703 show remote thread-events
1704 Set/show the use of thread create/exit events.
1705
1706 set ada print-signatures on|off
1707 show ada print-signatures"
1708 Control whether parameter types and return types are displayed in overloads
1709 selection menus. It is activated (@code{on}) by default.
1710
1711 set max-value-size
1712 show max-value-size
1713 Controls the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will
1714 allocate for value contents. Prevents incorrect programs from
1715 causing GDB to allocate overly large buffers. Default is 64k.
1716
1717 * The "disassemble" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1718 It prints mixed source+disassembly like /m with two differences:
1719 - disassembled instructions are now printed in program order, and
1720 - and source for all relevant files is now printed.
1721 The "/m" option is now considered deprecated: its "source-centric"
1722 output hasn't proved useful in practice.
1723
1724 * The "record instruction-history" command accepts a new modifier: /s.
1725 It behaves exactly like /m and prints mixed source+disassembly.
1726
1727 * The "set scheduler-locking" command supports a new mode "replay".
1728 It behaves like "off" in record mode and like "on" in replay mode.
1729
1730 * Support for various ROM monitors has been removed:
1731
1732 target dbug dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire
1733 target picobug Motorola picobug monitor
1734 target dink32 DINK32 ROM monitor for PowerPC
1735 target m32r Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor
1736 target mon2000 mon2000 ROM monitor
1737 target ppcbug PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC
1738
1739 * Support for reading/writing memory and extracting values on architectures
1740 whose memory is addressable in units of any integral multiple of 8 bits.
1741
1742 catch handlers
1743 Allows to break when an Ada exception is handled.
1744
1745 * New remote packets
1746
1747 exec stop reason
1748 Indicates that an exec system call was executed.
1749
1750 exec-events feature in qSupported
1751 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for exec
1752 events using the new 'gdbfeature' exec-event, and the qSupported
1753 response can contain the corresponding 'stubfeature'. Set and
1754 show commands can be used to display whether these features are enabled.
1755
1756 vCtrlC
1757 Equivalent to interrupting with the ^C character, but works in
1758 non-stop mode.
1759
1760 thread created stop reason (T05 create:...)
1761 Indicates that the thread was just created and is stopped at entry.
1762
1763 thread exit stop reply (w exitcode;tid)
1764 Indicates that the thread has terminated.
1765
1766 QThreadEvents
1767 Enables/disables thread create and exit event reporting. For
1768 example, this is used in non-stop mode when GDB stops a set of
1769 threads and synchronously waits for the their corresponding stop
1770 replies. Without exit events, if one of the threads exits, GDB
1771 would hang forever not knowing that it should no longer expect a
1772 stop for that same thread.
1773
1774 N stop reply
1775 Indicates that there are no resumed threads left in the target (all
1776 threads are stopped). The remote stub reports support for this stop
1777 reply to GDB's qSupported query.
1778
1779 QCatchSyscalls
1780 Enables/disables catching syscalls from the inferior process.
1781 The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's qSupported query.
1782
1783 syscall_entry stop reason
1784 Indicates that a syscall was just called.
1785
1786 syscall_return stop reason
1787 Indicates that a syscall just returned.
1788
1789 * Extended-remote exec events
1790
1791 ** GDB now has support for exec events on extended-remote Linux targets.
1792 For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later, this enables
1793 follow-exec-mode and exec catchpoints.
1794
1795 set remote exec-event-feature-packet
1796 show remote exec-event-feature-packet
1797 Set/show the use of the remote exec event feature.
1798
1799 * Thread names in remote protocol
1800
1801 The reply to qXfer:threads:read may now include a name attribute for each
1802 thread.
1803
1804 * Target remote mode fork and exec events
1805
1806 ** GDB now has support for fork and exec events on target remote mode
1807 Linux targets. For such targets with Linux kernels 2.5.46 and later,
1808 this enables follow-fork-mode, detach-on-fork, follow-exec-mode, and
1809 fork and exec catchpoints.
1810
1811 * Remote syscall events
1812
1813 ** GDB now has support for catch syscall on remote Linux targets,
1814 currently enabled on x86/x86_64 architectures.
1815
1816 set remote catch-syscall-packet
1817 show remote catch-syscall-packet
1818 Set/show the use of the remote catch syscall feature.
1819
1820 * MI changes
1821
1822 ** The -var-set-format command now accepts the zero-hexadecimal
1823 format. It outputs data in hexadecimal format with zero-padding on the
1824 left.
1825
1826 * Python Scripting
1827
1828 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "global_num",
1829 which refers to the thread's global thread ID. The existing
1830 "num" attribute now refers to the thread's per-inferior number.
1831 See "Per-inferior thread numbers" above.
1832 ** gdb.InferiorThread objects have a new attribute "inferior", which
1833 is the Inferior object the thread belongs to.
1834
1835 *** Changes in GDB 7.10
1836
1837 * Support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on aarch64*-linux*
1838 targets has been added. GDB now supports recording of A64 instruction set
1839 including advance SIMD instructions.
1840
1841 * Support for Sun's version of the "stabs" debug file format has been removed.
1842
1843 * GDB now honors the content of the file /proc/PID/coredump_filter
1844 (PID is the process ID) on GNU/Linux systems. This file can be used
1845 to specify the types of memory mappings that will be included in a
1846 corefile. For more information, please refer to the manual page of
1847 "core(5)". GDB also has a new command: "set use-coredump-filter
1848 on|off". It allows to set whether GDB will read the content of the
1849 /proc/PID/coredump_filter file when generating a corefile.
1850
1851 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
1852 cpu information :
1853 "info os cpus" Listing of all cpus/cores on the system
1854
1855 * GDB has two new commands: "set serial parity odd|even|none" and
1856 "show serial parity". These allows to set or show parity for the
1857 remote serial I/O.
1858
1859 * The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
1860 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
1861 and may include things like its command line arguments.
1862
1863 * The "info dll", an alias of the "info sharedlibrary" command,
1864 is now available on all platforms.
1865
1866 * Directory names supplied to the "set sysroot" commands may be
1867 prefixed with "target:" to tell GDB to access shared libraries from
1868 the target system, be it local or remote. This replaces the prefix
1869 "remote:". The default sysroot has been changed from "" to
1870 "target:". "remote:" is automatically converted to "target:" for
1871 backward compatibility.
1872
1873 * The system root specified by "set sysroot" will be prepended to the
1874 filename of the main executable (if reported to GDB as absolute by
1875 the operating system) when starting processes remotely, and when
1876 attaching to already-running local or remote processes.
1877
1878 * GDB now supports automatic location and retrieval of executable
1879 files from remote targets. Remote debugging can now be initiated
1880 using only a "target remote" or "target extended-remote" command
1881 (no "set sysroot" or "file" commands are required). See "New remote
1882 packets" below.
1883
1884 * The "dump" command now supports verilog hex format.
1885
1886 * GDB now supports the vector ABI on S/390 GNU/Linux targets.
1887
1888 * On GNU/Linux, GDB and gdbserver are now able to access executable
1889 and shared library files without a "set sysroot" command when
1890 attaching to processes running in different mount namespaces from
1891 the debugger. This makes it possible to attach to processes in
1892 containers as simply as "gdb -p PID" or "gdbserver --attach PID".
1893 See "New remote packets" below.
1894
1895 * The "tui reg" command now provides completion for all of the
1896 available register groups, including target specific groups.
1897
1898 * The HISTSIZE environment variable is no longer read when determining
1899 the size of GDB's command history. GDB now instead reads the dedicated
1900 GDBHISTSIZE environment variable. Setting GDBHISTSIZE to "-1" or to "" now
1901 disables truncation of command history. Non-numeric values of GDBHISTSIZE
1902 are ignored.
1903
1904 * Guile Scripting
1905
1906 ** Memory ports can now be unbuffered.
1907
1908 * Python Scripting
1909
1910 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
1911 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
1912 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
1913 ** You can now write frame unwinders in Python.
1914 ** gdb.Type objects have a new method "optimized_out",
1915 returning optimized out gdb.Value instance of this type.
1916 ** gdb.Value objects have new methods "reference_value" and
1917 "const_value" which return a reference to the value and a
1918 "const" version of the value respectively.
1919
1920 * New commands
1921
1922 maint print symbol-cache
1923 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
1924
1925 maint print symbol-cache-statistics
1926 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
1927
1928 maint flush-symbol-cache
1929 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
1930
1931 record btrace bts
1932 record bts
1933 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
1934
1935 compile print
1936 Evaluate expression by using the compiler and print result.
1937
1938 tui enable
1939 tui disable
1940 Explicit commands for enabling and disabling tui mode.
1941
1942 show mpx bound
1943 set mpx bound on i386 and amd64
1944 Support for bound table investigation on Intel MPX enabled applications.
1945
1946 record btrace pt
1947 record pt
1948 Start branch trace recording using Intel Processor Trace format.
1949
1950 maint info btrace
1951 Print information about branch tracing internals.
1952
1953 maint btrace packet-history
1954 Print the raw branch tracing data.
1955
1956 maint btrace clear-packet-history
1957 Discard the stored raw branch tracing data.
1958
1959 maint btrace clear
1960 Discard all branch tracing data. It will be fetched and processed
1961 anew by the next "record" command.
1962
1963 * New options
1964
1965 set debug dwarf-die
1966 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-die".
1967 show debug dwarf-die
1968 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-die".
1969
1970 set debug dwarf-read
1971 Renamed from "set debug dwarf2-read".
1972 show debug dwarf-read
1973 Renamed from "show debug dwarf2-read".
1974
1975 maint set dwarf always-disassemble
1976 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1977 maint show dwarf always-disassemble
1978 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble".
1979
1980 maint set dwarf max-cache-age
1981 Renamed from "maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1982 maint show dwarf max-cache-age
1983 Renamed from "maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age".
1984
1985 set debug dwarf-line
1986 show debug dwarf-line
1987 Control display of debugging info regarding DWARF line processing.
1988
1989 set max-completions
1990 show max-completions
1991 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
1992 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
1993 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
1994 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
1995
1996 set history remove-duplicates
1997 show history remove-duplicates
1998 Control the removal of duplicate history entries.
1999
2000 maint set symbol-cache-size
2001 maint show symbol-cache-size
2002 Control the size of the symbol cache.
2003
2004 set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
2005 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2006 BTS format.
2007 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2008 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2009
2010 set debug linux-namespaces
2011 show debug linux-namespaces
2012 Control display of debugging info regarding Linux namespaces.
2013
2014 set|show record btrace pt buffer-size
2015 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
2016 Intel Processor Trace format.
2017 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
2018 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
2019
2020 maint set|show btrace pt skip-pad
2021 Set and show whether PAD packets are skipped when computing the
2022 packet history.
2023
2024 * The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
2025 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
2026
2027 * Python/Guile scripting
2028
2029 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
2030 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
2031
2032 * New remote packets
2033
2034 qXfer:btrace-conf:read
2035 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
2036
2037 Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
2038 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
2039
2040 Qbtrace:pt
2041 Enable Intel Processor Trace-based branch tracing for the current
2042 process. The remote stub reports support for this packet to GDB's
2043 qSupported query.
2044
2045 Qbtrace-conf:pt:size
2046 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor
2047 Trace format.
2048
2049 swbreak stop reason
2050 Indicates a memory breakpoint instruction was executed, irrespective
2051 of whether it was GDB that planted the breakpoint or the breakpoint
2052 is hardcoded in the program. This is required for correct non-stop
2053 mode operation.
2054
2055 hwbreak stop reason
2056 Indicates the target stopped for a hardware breakpoint. This is
2057 required for correct non-stop mode operation.
2058
2059 vFile:fstat:
2060 Return information about files on the remote system.
2061
2062 qXfer:exec-file:read
2063 Return the full absolute name of the file that was executed to
2064 create a process running on the remote system.
2065
2066 vFile:setfs:
2067 Select the filesystem on which vFile: operations with filename
2068 arguments will operate. This is required for GDB to be able to
2069 access files on remote targets where the remote stub does not
2070 share a common filesystem with the inferior(s).
2071
2072 fork stop reason
2073 Indicates that a fork system call was executed.
2074
2075 vfork stop reason
2076 Indicates that a vfork system call was executed.
2077
2078 vforkdone stop reason
2079 Indicates that a vfork child of the specified process has executed
2080 an exec or exit, allowing the vfork parent to resume execution.
2081
2082 fork-events and vfork-events features in qSupported
2083 The qSupported packet allows GDB to request support for fork and
2084 vfork events using new 'gdbfeatures' fork-events and vfork-events,
2085 and the qSupported response can contain the corresponding
2086 'stubfeatures'. Set and show commands can be used to display
2087 whether these features are enabled.
2088
2089 * Extended-remote fork events
2090
2091 ** GDB now has support for fork events on extended-remote Linux
2092 targets. For targets with Linux kernels 2.5.60 and later, this
2093 enables follow-fork-mode and detach-on-fork for both fork and
2094 vfork, as well as fork and vfork catchpoints.
2095
2096 * The info record command now shows the recording format and the
2097 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
2098 the btrace record target.
2099 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
2100
2101 * GDB now has support for DTrace USDT (Userland Static Defined
2102 Tracing) probes. The supported targets are x86_64-*-linux-gnu.
2103
2104 * GDB now supports access to vector registers on S/390 GNU/Linux
2105 targets.
