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