2106
2107 * Removed command line options
2108
2109 -xdb HP-UX XDB compatibility mode.
2110
2111 * Removed targets and native configurations
2112
2113 HP/PA running HP-UX hppa*-*-hpux*
2114 Itanium running HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
2115
2116 * New configure options
2117
2118 --with-intel-pt
2119 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with support for
2120 Intel Processor Trace (default: auto). This requires libipt.
2121
2122 --with-libipt-prefix=PATH
2123 Specify the path to the version of libipt that GDB should use.
2124 $PATH/include should contain the intel-pt.h header and
2125 $PATH/lib should contain the libipt.so library.
2126
2127 *** Changes in GDB 7.9.1
2128
2129 * Python Scripting
2130
2131 ** Xmethods can now specify a result type.
2132
2133 *** Changes in GDB 7.9
2134
2135 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
2136
2137 * Python Scripting
2138
2139 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
2140 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
2141 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
2142 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
2143 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
2144 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
2145 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
2146 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
2147 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
2148 selecting a new file to debug.
2149 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
2150 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
2151
2152 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
2153 inferior.
2154
2155 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
2156 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
2157 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
2158 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
2159
2160 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2161
2162 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2163 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2164 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
2165 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
2166
2167 * GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
2168 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
2169 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
2170 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
2171 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
2172 interface with this new feature are:
2173
2174 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
2175 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
2176
2177 * New commands
2178
2179 demangle [-l language] [--] name
2180 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
2181 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
2182 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
2183 as "maint demangler-warning".
2184
2185 queue-signal signal-name-or-number
2186 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
2187
2188 add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
2189 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
2190 scripts.
2191
2192 maint print user-registers
2193 List all currently available "user" registers.
2194
2195 compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
2196 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
2197 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
2198
2199 compile file [-r|-raw] filename
2200 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
2201 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
2202 provided.
2203
2204 * On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
2205 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
2206 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
2207 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
2208 at resume time.
2209
2210 * Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
2211 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
2212 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
2213 switched threads meanwhile.
2214
2215 * "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
2216
2217 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
2218 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
2219 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
2220 is now the default mode.
2221
2222 * New options
2223
2224 set debug symbol-lookup
2225 show debug symbol-lookup
2226 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
2227
2228 * MI changes
2229
2230 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
2231 inferiors that have exited.
2232
2233 * New targets
2234
2235 MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
2236
2237 * Removed targets
2238
2239 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2240
2241 Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
2242 SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
2243 SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
2244 VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
2245 VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
2246
2247 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2248 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2249 its alias "share", instead.
2250
2251 *** Changes in GDB 7.8
2252
2253 * New command line options
2254
2255 -D data-directory
2256 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
2257
2258 * GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
2259 as specified in ISO C99.
2260
2261 * The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
2262 with or without disassembly.
2263
2264 * Guile scripting
2265
2266 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
2267 available is determined at configure time.
2268 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
2269 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
2270
2271 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2272
2273 guile [code]
2274 gu [code]
2275 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
2276
2277 guile-repl
2278 gr
2279 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
2280
2281 info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
2282 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
2283
2284 * The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
2285 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
2286
2287 * New options
2288
2289 set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
2290 show print symbol-loading
2291 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
2292 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
2293 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
2294 becomes less useful.
2295
2296 set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
2297 show guile print-stack
2298 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
2299
2300 set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
2301 show auto-load guile-scripts
2302 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
2303
2304 maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
2305 maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
2306 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
2307 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
2308 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
2309 usage of this option.
2310
2311 set auto-connect-native-target
2312
2313 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
2314 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
2315 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
2316
2317 set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
2318 show record btrace replay-memory-access
2319 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
2320
2321 maint set target-async (on|off)
2322 maint show target-async
2323 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
2324 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
2325 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
2326 occurring only in synchronous mode.
2327
2328 set mi-async (on|off)
2329 show mi-async
2330 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
2331 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
2332
2333 * "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
2334 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
2335
2336 * Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
2337 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
2338 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
2339 "set target-async on" command.
2340
2341 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2342
2343 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
2344 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
2345 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
2346 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
2347 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
2348
2349 * The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
2350 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
2351 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
2352
2353 * The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
2354 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
2355 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
2356 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
2357 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
2358 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
2359 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
2360
2361 * The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
2362 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
2363
2364 * The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
2365 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
2366 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
2367
2368 * The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
2369 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
2370 memory or registers.
2371
2372 * The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
2373
2374 * The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
2375 remote. It now works with all targets.
2376
2377 * All native targets are now consistently called "native".
2378 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
2379 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
2380 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
2381 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
2382 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
2383 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
2384 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
2385 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
2386 target-stack".
2387
2388 * The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
2389 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
2390 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
2391
2392 * GDB now supports access to Intel MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
2393
2394 * Support for Intel AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
2395 Support displaying and modifying Intel AVX-512 registers
2396 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
2397
2398 * New remote packets
2399
2400 qXfer:btrace:read's annex
2401 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
2402 branch trace incrementally.
2403
2404 * Python Scripting
2405
2406 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
2407 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
2408 available.
2409 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
2410 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
2411 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
2412 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
2413 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
2414
2415 * New targets
2416 PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
2417
2418 * The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
2419 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
2420 its alias "share", instead.
2421
2422 * The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
2423 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
2424 instead.
2425
2426 * MI changes
2427
2428 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
2429 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
2430 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
2431 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
2432 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
2433 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
2434 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
2435 commands and CLI execution commands.
2436
2437 *** Changes in GDB 7.7
2438
2439 * Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
2440 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
2441 recording has been added.
2442
2443 * GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
2444
2445 * GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
2446 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
2447
2448 * New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
2449 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
2450 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
2451 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
2452 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
2453 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
2454 "void".
2455
2456 * The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
2457
2458 * The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
2459
2460 * GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
2461 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
2462 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
2463 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
2464
2465 (gdb) p $rax
2466 $1 = <not saved>
2467
2468 (gdb) info registers rax
2469 rax <not saved>
2470
2471 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
2472 "*value not available*".
2473
2474 * New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
2475 to binaries.
2476
2477 * Python scripting
2478
2479 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
2480 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
2481 ** Line tables representation has been added.
2482 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
2483 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
2484 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
2485
2486 * New targets
2487
2488 Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
2489 Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
2490 Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
2491
2492 * Removed native configurations
2493
2494 Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
2495 been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
2496
2497 arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2498 i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2499 i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
2500 i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
2501 m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2502 sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2503 vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
2504
2505 * New commands:
2506 catch rethrow
2507 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
2508 maint check-psymtabs
2509 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
2510 maint check-symtabs
2511 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
2512 maint expand-symtabs
2513 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
2514
2515 show configuration
2516 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2517
2518 maint set|show per-command
2519 maint set|show per-command space
2520 maint set|show per-command time
2521 maint set|show per-command symtab
2522 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
2523
2524 remove-symbol-file FILENAME
2525 remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
2526 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
2527 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
2528 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
2529
2530 info exceptions
2531 info exceptions REGEXP
2532 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
2533 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
2534 are listed.
2535
2536 * New options
2537
2538 set debug symfile off|on
2539 show debug symfile
2540 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
2541 symbol tables within those files
2542
2543 set print raw frame-arguments
2544 show print raw frame-arguments
2545 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
2546 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
2547
2548 set remote trace-status-packet
2549 show remote trace-status-packet
2550 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
2551
2552 set debug nios2
2553 show debug nios2
2554 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
2555
2556 set range-stepping
2557 show range-stepping
2558 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
2559
2560 set startup-with-shell
2561 show startup-with-shell
2562 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
2563 directly.
2564
2565 set code-cache
2566 show code-cache
2567 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
2568 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
2569
2570 * You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
2571 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
2572 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
2573 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
2574 "set height 0".
2575
2576 * The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
2577 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
2578 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
2579
2580 * New command-line options
2581 --configuration
2582 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
2583
2584 * The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
2585 buffer in Common Trace Format.
2586
2587 * Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
2588 GDB command gcore.
2589
2590 * GDB now implements the C++ 'typeid' operator.
2591
2592 * The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
2593 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
2594
2595 * The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
2596 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
2597
2598 * The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
2599 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
2600 due to an uncaught signal.
2601
2602 * MI changes
2603
2604 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
2605 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
2606 command, which should contain "language-option".
2607
2608 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
2609 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
2610
2611 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
2612 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
2613 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
2614 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2615 "undefined-command-error-code".
2616
2617 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
2618 Trace Format now.
2619
2620 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
2621
2622 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
2623 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
2624 are displayed.
2625
2626 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
2627 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
2628
2629 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
2630 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
2631 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
2632
2633 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
2634 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
2635 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
2636 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
2637 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
2638 "exec-run-start-option".
2639
2640 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
2641 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
2642
2643 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
2644 the new "info exceptions" command.
2645
2646 * New system-wide configuration scripts
2647 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
2648 configuration scripts for the following systems:
2649 ** ElinOS
2650 ** Wind River Linux
2651
2652 * GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
2653 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
2654 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
2655 below.
2656
2657 * GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
2658 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
2659
2660 * On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
2661 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
2662 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
2663
2664 * New remote packets
2665
2666 vCont;r
2667
2668 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
2669 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
2670 involvemement at each single-step.
2671
2672 qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
2673 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
2674 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
2675 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
2676 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
2677 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
2678 speedup.
2679
2680 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
2681
2682 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
2683 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
2684
2685 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
2686 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
2687 trace state variables.
2688
2689 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
2690 target.
2691
2692 * New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
2693 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
2694
2695 * GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
2696
2697 * The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
2698 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
2699 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
2700 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
2701
2702 *** Changes in GDB 7.6
2703
2704 * Target record has been renamed to record-full.
2705 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
2706 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
2707 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
2708
2709 set|show record full insn-number-max
2710 set|show record full stop-at-limit
2711 set|show record full memory-query
2712
2713 * A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
2714 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
2715 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
2716 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
2717 This new recording method can be enabled using:
2718
2719 record btrace
2720
2721 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
2722 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
2723
2724 * Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
2725 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
2726 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
2727
2728 record instruction-history prints the execution history at
2729 instruction granularity
2730
2731 record function-call-history prints the execution history at
2732 function granularity
2733
2734 * New native configurations
2735
2736 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
2737 FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
2738 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2739 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
2740
2741 * New targets
2742
2743 ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
2744 ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
2745 Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
2746 x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
2747 Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
2748
2749 * If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
2750 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
2751 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
2752 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
2753 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
2754 --data-directory command-line option.
2755
2756 * New command line options:
2757
2758 -nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
2759 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
2760
2761 * Removed command line options
2762
2763 -epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
2764 Emacs.
2765
2766 * The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
2767 type formatting.
2768
2769 * 'info proc' now works on some core files.
2770
2771 * Python scripting
2772
2773 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
2774
2775 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
2776
2777 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
2778
2779 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
2780
2781 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
2782 of architecture in the Python API.
2783
2784 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
2785 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
2786
2787 * New Python-based convenience functions:
2788
2789 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
2790 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
2791 ** $_strlen(str)
2792 ** $_regex(str, regex)
2793
2794 * The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
2795 given an argument.
2796
2797 * The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
2798 default for GCC since November 2000.
2799
2800 * The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
2801
2802 * The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
2803 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
2804
2805 * New configure options
2806
2807 --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
2808 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
2809 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
2810 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
2811 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
2812 options allow the user to override that default.
2813 --with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
2814 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
2815 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
2816
2817 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2818
2819 catch signal
2820 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
2821 conditions to be attached.
2822
2823 maint info bfds
2824 List the BFDs known to GDB.
2825
2826 python-interactive [command]
2827 pi [command]
2828 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
2829 and print the result of expressions.
2830
2831 py [command]
2832 "py" is a new alias for "python".
2833
2834 enable type-printer [name]...
2835 disable type-printer [name]...
2836 Enable or disable type printers.
2837
2838 * Removed commands
2839
2840 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
2841 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
2842 instead.
2843
2844 * New options
2845
2846 set print type methods (on|off)
2847 show print type methods
2848 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
2849 The default is to show them.
2850
2851 set print type typedefs (on|off)
2852 show print type typedefs
2853 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
2854 The default is to show them.
2855
2856 set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
2857 show filename-display
2858 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
2859 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
2860
2861 set trace-buffer-size
2862 show trace-buffer-size
2863 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
2864
2865 set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
2866 show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
2867 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
2868
2869 set debug aarch64
2870 show debug aarch64
2871 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
2872 The default is off.
2873
2874 set debug coff-pe-read
2875 show debug coff-pe-read
2876 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
2877 exported symbols.
2878
2879 set debug mach-o
2880 show debug mach-o
2881 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
2882 processing.
2883
2884 set debug notification
2885 show debug notification
2886 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
2887
2888 * MI changes
2889
2890 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
2891 "=cmd-param-changed".
2892 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
2893 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
2894 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
2895 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
2896 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
2897 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
2898 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
2899 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
2900 "=memory-changed".
2901 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
2902 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
2903 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
2904 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
2905 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
2906 library load/unload events.
2907 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
2908 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
2909 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
2910 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
2911 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
2912 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
2913 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
2914 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
2915
2916 * GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
2917 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
2918 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
2919 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
2920
2921 * New remote packets
2922
2923 QTBuffer:size
2924 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
2925 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2926
2927 Qbtrace:bts
2928 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
2929 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
2930 qSupported query.
2931
2932 Qbtrace:off
2933 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
2934 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2935
2936 qXfer:btrace:read
2937 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
2938 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
2939
2940 *** Changes in GDB 7.5
2941
2942 * GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
2943 for more x32 ABI info.
2944
2945 * GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
2946
2947 * GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
2948
2949 * The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
2950 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
2951 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
2952 "info os files" lists file descriptors
2953 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
2954 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
2955 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
2956 "info os msg" lists message queues
2957 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
2958
2959 * GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
2960 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
2961 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
2962 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
2963 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
2964 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
2965
2966 * GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
2967 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
2968 record/replay support.
2969
2970 * The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
2971
2972 * Python scripting
2973
2974 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
2975 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
2976
2977 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
2978
2979 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
2980 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
2981
2982 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
2983
2984 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
2985 the source at which the symbol was defined.
2986
2987 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
2988 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
2989 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
2990 symbol's value.
2991
2992 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
2993 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
2994
2995 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
2996 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
2997 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
2998
2999 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
3000 object associated with a PC value.
3001
3002 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
3003 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
3004
3005 * Go language support.
3006 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
3007 language.
3008
3009 * GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
3010 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
3011
3012 * The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
3013 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
3014
3015 * GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
3016 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
3017 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
3018 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
3019 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
3020 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
3021
3022 * The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
3023 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
3024 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
3025 build/libcpp/expr.c.
3026
3027 * The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
3028 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
3029
3030 * The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
3031 since December 2007.
3032
3033 * The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
3034 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
3035 command does. For instance:
3036
3037 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
3038
3039 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
3040 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
3041 created, using the "condition" command.
3042
3043 * The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
3044 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
3045
3046 * GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
3047
3048 * The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
3049 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
3050 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
3051 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
3052 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
3053 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
3054 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
3055 files with older .gdb_index sections.
3056
3057 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
3058 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
3059 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
3060 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
3061 the .gdb_index section.
3062
3063 * Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
3064
3065 * GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
3066 target.
3067
3068 * MI changes
3069
3070 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
3071
3072 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
3073
3074 * New commands
3075
3076 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3077 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
3078 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
3079
3080 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
3081 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
3082
3083 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
3084 several hits.
3085
3086 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
3087 C++ and Java objects.
3088
3089 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
3090 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
3091 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
3092 configured with '--with-python'.
3093
3094 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
3095 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
3096 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
3097 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
3098 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
3099 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
3100 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
3101
3102 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
3103 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
3104 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
3105 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
3106
3107 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
3108 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
3109 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
3110 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
3111
3112 ** "set print symbol"
3113 "show print symbol"
3114 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
3115 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
3116 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
3117
3118 * Deprecated commands
3119
3120 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
3121 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
3122
3123 * New targets
3124
3125 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3126 HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
3127
3128 * GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
3129 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
3130 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
3131 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
3132 evaluates to true.
3133
3134 * New options
3135
3136 set mips compression
3137 show mips compression
3138 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
3139 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
3140 mips16
3141 micromips
3142 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
3143
3144 set breakpoint condition-evaluation
3145 show breakpoint condition-evaluation
3146 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
3147 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
3148 available mode.
3149 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
3150 target.
3151
3152 set auto-load off
3153 Disable auto-loading globally.
3154
3155 show auto-load
3156 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
3157
3158 set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
3159 show auto-load gdb-scripts
3160 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
3161
3162 set auto-load python-scripts on|off
3163 show auto-load python-scripts
3164 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
3165
3166 set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
3167 show auto-load local-gdbinit
3168 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
3169
3170 set auto-load libthread-db on|off
3171 show auto-load libthread-db
3172 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
3173
3174 set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3175 show auto-load scripts-directory
3176 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
3177 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
3178 of the directories listed by this option.
3179 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3180
3181 set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
3182 show auto-load safe-path
3183 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
3184 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
3185
3186 set debug auto-load on|off
3187 show debug auto-load
3188 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
3189
3190 set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
3191 show dprintf-style
3192 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
3193 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
3194 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
3195 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
3196
3197 set dprintf-function <expr>
3198 show dprintf-function
3199 set dprintf-channel <expr>
3200 show dprintf-channel
3201 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
3202 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
3203
3204 set disconnected-dprintf on|off
3205 show disconnected-dprintf
3206 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
3207 after GDB disconnects.
3208
3209 * New configure options
3210
3211 --with-auto-load-dir
3212 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
3213 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
3214 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
3215 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
3216 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
3217
3218 --with-auto-load-safe-path
3219 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
3220 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
3221
3222 --without-auto-load-safe-path
3223 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
3224 security feature.
3225
3226 * New remote packets
3227
3228 z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
3229
3230 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
3231 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
3232 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
3233 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
3234
3235 QProgramSignals:
3236
3237 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
3238 program without GDB involvement.
3239
3240 * New command line options
3241
3242 --init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
3243 before loading inferior.
3244 --init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
3245 execute it before loading inferior.
3246
3247 *** Changes in GDB 7.4
3248
3249 * GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
3250 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
3251 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
3252 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
3253 inferior changes.
3254
3255 * GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
3256 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
3257
3258 * GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
3259 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
3260 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
3261 target hardware watchpoint.
3262
3263 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
3264 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
3265 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
3266 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
3267
3268 * Python scripting
3269
3270 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
3271 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
3272 existing one.
3273
3274 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
3275 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
3276 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
3277 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
3278 now "message", which just prints the error message without
3279 the stack trace.
3280
3281 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3282 Python API.
3283
3284 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
3285 modules library. This module provides functionality for
3286 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
3287 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
3288 corresponding value.
3289
3290 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
3291 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
3292 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
3293 on GDB start-up.
3294
3295 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
3296 static_block will return the global and static blocks
3297 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
3298 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
3299
3300 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
3301
3302 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
3303 "gdb.breakpoints".
3304
3305 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
3306 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
3307 available in the CLI.
3308
3309 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
3310 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
3311 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
3312 "some_type.items()".
3313
3314 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
3315 new object file.
3316
3317 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
3318 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
3319 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
3320 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
3321 any anonymous fields.
3322
3323 * MI changes
3324
3325 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
3326 "solib-event".
3327
3328 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
3329 "=breakpoint-modified".
3330
3331 ** New command -ada-task-info.
3332
3333 * libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
3334 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
3335 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
3336 lives.
3337
3338 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
3339 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
3340 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
3341 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
3342 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
3343
3344 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
3345 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
3346
3347 * New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
3348 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
3349 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
3350 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
3351 use this option to specify where to find it.
3352
3353 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3354 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
3355 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
3356 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
3357 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
3358 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3359 section in the user manual for more details.
3360
3361 * The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
3362 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
3363 become available after that.
3364
3365 * New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
3366
3367 * New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
3368 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
3369 gcc version 4.7.
3370
3371 * New commands
3372
3373 !SHELL COMMAND
3374 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
3375 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
3376
3377 * Changed commands
3378
3379 watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
3380 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
3381 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
3382
3383 info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
3384 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
3385 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
3386
3387 info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
3388 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
3389 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
3390 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
3391 name starts with a hyphen.
3392
3393 collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
3394 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
3395 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
3396 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
3397 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
3398 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
3399 number of bytes that will be collected.
3400
3401 tstart [NOTES]
3402 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
3403 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
3404 setting the variable trace-notes.
3405
3406 tstop [NOTES]
3407 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
3408 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
3409 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
3410 trace-stop-notes.
3411
3412 * Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
3413 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
3414 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
3415 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
3416 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
3417 is running.
3418
3419 * Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
3420 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
3421 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
3422
3423 * New options
3424
3425 set debug dwarf2-read
3426 show debug dwarf2-read
3427 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
3428 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
3429
3430 set debug symtab-create
3431 show debug symtab-create
3432 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
3433 creation. The default is off.
3434
3435 set extended-prompt
3436 show extended-prompt
3437 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
3438 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
3439 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
3440 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
3441 prompt is displayed.
3442
3443 set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
3444 show print entry-values
3445 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
3446 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
3447 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
3448
3449 set debug entry-values
3450 show debug entry-values
3451 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
3452 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
3453
3454 set basenames-may-differ
3455 show basenames-may-differ
3456 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
3457 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
3458 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
3459 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
3460 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
3461 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
3462 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
3463 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
3464
3465 set trace-user
3466 show trace-user
3467 set trace-notes
3468 show trace-notes
3469 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
3470 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
3471 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
3472 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
3473
3474 set trace-stop-notes
3475 show trace-stop-notes
3476 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
3477 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
3478 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
3479 started by someone else.
3480
3481 * New remote packets
3482
3483 QTEnable
3484
3485 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3486
3487 QTDisable
3488
3489 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
3490
3491 QTNotes
3492
3493 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
3494
3495 qTP
3496
3497 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
3498
3499 qTMinFTPILen
3500
3501 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
3502 be placed.
3503
3504 * Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
3505 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
3506
3507 * New targets
3508
3509 Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
3510
3511 * New Simulators
3512
3513 Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
3514
3515 *** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
3516
3517 * The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
3518
3519 *** Changes in GDB 7.3
3520
3521 * GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
3522 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
3523 matches the given regular expression.
3524
3525 * The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
3526
3527 * The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
3528 dumping the instruction opcodes.
3529
3530 * New command line options
3531
3532 -data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
3533 This is mostly for testing purposes.
3534
3535 * The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
3536 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
3537
3538 * GDB has a new command: "set directories".
3539 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
3540 source path list instead of augmenting it.
3541
3542 * GDB now understands thread names.
3543
3544 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
3545 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
3546
3547 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
3548 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
3549
3550 * OpenCL C
3551 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
3552 has been integrated into GDB.
3553
3554 * Python scripting
3555
3556 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
3557 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
3558 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
3559
3560 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3561 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
3562 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
3563 and allows for more dynamic content.
3564
3565 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
3566 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
3567 have an is_valid method.
3568
3569 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
3570 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
3571 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
3572
3573 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
3574
3575 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
3576 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
3577 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
3578 that function like so:
3579
3580 result = some_value (10,20)
3581
3582 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
3583 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
3584 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
3585
3586 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
3587 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
3588 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
3589 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
3590 New function: register_pretty_printer.
3591
3592 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
3593 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
3594
3595 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
3596
3597 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
3598 selected thread.
3599
3600 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
3601 holds the thread's name.
3602
3603 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
3604 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
3605 occurring in the process being debugged.
3606 The following events are currently supported:
3607 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
3608 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
3609 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
3610
3611 * C++ Improvements:
3612
3613 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
3614 instantiation. For example, if you have:
3615
3616 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
3617
3618 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
3619 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
3620 was added to GCC 4.5.
3621
3622 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
3623 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
3624 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
3625 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
3626 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
3627 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
3628
3629 * GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
3630 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
3631 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
3632 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
3633 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
3634
3635 * GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
3636 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
3637 execution to a label.
3638
3639 * GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
3640 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
3641 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
3642 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
3643
3644 * The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
3645 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
3646 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
3647 of scope.
3648
3649 * GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
3650
3651 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
3652 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
3653 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
3654 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
3655 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
3656 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
3657
3658 (gdb) info threads
3659 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
3660
3661 While now you see this:
3662
3663 (gdb) info threads
3664 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
3665
3666 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
3667 dumps.
3668
3669 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
3670 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
3671 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
3672 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
3673
3674 * When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
3675 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
3676 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
3677 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
3678 section in the user manual for more details.
3679
3680 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3681
3682 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
3683 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
3684
3685 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
3686
3687 * New native configurations
3688
3689 ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
3690
3691 * New targets:
3692
3693 Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
3694
3695 * Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
3696 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
3697 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
3698 in the GDB user manual.
3699
3700 * Guile support was removed.
3701
3702 * New features in the GNU simulator
3703
3704 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
3705
3706 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
3707
3708 *** Changes in GDB 7.2
3709
3710 * Shared library support for remote targets by default
3711
3712 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
3713 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
3714 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
3715 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
3716 was always disabled for such configurations.
3717
3718 * C++ Improvements:
3719
3720 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
3721
3722 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
3723 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
3724 For example:
3725 namespace A
3726 {
3727 class B { };
3728 void foo (B) { }
3729 }
3730 ...
3731 A::B b
3732 foo(b)
3733 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
3734 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
3735 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
3736
3737 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
3738
3739 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
3740 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
3741 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
3742 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
3743 entry.
3744 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
3745 mentioned flavors of operators.
3746
3747 ** static const class members
3748
3749 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
3750 class definition has been fixed.
3751
3752 * Windows Thread Information Block access.
3753
3754 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
3755 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
3756 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
3757 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
3758 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
3759 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
3760
3761 * Static tracepoints
3762
3763 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
3764 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
3765 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
3766 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
3767 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
3768 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
3769 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
3770 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
3771 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
3772 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
3773 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
3774 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
3775 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
3776 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
3777 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
3778 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
3779 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
3780 the "New remote packets" section below.
3781
3782 * Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
3783
3784 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
3785 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
3786 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
3787 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
3788
3789 * Observer mode
3790
3791 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
3792 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
3793 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
3794 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
3795 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
3796 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
3797 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
3798
3799 * The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
3800 current thread.
3801
3802 * New remote packets
3803
3804 qGetTIBAddr
3805
3806 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
3807
3808 qRelocInsn
3809
3810 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
3811 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
3812 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
3813 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
3814 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
3815 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
3816
3817 qTfSTM, qTsSTM
3818
3819 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
3820
3821 qTSTMat
3822
3823 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
3824 program.
3825
3826 qXfer:statictrace:read
3827
3828 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
3829 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
3830 to gdb's qSupported query.
3831
3832 QAllow
3833
3834 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
3835
3836 QTDPsrc
3837
3838 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
3839 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
3840
3841 * The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
3842 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
3843 a directory.
3844
3845 * New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
3846
3847 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
3848 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
3849 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
3850 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
3851
3852 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
3853 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
3854 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
3855 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
3856 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
3857 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
3858 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
3859
3860 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
3861 for static tracepoints support.
3862
3863 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
3864
3865 * GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
3866 it understands register description.
3867
3868 * The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
3869
3870 * X86 general purpose registers
3871
3872 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
3873 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
3874 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
3875 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
3876 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
3877
3878 * The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
3879 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
3880 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
3881 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
3882 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
3883 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
3884
3885 * The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
3886 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
3887 in the specified file.
3888
3889 * Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
3890 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
3891 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
3892 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
3893 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
3894 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
3895 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
3896 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
3897 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
3898 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
3899
3900 * New commands
3901
3902 eval template, expressions...
3903 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
3904 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
3905
3906 set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
3907 show target-file-system-kind
3908 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
3909 names.
3910
3911 save breakpoints <filename>
3912 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
3913 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
3914 definitions, use the `source' command.
3915
3916 `save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
3917 is now deprecated.
3918
3919 info static-tracepoint-markers
3920 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
3921
3922 strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
3923 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
3924 function, line, address, or marker ID.
3925
3926 set observer on|off
3927 show observer
3928 Enable and disable observer mode.
3929
3930 set may-write-registers on|off
3931 set may-write-memory on|off
3932 set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
3933 set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
3934 set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
3935 set may-interrupt on|off
3936 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
3937 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
3938 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
3939 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
3940 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
3941 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
3942 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
3943
3944 set record memory-query on|off
3945 show record memory-query
3946 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
3947 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
3948
3949 * Changed commands
3950
3951 disassemble
3952 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
3953
3954 * Python scripting
3955
3956 ** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
3957 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
3958 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
3959 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
3960 GDB using Python' in the manual.
3961
3962 ** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
3963 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
3964 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
3965 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
3966
3967 ** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
3968 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
3969
3970 ** New exception gdb.GdbError.
3971
3972 ** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
3973
3974 ** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
3975
3976 ** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
3977 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
3978 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
3979
3980 * Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
3981 there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
3982 tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
3983 regular breakpoints.
3984
3985 * New targets
3986
3987 ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
3988
3989 * D language support.
3990 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
3991 language.
3992
3993 * GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
3994 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
3995 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
3996 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
3997 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
3998
3999 * GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
4000 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
4001 conditions of the form:
4002
4003 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
4004
4005 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
4006 interface mentioned above.
4007
4008 *** Changes in GDB 7.1
4009
4010 * C++ Improvements
4011
4012 ** Namespace Support
4013
4014 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
4015 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
4016 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
4017 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
4018 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
4019
4020 ** Bug Fixes
4021
4022 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
4023 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
4024 qualified name.
4025
4026 ** Cast Operators
4027
4028 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
4029 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
4030
4031 * New targets
4032
4033 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
4034 Renesas RX rx-*-elf
4035
4036 * New Simulators
4037
4038 Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
4039 Renesas RX rx
4040
4041 * Multi-program debugging.
4042
4043 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
4044 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
4045 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
4046 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
4047 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
4048 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
4049 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
4050 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
4051
4052 * New tracing features
4053
4054 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
4055
4056 ** Trace state variables
4057
4058 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
4059 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
4060 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
4061 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
4062 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
4063 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
4064 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
4065 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
4066 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
4067 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
4068
4069 ** Fast tracepoints
4070
4071 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
4072 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
4073 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
4074 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
4075 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
4076 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
4077 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
4078 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
4079 the regular trace command.
4080
4081 ** Disconnected tracing
4082
4083 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
4084 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
4085 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
4086 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
4087 connection is lost unexpectedly.
4088
4089 ** Trace files
4090
4091 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
4092 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
4093 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
4094 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
4095 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
4096 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
4097 <name>".
4098
4099 ** Circular trace buffer
4100
4101 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
4102 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
4103 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
4104 not be available for all target agents.
4105
4106 * Changed commands
4107
4108 disassemble
4109 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
4110 the arguments to be comma-separated.
4111
4112 info variables
4113 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
4114 which only declare a variable are not shown.
4115
4116 source
4117 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
4118 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
4119 support.
4120
4121 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
4122 "set script-extension" (see below).
4123
4124 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4125
4126 record save [<FILENAME>]
4127 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
4128 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
4129
4130 record restore <FILENAME>
4131 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
4132 earlier time, for replay debugging.
4133
4134 add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
4135 Add a new inferior.
4136
4137 clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
4138 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
4139 inferior has loaded.
4140
4141 remove-inferior ID
4142 Remove an inferior.
4143
4144 maint info program-spaces
4145 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
4146
4147 set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
4148 show remote interrupt-sequence
4149 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
4150 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
4151 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
4152 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
4153 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
4154
4155 set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
4156 show remote interrupt-on-connect
4157 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
4158 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
4159 Linux kernel.
4160
4161 set remotebreak [on | off]
4162 show remotebreak
4163 Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
4164
4165 tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
4166 Create or modify a trace state variable.
4167
4168 info tvariables
4169 List trace state variables and their values.
4170
4171 delete tvariable $NAME ...
4172 Delete one or more trace state variables.
4173
4174 teval EXPR, ...
4175 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
4176 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
4177
4178 ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
4179 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
4180
4181 * New expression syntax
4182
4183 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
4184 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
4185
4186 * New options
4187
4188 set follow-exec-mode new|same
4189 show follow-exec-mode
4190 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
4191 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
4192 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
4193
4194 set default-collect EXPR, ...
4195 show default-collect
4196 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
4197 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
4198 such as registers or a critical global variable.
4199
4200 set disconnected-tracing
4201 show disconnected-tracing
4202 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
4203 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
4204 upon disconnection.
4205
4206 set circular-trace-buffer
4207 show circular-trace-buffer
4208 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
4209 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
4210 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
4211 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
4212
4213 set script-extension off|soft|strict
4214 show script-extension
4215 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
4216 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
4217 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
4218 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
4219 evaluation failed.
4220 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
4221
4222 set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
4223 show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
4224 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
4225 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
4226 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
4227 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
4228 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
4229 is on.
4230
4231 * Python API Improvements
4232
4233 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
4234 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
4235 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
4236
4237 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
4238 `is_base_class' attribute.
4239
4240 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
4241
4242 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
4243 evaluate an expression.
4244
4245 * New remote packets
4246
4247 QTDV
4248 Define a trace state variable.
4249
4250 qTV
4251 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
4252
4253 QTDisconnected
4254 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
4255
4256 QTBuffer:circular
4257 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
4258
4259 qTfP, qTsP
4260 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
4261
4262 * Bug fixes
4263
4264 Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
4265
4266 Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
4267 much more reliable. In particular:
4268 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
4269 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
4270 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
4271 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
4272 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
4273 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
4274 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
4275 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
4276 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
4277 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
4278 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
4279 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
4280 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
4281 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
4282 non-threaded programs.
4283
4284 PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
4285 This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
4286 libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
4287 executable program.
4288
4289 *** Changes in GDB 7.0
4290
4291 * GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
4292 dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
4293 them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
4294 for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
4295 "JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
4296
4297 * Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
4298 breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
4299 or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
4300 the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
4301 for tracepoint actions.
4302
4303 * The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
4304 raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
4305 modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
4306
4307 * Process record and replay
4308
4309 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
4310 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
4311 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
4312 execute commands.
4313
4314 * Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
4315 step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
4316 set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
4317 reverse execution.
4318
4319 * GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
4320 feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
4321 2.6.28 or later.
4322
4323 * GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
4324 target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
4325 char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
4326 literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
4327 U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
4328 `printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
4329 system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
4330 the installation instructions for more information.
4331
4332 * GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
4333 remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
4334 with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
4335 the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
4336
4337 * "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
4338 and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
4339
4340 * Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
4341 now complete on file names.
4342
4343 * When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
4344 completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
4345 For instance, consider:
4346
4347 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
4348 # struct example variable;
4349 (gdb) p variable.
4350
4351 If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
4352 completions will be "f1" and "f2".
4353
4354 * Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
4355 the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
4356
4357 * GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
4358 operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
4359 macros.
4360
4361 * GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
4362 the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
4363 implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
4364
4365 * GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
4366 registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
4367 can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
4368 and simulator targets may also provide them.
4369
4370 * New remote packets
4371
4372 qSearch:memory:
4373 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4374
4375 QStartNoAckMode
4376 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
4377 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
4378 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
4379
4380 vKill
4381 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
4382 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
4383
4384 qXfer:osdata:read
4385 Obtains additional operating system information
4386
4387 qXfer:siginfo:read
4388 qXfer:siginfo:write
4389 Read or write additional signal information.
4390
4391 * Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
4392
4393 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
4394 packet that permitted the stub to pass a process id was removed.
4395 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
4396
4397 * GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
4398 DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
4399
4400 * The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
4401 and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
4402 `set/show sh calling-convention'.
4403
4404 * GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
4405 with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
4406
4407 * 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
4408
4409 * Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
4410
4411 * Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
4412 which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
4413
4414 * The qXfer:libraries:read remote protocol packet now allows passing a
4415 list of section offsets.
4416
4417 * On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
4418 conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
4419 have also been fixed.
4420
4421 * GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
4422 From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
4423 are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
4424
4425 * GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
4426 example, given:
4427
4428 template<typename T> class C { };
4429 C<char const *> c;
4430
4431 GDB will now correctly handle all of:
4432
4433 ptype C<char const *>
4434 ptype C<char const*>
4435 ptype C<const char *>
4436 ptype C<const char*>
4437
4438 * New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
4439
4440 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
4441 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4442
4443 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
4444 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4445 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
4446
4447 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
4448 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
4449
4450 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
4451 gdbserver.
4452
4453 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
4454 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
4455
4456 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
4457 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
4458 as appropriate.
4459
4460 * Python scripting
4461
4462 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
4463 available is determined at configure time.
4464
4465 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
4466
4467 * Ada tasking support
4468
4469 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
4470 been introduced:
4471
4472 info tasks
4473 Print the list of Ada tasks.
4474 info task N
4475 Print detailed information about task number N.
4476 task
4477 Print the task number of the current task.
4478 task N
4479 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
4480
4481 * Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
4482 add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
4483
4484 * Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
4485
4486 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
4487 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
4488 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
4489 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
4490 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
4491 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
4492 below.
4493
4494 * Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
4495 "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
4496 information.
4497
4498 * Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
4499 to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
4500 architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
4501 See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
4502 more information.
4503
4504 * Multi-architecture debugging.
4505
4506 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
4507 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
4508 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
4509 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
4510 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
4511
4512 * GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
4513 use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
4514 Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
4515 powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
4516 --enable-targets configure option.
4517
4518 * Non-stop mode debugging.
4519
4520 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
4521 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
4522 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
4523 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
4524 section in the user manual for more information.
4525
4526 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
4527 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
4528 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
4529 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
4530 extensions on linux targets.
4531
4532 * New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
4533
4534 catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
4535 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
4536 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
4537 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
4538 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
4539 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
4540 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
4541 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
4542 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
4543
4544 find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
4545 val1 [, val2, ...]
4546 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
4547
4548 maint set python print-stack
4549 maint show python print-stack
4550 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
4551
4552 python [CODE]
4553 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
4554
4555 macro define
4556 macro list
4557 macro undef
4558 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
4559 interactively.
4560
4561 info os processes
4562 Show operating system information about processes.
4563
4564 info inferiors
4565 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
4566
4567 inferior NUM
4568 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
4569
4570 detach inferior NUM
4571 Detach from inferior number NUM.
4572
4573 kill inferior NUM
4574 Kill inferior number NUM.
4575
4576 * New options
4577
4578 set spu stop-on-load
4579 show spu stop-on-load
4580 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4581
4582 set spu auto-flush-cache
4583 show spu auto-flush-cache
4584 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
4585 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
4586
4587 set sh calling-convention
4588 show sh calling-convention
4589 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
4590
4591 set debug timestamp
4592 show debug timestamp
4593 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
4594
4595 set disassemble-next-line
4596 show disassemble-next-line
4597 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
4598 the debuggee stops.
4599
4600 set remote noack-packet
4601 show remote noack-packet
4602 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
4603 under "New remote packets."
4604
4605 set remote query-attached-packet
4606 show remote query-attached-packet
4607 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
4608
4609 set remote read-siginfo-object
4610 show remote read-siginfo-object
4611 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
4612 packet.
4613
4614 set remote write-siginfo-object
4615 show remote write-siginfo-object
4616 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
4617 packet.
4618
4619 set remote reverse-continue
4620 show remote reverse-continue
4621 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
4622
4623 set remote reverse-step
4624 show remote reverse-step
4625 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
4626
4627 set displaced-stepping
4628 show displaced-stepping
4629 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
4630 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
4631 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
4632
4633 set debug displaced
4634 show debug displaced
4635 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
4636
4637 maint set internal-error
4638 maint show internal-error
4639 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
4640
4641 maint set internal-warning
4642 maint show internal-warning
4643 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
4644
4645 set exec-wrapper
4646 show exec-wrapper
4647 unset exec-wrapper
4648 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
4649
4650 set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
4651 show multiple-symbols
4652 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
4653 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
4654 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
4655
4656 set breakpoint always-inserted
4657 show breakpoint always-inserted
4658 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
4659 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
4660 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
4661
4662 set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4663 show arm fallback-mode
4664 set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
4665 show arm force-mode
4666 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
4667 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
4668 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
4669 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
4670
4671 set disable-randomization
4672 show disable-randomization
4673 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
4674 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
4675 multiple debugging sessions.
4676
4677 set non-stop
4678 show non-stop
4679 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
4680 a breakpoint.
4681
4682 set target-async
4683 show target-async
4684 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
4685 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
4686 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
4687 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
4688
4689 set target-wide-charset
4690 show target-wide-charset
4691 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
4692 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
4693
4694 set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
4695 show tcp auto-retry
4696 set tcp connect-timeout
4697 show tcp connect-timeout
4698 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
4699 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
4700 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
4701
4702 set libthread-db-search-path
4703 show libthread-db-search-path
4704 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
4705 libthread_db.
4706
4707 set schedule-multiple (on|off)
4708 show schedule-multiple
4709 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
4710 the current process.
4711
4712 set stack-cache
4713 show stack-cache
4714 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
4715 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
4716 affecting correctness.
4717
4718 set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
4719 show interactive-mode
4720 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
4721 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
4722 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
4723 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
4724 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
4725
4726 * Removed commands
4727
4728 info forks
4729 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
4730 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
4731 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
4732 command.
4733
4734 fork NUM
4735 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
4736 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
4737 alias for the `fork' command.
4738
4739 process PID
4740 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
4741 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
4742 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
4743
4744 delete fork NUM
4745 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
4746 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
4747 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
4748 fork' command.
4749
4750 detach fork NUM
4751 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
4752 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
4753 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
4754 fork' command.
4755
4756 * New native configurations
4757
4758 x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
4759
4760 x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
4761
4762 * New targets
4763
4764 Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
4765 x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4766 x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
4767 S+core 3 score-*-*
4768
4769 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
4770 (mingw32ce) debugging.
4771
4772 * Removed commands
4773
4774 catch load
4775 catch unload
4776 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
4777
4778 *** Changes in GDB 6.8
4779
4780 * New native configurations
4781
4782 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
4783 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4784
4785 * New targets
4786
4787 NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
4788 Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
4789
4790 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
4791
4792 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
4793 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
4794 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
4795 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
4796
4797 * GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
4798 (mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
4799
4800 * Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
4801 is resolved.
4802
4803 * GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
4804 including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
4805 and in inlined functions.
4806
4807 * GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
4808 accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
4809 more than one contiguous range of addresses.
4810
4811 * Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
4812
4813 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
4814 registers on PowerPC targets.
4815
4816 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
4817 targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
4818
4819 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
4820 commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
4821
4822 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
4823 extended-remote mode.
4824
4825 * hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
4826 The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
4827 error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
4828 The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
4829
4830 * GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
4831 building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
4832 target architectures.
4833
4834 * GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
4835 Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
4836 now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
4837 stored in two consecutive float registers.
4838
4839 * The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
4840 breakpoints now.
4841
4842 * Improved support for debugging Ada
4843 Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
4844 include:
4845 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
4846 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
4847 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
4848 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
4849 of an assignment
4850 - Improved command completion in Ada
4851 - Several bug fixes
4852
4853 * GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
4854 process.
4855
4856 * New commands
4857
4858 set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
4859 show print frame-arguments
4860 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
4861 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
4862
4863 remote put
4864 remote get
4865 remote delete
4866 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4867
4868 * New MI commands
4869
4870 -target-file-put
4871 -target-file-get
4872 -target-file-delete
4873 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
4874
4875 * New remote packets
4876
4877 vFile:open:
4878 vFile:close:
4879 vFile:pread:
4880 vFile:pwrite:
4881 vFile:unlink:
4882 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
4883
4884 vAttach
4885 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
4886 mode.
4887
4888 vRun
4889 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
4890
4891 *** Changes in GDB 6.7
4892
4893 * Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
4894 bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
4895 Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
4896
4897 * When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
4898 symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
4899 -Bsymbolic linker option.
4900
4901 * When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
4902 recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
4903 is not supported.
4904
4905 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
4906 frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
4907
4908 * GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
4909 32-bit or 64-bit register values.
4910
4911 * Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
4912
4913 * GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
4914 target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
4915 a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
4916
4917 * Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
4918 automatically displayed as character or string data.
4919
4920 * The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
4921 arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
4922 as strings.
4923
4924 * Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
4925 for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
4926 only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
4927
4928 * GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
4929 iWMMXt coprocessor.
4930
4931 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
4932 ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
4933 has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
4934
4935 * GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
4936
4937 * GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
4938
4939 * The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
4940 layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
4941 segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
4942
4943 * The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
4944 immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
4945
4946 * The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
4947 "library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
4948 packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
4949 where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
4950 Windows and SymbianOS).
4951
4952 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
4953 (DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
4954
4955 * GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
4956 according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
4957
4958 * New commands
4959
4960 set remoteflow
4961 show remoteflow
4962 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
4963 when debugging using remote targets.
4964
4965 set mem inaccessible-by-default
4966 show mem inaccessible-by-default
4967 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4968 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4969 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
4970 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
4971 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
4972
4973 set breakpoint auto-hw
4974 show breakpoint auto-hw
4975 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
4976 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
4977 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
4978 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
4979 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
4980 including "next" and "finish".
4981
4982 catch exception
4983 catch exception unhandled
4984 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
4985
4986 catch assert
4987 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
4988
4989 set sysroot
4990 show sysroot
4991 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
4992 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
4993 an alias to "set sysroot".
4994
4995 info spu
4996 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
4997 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
4998 architecture.
4999
5000 * New native configurations
5001
5002 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
5003
5004 set tdesc filename
5005 unset tdesc filename
5006 show tdesc filename
5007 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
5008 not query the target for its built-in description.
5009
5010 * New targets
5011
5012 OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
5013 MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
5014 Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
5015
5016 * New remote packets
5017
5018 QPassSignals:
5019 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
5020 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
5021
5022 qXfer:features:read:
5023 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
5024 features.
5025
5026 qXfer:spu:read:
5027 qXfer:spu:write:
5028 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
5029 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
5030
5031 qXfer:libraries:read:
5032 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
5033 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
5034 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
5035 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
5036
5037 * Removed targets
5038
5039 Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
5040
5041 alpha*-*-osf1*
5042 alpha*-*-osf2*
5043 d10v-*-*
5044 hppa*-*-hiux*
5045 i[34567]86-ncr-*
5046 i[34567]86-*-dgux*
5047 i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
5048 i[34567]86-*-netware*
5049 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
5050 i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
5051 i[34567]86-*-sco*
5052 i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
5053 i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
5054 i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
5055 i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
5056 i[34567]86-*-unixware*
5057 i[34567]86-*-sysv*
5058 i[34567]86-*-isc*
5059 m68*-cisco*-*
5060 m68*-tandem-*
5061 mips*-*-pe
5062 rs6000-*-lynxos*
5063 sh*-*-pe
5064
5065 * Other removed features
5066
5067 target abug
5068 target cpu32bug
5069 target est
5070 target rom68k
5071
5072 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
5073
5074 target hms
5075 target e7000
5076 target sh3
5077 target sh3e
5078
5079 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
5080 H8/300.
5081
5082 target ocd
5083
5084 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
5085 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
5086 interfaces.
5087
5088 DWARF 1 support
5089
5090 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
5091 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
5092
5093 Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
5094
5095 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
5096 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
5097 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
5098 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
5099
5100 MIPS ".pdr" sections
5101
5102 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
5103 in debugging information.
5104
5105 Scheme support
5106
5107 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
5108 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
5109
5110 set mips stack-arg-size
5111 set mips saved-gpreg-size
5112
5113 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
5114
5115 *** Changes in GDB 6.6
5116
5117 * New targets
5118
5119 Xtensa xtensa-elf
5120 Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
5121
5122 * GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
5123 (mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
5124 running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
5125
5126 * The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
5127 Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
5128 supported.
5129
5130 * The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
5131 broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
5132
5133 * The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
5134 stub provides the required support.
5135
5136 * Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
5137 longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
5138
5139 * New commands
5140
5141 set substitute-path
5142 unset substitute-path
5143 show substitute-path
5144 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
5145 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
5146 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
5147 between compilation and debugging.
5148
5149 set trace-commands
5150 show trace-commands
5151 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
5152 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
5153 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
5154
5155 * REMOVED features
5156
5157 The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
5158
5159 Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
5160 an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
5161
5162 The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
5163
5164 * New remote packets
5165
5166 qSupported:
5167 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
5168 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
5169 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
5170 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
5171 target.
5172
5173 qXfer:auxv:read:
5174 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
5175 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
5176
5177 qXfer:memory-map:read:
5178 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
5179 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
5180
5181 vFlashErase:
5182 vFlashWrite:
5183 vFlashDone:
5184 Erase and program a flash memory device.
5185
5186 * Removed remote packets
5187
5188 qPart:auxv:read:
5189 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
5190 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
5191
5192 *** Changes in GDB 6.5
5193
5194 * New targets
5195
5196 Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
5197
5198 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5199
5200 * New commands
5201
5202 init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
5203 only if it doesn't already have a value.
5204
5205 The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
5206
5207 checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
5208
5209 restart <n> Return the program state to a
5210 previously saved state.
5211
5212 info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
5213
5214 delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
5215
5216 set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
5217 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
5218
5219 info forks List forks of the user program that
5220 are available to be debugged.
5221
5222 fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
5223 forks of the user program that are
5224 available to be debugged.
5225
5226 delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5227 that are available to be debugged (and
5228 kill the forked process).
5229
5230 detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
5231 that are available to be debugged (and
5232 allow the process to continue).
5233
5234 * New architecture
5235
5236 Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
5237
5238 * Improved Windows host support
5239
5240 GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
5241 native console support, and remote communications using either
5242 network sockets or serial ports.
5243
5244 * Improved Modula-2 language support
5245
5246 GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
5247 basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
5248 pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
5249 printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
5250 written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
5251 GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
5252
5253 * REMOVED features
5254
5255 The ARM rdi-share module.
5256
5257 The Netware NLM debug server.
5258
5259 *** Changes in GDB 6.4
5260
5261 * New native configurations
5262
5263 OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
5264 OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
5265
5266 * New targets
5267
5268 Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
5269
5270 * New command line options
5271
5272 --batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
5273 --return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
5274 the child (debugged) program exited with.
5275 --eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
5276 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
5277 specified multiple times and in conjunction
5278 with the --command (-x) option.
5279
5280 * Deprecated commands removed
5281
5282 The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
5283 removed:
5284
5285 Command Replacement
5286 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
5287 othernames set arm disassembler
5288 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
5289 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
5290 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
5291 regs info registers
5292
5293 * New BSD user-level threads support
5294
5295 It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
5296 library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
5297 configurations are:
5298
5299 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5300 FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
5301 OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
5302
5303 Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
5304 are not yet supported.
5305
5306 * New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
5307 (Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
5308
5309 * REMOVED configurations and files
5310
5311 VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
5312 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5313 National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
5314
5315 * New "set print array-indexes" command
5316
5317 After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
5318 when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
5319 behavior.
5320
5321 * VAX floating point support
5322
5323 GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
5324
5325 * User-defined command support
5326
5327 In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
5328 to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
5329 section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
5330
5331 *** Changes in GDB 6.3:
5332
5333 * New command line option
5334
5335 GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
5336 debugging.
5337
5338 * GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
5339
5340 GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
5341 information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
5342 by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
5343 proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
5344 to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
5345
5346 * Internationalization
5347
5348 When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
5349 internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
5350 continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
5351
5352 * Ada
5353
5354 Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
5355 implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
5356 into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
5357
5358 * New native configurations
5359
5360 GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
5361
5362 * Remote 'p' packet
5363
5364 GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
5365 packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
5366
5367 * END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
5368
5369 GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5370 The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
5371 features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
5372 i386 application).
5373
5374 GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the registers[]
5375 compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
5376 continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
5377 configurations:
5378
5379 hppa-*-hpux
5380 ia64-*-aix
5381 mips-*-irix*
5382 *-*-lynx
5383 mips-*-linux-gnu
5384 sds protocol
5385 xdr protocol
5386 powerpc bdm protocol
5387
5388 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5389 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
5390
5391 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5392
5393 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5394 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5395 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5396 permanently REMOVED.
5397
5398 h8300-*-*
5399 mcore-*-*
5400 mn10300-*-*
5401 ns32k-*-*
5402 sh64-*-*
5403 v850-*-*
5404
5405 *** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
5406
5407 * MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
5408
5409 When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
5410 heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
5411 been fixed.
5412
5413 * MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
5414
5415 When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
5416 fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
5417 IRIX long double values).
5418
5419 * VAX and "next"
5420
5421 A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
5422 command. This problem has been fixed.
5423
5424 *** Changes in GDB 6.2:
5425
5426 * Fix for ``many threads''
5427
5428 On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
5429 rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
5430 error message:
5431
5432 ptrace: No such process.
5433 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
5434
5435 This problem has been fixed.
5436
5437 * "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
5438
5439 Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
5440 GDB to dump core).
5441
5442 * New ``start'' command.
5443
5444 This command runs the program until the beginning of the main procedure.
5445
5446 * New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
5447
5448 Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
5449 live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
5450 platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
5451
5452 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5453 FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
5454 NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
5455 NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
5456 NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
5457 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5458 OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
5459 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
5460 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5461
5462 * Signal trampoline code overhauled
5463
5464 Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
5465 These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
5466 of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
5467 call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
5468 signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
5469
5470 Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
5471 features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
5472 include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
5473
5474 * Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
5475
5476 * New native configurations
5477
5478 GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
5479 OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
5480 OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
5481 OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
5482 OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
5483 NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
5484 OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
5485
5486 * END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
5487
5488 GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
5489 The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
5490 including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
5491 migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
5492 compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
5493 work, was also included.
5494
5495 GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
5496 module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
5497
5498 h8300-*-*
5499 mcore-*-*
5500 mn10300-*-*
5501 ns32k-*-*
5502 sh64-*-*
5503 v850-*-*
5504 xstormy16-*-*
5505
5506 Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
5507 made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
5508
5509 * REMOVED configurations and files
5510
5511 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5512 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5513 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5514 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5515 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5516 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5517 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5518 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5519 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5520 sonymips mips-sony-*
5521 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5522
5523 *** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
5524
5525 * TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
5526
5527 The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
5528 GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
5529 command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
5530 program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
5531 with GDB".
5532
5533 * Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
5534
5535 Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
5536 libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
5537 cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
5538 GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
5539 shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
5540 the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
5541 are created.
5542
5543 Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
5544
5545 * Fixed ISO-C build problems
5546
5547 The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
5548 non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
5549 compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
5550
5551 * Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
5552
5553 Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
5554 wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
5555
5556 * Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
5557
5558 The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
5559 permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
5560 systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
5561
5562 * Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
5563
5564 Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
5565 has been updated to use constant array sizes.
5566
5567 * Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
5568
5569 GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
5570 its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
5571 panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
5572
5573 * Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
5574
5575 When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
5576 by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
5577 not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
5578
5579 *** Changes in GDB 6.1:
5580
5581 * Removed --with-mmalloc
5582
5583 Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
5584 conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
5585
5586 * Changes in AMD64 configurations
5587
5588 The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
5589 the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
5590 and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
5591 you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
5592
5593 * Revised SPARC target
5594
5595 The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
5596 FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
5597 support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
5598 from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
5599 (Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
5600
5601 * New C++ demangler
5602
5603 GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
5604 names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
5605 with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
5606 programs.
5607
5608 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5609
5610 GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
5611 arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
5612 encountered these.
5613
5614 * C++ nested types and namespaces
5615
5616 GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
5617 improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
5618 is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
5619 Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
5620 namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
5621 "Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
5622 frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
5623 if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
5624 GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
5625
5626 * New native configurations
5627
5628 NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
5629 OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
5630 OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
5631 OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
5632 OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
5633
5634 * New debugging protocols
5635
5636 M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
5637
5638 * "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
5639
5640 The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
5641 and its very obscure effect on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
5642 tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
5643
5644 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5645
5646 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5647 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5648 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5649 permanently REMOVED.
5650
5651 Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
5652 Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
5653 Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
5654 Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
5655 Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
5656 AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
5657 Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
5658 decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
5659 riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
5660 sonymips mips-sony-*
5661 sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5662
5663 * REMOVED configurations and files
5664
5665 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5666 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5667 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5668 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5669 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5670 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5671 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5672 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5673 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5674 386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
5675 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5676 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5677 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5678 SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
5679 SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
5680 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5681 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5682
5683 *** Changes in GDB 6.0:
5684
5685 * Objective-C
5686
5687 Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
5688 integrated into GDB.
5689
5690 * New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
5691
5692 DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
5693 information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
5694 By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
5695 backtraces.
5696
5697 The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
5698 have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
5699 DWARF 2 CFI support.
5700
5701 * Hosted file I/O.
5702
5703 GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
5704 file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
5705 remote protocol documentation for details.
5706
5707 * All targets using the new architecture framework.
5708
5709 All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
5710 architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
5711 to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
5712 ppc32 on ppc64).
5713
5714 * GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
5715
5716 GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
5717 per-thread variables.
5718
5719 * GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
5720
5721 GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
5722 GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
5723
5724 * Separate debug info.
5725
5726 GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
5727 automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
5728 of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
5729 system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
5730 and optional debug files.
5731
5732 * DWARF 2 Location Expressions
5733
5734 DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
5735 describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
5736 debugger.
5737
5738 GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
5739 for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
5740
5741 * Java
5742
5743 A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
5744 Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
5745 considered "useable".
5746
5747 * GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
5748
5749 The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
5750 commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
5751 kernel.
5752
5753 * GDB supports logging output to a file
5754
5755 There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
5756 used to capture GDB's output to a file.
5757
5758 * The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
5759
5760 The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
5761 disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
5762 command.
5763
5764 * d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5765
5766 The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
5767 registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
5768
5769 * Profiling support
5770
5771 A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
5772 be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
5773 session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
5774 "--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
5775 data, for more informative profiling results.
5776
5777 * Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
5778
5779 The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
5780 option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
5781 "mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
5782
5783 Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
5784 removed.
5785
5786 Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
5787 Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
5788 Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
5789 in a subsequent -var-update.
5790
5791 * New native configurations.
5792
5793 FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
5794
5795 * Multi-arched targets.
5796
5797 HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
5798 Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
5799
5800 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5801
5802 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5803 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5804 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5805 permanently REMOVED.
5806
5807 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5808 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
5809 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5810 HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
5811 HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
5812 HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
5813 PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
5814 Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
5815 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
5816 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
5817 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
5818 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
5819
5820 * REMOVED configurations and files
5821
5822 V850EA ISA
5823 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5824 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5825 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5826 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5827 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5828 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5829 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5830 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5831 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5832 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5833 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5834 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5835 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5836
5837 * MIPS $fp behavior changed
5838
5839 The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
5840 the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
5841 context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
5842 address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
5843 The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
5844
5845 *** Changes in GDB 5.3:
5846
5847 * GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
5848
5849 When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
5850 `/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
5851 in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
5852 library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
5853 shared libs like mad''.
5854
5855 * ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
5856
5857 Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
5858 the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
5859 arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
5860 powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
5861
5862 * GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
5863
5864 GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
5865 and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
5866 they expand.
5867
5868 The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
5869 invocations in expression, and shows the result.
5870
5871 The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
5872 macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
5873
5874 Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
5875 information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
5876 your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
5877 information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
5878
5879 * Multi-arched targets.
5880
5881 DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
5882 DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
5883 NEC V850 v850-*-*
5884 National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
5885 Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
5886 Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
5887
5888 * New targets.
5889
5890 Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
5891
5892
5893 * New native configurations
5894
5895 Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
5896 SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
5897 MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
5898 UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
5899
5900 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
5901
5902 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
5903 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
5904 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
5905 permanently REMOVED.
5906
5907 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
5908 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
5909 IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
5910 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
5911 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5912 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
5913 i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
5914 i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
5915 i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
5916 HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
5917 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
5918 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
5919 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5920
5921 * OBSOLETE languages
5922
5923 CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
5924
5925 * REMOVED configurations and files
5926
5927 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
5928 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
5929 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5930 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5931 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5932
5933 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
5934
5935 * New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
5936
5937 This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
5938 commands. The default is 1024.
5939
5940 * Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
5941
5942 Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
5943
5944 * New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
5945
5946 These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
5947 to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
5948 from a file into memory (restore).
5949
5950 * Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
5951
5952 The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
5953 including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
5954 of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
5955
5956 *** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
5957
5958 * New targets.
5959
5960 Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
5961
5962 * Bug fixes
5963
5964 gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
5965 mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
5966 Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
5967
5968 gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
5969 dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
5970 Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
5971
5972 Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
5973 Surprisingly enough, it works now.
5974 By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
5975
5976 i386 hardware watchpoint support:
5977 avoid misses on second run for some targets.
5978 By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
5979
5980 *** Changes in GDB 5.2:
5981
5982 * New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
5983
5984 This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
5985 really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
5986 In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
5987 target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
5988 This can be a significant performance improvement on some
5989 (notably embedded) targets.
5990
5991 * New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
5992
5993 This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
5994 process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
5995 GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
5996 hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
5997
5998 * New command line option
5999
6000 GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
6001
6002 * Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
6003
6004 There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
6005 command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
6006 a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
6007 be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
6008 open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
6009 issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
6010 a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
6011 it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
6012 GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
6013 is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
6014
6015 * Changes in ARM configurations.
6016
6017 Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
6018 configuration is fully multi-arch.
6019
6020 * New native configurations
6021
6022 ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
6023 x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
6024 AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
6025 Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
6026
6027 * New targets
6028
6029 Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
6030
6031 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6032
6033 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6034 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6035 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6036 permanently REMOVED.
6037
6038 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
6039 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6040 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
6041 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
6042 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
6043
6044 testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
6045
6046 * REMOVED configurations and files
6047
6048 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6049 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6050 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6051 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6052 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6053 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6054 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6055 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6056 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6057 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6058 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6059 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6060 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
6061
6062 * Changes to command line processing
6063
6064 The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
6065 for the inferior from gdb's command line.
6066
6067 * Changes to key bindings
6068
6069 There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
6070
6071 *** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
6072
6073 Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
6074
6075 Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
6076 corrupted.
6077
6078 Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
6079
6080 Numerous documentation fixes.
6081
6082 Numerous testsuite fixes.
6083
6084 *** Changes in GDB 5.1:
6085
6086 * New native configurations
6087
6088 Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
6089 x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
6090 MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
6091 MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6092 ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
6093 s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
6094
6095 * New targets
6096
6097 Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
6098 CRIS cris-axis
6099 UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
6100
6101 * OBSOLETE configurations and files
6102
6103 x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
6104 Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
6105 Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
6106 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
6107 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6108 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6109 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
6110 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6111 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6112 PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
6113 SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
6114 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
6115 ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
6116 Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
6117
6118 stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
6119 kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
6120
6121 Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
6122 been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
6123 configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
6124 permanently REMOVED.
6125
6126 * REMOVED configurations and files
6127
6128 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6129 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6130 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6131 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6132 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6133 ser-ocd.c *-*-*
6134
6135 * GDB has been converted to ISO C.
6136
6137 GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
6138 sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
6139 present.
6140
6141 * Other news:
6142
6143 * "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
6144
6145 * The MI enabled by default.
6146
6147 The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
6148 revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
6149 engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
6150 using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
6151 which is now deprecated.
6152
6153 * Support for debugging Pascal programs.
6154
6155 GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
6156 main features are supported:
6157
6158 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
6159
6160 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
6161 extension;
6162
6163 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
6164
6165 - a Pascal expression parser.
6166
6167 However, some important features are not yet supported.
6168
6169 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
6170
6171 - there are some problems with boolean types;
6172
6173 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
6174 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
6175
6176 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
6177
6178 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
6179
6180 * Changes in completion.
6181
6182 Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
6183 to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
6184 users expect at the shell prompt.
6185
6186 Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
6187 `breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
6188 program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
6189 files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
6190 be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
6191 considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
6192 name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
6193
6194 `set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
6195
6196 * New platform-independent commands:
6197
6198 It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
6199 hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
6200 documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
6201
6202 * Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
6203
6204 Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
6205 revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
6206 many threads as your system allows you to have.
6207
6208 Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
6209
6210 Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
6211 multi-threaded programs though.
6212
6213 * Changes in MIPS configurations.
6214
6215 Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
6216
6217 GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
6218 debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
6219 supported.)
6220
6221 * Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
6222
6223 Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
6224 breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
6225 implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
6226 put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
6227 and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
6228 registers.
6229
6230 The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
6231 debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
6232 watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
6233
6234 * Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
6235
6236 New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
6237 the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
6238
6239 New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
6240 display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
6241 IDT.
6242
6243 New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
6244 from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
6245 New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
6246 a given linear address.
6247
6248 GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
6249 program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
6250 which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
6251
6252 DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
6253
6254 It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
6255
6256 * Changes in documentation.
6257
6258 All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
6259 Documentation License.
6260
6261 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6262 manual.
6263
6264 TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
6265
6266 Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
6267 manual.
6268
6269 The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
6270 documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
6271 hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
6272
6273 * GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
6274
6275 The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
6276 ``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
6277 contents of this file.
6278
6279 * gdba.el deleted
6280
6281 GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
6282
6283 *** Changes in GDB 5.0:
6284
6285 * Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
6286
6287 Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
6288 programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
6289 displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
6290 greater level of detail.
6291
6292 * Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
6293
6294 It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
6295 bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
6296 on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
6297 written.
6298
6299 * Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
6300
6301 The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
6302 necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
6303 machines ``out of the box''.
6304
6305 The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
6306 possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
6307 signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
6308 would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
6309 interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
6310
6311 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
6312 standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
6313 even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
6314 and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
6315 terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
6316
6317 The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
6318 enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
6319 also works.
6320
6321 DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
6322 GDB.
6323
6324 It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
6325 directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
6326 times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
6327 breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
6328
6329 * New native configurations
6330
6331 ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
6332 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6333
6334 * New targets
6335
6336 Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
6337 x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
6338 PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
6339 TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
6340
6341 * OBSOLETE configurations
6342
6343 Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
6344 Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
6345 Pyramid pyramid-*-*
6346 ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
6347 Tahoe tahoe-*-*
6348
6349 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6350 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6351 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6352 be permanently REMOVED.
6353
6354 * Gould support removed
6355
6356 Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
6357
6358 * New features for SVR4
6359
6360 On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
6361 without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
6362 load symbols from the running process's executable file.
6363
6364 * Many C++ enhancements
6365
6366 C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
6367 in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
6368
6369 * Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
6370
6371 A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
6372 sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
6373 with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
6374 ``|<program> <args>'' vis:
6375
6376 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
6377 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
6378
6379 * MIPS 64 remote protocol
6380
6381 A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
6382 expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
6383 instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
6384
6385 The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
6386 added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
6387
6388 * ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
6389
6390 The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
6391 ``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
6392 include ``set remote P-packet''.
6393
6394 * Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
6395
6396 The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
6397 accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
6398 ``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
6399
6400 * ``apropos'' command added.
6401
6402 The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
6403 documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
6404 try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
6405
6406 * New MI interface
6407
6408 A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
6409 interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
6410 process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
6411 "GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
6412 enabled by configuring with:
6413
6414 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
6415
6416 *** Changes in GDB-4.18:
6417
6418 * New native configurations
6419
6420 HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
6421 HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
6422 M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
6423
6424 * New targets
6425
6426 Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
6427 Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
6428 Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
6429
6430 * OBSOLETE configurations
6431
6432 Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
6433
6434 Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
6435 but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
6436 these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
6437 be permanently REMOVED.
6438
6439 * ANSI/ISO C
6440
6441 As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
6442 buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
6443 containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
6444 use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
6445 available. If this is not true, please report the affected
6446 configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
6447 information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
6448 already.
6449
6450 * Readline 2.2
6451
6452 GDB now uses readline 2.2.
6453
6454 * set extension-language
6455
6456 You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
6457 languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
6458 you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
6459 set extension-language .c c++
6460 The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
6461 and their associated languages.
6462
6463 * Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
6464
6465 When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
6466 you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
6467 PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
6468
6469 set processor NAME
6470
6471 sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
6472 following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
6473
6474 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
6475 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
6476 403 IBM PowerPC 403
6477 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
6478 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
6479 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
6480 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
6481 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
6482 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
6483 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
6484 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
6485
6486 At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
6487 special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
6488 registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
6489 only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
6490
6491 * HP-UX support
6492
6493 Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
6494 more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
6495 library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
6496 support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
6497 for xdb and dbx commands.
6498
6499 * Catchpoints
6500
6501 HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
6502 generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
6503 to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
6504
6505 This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
6506 argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
6507 output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
6508
6509 * Debugging across forks
6510
6511 On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
6512 in the inferior.
6513
6514 * TUI
6515
6516 HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
6517 it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
6518 configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
6519
6520 * GDB remote protocol additions
6521
6522 A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
6523 Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
6524 fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
6525 allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
6526
6527 For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
6528 full 64-bit address. The command
6529
6530 set remoteaddresssize 32
6531
6532 can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
6533 the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
6534 will be discarded.
6535
6536 In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
6537 command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
6538
6539 maint packet heythere
6540
6541 sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
6542 disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
6543 time.
6544
6545 The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
6546 target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
6547 downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
6548
6549 * Tracing can collect general expressions
6550
6551 You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
6552 further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
6553 doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
6554
6555 * mask-address variable for Mips
6556
6557 For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
6558 a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
6559 of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
6560
6561 * Higher serial baud rates
6562
6563 GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
6564 230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
6565 to achieve all of these rates.)
6566
6567 * i960 simulator
6568
6569 The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
6570 builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
6571
6572
6573 *** Changes in GDB-4.17:
6574
6575 * New native configurations
6576
6577 Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
6578 Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
6579 Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
6580 PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
6581 PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
6582 Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
6583 Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
6584
6585 * New targets
6586
6587 Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
6588 Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
6589 Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
6590 Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
6591 MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
6592 MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
6593 MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
6594 Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
6595 Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6596 Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6597 NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
6598
6599 * New debugging protocols
6600
6601 ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
6602 M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
6603 DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
6604 PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6605 PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6606 Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
6607
6608 * DWARF 2
6609
6610 All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
6611 format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
6612 information.
6613
6614 * Java frontend
6615
6616 GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
6617 only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
6618
6619 * solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
6620
6621 For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
6622 loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
6623 locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
6624
6625 * Live range splitting
6626
6627 GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
6628 range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
6629 more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
6630
6631 * Hurd support
6632
6633 GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
6634 updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
6635
6636 * ARM Thumb support
6637
6638 GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
6639 instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
6640 instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
6641 accordingly.
6642
6643 * MIPS16 support
6644
6645 GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
6646 instruction set.
6647
6648 * Overlay support
6649
6650 GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
6651 linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
6652 will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
6653 control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
6654 additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
6655 in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
6656
6657 * info symbol
6658
6659 The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
6660 the symbol at the specified address.
6661
6662 * Trace support
6663
6664 The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
6665 asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
6666 extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
6667 includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
6668 file tracepoint.c for more details.
6669
6670 * MIPS simulator
6671
6672 Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
6673 by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
6674 of most MIPS variants.
6675
6676 * Sparc simulator
6677
6678 Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
6679 by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
6680 Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
6681
6682 * set architecture
6683
6684 For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
6685 basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
6686 architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
6687 the possible architectures.
6688
6689 *** Changes in GDB-4.16:
6690
6691 * New native configurations
6692
6693 Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
6694 M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
6695 PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
6696 PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
6697 PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
6698 RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
6699
6700 * New targets
6701
6702 ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
6703 I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
6704 MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
6705 MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
6706 PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
6707 Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
6708 Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
6709
6710 * PowerPC simulator
6711
6712 The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
6713 contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
6714 PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
6715 basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
6716 performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
6717
6718 * Solaris 2.5
6719
6720 GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
6721
6722 * Windows 95/NT native
6723
6724 GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
6725 To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
6726 which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
6727 Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
6728 ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
6729
6730 * dont-repeat command
6731
6732 If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
6733 command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
6734 useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
6735 extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
6736
6737 * Send break instead of ^C
6738
6739 The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
6740 rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
6741 GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
6742
6743 * Remote protocol timeout
6744
6745 The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
6746 that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
6747 to read from the target. The default value is 2.
6748
6749 * Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
6750
6751 By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
6752 loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
6753 stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
6754 when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
6755 in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
6756
6757 Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
6758 /usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
6759 automatically on hpux10.
6760
6761 * Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
6762
6763 Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
6764
6765 * Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
6766
6767 When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
6768 may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
6769 the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
6770 every character. The default value is 1050.
6771
6772 * Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
6773
6774 If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
6775 a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
6776 replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
6777 details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
6778 remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
6779 to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
6780
6781 * Speedups for remote debugging
6782
6783 GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
6784 the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
6785 and more efficient S-record downloading.
6786
6787 * Memory use reductions and statistics collection
6788
6789 GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
6790 Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
6791
6792 *** Changes in GDB-4.15:
6793
6794 * Psymtabs for XCOFF
6795
6796 The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
6797 can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
6798
6799 * Remote targets use caching
6800
6801 Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
6802 remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
6803 it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
6804 debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
6805 off' turns the data cache off.
6806
6807 * Remote targets may have threads
6808
6809 The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
6810 in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
6811 gdb/remote.c for details.
6812
6813 * NetROM support
6814
6815 If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
6816 support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
6817 acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
6818 write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
6819 support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
6820 another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
6821 sequence is something like
6822
6823 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
6824 load <prog>
6825 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
6826
6827 * Macintosh host
6828
6829 GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
6830 may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
6831 it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
6832 available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
6833 device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
6834 directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
6835 scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
6836 mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
6837
6838 * Autoconf
6839
6840 GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
6841 but does simplify configuration and building.
6842
6843 * hpux10
6844
6845 GDB now supports hpux10.
6846
6847 *** Changes in GDB-4.14:
6848
6849 * New native configurations
6850
6851 x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
6852 x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
6853 NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
6854 Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
6855
6856 * New targets
6857
6858 A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
6859 HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
6860 CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
6861 PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
6862 WDC 65816 w65-*-*
6863
6864 * Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
6865
6866 GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
6867 possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
6868 filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
6869 the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
6870 if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
6871
6872 * Arguments to user-defined commands
6873
6874 User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
6875 Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
6876 trivial example:
6877 define adder
6878 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
6879
6880 To execute the command use:
6881 adder 1 2 3
6882
6883 Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
6884 Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
6885 use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
6886
6887 * New `if' and `while' commands
6888
6889 This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
6890 commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
6891 expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
6892 execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
6893 terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
6894 `else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
6895 if the expression is zero.
6896
6897 * Fortran source language mode
6898
6899 GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
6900 Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
6901 variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
6902 with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
6903 Fortran compilers.
6904
6905 * Better HPUX support
6906
6907 Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
6908 running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
6909 processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
6910 for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
6911 that behavior do the following before running the program:
6912
6913 adb -w a.out
6914 __dld_flags?W 0x5
6915 control-d
6916
6917 This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
6918 To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
6919
6920 adb -w a.out
6921 __dld_flags?W 0x4
6922 control-d
6923
6924 You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
6925 the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
6926 external linkage.
6927
6928 GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
6929 HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
6930
6931 * Target byte order now dynamically selectable
6932
6933 You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
6934 commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
6935 current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
6936 "set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
6937 associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
6938 configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
6939
6940 * New DOS host serial code
6941
6942 This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
6943 no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
6944 a PC's serial port.
6945
6946 *** Changes in GDB-4.13:
6947
6948 * New "complete" command
6949
6950 This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
6951 were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
6952
6953 * Trailing space optional in prompt
6954
6955 "set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
6956 allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
6957
6958 * Breakpoint hit counts
6959
6960 "info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
6961 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
6962 can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
6963 to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
6964 less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
6965 that breakpoint.
6966
6967 * Ability to stop printing at NULL character
6968
6969 "set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
6970 an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
6971 arrays actually contain only short strings.
6972
6973 * Shared library breakpoints
6974
6975 In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
6976 breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
6977
6978 * Hardware watchpoints
6979
6980 There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
6981 targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
6982
6983 Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
6984
6985 * Annotations
6986
6987 Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
6988 and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
6989
6990 * Improved Irix 5 support
6991
6992 GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
6993
6994 * Improved HPPA support
6995
6996 GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
6997
6998 * New native configurations
6999
7000 Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
7001 HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
7002 Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
7003 RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
7004
7005 * New targets
7006
7007 OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
7008 MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
7009 Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
7010
7011 * Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
7012
7013 There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
7014 This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
7015
7016 * Fixes
7017
7018 As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
7019 and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
7020
7021 *** Changes in GDB-4.12:
7022
7023 * Irix 5 is now supported
7024
7025 * HPPA support
7026
7027 GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
7028 to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
7029 GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
7030 of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
7031 can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
7032
7033
7034 *** Changes in GDB-4.11:
7035
7036 * User visible changes:
7037
7038 * Remote Debugging
7039
7040 The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
7041 target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
7042 debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
7043 integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
7044 debugging info for the mips target).
7045
7046 * DEC Alpha native support
7047
7048 GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
7049 debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
7050 work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
7051 Alpha-specific notes.
7052
7053 * Preliminary thread implementation
7054
7055 GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
7056
7057 * LynxOS native and target support for 386
7058
7059 This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
7060 to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
7061 for details).
7062
7063 * Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
7064
7065 This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
7066 mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
7067 call methods, ...etc.
7068
7069 *** Changes in GDB-4.10:
7070
7071 * User visible changes:
7072
7073 Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
7074 supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
7075 other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
7076 somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
7077
7078 Filename completion now works.
7079
7080 When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
7081 arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
7082 addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
7083
7084 All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
7085 vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
7086 should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
7087 your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
7088 to be on the far side of a thin network line.
7089
7090 * DEC alpha support
7091
7092 This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
7093 cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
7094
7095
7096 *** Changes in GDB-4.9:
7097
7098 * Testsuite
7099
7100 This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
7101 The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
7102 via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
7103
7104 * C++ demangling
7105
7106 'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
7107 emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
7108 Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
7109 disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
7110 use gdb with AT&T cfront.
7111
7112 * Simulators
7113
7114 GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
7115 So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
7116 Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
7117
7118 * New targets supported
7119
7120 H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7121 H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
7122 SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
7123 Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
7124 IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
7125
7126 Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
7127 version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
7128 GO32 memory extender.
7129
7130 * New remote protocols
7131
7132 MIPS remote debugging protocol.
7133
7134 * New source languages supported
7135
7136 This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
7137 used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
7138 into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
7139
7140
7141 *** Changes in GDB-4.8:
7142
7143 * HP Precision Architecture supported
7144
7145 GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
7146 version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
7147 University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
7148 compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
7149 format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
7150 (as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
7151
7152 Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
7153
7154 * Faster and better demangling
7155
7156 We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
7157 demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
7158 character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
7159 only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
7160 This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
7161 increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
7162 symbol lookups.
7163
7164 `Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
7165 from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
7166 compiler does not actually implement.
7167
7168 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
7169
7170 In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
7171 inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
7172 recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
7173 very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
7174 The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
7175 circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
7176 fix.
7177
7178 The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
7179 release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
7180
7181 * Improved configure script
7182
7183 The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
7184 you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
7185 host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
7186 done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
7187
7188 We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
7189 version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
7190 `--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
7191 The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
7192 only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
7193 We hope to make this the default in a future release.
7194
7195 * Documentation improvements
7196
7197 There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
7198 produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
7199 before submitting changes.
7200
7201 The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
7202 M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
7203 `info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
7204 you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
7205 a future texinfo-X.Y release.
7206
7207 *NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
7208 We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
7209 been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
7210 or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
7211 `texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
7212 around this problem.
7213
7214 * New features
7215
7216 GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
7217 the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
7218 `print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
7219 the target program.
7220
7221 The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
7222 how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
7223
7224 * New native hosts supported
7225
7226 HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
7227 386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
7228
7229 * New targets supported
7230
7231 AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
7232
7233 * New file formats supported
7234
7235 BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
7236 HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
7237
7238 * Major bug fixes
7239
7240 Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
7241
7242 We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
7243 printf_filtered("%s") problems.
7244
7245 We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
7246 for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
7247 release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
7248
7249 You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
7250 will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
7251
7252 We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
7253 for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
7254 especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
7255 libraries.
7256
7257 The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
7258 information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
7259 command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
7260 any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
7261 when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
7262
7263 * Internal improvements
7264
7265 GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
7266 debugging of multiple languages in the future.
7267
7268 GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
7269 Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
7270 symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
7271 contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
7272 shared code that handles any of them.
7273
7274 * New command line options
7275
7276 We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
7277
7278 * Mmalloc licensing
7279
7280 The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
7281 General Public License.
7282
7283 *** Changes in GDB-4.7:
7284
7285 * Host/native/target split
7286
7287 GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
7288 hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
7289 target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
7290 local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
7291 ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
7292
7293 The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
7294 GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
7295 is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
7296 code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
7297 any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
7298 built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
7299 handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
7300
7301 GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
7302 It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
7303 plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
7304
7305 * New hosts supported
7306
7307 HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
7308 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7309 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
7310
7311 * New targets supported
7312
7313 Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
7314 68030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
7315
7316 * New native hosts supported
7317
7318 386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
7319 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
7320 386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
7321
7322 * New file formats supported
7323
7324 BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
7325 supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
7326 format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
7327
7328 * New commands
7329
7330 `show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
7331 `show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
7332 These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
7333
7334 `info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
7335
7336 You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
7337 scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
7338 prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
7339 executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
7340
7341 * C++ improvements
7342
7343 We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
7344 info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
7345 symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
7346
7347 Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
7348
7349 * Major bug fixes
7350
7351 The crash that occurred when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
7352 fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
7353 by the compiler.
7354
7355 We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
7356 support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
7357
7358 John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
7359 slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
7360 that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
7361 purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
7362 the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
7363 mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
7364
7365 Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
7366 about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
7367 completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
7368 we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
7369
7370 * AMD 29k support
7371
7372 A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
7373 specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
7374 calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
7375 usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
7376 in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
7377
7378 We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
7379 Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
7380 of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
7381 resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
7382
7383 * Remote interfaces
7384
7385 We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
7386 with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
7387 message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
7388 This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
7389 needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
7390 breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
7391 each instruction being stepped through.
7392
7393 The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
7394 registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
7395
7396 There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
7397 find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
7398 Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
7399 processor with a serial port.
7400
7401 * Configuration
7402
7403 Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
7404 `table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
7405 supported, and what files each one uses.
7406
7407 * Library changes
7408
7409 There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
7410 disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
7411 Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
7412 disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
7413
7414 The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
7415 Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
7416 can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
7417 grants all the rights from the General Public License.
7418
7419 * Documentation
7420
7421 The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
7422 reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
7423 as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
7424 encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
7425 system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
7426 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
7427
7428 And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
7429
7430
7431 *** Changes in GDB-4.6:
7432
7433 * Better support for C++ function names
7434
7435 GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
7436 names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
7437 (using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
7438 single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
7439 Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
7440
7441 GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
7442 the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
7443 You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
7444 lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
7445 for the list of formats.
7446
7447 * G++ symbol mangling problem
7448
7449 Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
7450 C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
7451 directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
7452 can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compiling gdb/symtab.c. The
7453 usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
7454 about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
7455 this problem.)
7456
7457 * New 'maintenance' command
7458
7459 All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
7460 the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
7461 can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
7462
7463 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
7464 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
7465 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
7466 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
7467 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
7468 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
7469
7470 The following commands are new:
7471
7472 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
7473 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
7474 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
7475
7476 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
7477
7478 We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
7479 (e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
7480 be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
7481 read after argv processing.
7482
7483 * New hosts supported
7484
7485 Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
7486
7487 GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
7488
7489 We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
7490 is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
7491 for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
7492 masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
7493 fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
7494 It costs extra.
7495
7496 * New targets supported
7497
7498 Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
7499
7500 * More smarts about finding #include files
7501
7502 GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
7503 all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
7504 greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
7505 especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
7506 the one that contains your sources.
7507
7508 We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
7509 breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
7510 try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
7511
7512 * Interesting infernals change
7513
7514 GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
7515 section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
7516 target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
7517 stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
7518
7519 * Bug fixes (of course!)
7520
7521 There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
7522 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
7523 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
7524
7525 See the ChangeLog for details.
7526
7527 *** Changes in GDB-4.5:
7528
7529 * New machines supported (host and target)
7530
7531 IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
7532
7533 SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
7534
7535 * New malloc package
7536
7537 GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
7538 Mmalloc is capable of handling multiple heaps of memory. It is also
7539 capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
7540 This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
7541 pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
7542 more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
7543
7544 * info proc
7545
7546 The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
7547 'help info proc' for details.
7548
7549 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
7550
7551 The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
7552 Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
7553 possible.
7554
7555 * File name changes for MS-DOS
7556
7557 Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
7558 support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
7559 conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
7560 environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
7561 that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
7562 in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
7563
7564 * Cross byte order fixes
7565
7566 Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
7567 targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
7568
7569 * New -mapped and -readnow options
7570
7571 If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
7572 system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
7573 `symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
7574 program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
7575 called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
7576 Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
7577 and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
7578 the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
7579 option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
7580 starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
7581
7582 You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
7583 the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
7584 information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
7585 slower, but makes future operations faster.
7586
7587 The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
7588 build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
7589 A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
7590 use is:
7591
7592 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
7593
7594 The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
7595 It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
7596 shared across multiple host platforms.
7597
7598 * longjmp() handling
7599
7600 GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
7601 siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
7602 all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
7603 platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
7604
7605 * Solaris 2.0
7606
7607 Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
7608 this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
7609 reading symbols.
7610
7611 * Bug fixes
7612
7613 As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
7614 People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
7615 crashes and trashed symbol tables.
7616
7617 *** Changes in GDB-4.4:
7618
7619 * New machines supported (host and target)
7620
7621 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7622 (except core files)
7623 BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
7624 Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
7625
7626 * New machines supported (target)
7627
7628 AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
7629
7630 * C++ support
7631
7632 GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
7633 The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
7634 per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
7635
7636 GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
7637 `ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
7638 extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
7639 good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
7640 will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
7641 released.
7642
7643 * New features for SVR4
7644
7645 GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
7646 shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
7647 only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
7648
7649 The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
7650 on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
7651 it prints the address mappings of the process.
7652
7653 If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
7654 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
7655
7656 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
7657
7658 Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
7659 now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
7660 skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
7661 make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
7662 same code linked statically.
7663
7664 * New Getopt
7665
7666 GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
7667 version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
7668 continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
7669 Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
7670 added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
7671 future by other options that begin with the same letter.
7672
7673 * Bugs fixed
7674
7675 The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7676 Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7677 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7678
7679
7680 *** Changes in GDB-4.3:
7681
7682 * New machines supported (host and target)
7683
7684 Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
7685 NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
7686 Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
7687
7688 * Almost SCO Unix support
7689
7690 We had hoped to support:
7691 SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
7692 (except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
7693 that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
7694 about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
7695
7696 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
7697
7698 GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
7699 debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
7700 is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
7701 send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
7702 reqired (if any).
7703
7704 * New Readline
7705
7706 GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
7707 is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
7708 required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
7709
7710 * Bugs fixed
7711
7712 The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
7713 Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
7714 See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
7715
7716 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
7717
7718 GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
7719 supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
7720 symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
7721
7722 Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
7723 mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
7724 debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
7725 mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
7726 version 2.
7727
7728 Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
7729 really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
7730 line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
7731 variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
7732 situation somewhat.
7733
7734 When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
7735 However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
7736 methods.
7737
7738 We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
7739 DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
7740 encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
7741
7742
7743 *** Changes in GDB-4.2:
7744
7745 * Improved configuration
7746
7747 Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
7748 Porting BFD is simpler.
7749
7750 * Stepping improved
7751
7752 The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
7753 of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
7754 in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
7755 function that has debugging information is called within the line.
7756
7757 * Bug fixing
7758
7759 Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
7760
7761 * New host supported (not target)
7762
7763 Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
7764
7765
7766 *** Changes in GDB-4.1:
7767
7768 * Multiple source language support
7769
7770 GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
7771 It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
7772 and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
7773 language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
7774 You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
7775 `set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
7776
7777 * GDB and Modula-2
7778
7779 GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
7780 currently under development at the State University of New York at
7781 Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
7782 continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
7783
7784 Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
7785 debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
7786 symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
7787
7788 There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
7789 in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
7790
7791 * set write on/off
7792
7793 GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
7794 a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
7795 the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
7796 by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
7797 effect immediately.
7798
7799 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
7800
7801 When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
7802 shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
7803 The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
7804 examining core files.
7805
7806 * set listsize
7807
7808 You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
7809 The default is 10.
7810
7811 * New machines supported (host and target)
7812
7813 SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
7814 Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
7815 Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
7816
7817 * New hosts supported (not targets)
7818
7819 IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
7820
7821 * New targets supported (not hosts)
7822
7823 AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
7824 AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
7825 Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
7826
7827 * New remote interfaces
7828
7829 AMD 29000 Adapt
7830 AMD 29000 Minimon
7831
7832
7833 *** Changes in GDB-4.0:
7834
7835 * New Facilities
7836
7837 Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
7838
7839 Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
7840 target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
7841 is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
7842 remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
7843 remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
7844 also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
7845 using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
7846 stub on the target system.
7847
7848 New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
7849
7850 GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
7851 library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
7852 object file types such as a.out and coff.
7853
7854 There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
7855 refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
7856
7857
7858 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
7859
7860 All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
7861 by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
7862
7863 For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
7864 ``Show prompt'' produces the response:
7865 Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
7866
7867 What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
7868 print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
7869 will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
7870 all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
7871
7872 confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
7873 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
7874 it is already running. Default is ON.
7875
7876 editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
7877 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
7878 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
7879 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
7880 Default is ON.
7881
7882 history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
7883 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
7884 or the value of the environment variable
7885 GDBHISTFILE.
7886
7887 history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
7888 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
7889 HISTSIZE.
7890
7891 history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
7892 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
7893 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
7894
7895 history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
7896 history expansion will be performed on
7897 command line input. The default is OFF.
7898
7899 radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
7900 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
7901 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
7902
7903 height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
7904 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
7905 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7906 variable TERM.
7907
7908 width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
7909 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
7910 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
7911 variable TERM.
7912
7913 Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
7914 ``set width'' instead.
7915
7916 print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
7917 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
7918 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
7919 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
7920
7921 print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
7922 is OFF.
7923
7924 print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
7925 "raw" form if off.
7926
7927 print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
7928 like instructions.
7929
7930 print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
7931
7932
7933 * Support for Epoch Environment.
7934
7935 The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
7936 new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
7937 are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
7938 window.
7939
7940
7941 * Support for Shared Libraries
7942
7943 GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
7944 Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
7945 before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
7946 happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
7947 At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
7948 from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
7949 shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
7950 It can be abbreviated ``share''.
7951
7952 sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
7953 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
7954 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
7955
7956 info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
7957
7958
7959 * Watchpoints
7960
7961 A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
7962 expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
7963 tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
7964 quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
7965 problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
7966 more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
7967
7968 watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
7969
7970 info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
7971
7972 delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7973 disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7974 enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
7975
7976
7977 * C++ multiple inheritance
7978
7979 When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
7980 for C++ programs.
7981
7982 * C++ exception handling
7983
7984 Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
7985 ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
7986 the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
7987 handler's context).
7988
7989 catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
7990 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
7991 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
7992
7993 info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
7994 current stack frame.
7995
7996
7997 * Minor command changes
7998
7999 The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
8000 command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
8001 is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
8002
8003 The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
8004 at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
8005 frames without printing.
8006
8007 * New directory command
8008
8009 'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
8010 The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
8011 about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
8012 with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
8013 find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
8014
8015 * Configuring GDB for compilation
8016
8017 For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
8018 for more details.
8019
8020 GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
8021 two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
8022 Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
8023 where the program that you are debugging will run.
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